How do I open a vgui panel with a SENT?

[userman122]

How can I make a vgui panel pupup when you press USE on a SENT?

[MakeR]

There are a couple of ways of doing this, but I think that by far the easiest way is to send a usermessage to the player that pressed use, and in the usermessage hook, open the menu.

First of all, you need to set the use type to SIMPLE_USE to prevent the menu from being spammed open.
This should go in your entities init.lua
[lua]function ENT:Initialize()
-- Usual initialize code
self:SetUseType(SIMPLE_USE)
end[/lua]

Then you need to send a usermessage to the player who presses use.
This also goes in init.lua
[lua]function ENT:Use(act, cal)
if act and act:IsPlayer() then -- Check that the activator is a player
umsg.Start("OpenMenu", act) -- Start a usermessage to send to the activator
umsg.End() -- End the usermessage
end
end[/lua]

Now, you need to hook to that usermessage on the client and open your menu.
This goes in cl_init.lua
[lua]usermessage.Hook("OpenMenu", function(um) -- function to be called when usermessage is received
-- open menu
end)[/lua]

Hope that helps.

[Willox]

-Shnip-
Ninja'd :c ^^, and i did it wrong :D

[MakeR]

You may also want to send the entity that the player pressed USE on in the usermessage, you can do that like this:

[lua]function ENT:Use(act, cal)
if act and act:IsPlayer() then
umsg.Start("OpenMenu", act)
umsg.Entity(act)
umsg.End()
end
end[/lua]

[lua]usermessage.Hook("OpenMenu", function(um)
local ent = um:ReadEntity()
end)[/lua]

[userman122]

[QUOTE=MakeR;22341117]There are a couple of ways of doing this, but I think that by far the easiest way is to send a usermessage to the player that pressed use, and in the usermessage hook, open the menu.

First of all, you need to set the use type to SIMPLE_USE to prevent the menu from being spammed open.
This should go in your entities init.lua
[lua]function ENT:Initialize()
-- Usual initialize code
self:SetUseType(SIMPLE_USE)
end[/lua]

Then you need to send a usermessage to the player who presses use.
This also goes in init.lua
[lua]function ENT:Use(act, cal)
if act and act:IsPlayer() then -- Check that the activator is a player
umsg.Start("OpenMenu", act) -- Start a usermessage to send to the activator
umsg.End() -- End the usermessage
end
end[/lua]

Now, you need to hook to that usermessage on the client and open your menu.
This goes in cl_init.lua
[lua]usermessage.Hook("OpenMenu", function(um) -- function to be called when usermessage is received
-- open menu
end)[/lua]

Hope that helps.[/QUOTE]

Thank you very much. My plan is to make a supply crate, that can supply the player with health, armor and SWEPS. If I upload to gmod.org i`ll mention you in the credits.

[editline]09:52AM[/editline]

Hey, something is wrong, I cant spawn the SENT anymore! Here is a part of the code, I am not so sure is working.
[lua]
usermessage.Hook("OpenMenu", function(um) -- function to be called when usermessage is received
local DermaPanel = vgui.Create( "DFrame" ) -- Creates the frame itself
DermaPanel:SetPos( 50,50 ) -- Position on the players screen
DermaPanel:SetSize( 1000, 900 ) -- Size of the frame
DermaPanel:SetTitle( "Testing Derma Stuff" ) -- Title of the frame
DermaPanel:SetVisible( true )
DermaPanel:SetDraggable( true ) -- Draggable by mouse?
DermaPanel:ShowCloseButton( true ) -- Show the close button?
DermaPanel:MakePopup() -- Show the frame
end)
[/lua]
No error in the console!

[editline]09:56AM[/editline]

I think I solved it, wait a min,

[editline]10:04AM[/editline]

Yes, I solved it. I forgott an "end"...