Admin Panel

[Zeggy]

Does anybody actually code an admin panel for themselves in their game?

Before now, I've never really needed an admin panel. After all, anything I want to do can be done in phpmyadmin.
And I'm the only admin.
I've found coding admin panels extra unneeded work, because then I gotta code another user authentication system for admins, then code a UI for updating/editing tables.
But now I am trying to code a strategy game, which requires different processes. Now, for me it's much easier to code an admin panel which would perform some extra functions while adding information into the database. It's helped me quite a bit and will probably help me a lot more.
I think I can also add more tools in my admin panel, like user monitoring to catch the cheaters...

What about you? Do you see a real need for an admin panel in your game?

[KingMonkey Throughout!]

well zeggy in all games i have i have said... i dont need an admin panel just like you but then on one game.. i forgot my password to get on the game. from then on i have created a admin panel for every game.

Admin panels are very easy to code.

you dont need a password verification you just need to set the users limits. And if they try to access backend files ban them!

on my game which im currently coding, any user caught in admin panel will be banned instanly. i have this feature adapted to my game where the page loads for the user ( the error message ) then once they click any link they will be banned for 5 days , because of them accessing backend files. ( aptemting )

An admin panel is very easy to code if you have the right features to stop users accessing the panel.

once i release my game, ill give you a copy zeggy and you can edit what you like.
 


with a game you need users with users you need a mangment panel with managment panels you can catch these hackers.

also you could lead them into a trap if you wish them to be banned up to you zeggy

[Zeggy]

Thanks, but I've already coded my admin panel

That's a bit harsh, banning them just like that
I've got a login system set up for the admin panel, and an admin log so it's not so bad.
Users won't be tempted to get in when they get to the login screen, and if they try, their action will be logged.
This way nobody gets banned and the game doesn't get hurt  ^_^

[KingMonkey Throughout!]

another good idea by zeggy lol

[Pug307]

Iv currently coded and admin panel for the pimp game. It makes it easier for me to hand credits out to the winning pimps. I was using phpmyadmin but had a great problem as you cannot add credits to the pimp name but the username... the winning users only shows the pimp name so it was hard for me to figure the account name for that pimp.

I also have easy access for adding new rounds, cities and changing of any other information in the game  B) This also requires a username and password for a user to be able to access the admin panel. very nifty lol

[decepti0n]

I've got one

I need it to check errors, give out items etc, read mail reports, ban people, blah blah

Its quite snazzy

[ewwharhar]

I use a script so an admin panel comes with it already. 

[robot]

I never made and admin panel for my game. just a few simple script to edit posting and manage a few common task. Well I'm thinking of creating on too on my next version

[compuken]

I am building admin panels into my games for the fact I may not be available to watch or admin the game for a month or a week and with an admin panel I can have a few trusted friends watch the game for me.

[Broda]

The game I'm currently building will have an admin panel for a few of the reasons already posted (banning, adding credits, turns, having co-admins, etc). I also want it so I can add other tools like IP ban lists, i.e. if I don't allow same IP transfers (multis) I can click one button, see all of the transfers and check off the ones I want to ban or a ban all button. I also want to allow adding NPCs/Quests easily for special events that run temporarily, etc. It'll be a lot easier than setting everything up in phpMyAdmin.

[Sinzygy]

As my game goes on in feel more and more the need for an admin panel as well.

But coding the whole thing is much more annoying than just use phpMyAdmin. Eventho latter isn't really a good option either since I have a lot of tables to edit for one user...

I will inlcude an admin panel sooner or later. Especially when someone donates something for the game.

[Broda]

Yeah, it would make sending out special rewards easy too. I could very quickly add a button that says "Reward Active Players" and have it send out a special item or money or whatever to the people that have logged in the last couple of days.

[cpvr]

Yes, why wouldn't someone have an admin panel for their game? It makes life so much easier to update, edit, and change things instead of going straight to the database.

[Aliss]

I agree Admin panel is great staff. I building write now one for ezRPG.  B)

[Equinox]

I always build admin panels, as its easier to do everything in one place without logging in all over the place to do certain things, and also to allow limited access to other staff (if I have any)

[beam]

My admin panel is basically just set staff members, post announcements, and execute MySQL queries

[Chris]

The admin panel in my game is equal to 25% of the whole game code Overkill, yes, but I'm a great fan of admin panels   There are 9 access levels (for various levels of helpers/moderators/co-admins/admins), cute pictures to make it more appealing, colour leds to indicate if there is something wrong with the game, online tutorials, statistics, etc Yes, it was a bit of work but now I can login like once per week and I can sleep well knowing that staff will be able to deal with more than 99% cases.

What I like the most in making admin panels is the complete lack of optimalization, you can code as you want using any technique you want and it will never be too slow no matter how bad you did it.

[robot]

recently, i just make a control panel for my future project.
i'm planning to make a web game as a product rather than my own managed project.

[raestlyn]

I always use an admin panel, even when I test out a new game script that doesn't have one. I even made universal script that can be edited to fit in any game.

[leZourite]

I think an admin panel should be started even before coding the basic framework of the game, it's a burden at first, and needs improvements/modifications through time but man at an advanced stage of the game you get things done so quicker than editing them  with phpmyadmin, just for the sake of basic database integrity.

The fine thing is to make it "integrated", with additional security (like double login), rather than standalone, this way the workflow/experience is seamless.

I built my admin panel to be standalone and integrated, the integrated one works completely through ajax so it's like using a real application inside another application (the game), very impressive

[foxumon]

I've been thinking about adding an admin panel to my game, but I haven't had a whole lot of reasons to make one.

Typically, what kind of things do you put in an admin panel?

[leZourite]

What mines do  : (still a Work In Progress)

- Ability to ban users, check their status (last ten transactions, last ten connections (IP), last ten actions - figts, etc), and regenerate a password in case there is a problem, and promoting theme to gamer, or admin

- Ability to check a player character (it's separated from users because the table is fairly big) to check inconsistencies and overall the state of the player - (money/gang etc)

- Different kind of log searches (more informations than the users logs)

- Adding game content (locations, in game mini-games, items, virtual shops etc)

- Managing a vote system

- Managing Subscription/support system

The list goes on depending on what you may or may not add to the game, obviously a panel won't cover everything in the game, because some part of it will be hardcoded. But it adds versatility and make the work goes smooth at one point.

It saves a lot of troubles and allows more than one person to work with (this is the case actually we are two working on the game, ie with admin privilege) so if i am busy doing something else my partner will take the step to update parts of the game with it.

There is a stripped down version available for Game Moderators with limited functionality, mostly users management (and the ability to report what was done to who).

Of course it works well if you did some planing first, what will be in the game etc, and then you will have to tweak as the game progresses. It won't work too well if you are not sure what you want for the game and will have to make it later in the process.

An admin panel is not too difficult to make, actually it's just some field to set in the database mostly. But as it's mundane and you have a lot of requesting to database to do (for each thing you add, you need inserts/updates/deletes)  it gets boring very fast so you have to bear with it.

here is some examples of my work (because the game isn't live yet, and i like to hype a little lol, most unimportant things were hidden )







The 2 firsts are the general settings, and what happens when you update them, (note the circling green arrows that is a fast refresh - my panel goes through Ajax)

the third one is the items management, where you can select a category/type of item and sub-menus are automatically populated, the update feature changes depending on the type selected.

I designed it this way people have their ways, it's in no way what people "should" do, i just show how i do it !

edit: changed links in image code

[raestlyn]

Here is an article by codestryke about the admin panels.

[Zeggy]

If you really don't want to do too much work with inserts/updates/deletes, try using the active record library in ADOdb.

As long as the rows you are editing aren't updated constantly, you shouldn't have any concurrency problems. (Or if you have row-locking support, it won't be a problem)

[leZourite]

@Zeggy

Was it to me ? ^^

Well i said it was a burden mostly because (depending of what does the panel of course) there are a lot of forms generally to process and a lot of fields too, thus for each form you have to deal with : empty forms (no warnings/notice) for inserts, updates etc. And when one starts making a game it's not really the most "entertaining" part, actually whatever the project i make an admin panel is always the boring part to do hehe, but that's just me...  ><