Petitions Improved

[Lalolyen]

Guys and Gals,

I'm actually starting a php project to improve the petition system. I think we can all agree that the system needs quite a bit of work. Though I'm unable to really manipulate/develop anything inside the source of EQEMU I have developed an idea I think will help outside the client itself.

Here are a few key features:

1. admin/staff access is controlled via EQEMU database (via access levels) or a stand-alone database.
2. A cron will be running to constantly check for new petitions (of course you can customize your cron to check every second or every 30 mins), in the event a new petition is queried, an email will be sent to the staff (We can even go as far as to send out instant messages, pages, cellphone, text messages but not a high priority development issue).
3. Clients can reply to the petitions via a webpage that will use their LS account name as their user name and character as the password (So mini-login users and public servers can take advantage of this).
4. Many other features to be added like, escalations to higher GM's, bugs, etc.

[Lalolyen]

to keep everyone up to speed, the login is done and I have the system pulling from the petitions.

1. So far the features include admin access level control login.
2. The ability to view a list of petitions.
3. The ability to click and see the petition.
4. The ability to delete the petition.
5. THEMEABLE (allowing the header.php navigation.php and footer.php to be customized with any html).

You can see the development here:
http://emu.norrath.info/petitions

I'll be putting up a demo site soonish.

Working on now:
1. Delete, Reply, Modify permissions based upon access levels
2. Integration with PEQ Database Editor and phpBB3 RC 6.

So far the system is using md5 password encoding for a bit more security.

[Lalolyen]

Anyone actually interested in an alpha of this?

[cavedude]

I would certainly be, this looks to be an awesome idea and very helpful.

[gernblan]

Definitely Interested!

I also think this would be a valuable addition to the emu's built-in web management tool.

[Lalolyen]

Ok I'm going to post the alpha this afternoon.

Right now its doing the basics. I will add in the gm replies prob sometime this comming week (mon or tues). Its pretty cool so far though... It is secured by md5 password authentication from any table really, but mine is setup for peq_admin; you can even set it up for your accounts table for eqemu if you are running your own login or just want to set it up so that the accounts are used from there.

Its really flexable, and if you guys have some php knowledge, you'll prob laugh at how simple it really is =)

I'm a believer of making something efficient, to do that keep the code short and sweet, therefore there is a total of... errr 6 files, main index.php, header.php, navigation.php, functions.php, include.php, and footer.php.

[Lalolyen]

Here is the DEMO SITE =) Enjoy! In a few mins the demo username and pass will be "demo".

[Lalolyen]

Right now I'm currently working on the checkin-checkout system via the web. For the most part it is complete...

Here are some of the features it adds:

Status:
NULL/NEW - Any GM may check it out and view it.
CHECKED OUT - Any gm may view it but there is a big message that says its not the GM's petition (will make it unreadable in the future except to the GM that has it checked out.)
ESCALATED - Any GM can check it out (A way to decheck a petition but to let others know a GM has been working on it and could not resolve it. Resolved petitions are deleted.)


TODO's:
1. Get access levels implemented.
2. Get user access implemented.
3. Get user posting/GM posting implemented.
and WAY DOWN THE LIST
4. Allow the system to be integrated into phpBB and MediaWiki systems. (though this seems to be a pain in the ass being that MediaWIki seems to encrypt both the username and password TOGETHER, and phpbb... Well that would be easier.)

DOWNLOAD COMING WITHIN HOURS!

[Lalolyen]

Here we go... the moment we have all been waiting for =)

http://emu.norrath.info/petitions.zip

[gernblan]

VERY NICE!!!

Now if this can be weaved into the eqemu built-in server management tool, it would be double valuable

GREAT WORK!

[Lalolyen]

Ty gernblan.

I'm very close to getting the user replies and gm replies complete =) USER SIGNUPS ARE COMPLETE... However I do need to clean up the code a bit before I release that lol...

I don't currently have a demo of that yet, as it requires more than just a petition, zone, and peq table... It wants the account tables as well... so for the moment, just trust me that it works he he.

[Lalolyen]

I one day I'll go from alpha to beta =)

Ok... In a few hours, I'll be posting the beta up.

So far I have working with the system:

1. Admins can view ALL petitions.
2. Users can view their OWN petition (with no s).
3. Thats RIGHT USERS! Users can register! Upon registration their account is linked to their petitions!
4. Admins can reply to their own petitions, if the petition is not checked out, by the admin he/she cannot reply!
5. Old petition replys are cleaned up when a new petition of the same id is created. If you want to archive your petitions, let me know for a simple code fix.


ToDo's:
1. In version 1.1 RELEASE (not 1.0 RELEASE) make it so that petitions and replies are all archived.
2. Before release, set a default theme.
3. Tighten security! (Keep in mind that the sessions are using cookie/session authentication only, if you have two installs, there are no checks to see that the admins username is in the database every time they hit the site. This will be changed to constantly poll the auth table for admin credentials. I have already implemented this in development of the user interface.
4. Display race/classes.
5. Create emailed responses, even maybe pipe emails to ACERTAIN@ADDRESS.COM to the program, so users can reply via email and without having to login to the website.

I am sorry there are no demo's at this time. The best demo is the one I posted above or you can create an account on our server and /petition [TEST] (and all the text you want) and we will leave it alone so you can see the user interface.

Right now I'm just cleaning up this code, and the looks a bit and I'll be packaging it up and uploading it.

*will be adding some graphics to it this time around so its not like finger-nails on a chalkboard to the eyes he he*

[Lalolyen]

And here we go...

http://emu.norrath.info/petitions-1.0-beta.zip

So far there is no script that will upgrade from alpha to beta... If you need manual instructions, let me know. Any features you would like to see added or optionally (by switching on or off) taken away, let me know.

[Lalolyen]

Though its not in the readme.txt file yet, if you are using peq admin, change the table in include.php to peq_admin and it will authorize from your PEQ Admin install =). BUT you must add one column to the peq_admin table called "account" varchar 255.

Some screenshots (being there is not demo):

Admin System


User System

[Lalolyen]

Will be posting beta2 later on =).

So far the newest features are:
1. User/Admin manager cleaned up (will be adding a delete option).
2. Addons System created*

New Addon's System
This pretty much makes the script very versitile. So far I have two addons pre-packaged:
1. News Manager - For the Allakhazam clone
2. My Petitions - Admin side petitions that are invisable to the game*

My Petitions
This is a useful little addon that will allow admins to create esclalations webside to allow a petition to be resolved without the origional admin having to drop rights to it. This may be implemented for the users later on, (at least letting them create or submit an online petition, though I don't know why they just wouldn't use email =( ).

The other thing in the works is allowing the admins to have a profile, at least for editing a signature so they don't have to go...
Regards,
Some Big GM
In eveyr petition. This of course will be an addon =).

Add-on's can be very simply added/removed by editing one file or by simply deleting them... includes/addons.php will disable preinstalled addons.

You can add your own by dropping them in the directory pages/*/ where * is "user" or "admin" . Depending on what your access level is, is which folder the addons are pulled from.

For example, you can create a page, that has javascipt of the current time, place it in admin and user and name the file time.php . Then just go to index.php?page=time and it will display your clock within the site (within the headers and footers and it will keep the authorization for the logged in user).