4L Dashboard

Get your characters on the leaderboard

Two small pieces run on your own PC: an addon inside WoW that records your progress, and a helper program — the watcher — that sits quietly in your system tray and forwards it to this dashboard. Setup takes about five minutes.

1. Download the addon LanDashboard.zip 2. Download the watcher savedvars_watcher.exe · Windows
AddonRecords quests, levels and zones as you play
WoWSaves them to a file when your UI reloads or you log out
WatcherReads that file and sends new events here
DashboardUpdates live for everyone watching
1

Install the addon

  1. Download the addon above and unzip it. You'll get a folder named LanDashboard.
  2. Copy that folder into your WoW AddOns folder, for the game version you play: C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\<version>\Interface\AddOns\ <version> is the folder that already exists in your install, such as _classic_era_ or _classic_beta_. You should end up with ...\AddOns\LanDashboard\LanDashboard.toc.
  3. Start WoW. On the character select screen, open AddOns and make sure LAN Dashboard Data Streamer is ticked. If it's marked out of date, tick Load out of date AddOns.
2

Set up the watcher

  1. Make a folder for it anywhere — for example Documents\LanDashboard Watcher — and put the downloaded savedvars_watcher.exe in it.
  2. Create its config file below and save it in that same folder, keeping the name savedvars_watcher_config.json. This tells the watcher where this dashboard lives.
Your config file

Server address:

Windows may say "Windows protected your PC" the first time you run the watcher, because it isn't code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Its checksum is at the bottom of this page if you want to verify the download.

3

Play and sync

  1. Log in to your character. The first time a character is seen, a Sync LAN Dashboard button appears at the top of your screen. Click it — this reloads your UI, which is what makes WoW write the addon's data to disk. (Closed it? Just type /reload.)
  2. Start the watcher by double-clicking savedvars_watcher.exe. No window opens — it runs in your system tray (bottom-right of the taskbar; click the ^ arrow if you don't see the gold 4L icon). It finds the addon's file on its own; if you start it before that first save, it just waits and picks the file up within about half a minute.
  3. Leave it running while you play. Your character shows up on the dashboard within a few seconds. The dot on the icon shows how it's doing — green connected, amber waiting or retrying, red needs attention — and right-clicking it shows the details, opens the dashboard or the log, or quits it.

Why it arrives in bursts

WoW addons can't send anything over the internet, and WoW only writes the addon's data to disk when the UI reloads or you log out. So the addon offers the Sync button at good moments — after a few quests or a level-up, when you take a flight, go AFK, or hit a loading screen. Click it, dismiss it with the X, or type /reload whenever you like. Logging out syncs everything too.

Addon commands

/ldbShows your sync status: pending score and how many events are queued.
/ldb syncShows the Sync button right now.
/ldb forgetMakes the addon treat your characters as new, so the next login prompts to sync again. Only needed if the dashboard was reset.

Troubleshooting

I don't see the tray icon

Windows tucks new tray icons under the ^ arrow at the right of the taskbar. Click it to find the gold 4L, and drag it onto the taskbar if you want it always visible. Starting the watcher a second time does nothing except tell you it's already running.

The icon has an amber dot and says "Waiting for the addon's first save"

The addon hasn't saved its data file yet. Log in, click the Sync button (or type /reload) — the watcher notices within about half a minute. If it never does, your WoW is probably installed somewhere unusual: add a line like "savedvars_path": "D:\\Games\\World of Warcraft\\_classic_era_\\WTF\\Account\\<your account>\\SavedVariables\\LanDashboard.lua" to savedvars_watcher_config.json.

My character isn't on the dashboard

Check that the tray icon's dot is green and that you've synced since logging in. Right-click it and choose Open log file — after a sync you should see a line like 2 new event(s) queued for delivery. On the dashboard, the Activity filter hides characters that haven't sent anything for a while — switch it to Show all to see them. A character only appears once it has synced at least once.

The icon is red, or I got a "can't reach the dashboard" notification

Red means the dashboard refused the access token: the token in savedvars_watcher_config.json is wrong or out of date. Amber with "Can't reach the server" means a connection problem — check your internet. Either way the watcher keeps retrying and remembers what it hasn't sent, so nothing is lost meanwhile.

I have more than one WoW account or install

The watcher follows the one whose save file changed most recently — normally the one you're playing. To pin it to a specific account, add its savedvars_path to savedvars_watcher_config.json as above.

Windows or my antivirus blocks the watcher

The watcher is a small Python program packaged into a single .exe and isn't code-signed, which some antivirus tools flag by default. Compare the SHA-256 checksum below against the savedvars_watcher.exe you unzipped, and allow it if they match.

How do I stop it, or start it with Windows?

Right-click the tray icon and choose Quit. You only need it running while you want events delivered: the addon keeps its queue in your game's saved data and the watcher remembers what it has already sent, so it picks up where it left off next time. To have it start automatically, press Win + R, type shell:startup, and put a shortcut to savedvars_watcher.exe in the folder that opens.