"Roster Master" - Guild Roster for Your Personal Guild Website

[p]Uh... I think they need a space (which is perfectly allowable in both UNIX and Windows, it just looks a little silly), let me double-check...[/p][p]Yup. It'd be something like "sigblockbasename_Shadow Knight.png" or "Shadow Knight.png". If it ends up being a problem for people, creating filenames like that, I can always add in a str_replace() to change the spaces in a class name to an underscore for the next version. It looks a little silly, but I assure you they're legal file names. Whether the interface you have to your server will allow you to create or transfer them is another matter, however.[/p][p]Next version may take a while since a) I'm taking a break to do things I neglected while working on Roster Master and b) as you already know, I have earth-shattering changes in mind to make to the quest and access tracker that will be made. I can probably whip up a quickie fix if you need it though.[/p]

[p]I can do a fix, y'know. I was mostly just curious if you remembered that "Shadow Knight" had a space in it, and if the code does anything special with it because of said space. [/p][p]I'd feel more comfortable with a str_replace(), so I think I'll go that route...I'll post tweak instructions here after I get my own code tweaked on the off chance that anyone else wants / needs the change.[/p]

Greetings all, Good news I was able to get Dragonfly up and running on one of my websites.... Whoot... Hopefully I can get it to look like some of your sites... Awsome work mates..

Great news! Did you figure out what the problem was? (Detailing what was going on and what you did to fix it is good, in case someone else comes here with the same issue.)

Hi, From what I gathered from within the old tread on RM and from various other threads on the dragonfly forums.... The dragonfly installer did NOT like "CAPs" in the DB name and my hosting service included CAP's... Here is the Thread that helped me get mine to work... http://www.cpgnuke.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=18020/postdays=0/postorder=asc/start=0.html Now that I have it up and running I am having an issue with the following thing in RM... 1. The sigblock link http://www.grenricks.com/index.php?name=Roster_Master&rm=sm_sig&characterId=415233106 does not seem to work... Just goes to a blank white page. I have not gone through all the different areas that I can use in Dragonfly nor RM yet but I am liking what I see.. I thank you for all your help and knowledge share with regards to this and other issues that I have had.. Regards,

[p]Thank you all for your hard work on the EoF convertion to v6. In V5 I was using the manual update for RM4DF. In v6 I do not see where I can set the local files. It looks like there are 4 web pages RM4DF looks at from EQ2Players, if I can get verification of where I need to put my local file names and the links to the pages the updates are coming from would be greatly appreciated. Below are what I have seen in the config.inc file. [/p][p] $config['server_url'] = 'http://eq2players.station.sony.com/servers/server_profile.vm?serverId='.substr($config['guild_id'], -3, 3);[/p][p] $config['guild_url'] = 'http://eq2players.station.sony.com/guilds/guild_profile.vm?guildId='.$config['guild_id'];[/p][p] $config['csv_roster_url'] = 'http://eq2players.station.sony.com/guilds/guild_roster_csv.vm?guildId='.$config['guild_id'];[/p][p] $config['char_url'] = 'http://eq2players.station.sony.com/characters/character_profile.vm?characterId='; [/p][p]I should be able to save the souce of each of these pages as a local file to be pared is this correct? Also the format for the local file should be:[/p][p] $config['csv_roster_url'] = '\roster.html';[/p][p]Is this also correct?[/p]

Tetrion wrote:

[p] Hmm... Pardon me for sounding confused, but I kinda am. What's the purpose of saving the files locally before parsing them? It seems like you'd be taking an extra step to do what the script does on its own anyway...[/p][p]Those URLs in config.inc are indeed the pages that the script scrapes data from; you shouldn't have any need to change those values (which is why they're separated from the "user configuration" portion of config.inc). If the roster can't contact those pages, it just logs a fail in the logfile and continues to display the most recent data, which is cached in the database.[/p][p]If I'm missing something obvious, please help me understand what it is! :-/[/p]

[p]jey10 wrote: [/p]

[p] I'm glad you were able to get it working! I think I was one of the first to pick up on the DB name issue...they supposedly fixed it in an updated installer, but I haven't heard for sure one way or another.[/p][p]I'm getting a 404 error when trying to view that sig URL. Have you tried debugging your sigmaster.inc? I posted the steps here, plus they're in the INSTALL.TXT file included with the RM4DF ZIP.[/p][p]Give that a shot and let us know what you come up with. [/p]

Seagoat wrote:

[p]Actually, the confusion is because I am forced to manually update my RM. My hosting provider does not allow for html traffic outbound from the server so I have been saving the source of the roster and guild pages. DarkGrue had that built in v5 but had it commented out. So again now that the program works, I am just looking to modify my config.inc so I can continue to do this task manually. (Unless you know a different work around).[/p][p]Many thanks for your help [/p]

[p]I've finally finished cleaning up the original Roster Master thread, and I've got it uploaded and ready to be used as a reference, if anyone needs it.[/p][p]You can find it here: http://thehalasianempire.com/rm/01.php[/p][p]I've also added this information to the OP.[/p][p] [/p]

[p]No, it's not. There are only 2 files RM looks at - and that's not the place to change them if you're using that unsupported hack.[/p][p]The first rule of explictly unsupported feature club is that you do not talk about explicitly unsupported features. :hunf:[/p][p]Two of the links point to the roster CSV file and the guild summary, and the other are only used to provide inline links to the EQ2Players.com player summary pages and guild summary pages, and are not used for parsing.[/p][p]Please go back and read the comments/instructions in config.inc for the $config['read_file_hack'] setting. I'll be honest and say I didn't test it. At all. But it should still work. [/p]

Dark_Grue wrote:

[p]ROFL!![/p]

[p]Bringing this over from the Sigs forum...[/p][p]Vy wrote: [/p]

[p] I'm not familiar with the way GuildPortal operates...do you have FTP access to your site, and will they allow you to run PHP scripts? If so, I imagine that the stand-alone version would be your best bet, but it doesn't include the quest trackers or the dynamic sig generator. :-/[/p][p]If you have access to a *nix webserver that's running PHP and an SQL database, Dragonfly CMS is the best, as far as EQ2-friendly blocks and modules go. I'm not sure if any other game out there has the types of fun goodies us EverQuesters do. [/p][p]We're happy to help, so feel free to ask any questions you like (about either Dragonfly or Roster Master).[/p][p] [/p]

[p]Just following the link and looking at the metatdata, looks like GuildPortal's using something called "Axiom Shift Community Serivces Engine", which I've never heard of, but now that I have all I know of it that it sure sounds pretentious as hell...[/p][p]Moving along... I read up on the FAQ on the GuildPortal site:[/p][hr][p] [/p][p]Can I run my PHP, ASP, or CGI scripts on GuildPortal? (09. Advanced Administration) [/p][p]PHP, ASP and CGI scripts use server-side resources to execute, and can access databases, modify the file system, and bring a server to its knees if not properly optimized. Because of the security concerns, as well as those concerning performance, GuildPortal cannot host server-side scripts written externally.[/p][p]There are alternatives, however. For example, if you have a script hosted on another server, you could have it output XML data and then use the GuildPortal XML/XSL Transform content type to display that data in your guild pages. You could also create an Embedded Page content type that points to the page on your external server where your script is running.[/p][hr][p] [/p][p]So it would appear that the answer is basically no - you'd have to host Roster Master on another server. RM doesn't support outputting XML with XSL stylesheets (and to anticipate the question, never will). It wouldn't help if it did, since you'd still have to host the application externally, and if you're going to run RM on another server, you might as well run Dragonfly and RM4DF, and then what would you need GuildPortal for in the first place?[/p][p]Of course, it probably won't be free or as cheap as the GP paid option to do that (because as they mention, hosting executable content and databases requires systems resources and involves some risk), but free only gets you so far. I have no idea what "decent" hosting costs for a DF site. I have my own bandwidth, on my own servers.[/p][p]If you host yourself, you will need a business account since 99.99999% (a statistic I just made up right now) of ISPs will have written right into the home user Terms of Service that you may not host content (while you can work around this with technical means such as using DynamicDNS and other things, but you will be in violation of your contract, and they would be within their rights to put you in breach of contract, which may leave you with ZERO choices for ISPs, and no connectivity at all - I don't recommend hosting content if it's not allowed by your ToS). Expect to pay more for a business account with the same or less bandwith than you can get for those really low rates they advertise on TV for home accounts. A lot more. Enough bandwith to run a Web/SMTP/TeamSpeak server setup will probably run you $100/mo. Server hardware can be gotten cheap off of eBay. I recommend SPARC harware - you can get a pretty loaded-out Ultra 2 for $300-400, but you'd better know what you're buying. If you have old desktops lying around, slap your favorite Linux distro (or Solaris x86) on - they're free - and go from there. I've been running the guild TeamSpeak Server on an old Dell GX110 - which is a Celeron 750 with like 256MB RAM. Handled 24 people no problem, it ate the available bandwidth for lunch though. TeamSpeak needs bandwidth so much so it'll make even a heavily loaded Web server look like nothing. Hardware/software costs are pretty minimal. I like using a hardware firewall in front of the servers (expensive, especially if you realize that nearly all vendors now require yearly contiguous maintenance contracts even for firmware updates), but a properly configured server behind a NATting router that uses stateful packet inspection (a lot of cheap home routers do this now, but not all) with seLinux or equivalent protections can be just as secure... if you know what you're doing. If you don't, expect nasty letters from your ISP. Self-hosting isn't the cheapest way to go, or the easiest, but it does give you an amazing amount of control and flexibility, and you learn a ton.[/p][p]Most people will, I expect, wish to use a hosted service in order to avoid large bandwith costs, harware costs, hardware repair/replacement costs, the noise (although the Ultra 2's pretty quiet, I can't run the PowerEdge 1650 I got because it's too damn loud), there's the electric bill, the server rooms warmer than the rest of the house (which isn't all that bad in the Winter), the headaches of server administration, etc...[/p][p]Damn, now that I put it that way, why did I pick up this hobby in the first place? Oh, right, being able to grok Unix and having software integration and development experience is a hirable job skill. And makes me a multiple-threat in my career. Worked for me, anyway. [/p][p]GuildPortal would appear to be, on the face of it, a much better alternative to what Sony's asking people to pay for, only it has ads (oh wait, so does EQ2Players), and doesn't seem to suck quite so bad as what SoE's foisting off on consumers (go look at the long litany of complaints in this very Forum). It's just not infinitely extensible.[/p]

I was never here...these are not the droids you are looking for.... I can go now.

Greetings, I did as you asked and turned on the Debug feature for the Sigmaster.ini Here is the error I am getting when I try to generate a sig..

I found the issue I am missing a font...is there a place where I can get this font? Also here are a few other things I found... 1. Our guild uses this type of Rank... (Senior Officer) Baron or Baroness - You have to be sure to have your config.inc [Lookup_rank] setup properly. I was missing a space between the last ) and the first letter from then name.

[p] *chuckles*[/p][p]I, for one, purchased a pretty sweet hosting package with my host...it costs me about $93 a year ($7.77 a month, woot!), but I get a lot of extras and tons of space to stretch out. The domain costs about $15 a year. All the programs I use to manage my website (coding, FTP, various other little tools) are free, so that saves some money. It seems like a lot, but once a year isn't so bad, and like Grue said, the more I do myself, the more I learn. If you're not learning anything, or having fun, what's the point? [/p][p]In my opinion, DIY is the way to go. You'll develop basic computer/IT skills I think everyone should try their hand at, especially in this day and age.[/p]

jey10 wrote:

Hehe...look in your C:\Windows\Fonts folder. Just FTP the TTF file to the server where the RM4DF fonts live (/modules/Roster_Master/fonts).

jey10 wrote:

That would definitely cause a breakage somewhere. Glad you found it and squashed it!

Dark_Grue wrote:

Ok Seagoat, or Dark_Grue maybe you can help me figure out what my webservice can do?
(its called a business plan too, although I choose basic)

I currently use SYSOX, and it has these services available: 1 Domain
12 Subdomains
100 Aliases
100 E-mails
5 mailing lists
0 IPs
5 FTP's
1 Databases
MySQL MB 30
Traffic MB 300000
Storage MB 15000
Files 50000

I also have about 40 different sections with options, whereas I currently use about 2.
There is a hosted domain section.
So far its sounds like maybe I can create and host anything needed, and for now have a link in guildportal to open a new window with Roster Master in it?

Howdy, Okay, I noticed that there are NO fonts at all in the Fonts folder on RosterMaster... Is it suppose to be empty? If not is there a link to the various fonts that are needed to get the Sigmaster working? Been Debugging, hunting and uploading after each one I find missing.. Thanks,