So my mouse has these two little buttons on its side. I can set them so when I press on them, it types out a number. but when I press em in SWTOR, nothing happens. Is there any way to assign an attack to them?

There should be an option under the Keybinds where you can have a secondary bind to a slot, it's pretty much the same as keybinding the rest of the slots, but you might end up with a funky name, like 'mouse button 4'. If that doesn't work, SWTOR must hate you

You can also try right clicking the game and choosing "run as administrator." That works for me. Good Luck!

If your character is just starting out, and you're still in the process of filling your action bars, the two buttons may be the numbers of blank action bar spaces.

 

Try going into Preferences/Keybinds and manually binding the buttons to the two action bar spaces you prefer, as Tatile suggests. Then you'll know for sure what the buttons do!

It should work. I use an Xbox controller.