4 files changed, 223 insertions, 39 deletions

diff --git a/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/APIDesc.lua b/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/APIDesc.lua
index 451b7364a..1423d64bc 100644
--- a/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/APIDesc.lua
+++ b/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/APIDesc.lua
@@ -551,7 +551,22 @@ end
 				{{cPlayer}}:SendMessage(), {{cWorld}}:BroadcastChat() and {{cRoot}}:BroadcastChat().</p>
 				<p>
 				Note that most of the functions in this class are so-called modifiers - they modify the object and
-				then return the object itself, so that they can be chained one after another.
+				then return the object itself, so that they can be chained one after another. See the Chaining
+				example below for details.</p>
+				<p>
+				Each part of the composite chat message takes a "Style" parameter, this is a string that describes
+				the formatting. It uses the following strings, concatenated together:
+				<table>
+				<tr><th>String</th><th>Style</th></tr>
+				<tr><td>b</td><td>Bold text</td></tr>
+				<tr><td>i</td><td>Italic text</td></tr>
+				<tr><td>u</td><td>Underlined text</td></tr>
+				<tr><td>s</td><td>Strikethrough text</td></tr>
+				<tr><td>o</td><td>Obfuscated text</td></tr>
+				<tr><td>@X</td><td>color X (X is 0 - 9 or a - f, same as dye meta</td></tr>
+				</table>
+				The following picture, taken from MineCraft Wiki, illustrates the color codes:</p>
+				<img src="http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/minecraft.gamepedia.com/4/4c/Colors.png?version=34a0f56789a95326e1f7d82047b12232" />
 			]],
 			Functions =
 			{
@@ -565,6 +580,7 @@ end
 				AddTextPart = { Params = "Text, [Style]", Return = "self", Notes = "Adds a regular text. Chaining." },
 				AddUrlPart = { Params = "Text, Url, [Style]", Return = "self", Notes = "Adds a text which, when clicked, opens up a browser at the specified URL. Chaining." },
 				Clear = { Params = "", Return = "", Notes = "Removes all parts from this object" },
+				ExtractText = { Params = "", Return = "string", Notes = "Returns the text from the parts that comprises the human-readable data. Used for older protocols that don't support composite chat and for console-logging." },
 				GetMessageType = { Params = "", Return = "MessageType", Notes = "Returns the MessageType (mtXXX constant) that is associated with this message. When sent to a player, the message will be formatted according to this message type and the player's settings (adding \"[INFO]\" prefix etc.)" },
 				ParseText = { Params = "Text", Return = "self", Notes = "Adds text, while recognizing http and https URLs and old-style formatting codes (\"@2\"). Chaining." },
 				SetMessageType = { Params = "MessageType", Return = "self", Notes = "Sets the MessageType (mtXXX constant) that is associated with this message. When sent to a player, the message will be formatted according to this message type and the player's settings (adding \"[INFO]\" prefix etc.) Chaining." },
@@ -683,7 +699,7 @@ end</pre>
 				GetLevel = { Params = "EnchantmentNumID", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the level of the specified enchantment stored in this object; 0 if not stored" },
 				IsEmpty = { Params = "", Return = "bool", Notes = "Returns true if the object stores no enchantments" },
 				SetLevel = { Params = "EnchantmentNumID, Level", Return = "", Notes = "Sets the level for the specified enchantment, adding it if not stored before or removing it if level < = 0" },
-				StringToEnchantmentID = { Params = "EnchantmentTextID", Return = "number", Notes = "(static) Returns the enchantment numerical ID, -1 if not understood. Case insensitive" },
+				StringToEnchantmentID = { Params = "EnchantmentTextID", Return = "number", Notes = "(static) Returns the enchantment numerical ID, -1 if not understood. Case insensitive. Also understands plain numbers." },
 				ToString = { Params = "", Return = "string", Notes = "Returns the string description of all the enchantments stored in this object, in numerical-ID form" },
 			},
 			Constants =
@@ -777,14 +793,14 @@ end</pre>
 				GetMass = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the mass of the entity. Currently unused." },
 				GetMaxHealth = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the maximum number of hitpoints this entity is allowed to have." },
 				GetParentClass = { Params = "", Return = "string", Notes = "Returns the name of the direct parent class for this entity" },
-				GetPitch = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the pitch (nose-down rotation) of the entity" },
+				GetPitch = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the pitch (nose-down rotation) of the entity. Measured in degrees, normal values range from -90 to +90. +90 means looking down, 0 means looking straight ahead, -90 means looking up." },
 				GetPosition = { Params = "", Return = "{{Vector3d}}", Notes = "Returns the entity's pivot position as a 3D vector" },
 				GetPosX = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the X-coord of the entity's pivot" },
 				GetPosY = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the Y-coord of the entity's pivot" },
 				GetPosZ = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the Z-coord of the entity's pivot" },
 				GetRawDamageAgainst = { Params = "ReceiverEntity", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the raw damage that this entity's equipment would cause when attacking the ReceiverEntity. This includes this entity's weapon {{cEnchantments|enchantments}}, but excludes the receiver's armor or potion effects. See {{TakeDamageInfo}} for more information on attack damage." },
 				GetRoll = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the roll (sideways rotation) of the entity. Currently unused." },
-				GetRot = { Params = "", Return = "{{Vector3f}}", Notes = "Returns the entire rotation vector (Yaw, Pitch, Roll)" },
+				GetRot = { Params = "", Return = "{{Vector3f}}", Notes = "(OBSOLETE) Returns the entire rotation vector (Yaw, Pitch, Roll)" },
 				GetSpeed = { Params = "", Return = "{{Vector3d}}", Notes = "Returns the complete speed vector of the entity" },
 				GetSpeedX = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the X-part of the speed vector" },
 				GetSpeedY = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the Y-part of the speed vector" },
@@ -792,7 +808,7 @@ end</pre>
 				GetUniqueID = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the ID that uniquely identifies the entity within the running server. Note that this ID is not persisted to the data files." },
 				GetWidth = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the width (X and Z size) of the entity." },
 				GetWorld = { Params = "", Return = "{{cWorld}}", Notes = "Returns the world where the entity resides" },
-				GetYaw = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the yaw (direction) of the entity." },
+				GetYaw = { Params = "", Return = "number", Notes = "Returns the yaw (direction) of the entity. Measured in degrees, values range from -180 to +180. 0 means ZP, 90 means XM, -180 means ZM, -90 means XP." },
 				Heal = { Params = "Hitpoints", Return = "", Notes = "Heals the specified number of hitpoints. Hitpoints is expected to be a positive number." },
 				IsA = { Params = "ClassName", Return = "bool", Notes = "Returns true if the entity class is a descendant of the specified class name, or the specified class itself" },
 				IsBoat = { Params = "", Return = "bool", Notes = "Returns true if the entity is a {{cBoat|boat}}." },
@@ -2200,7 +2216,7 @@ end
 				CastThunderbolt = { Params = "X, Y, Z", Return = "", Notes = "Creates a thunderbolt at the specified coords" },
 				ChangeWeather = { Params = "", Return = "", Notes = "Forces the weather to change in the next game tick. Weather is changed according to the normal rules: wSunny <-> wRain <-> wStorm" },
 				ChunkStay = { Params = "ChunkCoordTable, OnChunkAvailable, OnAllChunksAvailable", Return = "", Notes = "Queues the specified chunks to be loaded or generated and calls the specified callbacks once they are loaded. ChunkCoordTable is an arra-table of chunk coords, each coord being a table of 2 numbers: { {Chunk1x, Chunk1z}, {Chunk2x, Chunk2z}, ...}. When any of those chunks are made available (including being available at the start of this call), the OnChunkAvailable() callback is called. When all the chunks are available, the OnAllChunksAvailable() callback is called. The function signatures are: <pre class=\"prettyprint lang-lua\">function OnChunkAvailable(ChunkX, ChunkZ)\nfunction OnAllChunksAvailable()</pre> All return values from the callbacks are ignored." },
-				CreateProjectile = { Params = "X, Y, Z, {{cProjectileEntity|ProjectileKind}}, {{cEntity|Creator}}, [{{Vector3d|Speed}}]", Return = "", Notes = "Creates a new projectile of the specified kind at the specified coords. The projectile's creator is set to Creator (may be nil). Optional speed indicates the initial speed for the projectile." },
+				CreateProjectile = { Params = "X, Y, Z, {{cProjectileEntity|ProjectileKind}}, {{cEntity|Creator}}, {{cItem|Originating Item}}, [{{Vector3d|Speed}}]", Return = "", Notes = "Creates a new projectile of the specified kind at the specified coords. The projectile's creator is set to Creator (may be nil). The item that created the projectile entity, commonly the {{cPlayer|player}}'s currently equipped item, is used at present for fireworks to correctly set their entity metadata. It is not used for any other projectile. Optional speed indicates the initial speed for the projectile." },
 				DigBlock = { Params = "X, Y, Z", Return = "", Notes = "Replaces the specified block with air, without dropping the usual pickups for the block. Wakes up the simulators for the block and its neighbors." },
 				DoExplosionAt = { Params = "Force, X, Y, Z, CanCauseFire, Source, SourceData", Return = "", Notes = "Creates an explosion of the specified relative force in the specified position. If CanCauseFire is set, the explosion will set blocks on fire, too. The Source parameter specifies the source of the explosion, one of the esXXX constants. The SourceData parameter is specific to each source type, usually it provides more info about the source." },
 				DoWithBlockEntityAt = { Params = "X, Y, Z, CallbackFunction, [CallbackData]", Return = "bool", Notes = "If there is a block entity at the specified coords, calls the CallbackFunction with the {{cBlockEntity}} parameter representing the block entity. The CallbackFunction has the following signature: <pre class=\"prettyprint lang-lua\">function Callback({{cBlockEntity|BlockEntity}}, [CallbackData])</pre> The function returns false if there is no block entity, or if there is, it returns the bool value that the callback has returned. Use {{tolua}}.cast() to cast the Callback's BlockEntity parameter to the correct {{cBlockEntity}} descendant." },
@@ -2913,9 +2929,10 @@ end
 	{
 		-- No sorting is provided for these, they will be output in the same order as defined here
 		{ FileName = "Writing-a-MCServer-plugin.html", Title = "Writing a MCServer plugin" },
-		{ FileName = "SettingUpDecoda.html", Title = "Setting up the Decoda Lua IDE" },
-		{ FileName = "SettingUpZeroBrane.html", Title = "Setting up the ZeroBrane Studio Lua IDE" },
-		{ FileName = "WebWorldThreads.html", Title = "Webserver vs World threads" },
+		{ FileName = "SettingUpDecoda.html",           Title = "Setting up the Decoda Lua IDE" },
+		{ FileName = "SettingUpZeroBrane.html",        Title = "Setting up the ZeroBrane Studio Lua IDE" },
+		{ FileName = "UsingChunkStays.html",           Title = "Using ChunkStays" },
+		{ FileName = "WebWorldThreads.html",           Title = "Webserver vs World threads" },
 	}
 } ;
 
diff --git a/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/UsingChunkStays.html b/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/UsingChunkStays.html
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d3ecc6674
--- /dev/null
+++ b/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/UsingChunkStays.html
@@ -0,0 +1,167 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+	<head>
+		<title>MCServer - Using ChunkStays</title>
+		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="main.css" />
+		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="prettify.css" />
+		<script src="prettify.js"></script>
+		<script src="lang-lua.js"></script>
+		<meta charset="UTF-8">
+	</head>
+	<body>
+		<div id="content">
+			<h1>Using ChunkStays</h1>
+			<p>
+			A plugin may need to manipulate data in arbitrary chunks, and it needs a way to make the server
+			guarantee that the chunks are available in memory.</p>
+			
+			<h2>The problem</h2>
+			<p>
+			Usually when plugins want to manipulate larger areas of world data, they need to make sure that the
+			server has the appropriate chunks loaded in the memory. When the data being manipulated can be further
+			away from the connected players, or the data is being manipulated from a console handler, there is a
+			real chance that the chunks are not loaded.</p>
+			<p>
+			This gets even more important when using the <a href="cBlockArea.html">cBlockArea</a> class for reading
+			and writing. Those functions will fail when any of the required chunks aren't valid. This means that
+			either the block area has incomplete data (Read() failed) or incomplete data has been written to the
+			world (Write() failed). Recovery from this is near impossible - you can't simply read or write again
+			later, because the world may have changed in the meantime.</p>
+			
+			<h2>The solution</h2>
+			<p>
+			The naive solution would be to monitor chunk loads and unloads, and postpone the operations until all
+			the chunks are available. This would be quite ineffective and also very soon it would become very
+			difficult to maintain, if there were multiple code paths requiring this handling.</p>
+			<p>
+			An alternate approach has been implemented, accessible through a single (somewhat hidden) function
+			call: <a href="cWorld.html">cWorld:ChunkStay()</a>. All that this call basically does is, it tells the
+			server "Load these chunks for me, and call this callback function once you have them all." And the
+			server does exactly that - it remembers the callback and asks the world loader / generator to provide
+			the chunks. Once the chunks become available, it calls the callback function for the plugin.</p>
+			<p>
+			There are a few gotcha-s, though. If the code that was requesting the read or write had access to some
+			of the volatile objects, such as <a href="cPlayer.html">cPlayer</a> or
+			<a href="cEntity.html">cEntity</a> objects, those cannot be accessed by the callback anymore, because
+			they may have become invalid in the meantime - the player may have disconnected, the entity may have
+			despawned. So the callback must use the longer way to access such objects, such as calling
+			<a href="cWorld.html">cWorld:DoWithEntityByID()</a> or
+			<a href="cWorld.html">cWorld:DoWithPlayer()</a>.</p>
+			
+			<h2>The example</h2>
+			<p>
+			As a simple example, consider a theoretical plugin that allows a player to save the immediate
+			surroundings of the spawn into a schematic file. The player issues a command to initiate the save, and
+			the plugin reads a 50 x 50 x 50 block area around the spawn into a cBlockArea and saves it on the disk
+			as "<PlayerName>_spawn.schematic". When it's done with the saving, it wants to send a message to the
+			player to let them know the command has succeeded.</p>
+			<p>
+			The first attempt shows the naive approach. It simply reads the block area and saves it, then sends the
+			message. I'll repeat once more, this code is <b>the wrong way</b> to do it!</p>
+<pre class="prettyprint lang-lua">
+function HandleCommandSaveSpawn(a_Split, a_Player)
+	-- Get the coords for the spawn:
+	local SpawnX = a_Player:GetWorld():GetSpawnX()
+	local SpawnY = a_Player:GetWorld():GetSpawnY()
+	local SpawnZ = a_Player:GetWorld():GetSpawnZ()
+	local Bounds = cCuboid(SpawnX - 25, SpawnY - 25, SpawnZ - 25, SpawnX + 25, SpawnY + 25, SpawnZ + 25)
+	Bounds:ClampY(0, 255)
+	
+	-- Read the area around spawn into a cBlockArea, save to file:
+	local Area = cBlockArea()
+	local FileName = a_Player:GetName() .. "_spawn.schematic"
+	Area:Read(a_Player:GetWorld(), Bounds, cBlockArea.baTypes + cBlockArea.baMetas)
+	Area:SaveToSchematicFile(FileName)
+	
+	-- Notify the player:
+	a_Player:SendMessage(cCompositeChat("The spawn has been saved", mtInfo))
+	return true
+end
+</pre>
+			<p>
+			Now if the player goes exploring far and uses the command to save their spawn, the chunks aren't
+			loaded, so the BlockArea reading fails, the BlockArea contains bad data. Note that the plugin fails to
+			do any error checking and if the area isn't read from the world, it happily saves the incomplete data
+			and says "hey, everything's right", althought it has just trashed any previous backup of the spawn
+			schematic with nonsense data.</p>
+			<hr/>
+			<p>
+			The following script uses the ChunkStay method to alleviate chunk-related problems. This is <b>the
+			right way</b> of doing it:</p>
+<pre class="prettyprint lang-lua">
+function HandleCommandSaveSpawn(a_Split, a_Player)
+	-- Get the coords for the spawn:
+	local SpawnX = a_Player:GetWorld():GetSpawnX()
+	local SpawnY = a_Player:GetWorld():GetSpawnY()
+	local SpawnZ = a_Player:GetWorld():GetSpawnZ()
+	local Bounds = cCuboid(SpawnX - 25, SpawnY - 25, SpawnZ - 25, SpawnX + 25, SpawnY + 25, SpawnZ + 25)
+	Bounds:ClampY(0, 255)
+	
+	-- Get a list of chunks that we need loaded:
+	local MinChunkX = math.floor((SpawnX - 25) / 16)
+	local MaxChunkX = math.ceil ((SpawnX + 25) / 16)
+	local MinChunkZ = math.floor((SpawnZ - 25) / 16)
+	local MaxChunkZ = math.ceil ((SpawnZ + 25) / 16)
+	local Chunks = {}
+	for x = MinChunkX, MaxChunkX do
+		for z = MinChunkZ, MaxChunkZ do
+			table.insert(Chunks, {x, z})
+		end
+	end  -- for x
+	
+	-- Store the player's name and world to use in the callback, because the a_Player object may no longer be valid:
+	local PlayerName = a_Player:GetName()
+	local World = a_Player:GetWorld()
+	
+	-- This is the callback that is executed once all the chunks are loaded:
+	local OnAllChunksAvailable = function()
+		-- Read the area around spawn into a cBlockArea, save to file:
+		local Area = cBlockArea()
+		local FileName = PlayerName .. "_spawn.schematic"
+		if (Area:Read(World, Bounds, cBlockArea.baTypes + cBlockArea.baMetas)) then
+			Area:SaveToSchematicFile(FileName)
+			Msg = cCompositeChat("The spawn has been saved", mtInfo)
+		else
+			Msg = cCompositeChat("Cannot save the spawn", mtFailure)
+		end
+		
+		-- Notify the player:
+		-- Note that we cannot use a_Player here, because it may no longer be valid (if the player disconnected before the command completes)
+		World:DoWithPlayer(PlayerName,
+			function (a_CBPlayer)
+				a_CBPlayer:SendMessage(Msg)
+			end
+		)
+	end
+	
+	-- Ask the server to load our chunks and notify us once it's done:
+	World:ChunkStay(Chunks, nil, OnAllChunksAvailable)
+	
+	-- Note that code here may get executed before the callback is called!
+	-- The ChunkStay says "once you have the chunks", not "wait until you have the chunks"
+	-- So you can't notify the player here, because the saving needn't have occurred yet.
+	
+	return true
+end
+</pre>
+			<p>
+			Note that this code does its error checking of the Area:Read() function, and it will not overwrite the
+			previous file unless it actually has the correct data. If you're wondering how the reading could fail
+			when we've got the chunks loaded, there's still the issue of free RAM - if the memory for the area
+			cannot be allocated, it cannot be read even with all the chunks present. So we still do need that
+			check.</p>
+			
+			<h2>The conclusion</h2>
+			<p>
+			Although it makes the code a little bit longer and is a bit more difficult to grasp at first, the
+			ChunkStay is a useful technique to add to your repertoire. It is to be used whenever you need access to
+			chunks that may potentially be inaccessible, and you really need the data.</p>
+			<p>Possibly the biggest hurdle in using the ChunkStay is the fact that it does its work in the
+			background, thus invalidating all cPlayer and cEntity objects your function may hold, so you need to
+			re-acquire them from their IDs and names. This is the penalty for using multi-threaded code.</p>
+			<script>
+				prettyPrint();
+			</script>
+		</div>
+	</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/WebWorldThreads.html b/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/WebWorldThreads.html
index fc80a6178..ee0b172e6 100644
--- a/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/WebWorldThreads.html
+++ b/MCServer/Plugins/APIDump/WebWorldThreads.html
@@ -39,31 +39,31 @@
 
 			<h2>Example</h2>
 			The Core has the facility to kick players using the web interface. It used the following code for the kicking (inside the webadmin handler):
-			<pre class="prettyprint lang-lua">
-			local KickPlayerName = Request.Params["players-kick"]
-			local FoundPlayerCallback = function(Player)
-			  if (Player:GetName() == KickPlayerName) then
-				Player:GetClientHandle():Kick("You were kicked from the game!")
-			  end
+<pre class="prettyprint lang-lua">
+local KickPlayerName = Request.Params["players-kick"]
+local FoundPlayerCallback = function(Player)
+	if (Player:GetName() == KickPlayerName) then
+	Player:GetClientHandle():Kick("You were kicked from the game!")
+	end
+end
+cRoot:Get():FindAndDoWithPlayer(KickPlayerName, FoundPlayerCallback)
+</pre>
+The cRoot:FindAndDoWithPlayer() is unsafe and could have caused a deadlock. The new solution is queue a task; but since we don't know in which world the player is, we need to queue the task to all worlds:
+<pre class="prettyprint lang-lua">
+cRoot:Get():ForEachWorld(    -- For each world...
+	function(World)
+	World:QueueTask(         -- ... queue a task...
+		function(a_World)
+		a_World:DoWithPlayer(KickPlayerName,  -- ... to walk the playerlist...
+			function (a_Player)
+			a_Player:GetClientHandle():Kick("You were kicked from the game!")  -- ... and kick the player
 			end
-			cRoot:Get():FindAndDoWithPlayer(KickPlayerName, FoundPlayerCallback)
-			</pre>
-			The cRoot:FindAndDoWithPlayer() is unsafe and could have caused a deadlock. The new solution is queue a task; but since we don't know in which world the player is, we need to queue the task to all worlds:
-			<pre class="prettyprint lang-lua">
-			cRoot:Get():ForEachWorld(    -- For each world...
-			  function(World)
-				World:QueueTask(         -- ... queue a task...
-				  function(a_World)
-					a_World:DoWithPlayer(KickPlayerName,  -- ... to walk the playerlist...
-					  function (a_Player)
-						a_Player:GetClientHandle():Kick("You were kicked from the game!")  -- ... and kick the player
-					  end
-					)
-				  end
-				)
-			  end
-			)
-			</pre>
+		)
+		end
+	)
+	end
+)
+</pre>
 			<script>
 				prettyPrint();
 			</script>
diff --git a/MCServer/Plugins/InfoReg.lua b/MCServer/Plugins/InfoReg.lua
index 27e63aa5b..da5a9972c 100644
--- a/MCServer/Plugins/InfoReg.lua
+++ b/MCServer/Plugins/InfoReg.lua
@@ -16,22 +16,22 @@ local function ListSubcommands(a_Player, a_Subcommands, a_CmdString)
 	end
 	
 	-- Enum all the subcommands:
-	local Verbs = {};
+	local Verbs = {}
 	for cmd, info in pairs(a_Subcommands) do
-		if (a_Player:HasPermission(info.Permission or "")) then
-			table.insert(Verbs, "  " .. a_CmdString .. " " .. cmd);
+		if ((a_Player == nil) or (a_Player:HasPermission(info.Permission or ""))) then
+			table.insert(Verbs, a_CmdString .. " " .. cmd)
 		end
 	end
-	table.sort(Verbs);
+	table.sort(Verbs)
 	
 	-- Send the list:
 	if (a_Player == nil) then
 		for idx, verb in ipairs(Verbs) do
-			LOGINFO(verb);
+			LOGINFO("  " .. verb)
 		end
 	else
 		for idx, verb in ipairs(Verbs) do
-			a_Player:SendMessage(verb);
+			a_Player:SendMessage(cCompositeChat("  ", mtInfo):AddSuggestCommandPart(verb, verb))
 		end
 	end
 end