microexpansion/doc/api.md

Core API

The core API is composed of several functions to make registering new items, nodes, and recipes for items and nodes more efficient and intuitive. Code for this public API is in ./api.lua. This documentation is divided up per function.

Note: Any definition table for registering anything using the ME API allow a disabled property to be specified. If set to false, the node/item will not be registered, if not set, it will.

register_recipe(output, def)

Usage: microexpansion.register_recipe(<output (string)>, <recipe (table)>)

Though this may seem rather complex to understand, this is a very useful timesaving function when registering recipes. It allows registering multiple recipes at once in one table. The output must always remain the same as is specified as the first parameter, while the second parameter should be a table structured like the table below.

Example:

microexpansion.register_recipe("default:steelblock", {
  { 1, {
      { "default:steel_ingot", "default:steel_ingot", "default:steel_ingot" },
      { "default:steel_ingot", "default:steel_ingot", "default:steel_ingot" },
      { "default:steel_ingot", "default:steel_ingot", "default:steel_ingot" },
    },
  },
  { 1, "shapeless", {
      "default:steel_ingot", "default:obsidian_shard", "default:steel_ingot",
    },
  },
})

The above registers a two recipes for the item specified. The 1 specifies the output quantity. shapeless causes the second recipe to be of the shapeless type. After the first one or two definitions (amount, type), the recipe can be specified as normal inside another sub-table. You can have as many recipe sub-tables as you want.

register_oredef(ore, def)

Usage: microexpansion.register_oredef(<ore itemstring (string)>, <definition (table)>

This custom API allows registering multiple ore definitions for a single node in one table. The table structure is quite simple, each definition is placed in an annonymous table in which the normal ore definitions are placed (excluding the ore itemstring). See below for a basic example.

microexpansion.register_oredef("microexpansion:incranium", {
  {
    ore_type = "blob",
    wherein = "default:stone",
    clust_scarcity = 4*4*4,
    clust_num_ores = 4,
    clust_size = 3,
    y_min = -300,
    y_max = -90,
  },
  ...
})

See the wiki documentation for more information about the accepted or parameters.

register_item(itemstring, def)

Usage: microexpansion.register_item(<itemstring (string)>, <item definition (table)>

This API function accepts the same parameters in the definition table as does minetest.register_craftitem, however, it makes several modifications to the parameters before passing them on. A new parameter, usedfor, is introduced, which if provided is appened on a new line in grey to the item description, a good way to specify what the item does or include more information about it. The inventory_image parameter is modified to enforce the naming style adding microexpansion_ to the beginning of the specified path, and .png to the end. If not inventory_image is provided, the itemstring is used and then undergoes the above modification. This allows shortening and even removing the inventory_image code, while passing everything else (aside from usedfor) on to minetest.register_craftitem. One final extra parameter is status, which if set to no the description is red, if set to unstable the description is orange, and if anything else the description is red. The recipe can be automatically registered and defined right in the item definition with the recipe table. See microexpansion.register_recipe for more information.

register_node(itemstring, def)

Usage: microexpansion.register_node(<itemstring (string)>, <item definition (table)>

This API function accepts the same parameters in the definition table as does minetest.register_craftitem, however, it makes several modifications to the parameters before passing them on. A new parameter, usedfor, is introduced, which if provided is appened on a new line in grey to the item description, a good way to specify what the item does or include more information about it. The tiles table is modified so as to simplify the definition when registering the node. Each texture in the tiles table has microexpansion_ added to the beginning and .png to the end. This means that rather than specifying something like microexpansion_chest_top.png, only chest_top is required. Note: the texture path "autocomplete" functionality can be disabled by settings auto_complete to false in the definition (useful if using textures from another mod). One final extra parameter is status, which if set to no the description is red, if set to unstable the description is orange, and if anything else the description is red. The recipe can be automatically registered and defined right in the item definition with the recipe table. See microexpansion.register_recipe for more information. You can also automatically register ore definitions for the current node with microexpansion.register_oredef.