[V3.0] Changes for MOD Authors — WebDashboard Integration, Major XUi Overhaul, and More

V3.0 is an update with significant impact on MOD authors as well. Here is a summary of the main changes.

WebDashboard Integrated into the Core

• The WebDashboard code has been integrated into the game itself (the core), so it is always kept up to date
• There are only two changes on the MOD side:
  • References to additional assemblies are no longer needed—you only need to reference the game core’s Assembly-CSharp.dll
  • Because the code goes through publicizer processing, you may need to make code that overrides vanilla methods public

File Format Changes

• Localization.txt renamed to Localization.csv (to accurately reflect its content and make it easier to open in spreadsheet software)
• entitygroups.xml reverted to proper XML elements (the previous text format is also still supported for now as backward compatibility)

Major Overhaul of the XUi Framework

The UI has undergone significant internal renewal and code cleanup.

• A new binding system moves control from code to XML (documentation is on the official Wiki: https://7daystodie.wiki.gg/wiki/XUi)
• Views have been substantially restructured to reduce code duplication. Common attributes/features are now provided across view types to improve compatibility (e.g., attribute names for tables and grids, window anchor names, and view pivot names have been unified)
• Unnecessary view attributes have been removed. A rect now always holds a UI widget, and a panel always holds a UI panel. Whenever possible, rect is recommended over panel
• New views video, scrollbar, and scrollview have been added
• The force_hide attribute has been removed; display control is now unified under each view’s normal visible attribute
• Tween can now be controlled from XML
• The XUi folder has been renamed to XUi_InGame
• controls.xml renamed to templates.xml (to resolve confusion between XML templates and the XUi controller classes)
• The unnecessary ruleset XML element level has been removed from xui.xml
• Templates can now be used as windows
• Numerous small bug fixes across views, controllers, and the framework as a whole

Existing MODs—especially UI (XUi) and localization-related ones—are likely to require updates, so we recommend testing them early on the experimental build.

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Related: List of MOD Development Articles