Introduction to Scripting the GUI

One important feature in MTA:DM is the ability to script customized GUI (Graphic User Interface). The GUI consists of windows, button, edit boxes, check boxes... Almost every standard form components in graphical environments. They can be displayed while the user is in game, and used for inputs and outpus in place of traditional commands.

Admin Console GUI

A tutorial to make a login window

In this tutorial we'll make a simple login window, with two input boxes and a button. The window appears when the player joins the game, and once the button is clicked, the player is spawned. The tutorial will continue the gamemode we made in Introduction to Scripting.

Draw the window

All the GUI must be made client side. It is also a good practice to keep all the client scripts in a separate folder. Browse to /Your MTA Server/mods/deathmatch/resources/myserver/ directory, and create a folder named "client". Under /client/ directory, create a text file and name it "gui.lua", and in this file we will write a funtion that draws the window:

function CreateLoginWindow()
	local X = 0.375
	local Y = 0.375
	local Width = 0.25
	local Height = 0.25
	wdwLogin = guiCreateWindow(X, Y, Width, Height, "Please Log In", true)
end

You may click on the function's name to see its documentation. Note that the coordinates of the window is in percentage of the screen. It means that if the screen is labelled with 0 on the left end, and 1 on the right end, and if "X" is 0.5, it represents the middle of the screen. It applies to Y, window width, and window height as well (if "width" is 0.5, the window will be half as wide as the screen). Next we'll add the text labels (saying "username:" and "password:"), edit boxes and a button.

function CreateLoginWindow()
	local X = 0.375
	local Y = 0.375
	local Width = 0.25
	local Height = 0.25
	wdwLogin = guiCreateWindow(X, Y, Width, Height, "Please Log In", true)
	
	X = 0.0825
	Y = 0.2
	Width = 0.25
	Height = 0.25
	guiCreateLabel(X, Y, Width, Height, "Username", true, wdwLogin)
	Y = 0.5
	guiCreateLabel(X, Y, Width, Height, "Password", true, wdwLogin)
	
	X = 0.415
	Y = 0.2
	Width = 0.5
	Height = 0.15
	edtUser = guiCreateEdit(X, Y, Width, Height, "", true, wdwLogin)
	Y = 0.5
	edtPass = guiCreateEdit(X, Y, Width, Height, "", true, wdwLogin)
	guiEditSetMaxLength(edtUser, 50)
	guiEditSetMaxLength(edtPass, 50)
	
	X = 0.415
	Y = 0.7
	Width = 0.25
	Height = 0.2
	btnLogin = guiCreateButton(X, Y, Width, Height, "Log In", true, wdwLogin)
	
	guiSetVisible(wdwLogin, false)
end

Note that every GUI component created is a child of the window, this is done by specifying the parent element (wdwLogin, in this case) when creating the component:

guiCreateLabel(X, Y, Width, Height, "Password", true, wdwLogin)

This is very useful because later when you need to control the entire set of GUI, you can just refer to the parent element. For example:

guiSetVisible(wdwLogin, false) --hides all the GUI we made so we can show them to the player at the appropriate moment.