I have been asked a number of times recently how to make popups. So I thought perhaps we should discuss mIRC scripting for a while. As I write this, I am not sure how much I will be able to get done before I submit these for publishing. My intent is to produce 3 separate articles on Remotes, Aliases, and Popups. Why mIRC? Well, the scripts may be exportable to Pirch and Orbit, but I use mIRC almost exclusively so I will keep the syntax consistent to mIRC. Teaching scripting A to Z is beyond my ability and the scope of this article, but I will make every effort to give a true understanding and basis for learning it.

Before we go on, I would like to say that writing a script is almost always a drawn-out and laborious endeavor. Rarely have I seen a script perform as expected on the first try. Test and retest, that's usually the way. The guys that can write a remote or alias that'll work on the first shot probably don't use IRC anymore, they are more likely to be found writing navigation sub routines for NASA. Have fun with scripts! They can make IRCing very enjoyable and interesting, but they can also be a source of great frustration.

As I mentioned before, this will be a 3 article series. I will explain each of the script types, give an overview on how they work, give a few examples of each, and finally, show you where you can get help and more examples of each.

Popups

There are few things that can make life easier in IRC than a well made popup. Popups, in my opinion, are the work-horse of the IRC client. I have popups for everything from slaps right through to file grabbers.

What are popups?

Popups are the small menus that appear when you right click in an open window or channel nickname list. Most of you who use mIRC will be most familiar with the 'Slap' (*Tracker* Slaps you around with a wet trout).
 

This shows a simple screen capture of an open mIRC client.
In the middle of the window you will see my CHANNEL POPUP. 
This POPUP will appear whenever I RIGHT click on a selected channel window.

The same type of POPUP menu would appear if I were to single LEFT click (highlight) a nickname in the nicknames list on the right side of the channel window. The biggest difference would be that the NICKNAMES POPUPS would have different actions than the CHANNEL POPUPS have. NICKNAMES POPUPS only apply to one or more selected Nicks, while CHANNEL POPUPS would apply to the whole channel.

How Do I modify My popups?

They can be made from scratch or modified by opening the the mIRC editor (mIRC 5.0+) or in older versions by clicking on the POPUPS button. It is the 8th button from the left on the mIRC toolbar. Once in the editor, one must decide what POPUP group to work on. Status, Channel, Query/Chat, Nicknames, MenuBar. These selections edit the popups that are associated with the windows that they are named for. In other words, nicknames will only edit popups in the nicknames popups group, and these commands (or actions) will only act on selected nicks in the nicknames list.
When you are finished editing or creating a new popup, all you need do is click the OK button and your popup(s) will be saved in the mIRC popups.ini file in the mIRC directory.

Lets Do it...

mIRC comes from the manufacturer with several popups already installed. This file is called popups.ini. When the editor is brought up, the default or last selected group of popups (in the last selected INI file) will come up. Normally, you will keep all your popups in your popups.ini file and edit them from there. In some special cases you may elect to keep another ini file with popups.ini as well. For now, we will work with the popups.ini file.
Popups are basically nothing more than another way to perform IRC and mIRC commands. Popups themselves do not have any specific commands, so if you know IRC and mIRC commands you have nothing to fear! If you don't know any, you'd best start reading! (Try the mIRC help under commands)
The syntax for popups is very simple:

• One or more Dots that will signify menu depth,
• The name of the specific action,
• Separated by a colon,
• and finished with the command and any parameters it may have.

example:

.Chatcircuit:/say ChaTcIRCuiT Web Site: www.chatcircuit.com

In the above example, the 'dot' indicates it is a first level menu item. If there were two dots it would indicate a second level item and so on. The key to remembering how this works is that the item with the most dots will be the actual action, and the ones before it will be menu headers or titles.
The 'Chatcircuit' is the name of the popup. When the popup group is activated in mIRC this is what you ill see and select if you wish to activate it.
The ':' separates the name (Chatcircuit) from the command (/say).
The '/say' is the command that will be activated by choosing this popup item.
The 'ChaTcIRCuiT Web Site: www.chatcircuit.com' is the parameter for the '/say' command. It will be sent to the selected (highlighted) channel window.

 
A Few Freebies

Add to your channel or Status popups:
ChanServ:/msg chanserv $?="Send command:"
ChanServ:/msg chanserv Help $?="Send command:"
NickServ:/msg nickserv $?="Send command:"
NickServ:/msg nickserv Help $?="Send command:"

Add to Nicknames List:
Sounds
.Alarms
..Him:/sound # alarm.wav set an alarm off under $$1 's head to wake him up!
..Her:/sound # alarm.wav set an alarm off under $$1 's head to wake her up!
Misc Color Stuff
.Back!:/say  9,1 ~~»»> $$1 <««~~ isº.¸,ø¤°`°º.,¸¸,.ºBackk!!
.Bananas!:/say 8,1~1,8~8,1~1,8~8,1~1,8~8,1~1,8~8,1~1,8~8,1 Cool Bananas!!! 1,8~8,1~1,8~8,1~1,8~8,1~1,8~8,1~1,8~8,1~
.Crazy!:/say  1and $$1 4are 12,1¸,ø¤°`°º.,¸¸,.º12,1C1,12R12,1A1,12Z12,1Y1,12!12,1!1,12ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°º.,¸  | /s crazy
.Colors!:/say   11,1.:`9~~9,1.:11**13,1.:9`~~8,1.:11**4,1.:9`~4(¯`'·.¸0,1  $$1  **11,1.:`9~~9,1.:11**13,1.:9`~~8,1.:11**4,1.:9`~4(¯`'·. | /say   11,1.:`9~~9,1.:11**13,1.:9`~~8,1.:11**4,1.:9`~4(¯`'·.¸0,1  $$1 **11,1.:`9~~9,1.:11**13,1.:9`~~8,1.:11**4,1.:9`~4(¯`'·

NOTE: See the Scriptease section for some awesome color scripts!

A popup can also be used to call an alias. To do this, just use the alias name after the ':'  as you would the IRC or mIRC command.

TJerk has included some good help text for us in the help section of mIRC. Also see the sections on IRC commands and mIRC specific commands.

Happy, scripting,
-Track

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