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Definition Encyclopedia🔗

This is the definition encyclopedia. All important and regularly used keywords are defined here.

Data Types🔗

A list of all data types that require a special and more elaborate explanation.

Basic Types🔗

Basic Types

There are a few basic data types that are commonly used in elements:

  • String: A string of characters that may contain any character including spaces if quoted.
  • Number: Any number, either integer or floating point. Might be negative as well. Limited only to java's integer, long, float and double depending on the element. See here for more information.
  • Boolean: Binary value. Either true or false.

Other mostly element-specific data types are defined in the other sections or in the element's documentation itself.

Block Selectors🔗

Block Selector

A block selector is used whenever targeting a block or material (or multiple blocks). The format of a block selector is: namespace:material[state=value,...]:

  • namespace - (optional) The material namespace. If left out then it will be assumed to be 'minecraft'.
    May be a regex.
  • material - The material the block is made of. All materials can be found in Spigots Javadocs.
    It may be a regex. If the regex ends with square brackets you have to add another pair of empty square brackets even if you don't want to use the state argument ([regex][]).
    Instead of using a regex to match multiple materials you can also define a tag. Every tag matches a special group of blocks or items that can be grouped together logically. They can be using this format :blocks:flowers or minecraft:blocks:flowers. Be aware that a tag always starts with either : or a namespace.
  • state - (optional) The block states can be provided in a comma separated key=value list surrounded by square brackets. You can look up states in the Minecraft wiki. Any state left out will be excluded from the matching process.
    Values may be a regex.

Examples:

  • minecraft:stone - Matches all blocks of type STONE
  • redstone_wire - Matches all blocks of type REDSTONE_WIRE
  • redstone_wire[power=5] - Matches all blocks of type REDSTONE_WIRE and which have a power of 5
  • redstone_wire[power=5,facing=1] - Matches all blocks of type REDSTONE_WIRE and which have both a power of 5 and are facing 1
  • .*_LOG - Matches all LOGS
  • .* - Matches everything
  • .*[waterlogged=true] - Matches all waterlogged blocks
  • minecraft:blocks:flowers - Matches all flowers
  • :blocks:crops[age=0] - Matches all crops with an age of 0 meaning, not grown / just planted

The block state will ignore all additional block states on the block it's compared with by default. Example: fence[facing=north] matches fence[facing=north] and fence[facing=north,waterlogged=true]. You can add an exactMatch argument if you only want to match blocks that exactly match the block state.

A regex is allowed in any block state value when the block selector is used to match blocks. You cannot use a regex in block states when the block selector is used for placing blocks.

Regular Expressions🔗

Regular Expression

A regular expression is a sequence of characters that is used for pattern matching on strings. It's used in BetonQuest to check if game objects match a user-defined input. Regular expressions are a powerful and versatile tool, but they can be quite confusing to non-programmers at first.

If you want to use more complex regular expressions, have a look at this cheatsheet. You might also want to use a tool like Regexr to create and test your regular expressions at the same time.

Examples:

Use Case Regex
A specific text e.g. STONE STONE
A text starting with STONE STONE.*
A text ending with _LOG .*_LOG
A specific number e.g. 42 ^42$
A specific range of numbers, e.g. any number between 0 and 99 [0-9]{1,2}
Positive numbers only ^\d+$
Negative numbers only ^-\d+$
Any number [-+]?[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)?

Unified Location Format🔗

Location

A location consists of two elements:

  • A base location/position
  • An optional vector offset

The base location is always required and is defined by the format x;y;z;world;yaw;pitch.
The vector offset is optional and is defined by adding ->(a;b;c) after the base location resulting in x;y;z;world;yaw;pitch->(a;b;c).
x, y, z are the coordinates of the base location and yaw and pitch are the optional rotation at that location.
a, b c are the values of the vector offset and are added to the base location.
world is the name of the world the location is set in. All values besides world are numbers that allow decimal places.

Every single element may be a placeholder as well as the entire location itself. As an example you can use the %location% placeholder to get a player's current location.

Examples:

  • 100;200;300;world;90;-45
  • 100;200;300;world_nether->(10;2.5;-13)
  • %location%
  • %location%->(10;2.5;-13)

Elements🔗

All actions, conditions, etc. - essentially anything definable under a specific section in the script - are considered elements.

Context🔗

Context

The context defines the scope of the element. The context is defined for every element and determines the requirement of a profile for a valid execution of the element. Commonly used contexts are:

  • online: Used for elements that require a player to be online to be properly executed.
  • offline: Used for elements that require a player that may be offline to be properly executed.
  • independent: Used for elements that don't require a player at all.

Since those requirements are not exclusive to one another, they often appear in combinations. The following icons are used to represent the context combination for each element. For example, for actions:
Be aware that the precise definition of the context variations might differ, so read their hover text for more information.

Parameter Type🔗

Parameter Type

There are currently four types of parameters used in elements:

  • Required: The parameter is required to be present in the element's instruction at the exact position and without its name.
  • Optional: The parameter is optional and may be defined or absent. The order is ignored.
  • Flag: The parameter is a flag and may be defined, undefined or absent. The order is ignored.
  • Additionals: The parameter allows any number of additional defined parameters. Their individual names are free to choose and usually depend on the context of the element. All additional parameter names are prefixed with + and the order is ignored.

The naming of the parameters is defined in the element's syntax. Except required parameters, all other parameters are named and allow different specifications.

  • present: A present parameter is simply value where value is just the value of the parameter, without mentioning the name at all.
  • defined: A defined parameter is like param:value where param is the name of the parameter and value is the value of the parameter.
  • undefined: An undefined parameter is simply param where param is the name of the parameter falling back to the undefined default value of the parameter.
  • absent: An absent parameter is simply not specifying the parameter at all falling back to the absent default value of the parameter.

Syntax🔗

Syntax

The syntax of an element defines the format of that element's instruction. It usually consists of a single line starting with the element's name and is followed by parameters separated by an element-specific separator.

The common types of parameters are defined like:

  • required parameters: <parameter>
  • optional parameters: [parameter]
  • flag parameters: {parameter}
  • additional parameters: +[...]

For more information on different types of parameters, see the Parameter Type section.