Sway

Sway is an inventory for minetest that makes use of Flow forms.

 ____                                      ______
/\  _`\                                   /\__  _\
\ \,\L\_\  __  __  __     __     __  __   \/_/\ \/     ___   __  __
 \/_\__ \ /\ \/\ \/\ \  /'__`\  /\ \/\ \     \ \ \   /' _ `\/\ \/\ \
   /\ \L\ \ \ \_/ \_/ \/\ \L\.\_\ \ \_\ \     \_\ \__/\ \/\ \ \ \_/ |__
   \ `\____\ \___x___/'\ \__/.\_\\/`____ \    /\_____\ \_\ \_\ \___//\_\
    \/_____/\/__//__/   \/__/\/_/ `/___/> \   \/_____/\/_/\/_/\/__/ \/_/
                                     /\___/
                                     \/__/

Much like SFINV, this mod is a "A cleaner, simpler solution to having an advanced inventory in Minetest." It's intended to be an excellent modding base.

Sway uses Flow formspecs for rendering. With Sway, formspec size is no longer a limit to your UI or UX. You can have fully dynamic layouts too!

Features

• So simple that it doesn't depend on any games in particular.
• Rich API.

Screenshots

API Reference

The API is based on SFINV's api, but isn't compatible.

Pages

Change the page

  sway.set_page(player, pagename)

Parameter	Type	Description
player	Player ObjectRef	Required. The player to set the page for.
pagename	string	Required. The name of the page to change to.

Asserts that the page is valid.

Get the name of the homepage

  sway.get_homepage_name(player)

Parameter	Type	Description
player	Player ObjectRef	Required. The player to get the page name for.

Register a page

sway.register_page(name, def)

Parameter	Type	Description
name	string	Required. The name of the page.
def	table, see below	Required. Page information

Override a page

sway.override_page(name, def)

Parameter	Type	Description
name	string	Required. The name of the page.
def	table, see below	Required. Page information

Note: Page must already be defined, (opt)depend on the mod defining it.

Page definition

A table for page information.

Key	Type	Description
title	string	Required. Human readable page name.
get	function, see below	Required. Return a flow form.
is_in_nav	function, see below	Optional. Return true to show in the navigation, which defaults to tabs. If is_in_nav is absent, it will default to showing in the navigation.
on_enter	function, see below	Optional. Called when the player changes pages, usually using the tabs.
on_leave	function, see below	Optional. When leaving this page to go to another, called before other's on_enter
		Optional. Anything else you'd like to add. These other values can, of course, be accessed through the self value in the above callbacks as you'd expect.

Page definition function args

All page definition functions expect the same arguments.

function(self, player, context)
    -- ...
end

Parameter	Type	Description
self	table	A reference to the page def table.
player	Player ObjectRef	The player that will be shown the page.
context	table	Context table. See sway.get_or_create_context

get is expected to a flow page. Sway makes use of flow_extras.set_wrapped_context internally. This ensures that flow_extras.get_context works if you need to share code between multiple forms.

is_in_nav is expected to return a boolean (see above).

on_enter and on_leave are not expected to return anything.

Refresh form with new changes

sway.set_player_inventory_formspec(player, context)

(Re)builds page formspec with optional context defalting to a new context.

Parameter	Type	Description
player	Player ObjectRef	Required. The player that will be affected.
context	table	Optional. Context table. See sway.get_or_create_context

Contexts

Get the player's context

sway.get_or_create_context(player)

Parameter	Type	Description
player	Player ObjectRef	Required(Outside of form generation)/Optional(Inside of form generation) The player to get the context for.

Returns: Context table.

Key	Type	Description
page	string	Current page name.
nav	table	A list of page names.
nav_titles	table	A list of human readable page names.
nav_idx	number	current nav index (in nav and nav_titles)
player	Player ObjectRef	The player that owns this context.
		Anything from the Flow library's context object
		Anything you'd like to store. Sway will clear this stored data on log out / log in

Set the player's context

local player, context = sway.get_player_and_context(player, context)

Parameter	Type	Description
player	Player ObjectRef	Optional. The player.
context	table	Optional. Context table. See sway.get_or_create_context

Returns same as arguments (as a tuple), but guarantees that the value is not nil.

Set the player's context

sway.set_context(player, context)

Parameter	Type	Description
player	Player ObjectRef	Required. The player to set the context for.
context	table	Required. Context table. See sway.get_or_create_context

Theming

Add a theme to a form

sway.Form{
    show_inv = show_inv,
    size = size
    ...children_elements...
}

Parameter	Type	Description
show_inv	boolean	Optional. Whether to show the player's main inventory
size	table	Optional. Deprecated. Sets the size of the formspec. Defaults to { w = 8, h = 8.6 }
...children_elements... (numbered indexes)	Flow elements.	Required. The content of the page to show.

Returns a Flow form.

Wraps content in a Flow VBox named "content".

Create tab navigation

sway.NavGui{
    nav_titles = nav_titles,
    current_idx = current_idx
}

Parameter	Type	Description
nav_titles	table	A list of human readable page names.
current_idx	number	current nav index (in nav_titles)

Returns a Flow form, unless there's only one tab. In that case it returns gui.Nil{} from flow.

Create Inventory Tiles

sway.InventoryTiles{
    w = w,
    h = h
}

Parameter	Type	Description
w	number	Optional The width of the tiles. Defaults to 8
h	number	Optional The height of the tiles. Defaults to 4

Returns a Flow form

Members

Members of the sway global

Key	Type	Description
pages	table	Table of pages by pagename. (see sway.override_page)
pages_ordered	table	Table of pages indexed by order of registration, used to build navigation tabs.
enabled	boolean	Defaults to true. Set to false to disable the entire mod. Good for other inventory mods.
		Anything from the above documentation

Usage/Examples

Use sway.Form to apply a basic layout

local gui = flow.widgets
return sway.Form{
    show_inv = true,
    gui.HBox{
        align_h = "center",
        gui.List{
            inventory_location = "current_player",
            list_name = "craft",
            w = 3, h = 3
        },
        gui.Image{
            w = 1, h = 1,
            texture_name = "sway_crafting_arrow.png"
        },
        gui.List{
            inventory_location = "current_player",
            list_name = "craftpreview",
            w = 1, h = 1
        },
        gui.Listring{
            inventory_location = "current_player",
            list_name = "main"
        },
        gui.Listring{
            inventory_location = "current_player",
            list_name = "craft"
        }
    }
}

Customising themes

Simply override this function to change the navigation:

local gui = flow.widgets
function sway.NavGui(fields)
    local nav_titles, current_idx = fields.nav_titles, fields.current_idx
    return gui.Label{ label = "nav gui" }
end

And override this function to change the layout (not the actual code, see api.lua for that):

function sway.Form(fields)
    local show_inv, size = fields.show_inv, fields.size
    local context = sway.get_or_create_context()
    return gui.VBox{
        sway.NavGui{
            nav_titles = context.nav_titles,
            current_idx = context.nav_idx
        },
        gui.VBox(fields)
    }
end

FAQ

Why is this forked from sfinv?

Three reasons:

• Sfinv is simple enough in its core that I can spend more time porting and less time worrying about what features really matter.
• The structure should be mostly the same
• I want the core mod to be just as simple as sfinv.

How is this mod different from sfinv?

Aside from plenty of API changes (TODO: document these), the mod uses and interacts with Flow forms instead of Minetest formspec strings.

How is this mod different from other inventory mods?

Here's some, to make searching easier: sfinv, i3, unified inventory, inventory plus, smart inventory

• This mod is minimal and game-universal, like sfinv.
• This mod is not feature packed and game-specific, like nearly everything else on that list.

To make up that gap, I might make a modpack (or more than one).

Why call it "Sway" or "sway-inv?"

This mod is made, in part, to replace the minetest mod called i3.

I3 seems to be named after a well known tiling window manager that is built upon (and limited to) the X11 window system.

The i3 minetest mod is similarally limited to use of (slightly enhanced) formspec strings.

There's a feature compatible competitor to i3wm called sway - where this mod (sway-inv) gets its name. The sway window manager uses a newer, more modern alternative to X11 called Wayland.

Sway-inv is like Sway (the window manager) in that it

• Competes with a project called i3.
• Uses a newer rendering framework than its competitor.

In addition, both sfinv and sway start with the same letter.

How do I refer to this mod to avoid confusion with other projects?

When it's 100% clear that you are refering to Sway in the context of Minetest, call it "Sway" or its technical name sway.

Otherwise, refer to it as either "Sway-inv" or "sway-inv".

How do I ensure that my function overrides don't break anything?

In the future I'll reconfigure my unittests to also support integration testing in this manner. Right now it's not really possible.

Roadmap

1. Make a modpack that reaches feature parity with I3 (on MTG only)
   • Should be noted that I've already started this, but much of that is throwaway code. I want to see the community's reaction and feedback before I start porting things forrealzies

Acknowledgements

• SFINV Sway is a fork of SFINV by rubenwardy.
• Flow Sway uses flow to render formspecs.
• readme.so Readme generated by readme.so.
• i3 Source of inspiration and some (very small amounts) of properly attributed, licence compatible code.

License

Code: MIT (see <./CODE_LICENSE.txt>)

• sway_crafting_arrow.png - renamed from a texture by paramat, derived from a texture by BlockMen (CC BY-SA 3.0).
• sway_hb_bg.png - renamed from gui_hb_bg.png, a texture by BlockMen (CC BY-SA 3.0)
• sway_bg_full.png - renamed from i3_bg_full.png, a texture by paramat (CC BY-SA 3.0)

For a copy of CC BY-SA 3.0 see <./MEDIA_LICENSE.txt>

The Sway Inv ascii art was generated via echo "Sway Inv." | figlet -f larry3d. larry3d font is from the official figlet "contributed" collection. pepper from the same collection was a close 2nd.