miscellany: Do we fight, use item, or run?

Now shut up and pray for a critical hit.

And there's the very cool bfxproject.

miscellany: Text mangling plugin, check!

The fake cryptographic plugins work.

Encrypt obfuscates text, and will send through idmail. The message recipient has to have a public key on file.

Idmail will show the message with a decrypt link.

Decrypt will make it all plaintext again. Won't work if the user's public key doesn't match the one used to encode the message, or if the user's passcode doesn't match.

Passcode makes the key for encoding the message, as well as storing the passcode/phrase for decryption. One person making keys with the same passcode will end up with a different public key each time.

It's not a terrible imitation of asymmetric key cryptography, even if it's just for "looks".

While it'd be kinda fun to see about implementing some *actual* cryptographic system, it's not really important. It works well enough for in game purposes. I'd never suggest using the thing for anything that actually needed to be secured.

Now, some sort of group-access text mangler might be in order. For the assignments/reports/forum plugins, maybe. And also get back to trying comments for the netlogs. And possibly even taking on the reply/cc/address book for gridmail.

miscellany: reworking the plugins, har har har

Now, just 'cause my bro had to make a crack about my lackin' PHP abilities, I've started yet again on altering the plugins.

Got dept, deptlist, gridmail, authenticate updated.

Updated all with a spiffy new header with image.

Also added a user information lookup link to the deptlist results. Decided not to use the built-in directory listing function for just such a reason.

miscellany: so far, so good...

Moved all the plugin-created files to one directory with a bunch of subdirectories, which got to be a bit of a pain since all the previously stated paths needed to be changed. Missed a couple first time around, but nothing major.

The pseudo-login pulls up links to all the major features of the new plugins.

Mailcode works.

Interdepartmental messaging is a little screwy right now, since there's a login notification hardcoded into the main bot file that needs to be altered. Or the interdepartmental mail needs to be changed again.

Departmental listings work, and so does the add/remove department code.

Have one reports board, one general discussion board, and eleven departmental boards (access only to registered users).

Users can post a bit of text as a user profile. Pulls up in the reformatted username information search.

Then the netlogs, which can currently be sent to others for viewing. Thinking about working on comments next.

miscellany: Might edit some of the directories...

Thinking of changing all the /members/deptcode/membername checks to do otcg/members/deptcode/membername/membername
and cramming the netlogs into otcg/members/deptcode/membername/netlog/
and interdepartmental mail into otcg/members/deptcode/membername/idm/
and so on and so forth though that'll be a pain.

But it'd be nice to streamline everything down to one directory, instead of several scattered directories. Maybe do the directory checking/creation with the login. (Actually, on second thought, people change departments every now and again, so this would be a pain.)

Netlog subjects work. Tweaked the delete code a bit, so that either admins or the owner can delete.

Also tweaked the user lookup.

miscellany: more tweaking

Netlog format is starting to shape up a bit. Now have the option to file a subject with each post. Should probably add some paragraph formatting at some point.

Maybe comments. And a private/public setting. Maybe.

(edit: !@#! subject isn't showing up when viewing others' netlogs. Time to try and fix it.)

miscellany: various comics to keep from doing other stuff

Inverloch

Gnoph and Inchoatica

Friendly Hostility

A Miracle of Science

Kagerou

miscellany: still more coding garbage

The netlogs work. Haven't tested the send to others, yet. Tomorrow.

Might change netlog and netlogread to something shorter.

Coming along. I'm actually kind of pleased with it.

Have to get some sleep.

miscellany: Few more working things

Changed the headers in the mail and interdepartmental message code- now the sender and recipient usernames are linked to the user lookup, and the departments are linked to the departmental directories.

Also did a bit of a jumbly date conversion. Getting the year to go 27474 years ahead of the current year took a little bit of reading. But now messages show the proper date in game.

Still should add the date code to forums. And then it's a matter of going through the existing botcode to retrofit some of the new features into it. Report and mission code will end up just being worded a bit differently, and having different permissions set on the mission boards. If I bother doing a general comments/questions board, it'll be guest accessible.

Then, there's the slim possibility of incorporating some sort of user log. Have to see.

miscellany: botcoding notes, take 13,999,999

Patched in subdirectories for the posting/reading code for the forum. Had to make a separate delete plugin to take over for the built in delete code, or else the new subdirectories wouldn't be recognized.

So *if* everything ends up functioning smoothly, I'll copy the forum plugins, change a little bit, and make a set with reports (by department), missions (by department), and a general questions/contacts board.

Oh, also working on changing that username info lookup. Have to change the text, and fix the info window. Now, if I could stop coming up with features to add, I might finish some time.

miscellany: never mind the little guy behind the curtain...

Was thinking of using the existing bot's forum code for reports, but the reading/writing to subdirectories doesn't work. So there's only one board with a bunch of posts. Doesn't really work when there are eleven departments that potentially could be filing reports. Also, wanted to try maybe making a separate set of subdirs for delegating missions. And another for contacts.

So. Rather than fool with trying to see about reading subdirectories any longer, I can simply make copies of the forum/posting code, edit each one a little, and have another plugin with a bunch of hyperlinks to each of the subforums. It'll end up looking like working subdirectories, when in all actuality it's a cheap fakeout. Hurray for smoke and mirrors! Then it's just tweaking.

Still don't have a working username information lookup. Bah.

miscellany: bug tracking, making new bugs, and squashing them all over again...

Weird footer kept popping up in the interdepartmental mail messages-- not in the revamped code, not *anywhere* in the revamped code. Doesn't match the new footer that's there. Turns out to be coded into the main bot.php, which I was trying to avoid altering.

Might want to add first/last names to the To: and From: fields, as it just shows username at the moment. Haven't had luck with it yet, but that's another thing to put on the to do list.

Also want to possibly add user information lookup link to the name.
Maybe an online check, also.
And department directory listing link to the department name field.

Then, add user lookup/online check to the departmental directories.

And all the above to the existing interdepartmental mail headers.

Er, and the chat seems to only let about 13ish lines of text through before not sending it. Maybe it's part of the spam/chat protection? Have to look into that a bit more.

(Was thinking of checking the finished string length, then splitting it into a bunch of pieces of a certain size, then sending the thing as however many parts are needed. That won't be ugly. Rrrright.)

miscellany: ah, the forgotten holidays...

Apparently my brother had last night off. Forgot all about it-- Kat's been working extra this weekend (a double Sat., Sun., and another double Mon.), so it's been overtime babywatching. Wasn't online 'til much later than normal, and didn't have YM or Google open, since I wasn't expecting that you'd be around, NS. Sorry, bro.

Reminder about the 16th, by the way. Hope it's still open for you, and that you'll be joining us and the rest of the fam.

miscellany: Scrap the last couple of hours of coding, and try it the *other* other way...

Ah, the integrated method seems to have some kind of problem. Might be able to get it in another week or two, but then why wait? Unfortunate, since it all looked so pretty in the text editor. And it parses, too. Just doesn't do what it's supposed to do. Flow control problem. Or a lack of PHP skills problem, more likely.

It'd be more helpful to just try doing the separate plugin that I had in mind before, rather than the slightly more complex slapdash send/reply/store temp file all-in-one headache... utility wins, hands down, against the desire for beautifully thought out code. Mainly because I'm not a coder.

So. Duct tape it'll be, until I get that working. Then, I'll try the integrated method again. Currently too challenging for me not to try... and damn it, it *should* work.

miscellany: Coding at 3AM makes baby Jesus cry.

Half of the reply code works (the writing vars to a temp file bit), but it's breaking down somewhere.

The first attempt at merging the mailcode (integrated send and reply) is *ugly*. So ugly that it's pretty damn hard to figure out what I was thinking at the time. Entirely unnecessary variables and redundant condition checking, and it's only gotten worse with the last two or three edits. My eyes, they burn with the horror.

Starting another version, hopefully with a more sensible flow to it. Be even more sensible after a few more cigarettes...