[INACTIVE][INFO] SimpleNews v0.5 - Lightweight server news and information plugin [1337]

SimpleNews
Version 0.5.2

Announcement: Version 0.6 is in the works with a complete rewrite of the permissions code to support for PermissionsBukkit! Expect it around the new year... I hope! - Grey, 9th Dec

SimpleNews is a very lightweight plugin that allows you to deliver news, information and announcements to your users. It is a far more elegant solution than trying to fit everything into the server MOTD!

Features:

• Permissions integration (Not required)
• Color support!
• Single or multiple named pages of news
• News editing in-game and through files
• No need to reload to see changes
• Extremely lightweight and unobtrusive.
• Auto-Updating!
• Group news broadcasting
• Display main news on player login (optional)

Download
SimpleNews v0.5.2 [Jar]

Commands:

Basic Commands (open) Basic Commands (close)

/news
This command simply reads the "main" news file to the user, including a list of other news pages.
Permissions required: simplenews.read.main
Screenshot

/news «entry name»
This command will read the contents of the news page name specified.
Permissions required: simplenews.read.<page name>
Screenshot

/setnews «entry name» «news content»
This command will set the contents of the news file to whatever is specified in the content argument.

Appending Text
To append text to an existing page, append a "+" to the page name.
eg, to append to the main article use:
"/setnews main+ This is some appended text"

Colors
To add a color to an entry, use the "&" symbol followed by the color found here.
eg, "/setnews main white demo &c red demo &9 blue demo &a green demo" - Screenshot

Lines
New lines can be added using "@" where a new line needs to be placed.
Note: When editing the news via the files, use of "@" is not necessary. The use of "@" to denote new lines is only used when editing news in-game.

News entries can also be edited (with no file extension) as text files from the filesystem.

Important Note: Please refrain from using special characters, periods or spaces in page names - they are filtered for technical reasons.

Advanced Usage & Custom Configuration (open) Advanced Usage & Custom Configuration (close)

Display news on player login
In the config.yml file (Found in the SimpleNews directory) change the following line:

Code:

newsonlogin: true

Broadcast a news entry
To broadcast a news entry to every player with read permissions for that entry (after it is updated, for instance), simply use the following command and flag:
/news -broadcast «page name»

The small text header displayed before the news broadcast can be changed (colors are supported using the "&" symbol) in the config.cfg file by adding the following line:

Code:

broadcastheader: «Your header»

Permissions: The player must have the permissions node "SimpleNews.broadcast" in order to make a broadcast.

Notify players of a news update
To notify every online player (with read permissions for that entry) of a news update, use the following command and flag:
/news -notify [entry name]
If you do not specify an entry name, the default "main" is assumed.

Reload SimpleNews configuration without restarting
To make SimpleNews reload its configuration file without having to restart the server, use the following command and flag:
/news -reload
Permissions: The player must have the permissions node "SimpleNews.reload" in order to reload configuration.

Explicitly define news entries
Some users had problems with garbage files spamming their news listings.

To fix this, you can add a list of explicit news entries to the "newsfiles" configuration line (comma delimited). Please ensure that your list is inside single quotes!

By default it is set to "!all", which will display all (non configuration) files in the SimpleNews directory. To stop this functionality, remove the "!all" from the list.

The /setnews command is set to append to this list automatically.

Other flags
SimpleNews also supports two other flags. No permissions are required to use them.
-help : This displays some help information about the plugin.
-version: This displays the version and author information.

Installation:

Installation (open) Installation (close)

Simple download the jar file, place it into the plugins directory and start the server.

The default news entry "main" will be created in the /plugins/SimpleNews directory. You should put your main news inside using the in-game commands or by editing the file manually.

If you use Permissions, then you will need to apply the following:
Regular Users: 'SimpleNews.read.*'
Staff: 'SimpleNews.write'

Permission to read individual entries can be given by applying the following Permission node:
Selective entry permission: 'SimpleNews.read.[entry name]'

Future Development
Version 0.6

• MySQL support (requested by Alfw)
• Have an idea? Please post it! I am more than happy to help!

Change Log:
Version 0.5.2

• Improved the update code to allow for release notes
• Switched to the built-in Bukkit configuration method
• Added functionality to define news pages explicitly

Version 0.5.1b, 0.5.1c, 0.5.1d

• Temporary fix: Plugin now works with Permissions plugin version 3.1.x and 2.7.x
• Left some testing code in the plugin (oops!) - removed it.

Version 0.5.1

• Tidied up a lot of code
• Changed news broadcasting to be group-aware
• News listing now only shows pages that the player has permission to view

Older Change Logs (open) Older Change Logs (close)

Version 0.5

• Changed the code structure significantly
• ...made it a little messier too...
• Implemented news broadcasting
• Implemented the NewsOnLogin feature

Version 0.4.1, 0.4.2 and 0.4.3- Minor Updates:

• A few minor bug fixes, code restructure and cleanup
• Improved auto-update capabilities
• Added handler for file permission errors
• Fixed an unhanded exception bug

Version 0.4

• Implemented auto-update script - courtesy of JayJay110
• Added appending to news pages
• Cleaned up code a little

Version 0.3.1, 0.3.2 and 0.3.3 - Minor Updates:

• Removed Permissions dependency bug
• Fixed incorrect plugin.yml contents
• Made some code corrections - courtesy of CaptainAwesome7
• Fixed a bug introduced that would duplicate news lines

Version 0.3:

• Public release of plugin
• Enabled color support to news pages
• Added automatic plugin directory setup

Version 0.2

• Enabled multiple news pages
• Enabled permissions integration
• Added error handlers in case of file read/write errors.

Version 0.1

• Initial release

This plugin was based on Yet Another Rules Plugin by marvinbek, but has now been extensively modified.

Note: The auto-updater will only function assuming that the plugin is working. If CraftBukkit is updated and the plugin breaks, you will have to update manually.

Please, I ask that you let me know if this is even remotely useful to you!

 

@gartral There are no undocumented permissions, and I cannot reproduce the bug - are you using Permissions 3.0 or PermissionsBukkit?

 

Permissions 3.0 and bPerms for management. I'll see if it shows anything in the logs. everything else works, players get the main news on connect and can read the other articles fine.

 

Great job. Downloaded.

 

The download link is broken, I would really like to try it!

 

Can you please give me the plugin? The download link is broken.

 

Do you have the plugin the link is broken?