A Land Far Away's Website, 2015-2016
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 7:31 pm
In 2016 I will be redoing ALFA's website from the ground up. I think it is long overdo, and we have much to gain from my planned changes. So, before I get too deep into making them, let's get into what those will be.
Invision Power Suite
We currently use three software projects on ALFA's website. First, we have Drupal, a content management system that lets us make most pages. Prior to our wiki, most information was held here. The search functionality of the site did not extend to the forums, nor did it work the other way around. Drupal's backend is also what we build our application process from, some web-based server administration tools (sending messages, booting players, etc.). Second, is phpBB3, the forum software you are using right now to read this. While it performs as a decent forum software, it is not as moddable as some of the alternatives, so it is harder to bend to our needs. Third, MediaWiki, provides a searchable, Search Engine Optimized (SEO) method for us to document various aspects of the game. It has been working well, but is still disconnected from the rest of the site.
IPS solves many of our problems there. As a software that is made to be easily modified by us nerd-folk, we can not only have it handle our general online community needs, but we can extend it to better interact with Neverwinter Nights 2.
Community Calendar
The first major improvement we get without any work needed on our end, and that is a community calendar. The calendar itself will allow DMs to post when they have events planned, will alert users of upcoming elections, and allow the general members to post their own events.
Events can be set to repeat. For example, here we have Zelknolf's and shad0wfax's weekly campaigns set to repeat every 1 week, while the Player Admin elections are set to repeat every 6 months. We also see an example of a DM scheduling a non-repeating Foam event. Players also can set their own events to help coordinate play.
Additionally, we can embed an upcoming event stream anywhere on the site. You could be seeing scheduled events directly to the right of this post, with the time adjusted to your own timezone automatically. Finally, these events also (at the creator's option) be set to request RSVPs and comments. Players can alert the DM and others that they are attending by clicking the RSVP button, or comment to let others know that they'll be late, or otherwise comment on the upcoming event.
Embedded IRC
This is a rather small addition, but there's an improvement to the embedded IRC. I know many people (myself included) have had issues using it in the past. I've switched to an embedded KiwiIRC client that does not require flash.
Player Group Plugin
One module we will be creating is a player group plugin. Using this, DMs will be able to create their own player groups, without having to go through the administration. More information will be available as development begins. If you have any suggestions or requests on how we can better handle player groups on our community site, please make a post.
Neverwinter Nights 2 Integration Module
This is the big one. Here, we have the ability to fetch data from our game servers and improve the way we present in-game information to our players, DMs, and staff. Plans are vague -- this is a big project. I'm curious to hear what others what from the new site in terms of game<->web interconnection. Instead, here are my own notes:
What about the wiki?
Here, too, I'm in the planning stages. I have not yet settled on if we will be using a traditional wiki format or a collection of independent databases pre-formatted entries.
What is the cost?
The software itself (~$200) has been donated courtesy of shad0wfax -- huge thanks to him. I donated the theme myself. There is likely a small increase on our backend expenses, though server payments should still be less than they were under our last host. All in all the whole shebang won't dent our donation account much. You can keep up to date with our financial information here.
- - - - -
That's all I have for now. I've spent the last few days familiarizing myself with the software, and will be posting here to keep you updated. Please let me know if you have comments, questions, concerns, or requests. Additionally, if you would like to help out and have programming experience, let me know. We have a theme planned out to purchase, so we shouldn't need any major HTML/CSS/JavaScript work.
Invision Power Suite
We currently use three software projects on ALFA's website. First, we have Drupal, a content management system that lets us make most pages. Prior to our wiki, most information was held here. The search functionality of the site did not extend to the forums, nor did it work the other way around. Drupal's backend is also what we build our application process from, some web-based server administration tools (sending messages, booting players, etc.). Second, is phpBB3, the forum software you are using right now to read this. While it performs as a decent forum software, it is not as moddable as some of the alternatives, so it is harder to bend to our needs. Third, MediaWiki, provides a searchable, Search Engine Optimized (SEO) method for us to document various aspects of the game. It has been working well, but is still disconnected from the rest of the site.
IPS solves many of our problems there. As a software that is made to be easily modified by us nerd-folk, we can not only have it handle our general online community needs, but we can extend it to better interact with Neverwinter Nights 2.
Community Calendar
The first major improvement we get without any work needed on our end, and that is a community calendar. The calendar itself will allow DMs to post when they have events planned, will alert users of upcoming elections, and allow the general members to post their own events.
- alfa2015_calendar.png (50.34 KiB) Viewed 6192 times
- alfa2015_upcoming_events.png (13.25 KiB) Viewed 6192 times
Embedded IRC
This is a rather small addition, but there's an improvement to the embedded IRC. I know many people (myself included) have had issues using it in the past. I've switched to an embedded KiwiIRC client that does not require flash.
- alfa2015_irc.png (28.74 KiB) Viewed 6192 times
Player Group Plugin
One module we will be creating is a player group plugin. Using this, DMs will be able to create their own player groups, without having to go through the administration. More information will be available as development begins. If you have any suggestions or requests on how we can better handle player groups on our community site, please make a post.
Neverwinter Nights 2 Integration Module
This is the big one. Here, we have the ability to fetch data from our game servers and improve the way we present in-game information to our players, DMs, and staff. Plans are vague -- this is a big project. I'm curious to hear what others what from the new site in terms of game<->web interconnection. Instead, here are my own notes:
- Servers -- Each server has a landing page, which shows who is online.
- Reboot -- Landing page, button enabled to the server's HDM/EADM and tech staff that allows them to reboot the server.
- Send message -- Above allowed individuals can send messages to the server.
- Disconnect player(s) -- And disconnect players.
- Validate player(s) -- Validate players via the website, in case a server goes down.
- View logs -- Simple database table viewer, isolated to the server in question.
- Players -- Link forum account to GSID.
- Characters -- View a list of active/retired characters. Delete? Retire/unretire (restricted to PA)?
- Characters
- View logs -- DMs can view logs related to individual characters for the servers they DM.
- Widgets
- Online players -- Display who is currently online on various pages, typically under event feed.
- Email lists.
- Server activity for HDMs -- Send bulk mail to HDMs, reflecting our current one.
- Player Retention -- Message player retention group members with a list of newly inactive members.
What about the wiki?
Here, too, I'm in the planning stages. I have not yet settled on if we will be using a traditional wiki format or a collection of independent databases pre-formatted entries.
What is the cost?
The software itself (~$200) has been donated courtesy of shad0wfax -- huge thanks to him. I donated the theme myself. There is likely a small increase on our backend expenses, though server payments should still be less than they were under our last host. All in all the whole shebang won't dent our donation account much. You can keep up to date with our financial information here.
- - - - -
That's all I have for now. I've spent the last few days familiarizing myself with the software, and will be posting here to keep you updated. Please let me know if you have comments, questions, concerns, or requests. Additionally, if you would like to help out and have programming experience, let me know. We have a theme planned out to purchase, so we shouldn't need any major HTML/CSS/JavaScript work.