minetest_modding_book/chapters/chat.md

title	layout	root
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Introduction

In this chapter we will learn how to interact with player chat, including sending messages, intercepting messages and registering chat commands.

• Send a message to all players.
• Send a message to a certain player.
  • Server =!=
• Chat commands.
• Intercepting messages.

Send a message to all players

It's as simple as calling the chat_send_all function, as so:

{% highlight lua %} minetest.chat_send_all("This is a chat message to all players") {% endhighlight %}

Here is an example of how it would appear ingame (there are other messages around it).

<player1> Look at this entrance
This is a chat message to all players
<player2> What about it?

Send a message to a certain player

It's as simple as calling the chat_send_player function, as so:

{% highlight lua %} minetest.chat_send_player("player1", "This is a chat message for player1") {% endhighlight %}

Only player1 can see this message, and it's displayed the same as above.

Server =!=

You can prefix a message to a single player with Server =!= by using

{% highlight lua %} minetest.chat_send_player("player1", "This is a server message", true) {% endhighlight %}

It will look like this:

<player1> Look at this entrance
Server =!= This is a server message
<player2> What about it?

Chat commands

In order to register a chat command, such as /foo, use register_chatcommand:

{% highlight lua %} minetest.register_chatcommand("foo", { privs = { interact = true }, func = function(name, param) return true, "You said " .. param .. "!" end }) {% endhighlight %}

Calling /foo bar will result in You said bar! in the chat console.

Let's do a break down:

{% highlight lua %} privs = { interact = true }, {% endhighlight %}

This makes it so that only players with the interact privilege can run the command. Other players will see an error message informing them which privilege they're missing.

{% highlight lua %} return true, "You said " .. param .. "!" {% endhighlight %}

This returns two values, firstly a boolean which says that the command succeeded and secondly the chat message to send to the player.

Intercepting messages

You can use register_on_chat_message, like so:

{% highlight lua %} minetest.register_on_chat_message(function(name, message) print(name .. " said " .. message) return false end) {% endhighlight %}

By returning false, we're allowing the chat message to be sent by the default handler. You can actually miss out the line return false, and it would still work the same.

WARNING: CHAT COMMANDS ARE ALSO INTERCEPTED. If you only want to catch player messages, you need to do this:

{% highlight lua %} minetest.register_on_chat_message(function(name, message) if message:sub(1, 1) == "/" then print(name .. " ran chat command") return false end

print(name .. " said " .. message)
return false

end) {% endhighlight %}