MarketSync

Synchronizes Auctionator scan data between guild members to create a shared, offline-accessible pricing database with instant chat price checks.

MarketSync turns your guild into a unified pricing network. It automatically synchronizes Auctionator scan data between all guild members in the background, creating a shared, up-to-date pricing database for everyone.

If one person scans the Auction House, everyone gets the data instantly.

Why MarketSync?

• 🚫 No More Stale Prices: You log in, but your Auctionator data is 3 days old? Not anymore. If a guildmate scanned 10 minutes ago, you already have their data.
• 🏰 Offline Auction House: Browse the entire synced database anywhere in the world. Open the custom Browse Panel to search for items, check prices, or see what's available—even inside a raid or dungeon.
• 💬 Instant Price Checks: Link an item in guild chat with a ? prefix (e.g., ? [Linen Cloth]), and MarketSync will auto-reply with the latest known price from the cloud.
• ⚙️ Zero Configuration: Just install it. It detects Auctionator automatically and starts listening.

Key Features

• Passive Sync: Silently shares auction data over the addon channel every 5 minutes. No performance hit, no user action required.
• Item Detail Dashboard: A dedicated window for deep-dive inspection of item pricing trends, volume analysis, and historical scan attribution (Right-click any item).
• Item Analytics: 14-day price trend charts and data source historiography (Personal vs. Guild percentages) to track exactly where your data comes from.
• Smart Caching: Builds a searchable index of tens of thousands of items without freezing your game. Configurable cache build speed (1–4) to balance between indexing speed and game performance.
• Price History: View detailed price history graphs and see exactly who contributed the item data for each specific day via per-scan-day attribution.
• Separated Data Views: Personal scans and guild sync data are physically separated. Your personal data never gets overwritten by incoming guild syncs.
• Debug Console: Full-featured network monitor with three panels — Sync Network event log, Swarm Queue tracker, and Cache Processing Stream — for complete visibility into what the addon is doing.
• Neutral AH Safety: Dedicated storage and sync protocol for Neutral Auction House isolation. Main realm data is never contaminated by neutral Prices.
• Advanced Processing: Find profitable flips and crafts (EV/Arbitrage) directly within MarketSync, with margin-preserving export to Auctionator shopping lists.
• Notification System: Set threshold alerts for specific items with custom sound selection, volume control, and Auctionator shopping-list import support.
• LibDBIcon Integration: Unified minimap icon with standard library support for perfect compatibility with MBB, DBI, and other UI managers.
• Version Guard: Automatically handles version mismatches between guild members. Outdated clients are safely disabled from syncing to prevent data corruption.
• Flood Protection: A two-phase CLAIM protocol with deterministic tiebreaking guarantees exactly one client responds to any ? price check.

⚠️ System Impact & RAM Usage

Because MarketSync stores multiple Auction House databases (Personal, Guild Sync, and Neutral) directly in your client's active memory for instant, offline browsing, it can consume a significant amount of RAM.

• Standard Usage: Maintaining large caches (30,000+ items each) across all three databases can consume 200+ MB of system memory.
• Top of the List: MarketSync will likely appear at the top of your addon memory usage list due to the scale of data being handled.

🛡️ Low RAM Features

If you are playing on a system with limited memory or experience frame drops during login, MarketSync includes several built-in optimization tools:

• Low RAM Master Mode: Enables the aggressive memory management suite.
• On-Demand Indexing: Instead of building all search indices at once on login, MarketSync will only index a database (Personal, Guild, or Neutral) when you actually click on its tab. This significantly reduces initial memory load.
• Automatic Pruning: Every login, MarketSync automatically prunes its metadata. It keeps only the 7 most recent scan days per item and removes entries for items not seen in more than 30 days.
• Yielding Cache Builder: If you experience stutters during indexing, use the Cache Build Speed slider. Lowering the speed spreads the work over a longer duration, keeping your frame rate smooth.

How Sync Works

MarketSync uses a Swarm Coordinator protocol to efficiently share data across your guild:

1. Advertisement: Every 5 minutes, each client broadcasts what data it has (realm, scan day, item count, version).
2. Pull Request: If another client has fresher data, you automatically request it.
3. Consensus: Multiple potential senders coordinate to elect a single "seeder" to avoid redundant broadcasts.
4. Bulk Transfer: The seeder transmits item data using the Protocol v4 architecture:
   • Full Variation Support: Base-36 encoding preserves random suffixes (e.g., "of the Bear").
   • 5 Parallel Channels: Uses MSyncD1–D5 prefixes to bypass single-prefix rate limits.
   • Base-36 Encoding: Compresses numeric payloads by ~30%.
   • 248-Byte Dense Packing: Maximizes items per message (~16 per chunk).
   • Achieves ~80 items/sec sustained, completing a full 25,000-item sync in ~10 minutes.
5. Commit: After receiving the END signal, the client applies a randomized 1-20s Jitter Delay before acknowledging, preventing server-side chat flood.

Protocol Architecture

Layer	Prefix	Purpose
Control	MarketSync	ADV, PULL, ACCEPT, CLAIM, RES, REQ, ERR, END — Main Realm Sync
Control	MarketSync	NADV, NPULL, NACCEPT, NCLAIM, NERR, NEND — Neutral AH Sync
Data	MSyncD1–MSyncD5	BRES (Main) / NBRES (Neutral) bulk payloads (dbKey_price_qty_day) — v4 base-36 compressed

WoW Addon Message Limits & Safety Overloads

MarketSync is explicitly engineered to never trigger a Blizzard API throttle disconnect. Even in a 500-member mega-guild, the Swarm Sync engine protects your connection:

• Per-Prefix Buckets: MarketSync utilizes 5 distinct prefixes. Each prefix has its own Blizzard-enforced "token bucket" (10 burst, 1/sec regen). MarketSync never exceeds 1 msg/sec per prefix.
• Global Self-Throttling: The engine monitors all addon traffic. If other addons (like Attune or Questie) are saturating the network, MarketSync proactively pauses its own sync until the traffic clears.
  • API Limit: ~40 msgs/sec
  • Bandwidth Limit: ~800 bytes/sec
• Message Payload: Every message is capped at 248 bytes (allowing for a safety margin below the 255-byte hard limit).
• Price Check Flood: A two-phase CLAIM protocol with a 300ms grace period ensures that only one person in the guild replies to a ? price check.

Installation

1. Download the latest release from CurseForge or GitHub Releases.
2. Extract the MarketSync folder into your World of Warcraft AddOns directory:
   • _classic_/Interface/AddOns/
   • _retail_/Interface/AddOns/
3. Restart WoW.

Dependencies:

• Auctionator (Required)

Compatibility:

• WoW Classic (including Anniversary, TBC, SoD)
• WoW Retail

Usage

1. Syncing

Just play the game! As long as you and other guildmates have the addon installed, data syncs automatically in the background every 5 minutes. No manual action needed.

2. Offline Browsing

Type /ms or /marketsync (or click the Minimap Button) to open the main window.

• Personal Scan Tab: Your personally scanned AH data, stored in an isolated snapshot.
• Guild Sync Tab: Data received from guild members via the Swarm Network.
• Neutral AH Tab: Isolated pricing data from the Neutral Auction House.
• Processing Tab: Profitability scanners and shopping list export tools.
• Leaderboard Tab: See which guild members are contributing the most data (toggle All Time / Weekly).
• History/Analytics: Click the "History" or "Analytics" button on any item to view price trend graphs and detailed scan attribution.

3. Chat Price Checks

Link an item in Guild Chat, Party, or Raid with a ? prefix: ? [Linen Cloth]

MarketSync will automatically reply: [Linen Cloth]: 5s 20c (Age: 14:32 RT (Playername))

Configuration

Access settings via the Settings Tab in the main window (/ms):

• Lock Minimap Button: Prevent accidental movement.
• Enable Chat Price Check: Toggle the auto-reply feature.
• Enable Passive Sync: Toggle background data sharing.
• Cache Build Speed: Adjust indexing aggressiveness (1 = gentle, 4 = fast).
• Notification Sounds: Choose sound, adjust volume, and open the notifications manager.
• Smart Rules: Toggle automatic sync/cache suspension during combat/instances.
• Debug Console: Open the standalone network monitor and swarm queue tracker.
• Reset Data / Rebuild Caches: Maintenance tools for database management.

Slash Commands

Command	Description
/ms	Open the main window
/ms search	Open the browse window
/ms config	Open settings panel
/ms block [name]	Block a sync sender
/ms unblock [name]	Unblock a sync sender

File Structure

• Config.lua: Shared globals, DB initialization, and configuration constants.
• Sync.lua: Protocol handling, base-36 encoding, and network throttling.
• Chat.lua: Event handlers for chat queries and addon messages.
• Neutral.lua: Isolated logic for Neutral AH sync and capture.
• Processing.lua / UI_Processing.lua: Profitability scanner logic and UI.
• Notifications.lua / UI_Notifications.lua: Notification alert logic and management UI.
• UI_Browse.lua: Main search indexer and paginated browse results.
• UI_History.lua: Price trend charting and historical attribution.
• UI_Analytics.lua: Detailed item health and historiography dashboards.
• UI_ItemDetail.lua: The Item Detail Dashboard window.
• UI_Monitor.lua: Debug Console (network log, swarm queue, cache stream).
• UI_Main.lua: Frame shell, tab management, and settings layout.
• Core.lua: Minimap integration, event dispatching, and slash commands.
• Libs/: Embedded libraries including LibDBIcon, LibDataBroker, and LibStub.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.