user page ideas

[andrew]

As i read you were putting a user page on, here are my ideas related to it:

- javascript login
So that users can log on while playing agame without losing their progress

-most played games, add as freind

- allow users to upload game (disableable); would work well if you approve the users before they can upload live, would save the uploading work

-Highscores and achievements.
Add an API creator, or something but that is truly the feature i want most

- built in forums.

Enough said.

[kurt]

The user login while playing is something we had not thought of. We will indeed give it some thought as to how to do just that.

The left side has a box with the top players ranked by number of games played. It is only visible when in the games area. It's an attempt to have a dynamicly loaded box there. When in games area, it shows game area data, when in blog area, blog info, when in the upcoming forum area, forum info, etc.

A friends add on is availible for v1.3. It has not been ported to v2.x as of yet. It is made by Adam in here(think his displayed name right now is Papa Elf), and we are talking to him about adding it into the official release in an upcoming version(probably v2.1 or 2.2).

You are running a version of 2.0 so you have the ability to designate any of your members as a game adder through your admin panel under manage members. Choose the member you wish to make a game adder and click to edit their profile. Down under game permissions make them level "2" and save. They are now a game adder and have a new link in "My Menu" on the left side when logged in. They can add, but the games do not automatically go live. You as an admin must go in and activate the games they add. This is done so that you can verify that the game works, is not offensive, does not contain malware, and so that you can download a copy of it for backup purposes. Then you take it live. You can have as many game adders as you have members if you choose.

You can also give access to posting in your blog the same way if you choose.

Built in forum is in the works. It has been something that a number of people have wanted, but we needed to take the script from where it was to where it needed to be first so that we didn't have to recode it when it was. We have been giving it a lot of thought as to how to make it work so that it works seemlessly with the rest of the script. As soon as v2.0 is released, actual coding begins. We don't want to make major changes to the code base till the current release is made official to avoid any un needed confusion.

The high scores add on is being coded. We hope that soon after the official release of 2.0 it will also be available. It is meant to work with a number of the high score games out there. We hope to add Mochi high score games to it in the future as well.

[andrew]

Ok, more ideas an response to your response:

More than highscores, i want achievements . Will they work for any game?

I'd also like game adders to be able to sign themselves up.

There should be a referrals system to encourage users to promote the arcade for you With rewards being forum badges or similar

Actually, i probably have too many ideas to make mainstream, i should just hire a private coder so i can be the only site with it, lol

On the note of coding, Your script helps me learn/apply my very basic knowledge of PHP very nicely, compared to other scripts (not arcade scripts, general) So thanks for that

[kurt]

1) That is being thought out, how to go about it etc, including a tournament system.

2) That would be insecure. You can do it if you like by setting the default game user level to 2 in the database, which would make everybody a game adder, but it would grant them access to writing to the database and uploading games which might contain malware. I highly suggest NOT going that route.

3) The referral system is an idea in the back of our minds. The badges is a new twist we had not thought of yet. Thanks for the idea.

4) This is something that you should do anyways lol. We give you the base script, but visitors want a reason to come back to your site compared to another one. They look for differences. It's up to you the owner to make the site your own. Make your site stand out!

5) I cut my teeth on arcades. I don't consider myself a professional grade coder, but it is something I did pick up modifying arcades mostly. We try to keep the script easy to work on. Thanks, and your very welcome!

[andrew]

I mean have a users games section, so that users upload a game, then an admin has to approve it, like kongregate, i guess

[kurt]

You already have that in v2.0rc2. You can go into the admin panel and make any member a game adder through the manage members section. They can then upload games, which have to be activated by an admin.

You can make it so that all members can upload games by going into phpMyAdmin and changing the default for the game permissions field(dd_users.gamelevel) from "1" to "2" and setting everybody who is already signed up to being "2" as well.

This would allow all members to upload games while making it so that an admin had to activate them.

It still opens up a security nighmare by allowing just anybody to do this. You never know what kind of stunt they might try.

Also, inactive games do not show up in the list so it also might end up a situation where 500 members decide they like a certain game and upload it because they can't tell that 499 other people are uploading the same game, leaving you with 500 copies of the same game needing to be dealt with somehow. Uploaded games show up in a list in a member's profile page. When you delete 499 copies of the exact same game, it's only going to show up under one person's profile, leaving the other 499 perhaps a bit irked that they didn't get credit for it.

The reasons start to add up, but I think you get the idea of why we went this way. However, you are free to alter the database like described above to make it work the way you want it to. It's fairly easy to do. We just very strongly suggest against it. But it is your arcade after all.

[kurt]

I went to go see if I could dig the info up for you and I think this is the SQL command that would make everybody a game adder by default

Code: [Select]


ALTER TABLE `dd_users` CHANGE `gamelevel` `gamelevel` TINYINT( 1 ) NOT NULL DEFAULT '2'



But I still strongly advise against it for seurity reasons if nothing else.

[andrew]

I would do that and all, but i don't want users to be able to modify games categories :x

[kurt]

Hmmmmmm the template could be modified to take out the category managment links I suppose.

[kurt]

Tell ya what, just for you, I will try and take a look at modifying the submission page to make it an extra add on so that any signed in member can submit a game, but not edit anything at all. It would be separate from the existing game adder section.

It would be something I would NOT make an official part of the release, but available as an extra, maybe even included in the zip file without being preinstalled.

Not sure how soon I can get to it seeing as we are working on the official release(not to mention Christmas), but perhaps I can get to it in the coming couple of weeks when things settle down a bit.

Would that be acceptable?

[andrew]

That is acceptable, but to make it less annoying when it comes to fakes members have to click a button to become a developer, and you have to approve them first then it would be a working system.

[kurt]

If they have to be aproved by the admin staff, you're right back at where the current system is. Just post a note somewhere to PM you asking for game adder permissions, and that would be the same thing.

I suppose that a page could be coded that sends a private message to an admin for them, under their user ID, asking for game adder permissions. But it would still be the same basic system you now have though as anybody can ask, and an admin can grant it to anybody.

I can also imagine a system where a member does click a button to ask for game adder status, and it sets a field in the database to yes, and in the admin section their name appears asking for it. The same could be done for requesting blogging privileges as well. That would require an addition to the database though and that is something that would have to wait until into the next version development cycle. We can't be changing the database structure right now with the official release coming so soon, that kind of thing tends to cause chaos among developers and we wish to avoid it, especially with a new developer onboard. The idea does have merit though.

Tell you what. I expect to post the system where an owner can add a page whereby anybody can submit, but through which nobody can manage, like I proposed above. If you like it, great, if not, don't use it. But if you can settle for either that or the current system as it is for now, I will look into adding such a "request game adder status" button/system/feature in an upcoming release. I make no promises, but maybe we can work it into one soon. Sorry, but any changes that require any alterations to the database structure are out of the question for a bit with us working to release the official final package of v2.0. That fair enough?

[kurt]

OK, here we have a submission page. It does not require an admin to grant permission to upload, but does go by the set rules of the arcade as to whether or not an admin needs to activate it before going live. The default is to require an admin to OK it first, unless you have changed it on your own arcade.

First off, you will need a new file named "addgame.php"

http://freearcadescript.net/pages/files/addgame.zip

Unzip and upload the file to your template folder.

Then in the file /index.php you will need to insert the following code

Code: [Select]



case 'addgame':
include ('templates/'.$template.'/addgame.php');
include ('includes/arcadesubmenu.php');
include ('includes/arcadesubmenu2.php');
break;



and you will need to place a link to it where peeps can find it. I suggest in the "My Menu" box, and only if the person is logged on.

I suggest that it NOT be SEO to make it less appetizing to the search engines, meaning in the format of

Code: [Select]


http://yourdomain.com/index.php?action=addgame



though I will leave the working out of the link to your own self.

Again, I do not suggest using this means, but here it is in case you want it.

If you want it so that an admin needs to ok game adder status, but that the members can click on a button to request such status, it will be a bit before we can get that one knocked out. We are at the tail end of releasing the final version of 2.0 and have already started a couple of mods that are rather more complicated. Meaning we are a bit tied up for a bit sorting things out. We think you'll appreciate the mods that were just started, but it does mean it might be a little bit.