Sync Ranks with MySQL

[Chiller252]

This was originally in the Support Board, but it was suggested that it be posted here.
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Forum URL: chillservers.boards.net/

I'm working on quite a daunting project, but I'm passionate about it and I'm motivated to do things that have not been done before. What I'm talking about is this:

I'm trying to sync hierarchical ranks from 4 game servers that are already synced using a MySQL Database with the same users that are on the forums. I can cross-reference user's IP addresses or their Steam ID. (Steam being the platform the games and the user's accounts are handles through).

There is a script to do this with locally hosted forum software, but I can't figure out a way to do it on my own with ProBoards being a remote host. I found a script on Facepunch (Game Froum) to sync ULX/Ulib ranks (Game Ranks) with SMF Forums here: facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1344469

I posted about this on the hierarchical rank system addon's forum here: forums.ulyssesmod.net/index.php/topic,9675.0.html

If this system were to be implemented, this is the effect it will have:

Currently if a user joins one of the game servers and earns a rank - let's say 'admin' - their new rank will be tied to their Steam ID and IP address. If they decide to join any of the other game servers, they will automatically have the same rank 'admin'. I want to take this a step further by also syncing the rank with the forums. Like I said, I have the rank associated with their IP address and Steam ID. If I could somehow query the database when a user logs in on the forums for their IP address or Steam ID and return their rank on the servers, then apply that rank/group to the user automagically.

I'm not sure if this is even possible, but It would be so cool it I can achieve this.

If you have any questions/concerns/need any more information, don't hesitate to reply.

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Also I was pointed towards this post: support.proboards.com/thread/512418/steam-plugin

I do have an API key attached to my Steam account, but I'm lost when introducing the idea of using a proxy. I understand I don't have access to proboards backend, but I still would really love this functionality. I'm willing to put the work in to achieve this effect.

[Peter]

Some info to help you / whoever wants to take this on.

You will need to create an endpoint for the plugin to access the data (in this case the rank).

You don't need to do anything with Steam, as you said you are already storing the Steam ID and server rank in the database.

Steps:

- Create an endpoint for the plugin to access. This endpoint needs to return back the rank (ideally in JSON format).  Support for fetching multiple ranks would be good as well (i.e 1 call in threads vs 1 per post).
- Add a custom profile field for users to enter their Steam ID*
- Plugin uses that field value and requests the rank by passing the field value to your endpoint.
- Plugin then adds the rank to the profile / mini profile

* Steam ID can be awkward to find, so your members will either need to enter their username into an online tool to get their ID, or your endpoint will need to use the Steam API to fetch the ID from the users vanity url so it can query the database using the ID.

It's pretty simple to be honest, but not something I really fancy doing.

Edit: Little bit about IP addresses;  You can't rely on a users IP address being the same each time, some may not have a static IP.  So using that as a condition to fetch the rank could fail.

[Chiller252]

Jun 22, 2016 2:55:13 GMT -8 Peter said:

- Add a custom profile field for users to enter their Steam ID*

I already have Custom Fields for Steam Name and Steam ID for the users to manage, but I imagine if there ever is a Steam Login plugin for Proboards, it would be cool if it automatically retrieved this information and populated the fields.

I created a "Sign in through Steam" plugin request that may be fulfilled one day: support.proboards.com/thread/587621/sign-steam

Little bit about IP addresses; You can't rely on a users IP address being the same each time, some may not have a static IP. So using that as a condition to fetch the rank could fail.

I'm so used to making static ipv4 addresses I forgot that ip addresses change. Yeah, using the Steam ID to query the DB sounds like the best bet.

[chooki]

I'd like to help Chiller252 out but I have a few questions/concerns.

* How would one confirm that both the ProBoards and Steam account belong to the same user?
It seems like it would be tricky to confirm this without any scripts on the back-end.

* How would I go about updating the "Member Group" or "Member Rank" for a forum account?

[Chiller252]

Jun 23, 2016 10:39:33 GMT -8 chooki said:

I'd like to help Chiller252 out but I have a few questions/concerns.

* How would one confirm that both the ProBoards and Steam account belong to the same user?
It seems like it would be tricky to confirm this without any scripts on the back-end.

* How would I go about updating the "Member Group" or "Member Rank" for a forum account?

At the moment without any form of "Sign in through Steam" system it would be tricky to identify whether or not users are actually telling the truth with their Steam ID information. I imagine it would be easy for my high-admins to find instances of people cheating the system and solving it on a case-by-case basis. If I create clear rules that say if users use someone else's steam ID they run the risk of getting banned, I think that would be enough of a deterrent at the moment to avoid any problems with that.

Perhaps running a check to see if the Steam ID is already in use by another user on the forum and denying any duplicates could be a work-around.

Regarding changing a user's primary group, I'm not entirely sure. I thought there was a hook or something that plugin devs could use to do exactly that.

Like I mentioned before, the flags in the url of the group pages can be used to identify which members belong to which groups on the forums to send back to the Database, but I don't know about the other way around.