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Making items configurable

Overview

Let's add a config so server owners can change how long the baguette flamethrower sets entities on fire for.

Creating the config file

If you look inside your server's Pylon settings directory (run/plugins/PylonCore/settings/pylonbase) you'll see that every item and every block has its own config file.

For example, bandage.yml contains:

bandage.yml
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consume-seconds: 1.25
heal-amount: 4.0

We want to add our own config file which lets you choose how long the baguette flamethrower sets entities on fire for.

Create a new file resources/settings/baguette_flamethrower.yml and add the following:

baguette_flamethrower.yml
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burn-time-ticks: 40

Best practice

When your config option is a quantity, include the unit in the name. If we just called it burn-time, users might not know that it's in ticks, and assume it's in seconds or something else.

Pylon will automatically copy all of your settings files into run/plugins/PylonCore/settings/<your-addon-name> when the settings file is first used.

Using the config file

To read the burn-time-ticks value from the config file, we can use getSettings().getOrThrow(...):

BaguetteFlamethrower.java
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public class BaguetteFlamethrower extends PylonItem implements PylonItemEntityInteractor {
    private final int burnTimeTicks = getSettings().getOrThrow("burn-time-ticks", Integer.class);

    public BaguetteFlamethrower(@NotNull ItemStack stack) {
        super(stack);
    }

    @Override
    public void onUsedToRightClickEntity(@NotNull PlayerInteractEntityEvent event) {
        event.getRightClicked().setFireTicks(40);
    }
}

How does Pylon know which config file to use?

Config files are actually per key, not per item. When calling getSettings(), all this does is take the item's key and find the settings file for it! It's just a shorthand for Settings.get(getKey()). If you used Settings.get(new NamespacedKey(MyAddon.getInstance(), "buffoon")) then the buffoon.yml settings file would be read instead.

Why are we using getOrThrow instead of get?

Settings also have a get method. This method just returns null if the key was not found, so it should only be used where you don't necessarily need the key. If you use getOrThrow, a nice exception will be thrown with some information on what key is missing and where.

And now we can use that value when setting entities on fire!

BaguetteFlamethrower.java
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public class BaguetteFlamethrower extends PylonItem implements PylonItemEntityInteractor {
    private final int burnTimeTicks = getSettings().getOrThrow("burn-time-ticks", Integer.class);

    public BaguetteFlamethrower(@NotNull ItemStack stack) {
        super(stack);
    }

    @Override
    public void onUsedToRightClickEntity(@NotNull PlayerInteractEntityEvent event) {
        event.getRightClicked().setFireTicks(burnTimeTicks);
    }
}

Try changing the config value, and the burn time should change with it.

Danger

The run server task deletes everything inside the plugins folder whenever it's run, meaning any changes you make to your new config there will be overwritten. Instead, just try changing the default value - or run the server manually so the plugins folder isn't deleted when the server restarts.