DDTools

Developer tools UE4 plugin. Contains following modules:

• DDLog -- logging based on spdlog
• DDBase -- base class to derive user modules from
• DDHelpers -- define interfaces and plugin widget base class
• DDManager -- manager for plugins, derived from DDBase
• DDBlueprints -- blueprint function library

Description

DDLog

DDLog is a custom logging module, based on spdlog.

❓ Cool! But... why? As the project gets more complex, due to multiplatform support, it is important to have helpful tools for filtering out log output during development and testing. DDLog is designed to fan out log output to multiple destinations, such as files, network sinks, device consoles, on-screen rednering, etc. If using DDBase as a base class for your modules, the logging will appear pre-formatted and can be easily filtered based on the pluginn name.

Hot to use

By default, there's an app-wide logger, named after game name. Use these macro to log:

DLOG_ERROR("Error log line with argument1 {} and argument two {}", 42, "string_argument");
DLOG_WARN("Warning log line with argument1 {} and argument two {}", 42, "string_argument");
DLOG_INFO("Info log line with argument1 {} and argument two {}", 42, "string_argument");
DLOG_DEBUG("Debug log line with argument1 {} and argument two {}", 42, "string_argument");
DLOG_TRACE("Trace log line with argument1 {} and argument two {}", 42, "string_argument");

Logging FString

DLOG_INFO("Here comes FString: {}", TCHAR_TO_ANSI(*fstringVar));

Logging FName

DLOG_INFO("Here comes FName: {}", TCHAR_TO_ANSI(*fnameVar.ToString()));

Logging levels

Logging levels at runtime are controled with environment variable DDLOG_LOG_LEVEL which can take these values:

• "trace"
• "debbug"
• "info"
• "warn"
• "err"

DBase module logging

If your module is derived form DDBase, you shall use these macro for module-level logging:

DLOG_PLUGIN_ERROR
DLOG_PLUGIN_WARN
DLOG_PLUGIN_INFO
DLOG_PLUGIN_DEBUG
DLOG_PLUGIN_TRACE

See more on the DDbase below

DDHelpers

This module defines some basic interfaces and classses, such as:

• IDDModuleInterdae -- interface of a module, dervied from DDBase;
• helpers:: -- a collection of helper functions used throughtout DDTools;
• DDModuleWidget -- base widget class for a plugin.

DDBlueprints

A module for exposing some DDTools functions to Blueprints.

😃 One can log using DDLog directly from Blueprint by using functions defined in DD Blueprint Library.

DDManager

A (singleton) module which keeps track of all registered DDBase modules and provides interface to initialize and create module widgets.

DDBase

DDBase is a base module class (derived from IModuleInterface) that implements some helpful functionality, such as:

• creates module-wide logger;
• automatically locates UI widget (derived from DDModuleWidget) shipped with the plugin and loads it;
• registers with DDModuleManager.

In order to properly initialize DDBase, one shall call initModule() method from within StartupModule() method:

void MyModule::StartupModule()
{
    initModule("MyModule", "<plugin version>");
    ...
}