GetElementChildren

This function is used to retrieve a list of the child elements of a given parent element. Note that it will only return direct children and not elements that are further down the element tree.

Syntax

table getElementChildren ( element parent [, string theType = nil ] ) 

OOP Syntax Help! I don't understand this!

Method: element:getChildren(...)

Required Arguments

• parent: Supply this argument with the parent of the children you want returned.

Optional Arguments

• theType: The type of element you want a list of. This is the same as the tag name in the .map file, so this can be used with a custom element type if desired. Built in types are:
  • "player": A player connected to the server
  • "ped": A ped
  • "water": A water polygon
  • "sound": A playing sound
  • "vehicle": A vehicle
  • "object": An object
  • "pickup": A pickup
  • "marker": A marker
  • "colshape": A collision shape
  • "blip": A blip
  • "radararea": A radar area
  • "team": A team
  • "spawnpoint": A spawnpoint
  • "remoteclient": A remote client connected to the server
  • "console": The server Console

Returns

This function returns a table that contains a list of elements that the parent has. If the element has no children, it will return an empy table. It will return false if the parent element does not exist.

Example

With this map file:

<team1 id="red">
	<base name="Mountain Top" />
	<base name="Docks" />
	<base name="Airport" />
	<anything name="no base" />
</team1>

This example outputs the child elements of the element with id 'red', when the player enters the 'teamElements' command.

function showTeamElements(thePlayer, command)
	local theTeam = getElementByID("red")         -- get the team element
	local elements = getElementChildren(theTeam)  -- the child elements
	for k,v in ipairs(elements) do
		outputChatBox(getElementType(v)..": "..getElementData(v, "name")) -- print the type and name of each child
	end
end
addCommandHandler("teamElements", showTeamElements)

At a later point you could loop through all the elements and process their contents any way you wish. Remember to make sure you only have the current list of elements though. If you get the root element children, then wait a while for things to change, this list won't be up to date unless you use getElementChildren again.

See Also

• attachElements
• createElement
• destroyElement
• detachElements
• getAttachedElements
• getElementAlpha
• getElementAttachedOffsets
• getElementAttachedTo
• getElementByIndex
• getElementByID
• getElementChild
• getElementChildren
• getElementChildrenCount
• getElementCollisionsEnabled
• getElementColShape
• getElementData
• getAllElementData
• hasElementData
• getElementDimension
• getElementHealth
• getElementID
• getElementInterior
• getElementMatrix
• getElementModel
• getElementParent
• getElementPosition
• getElementRotation
• getElementsByType
• getElementsWithinColShape
• getElementsWithinRange
• getElementType
• getElementVelocity
• getLowLODElement
• getRootElement
• isElement
• isElementAttached
• isElementCallPropagationEnabled
• isElementDoubleSided
• isElementFrozen
• isElementInWater
• isElementLowLOD
• isElementWithinColShape
• isElementWithinMarker
• setElementAlpha
• setElementAngularVelocity
• getElementAngularVelocity
• setElementAttachedOffsets
• setElementCallPropagationEnabled
• setElementCollisionsEnabled
• setElementData
• setElementDimension
• setElementDoubleSided
• setElementFrozen
• setElementHealth
• setElementID
• setElementInterior
• setElementModel
• setElementParent
• setElementPosition
• setElementRotation
• setElementVelocity
• setLowLODElement
• getPedContactElement
• getResourceDynamicElementRoot
• getResourceRootElement