Administration of the High Score Lists

Administration of the High Score Lists

The name of the administration tool we use for the high score lists is UberScore Administrator. This tool gives you a lot of control over the lists. It allows you to perform the following administrative duties:

• Create an unlimited number of high score lists.


• Give each list a name and configure certain properties differently for each.


• Set one list to consider lower scores to be better, and another list to have higher scores be better.


• Limit the number of scores displayed.


• Set a score list to accept only one score from a person, or to accept many. (If you set it to accept just one, then it will accept another only if it is better than that user's current score.)


• Delete a user.


• Edit the information about a high score list (sort order, number of scores, name of list).

In order for a person to be able to submit a score, that person must be a registered player. We will show you how to register (or create) a player later.

ON THE CD
Assuming that you have a Windows server up and properly running, take the entire hs directory that's in the Chapter10 directory on the CD and upload it to your Windows server. Remember the URL of this directory�we'll call it the "score URL."

Go to the score URL in your Web browser. You should see these two links: Administer Users and Administer Scoreboards. Click the Administer Users link. At this point you have not created any users, but you will see a couple of "test" users I created so that you can learn what the Administrator looks like with real data. When there are user names in the system, you will see letters at the top that are links that correspond to the first letters of those names. For instance, if the user "Frank" is in the system, then you will see the letter F at the top. You can click the F to view all of the users whose names start with F. You can delete a user, if you wish, by clicking the Delete link next to the user's name. That's about all you need to know about administering users.

Click the Back to UberScore Administrator link. From there, click Administer Scoreboards to enter the Board Administrator area. A scoreboard is the same thing as a high score list. You have not created any yet, so you probably won't see any in a list on this page. However, if I left one in the database from testing, feel free to delete it; in any case, you'll see in this area that you can edit, clear, or delete any existing scoreboard. You can create a new scoreboard by clicking the Create New Board link. You are presented with five configurable fields:

Board Name.
I recommend using the name of your game here.

Return Count.
The number you insert here is the maximum number of scores that will be returned in the high score list. A number between about 50 and 100 is typical.

Multiple Scores Per User.
This is a drop-down list that lets you choose Yes or No. If you choose Yes, then any person can have an unlimited number of scores in the list. If you choose No, then a person can have only one score at a time.

Only Insert If Better.
This field also lets you choose either Yes or No. If Yes, then a person's score will be inserted only if it is better than a score he or she already has in the list. This works in conjunction with the Multiple Scores Per User field. If a user has opted to have multiple scores, then of course it doesn't matter if the score is better or worse. If the user can have only one score, and Insert Only If Better is set to Yes, then the user's score can be replaced by a better score, but not a worse score. If Insert Only If Better is set to No and Multiple Scores Per User is set to Yes, then every time the user gets a score, it will replace the current score, even if it is worse.

Sort Order.
The choices here are Ascending and Descending. If you choose Descending, that means a higher score is better, so the scores will be listed from highest to lowest. If you choose Ascending, then a lower score is better, and the scores will be sorted from lowest to highest.

As you have seen, with this administration tool you can view or delete users, as well as manage the scoreboards. What you cannot do with this tool is create (or register) users, log in, or submit scores. Those are done directly from the game, and we'll talk about them in the next section.