Editing the files

holograms.yml and npcs.yml are the only place holograms and NPCs live. A command, a button and a hand edit of the file all change the same entry, and what stands in the world is drawn from it, so the three ways of editing never disagree.

Saving a file applies it

With watch-files: true (the default) in config.yml, saving holograms.yml or npcs.yml applies it on its own:

• the plugin waits until the file has been quiet for half a second, so an editor that saves in several writes is read once;
• it reads the file, shows what it says now, and tells every online player with exyliadisplays.holograms (or .npcs): "holograms.yml changed: 12 holograms applied.";
• a write the plugin made itself is recognised by its contents and not read again.

Only what changed is redrawn: new lines are swapped into the hologram already there, a moved hologram is moved, and nobody sees the rest blink.

Without the watcher (or on a file system that cannot be watched, which the console reports), apply an edit with /holoadmin reload or /npcadmin reload.

A hand-written entry only needs what it changes

Every key has a default, so an entry can be a few lines; the missing keys are not counted as mistakes:

npcs:
  guide:
    location: {world: lobby, x: 0.5, y: 64.0, z: -3.5, yaw: 180.0, pitch: 0.0}
    skin: {type: player, player: Notch}
    label: {lines: ['<size:1.2><shine>{primary}&lGUIDE']}
    interactions:
      actions: ['right: [SAY] Hello, %player_name%!;5s']
      cooldown: 2s

Every key is in the File reference. Names follow the same rule as commands: lowercase letters, digits, _ and -, up to 32 characters.

Coordinates are kept to a thousandth of a block and angles to a tenth of a degree, so float noise from an import or a hand edit (90.12000274658203) is rounded on the next write.

Mistakes

A value that cannot be read (a word where a number goes) falls back to its default and is reported in the console, and the players told about the reload get "holograms.yml has 1 mistake(s); see the console.". A key the plugin does not know is reported and removed from the file.

Reloads

None of them start or stop a module: that takes a restart.

Several admins at once

Changes go through one door and are applied in order: two admins editing the same hologram from two screens each change the latest version, never the one their screen was opened with. Files are written off the main thread, so a burst of edits from a screen is one write and the server never waits on the disk.

Backups

Everything is in two YAML files. Copy holograms.yml and npcs.yml (or the whole folder) to back it up or to move it to another server; the screens and messages come with the jar.