BzAdmin - Please Read.

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Jacko H
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BzAdmin - Please Read.

Post by Jacko H »

Hey everyone!
Before I start my post I will tell those who dont know what bzadmin is:
Bzadmin is like going into observer mode without being able to see the tanks, It's a great way to keep up to date with your bz friends, popular servers or for a great way to talk and keep up to date in the leagues. You may of noticed people with the motto BzAdmin, those people are using bzadmin. It's like bzflag chat mode.
Now, I was thinking to myself about making bzflag easier to acces to make it more popular and also for people like me that would like to use bzflag often without pulling out the old computer, or when away from home.
I know there has been dozens of post about bzflag on ipods and things like that, and we have clearly established that though this proggram may be made (even though it's highly doubtfull) We would be unable to put it on the apsstore.
My idea (that Blast will shoot down in flames, no doubt) is that we make a bzadmin for browser / internet. I'm obviusly not 100% sure on our capabilities with this.
I do know that I have been using the IRC Browser for about a year now, which is easy to acces, even easier then downloading and IRC client on my computer.
Also I am aware that a few of people on bzflag own servers :).
Now some of the reasons for having a Bzadmin in a browser page is:
1. People that have not downloaded the bzflag program will be able to chat and use the program. This will meen that if I am at my friends house, who doesnt have bzflag, I can still see whats going on in bz. If I go to my farthers house who doesn't have the bzflag program and doesnt let me get it, I could easily go to www.eggggzample.com and use bzadmin.
2. This could also enable the use of ipods / phones. If this is on the internet you could simply go into safari and then use the program through your wifi or phone internet. I am not sure if this will work, but even if it doent I think reason one would still be enough :).
Other thoughts of mine was that this wouldnt have to be programmed or anything, just that bzadmin would be put on a website.
I would apreciate ANY questions or comments!!!
I think that this would make bzflag more fun and make more activity on league sites.
I know I would observing the gu and hix sites all the time if I could use this.
Thx, Jacko.
Jacko Productions:
World War III, Kill Or Die, Nazarath, Warlock Adrenaline, Rabbit Season, Firing Range (Just Be Simple), Death Island.
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L4m3r
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Re: BzAdmin - Please Read.

Post by L4m3r »

A web-based bzadmin probably wouldn't be too hard to write. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if someone had written one already. Authentication might be tricky, but I don't know the auth system that well.

However, as the name implies, bzadmin was designed as an administrative tool, not a social one. If you want to chat with friends and don't have access to a bzflag client, I would suggest using conventional IM/chat software (like IRC) instead. Personally, I find it rather irritating when a group of people join as obs on a public server just to chat. It's distracting.
Optimism is just a milder alternative to denial.
Jacko H
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Re: BzAdmin - Please Read.

Post by Jacko H »

So it can be done?
I think it would be okay to use, because when people who aren't admins use it they don't get kicked or banned. Then this would also enable iPod use, writing this now I'm using my iPod.
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blast
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Re: BzAdmin - Please Read.

Post by blast »

I believe that brad already had something like this. However, he took it down because it violated the list server usage policy. Because of the way the the WebLogin system is designed, it is not possible to use it to log into a game server by using a web service (because the IPs would not match), so the only way was to take the user's username and password directly on the website (which violates the policy).

http://wiki.bzflag.org/List_Server_Usage_Policy
The BZFlag project runs a Global Registration system for our users. This allows a player to register a name and securely authenticate to BZFlag servers, our forum, and other services run by the project. We also have an interface (called weblogin) that allows 3rd party websites to tie into our authentication system. We require that you provide a specially formatted link on your site that will take the user to our weblogin page. You should not accept their Global Registration username and password directly from your site. Failure to comply with this requirement can lead to suspension of service.
I don't care if you just want it for yourself, but it can not be a general service that other people can also access.

However, there are other ways of doing this. BZFS itself has a web server built in. With this, you should be able to build a BZFS plugin that creates a web vhost and would allow you to authenticate via WebLogin (the proper way). I haven't played around with the HTTP API in the server, though. It's somewhat different than it was in 2.99.x as well, and I'm not aware of all the differences. In 2.99.x, there had been the start of an HTTP plugin that provided ability to see chat, and to kick/ban players, and a few other operations like that.

The other way would be writing a native application for the iPhone/iPad/Android/etc that does not pass the password on to a third party site and only directly talks to the list server to get the authentication token.

And the third way is the easiest. Get an SSH client for the iPhone/iPad/Android and then just SSH to a system and run BZAdmin from there.
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joevano
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Re: BzAdmin - Please Read.

Post by joevano »

Jacko H wrote:because when people who aren't admins use it they don't get kicked or banned.
This statement makes no sense... if you cause problems you will get kicked/banned. Getting kicked or banned using a site like this would mean that all users using that site may also be banned.
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Jacko H
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Re: BzAdmin - Please Read.

Post by Jacko H »

Sorry for any misunderstanding I only wrote that because l4m3r said you can only use bzadmin to admin
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World War III, Kill Or Die, Nazarath, Warlock Adrenaline, Rabbit Season, Firing Range (Just Be Simple), Death Island.
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JeffM
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Re: BzAdmin - Please Read.

Post by JeffM »

The entire point of web admin is to do what bzadmin does in a browser.
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L4m3r
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Re: BzAdmin - Please Read.

Post by L4m3r »

Jacko H wrote:Sorry for any misunderstanding I only wrote that because l4m3r said you can only use bzadmin to admin
I didn't say that. What I said was that administration is what bzadmin was designed for. Non-admin players won't be kicked just for using it, but (for example) in the past I have kicked and shortbanned observers who were effectively spamming/flooding the console with excessive and inane chit-chat.

A public web portal into bzflag servers would definitely invite abuse, so that probably isn't a great idea either. I could see someone setting up a private one for administrative purposes, though.

As Blast said, the easiest way to do bzadmin on a handheld would be bzadmin over SSH, and that would probably work better than any web app.
Optimism is just a milder alternative to denial.
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