#clan scripts

[bluethrustv4-blog]

New Update! - Clan Scripts v4 Beta 7

I decided to release the update before moving over to the new main site layout.  I've had the new update basically finished now for almost a week so I've just been sitting on it and just want to get it out.  There are some really cool new features added in.

1) New: Manage Tournament Matches - Lets players in the tournament enter their own results rather than have the tournament creator entering the results for every match.

2) New: Join a Tournament - Allows members to join tournaments without the tournament creator having to add them.

3) Improvement: Manage Tournament Team - I added in a way to easily incorporate squads into tournaments.  When there are team tournaments, there is now a button on the Manage Teams page that lets you easily select members from a squad and add them to a team all at once.

4) New: Members Only Page Tagger - You can now make any page private that normally would be viewable to the public (i.e. Members, Ranks, Medals etc).  It's really easy to use.  You just need to turn on the Members Only Tagger, go to the page you want to be members only and click a button.  I also made a video showing how to use it.  Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WL3SA_i6J8

Also, I added in emoticons.  There are only 5 right now:  :) :( ;) :D :p.  They were the only ones I could find that were free and that looked good.  And I added Twitch to the member profiles.

That's all for new features.  Going to work on getting the new main site up for tomorrow.  Thanks for reading!

Download: http://cl4n.us/BTCSv4Beta7

[bluethrustv4-blog]

Tournaments!... and more plans

Started writing a tweet and it was getting to be way more than 140 characters so decided to make a blog post.  Just finished working on the new tournament features for the next update.  You will now be able to manage your own matches and also join tournaments without being added by the tourney creator.  I had planned to make for a way for clans that are using the scripts to connect to one tournament for the multi-clan tournament feature.  So when a change was made to the tournament, it was reflected on both clan's sites, but the way I originally thought about implementing it, wasn't going to work out.  So I'm holding off on adding it in for now.  That will likely be it for the updates in the next release.  I need to work on getting the main site updated with a new layout and theme download page.

I've been also thinking about what I'm going to work on next and I think next month (May) I'm going to start working on a forum system.  After I get a forum into the scripts, I'm going to be removing the beta tag from the scripts.  So its a big step I think.

Thanks for all the support!  The last post's comments were amazing.  Gives me so much motivation to keep making these scripts awesome.

[bluethrustv4-blog]

Clan Scripts v4 - Beta6 and April Plans

New Update!  In this update the main new feature is Custom Forms.  It is set up similar to how the member application system works.  You can create different form components and view what people have submitted.  I've also added in a way to create tool tips on components in the custom forms section as well as the member application system.

Another feature that was added was a news ticker.  It behaves the same way the one in v3 works.  It scrolls a message on the homepage.  However I added in new ways to style the way the text looks a little more.  You can change the color, font size, and whether or not you want it bold or italic.  This isn't a required feature to use, if you leave the news ticker blank it won't show on the home page.

I also made some minor changes to the Modify Custom Theme page.  I looked around and found a really good open source web based code editor called Ace that I added in.  This is more of a visual upgrade but I think it helps when you are actually editing the theme's code from the admin section.

The new theme is called Army Green.  It's more of a futuristic type theme.  Complete opposite style from last months theme, but I think this one came out pretty good.  I've also included two new files in the theme folder that will help with creating themes.  I'm going to try to make a new video later this week explaining how to use them, but the 2 files that are in the theme folder are all of the major php that is used in all of the header files that I've used to make themes.  There are still some variables you will need to set if you want to make your own themes, but it should be easier now with only needing to include these 2 new files into your theme.

Since I needed an extra week to get this update out, that means I now have 3 weeks to work on new features, which is more than enough time to do some things.  But I also want to start updating the main site a little so that you can download the themes individually and also add a download page for v4.  The themes section may take me some time, so this month for updates to the scripts I'm going to mostly focus on fine tuning some things and maybe try to make the tournaments section more complete.  I kind of left that part of the site hanging so I could work on new features.  Also, not every theme that has been released is up to date to work with the current version.  So I need to update each of the older themes as well.

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading!

Download Clan Scripts v4 Beta 6: http://bit.ly/BTCSv4Beta6

[bluethrustv4-blog]

New Release and Public Folder

tldr; Links to download at bottom

In this update, I've added a member application system.  You can choose whether or not to use it on the new Registration Options page under Member Management.  The application system allows you to create your own application form with 4 different types of inputs.  A standard text box, a large text box, a drop down menu (so you can set specific options for someone to choose) and a multi-select input (you set the inputs and the applicant can choose as many options that apply).  Also, now if you do choose to allow people to sign up on their own, a sign up link appears in the menu.  It will not appear if you don't want people to be able to sign up on their own.  I also added a Delete Member page and fixed a bug where medals were showing up a little weird on the profile pages. 

As promised there is also a new theme with this update as well.  I really like this one.  Its kind of similar to the layout that I'm using on this blog except its a gray orange grunge look.  So I called it "Orange Grunge" :D ....  Here is link to what it looks like:

http://bluethrust.com/releases/orangegrungepreview.png

This theme, unlike the other 3 is more of a "stretchy" theme.  As you make the browser window larger or smaller, the layout will shrink or grow.  Someone had requested it, so there you go!  Also I if you install the scripts using the full sql file, you will have new medal pictures that are used.  They are ones that are used from this site: http://kepler.pratt.duke.edu/USNRibbons.html.  I want to eventually make my own, and have a complete section of this main site devoted to themes/medal image packs/rank image packs.  That is probably way down the line though as I still need to make these scripts more complete.

The next thing that I want to work on is making it more of a complete clan script.  So that means basically adding all the other small features that v3 has.  Some of the newer things that I want to add (and that I can think of at the moment) are a way to set up polls and improve the calendar system where you can invite members to events.  And there is always the still incomplete tournament system.

Lastly, my job is starting to enter its extreme busy season, which means I will have even less time to work on the scripts.  So instead of you guys having to wait for me to compile a new update every time, I set up a public dropbox folder so you guys can always have access to an almost live copy of the version that I am working on.  I will still make "official" updates, but this way I can still get you guys updates for the script more frequently.  I'll post on twitter and on here when I update the dropbox. 

Here is the link to the dropbox folder: http://bit.ly/BTCSv4Public

Here is the link to download the new update: http://bit.ly/BTCSv4Beta3

Happy Holidays!  Thanks everyone for supporting this project and helping out with finding bugs and giving suggestions.  I really appreciate it.

[bluethrustv4-blog]

Long time no post

So its been almost 3 weeks since my last blog post.  I felt really burnt out after the 4 day marathon that I did to try to get the scripts out on time.  I didn't work on the scripts for a few days after that last post.  I just didn't feel like coding at all.  But, I have done some work on them over the past week or 2 and I finished the News section, Top Players section and about 95% of the members page.  Its not much, but its hard to actually get work done on the scripts during the week because I get so tired when I get home from my real job.  I don't really feel like thinking hard about anything,  so the weekends are where I try to do most of my coding and last weekend I had to go to a wedding so that kind of slowed me down a bit. 

The things that I need to finish before I'm comfortable to release any kind of working copy are:

1. Promote/Demote Members (1.5 hours)

2. Award/Revoke Medals (1.5 hours)

3. Auto-Promote Member (30 min)

4. Set Rank (1 hour)

5. Change Password (30 min)

6. Logs (3 hours)

Those times next to the pages are my estimate of how long it will take to finish those pages.  So like 8 hours? I didn't include the members page that I need to finish up, so that may take another hour.  If I can actually stick to a solid schedule today, I may be able to do all of them today.  But it usually doesn't work out like that.  I'm going to try though. Once those pages are finished, I need to actually cut up those layouts that I made and get them to fit in with the scripts.  To make things faster, I may just release the scripts with the old v3 extended dark blue layout to make things easier and then release the themes at a later date.

Again, this first beta version that I release will not have the same amount of features that v3 has.  Its going to be very basic, and I will continue to add on to the scripts over time.  I just feel like I need to get something out because I feel like I've been working on them for so long and there are some people that really want to test them out.

Going to go work on finishing the members page now.... so thanks for reading and following the updates!  If you want more frequent updates follow me on twitter @Bluethrust

[bluethrustv4-blog]

Squads Preview Video

[bluethrustv4-blog]

More Squad Progress

Well, I was waiting to make another post until I was finished with the squads part of the site but its taking a little longer then expected.  At this rate, I'm getting a little worried about the release date I set but I am still shooting for September 30th.  I have a few days off from work in the middle of September so that should give me some extra solid days to work on the scripts.  But, as there is so little time and still a lot to do, the beta is going to most likely not have everything that I want to include in the final version.  I'm going to continue to release updates with more stuff included as I add to it.

As for the progress on squads, there are still 5 more pages to complete.  I forgot to include in the last post a "Leave Squad", "Close Squad", "Remove Member" and "Set Rank" page.  Still need to create those pages as well as the Edit Squad Profile page.  The squad profile page is like 75% finished.  I posted a tweet with a preview of what I am making it look like here: https://twitter.com/Bluethrust/status/239948875044122624

If I can finish squads this week, then I can finally get to Tournaments which I am thinking will take a lot of time as well.  After tournaments though, I don't think any of the other pages will be as time consuming.  They just need to get done.  Going to keep working for about another hour tonight and will try to get as much done as I can when I get home from work each day this week.

That's all for tonight's post.  If you like (or hate) the way I'm laying out the new squad page let me know in the comments below!

[bluethrustv4-blog]

Preview Video

Here is the preview video.  It shows the Games Played and Profile Options part of the Admin Section.  It might be best if you view it in full screen at 720p so you can see the actual text.