Demoscene Party Management

Customizing Manual

  1. Customizing PartyNet
  2. Creating content for PartyNet
  3. Changing the navigation-items
  4. Creating Competitions-Slides
  5. Creating SiegMeister-Slides
  6. Modifying the results.txt ASCII
  7. Modifying jingles.xml
  8. Using the configuration-options

1. Customizing PartyNet

PartyNet makes use of themes. The easiest way to add a theme is to copy and renaming the existing theme-folders and then edit the contents of them. The folders are as follows:

  • /_templates/css/theme_<theme_name>/
    There's a style.css in here, which should allow you to modify almost every aspect needed.
  • /_templates/images/theme_<theme_name>/
    In here are all the images used by this theme, such as the bullets for the links and of course the logos.
  • /_templates/html/shared/theme_<theme_name>/
    Here are the header- and footer-files used by PartyNet. Changing these will affect every page.
Of course there are many many html-files, but you shouldn't have to change these, because every change you may want to make can most likely be done in the style.css.

In order to use your theme, you'll have to register your theme in /_config/config.inc.php:
// Theme Support
$__CONFIG["themes"]["themes"] = "theme_blue,theme_green"; // installed
$__CONFIG["themes"]["default"] = "theme_green"; // default
Just add your theme there and activate it by setting the default theme to your newly created one.

2. Creating content for PartyNet

PartyNet uses an own template engine, the "parser".
To edit an existing page, all you have to do is to change the files inside /_templates/html/.
Every php-file as a corresponding html-file there.

The easiest way to add new content, is to copy and rename an existing php-file and the corresponding html-file.
If you have done this, you'll have to modify the newly created php-file slightly. A php-file that calls a page with static content, should look like below. The things you need to change are colored red.
<?php
require_once("_system/core.inc.php"); plStartPage("nocache");
require_once(path."/_shared/global.inc.php");

$globalParser->openFile(tpath."/html/partyplace.html");

$pageName = "The Partyplace";
plSetPageInfo($titleTemplate.$pageName, $pageName, "General", true);

renderBoxes("standard");

plParsePage();
plEndPage();
?>

3. Changing the navigation-items

The navigation-items can be changed in /_shared/navigation.php. There's an php-array for the main navigation-items called $__NAV. Every subnavigation-items has an array called $__SUBNAV["<name_of_the_main_navigation_name>"]. Additionally, you'll have to specify the width of the subnavigation-menu. This is done with the $__SUBNAV_INFO array.
The code below should make everything clear:

// Main Navigation
$__NAV = array(
	"Home" 			=> "index.php",
	"General" 		=> "house_rules.php",
	"Party Information" 	=> "register.php",
	"Compos" 		=> "compos_general.php",
	"My Party" 		=> "sec_myparty.php",
	"Misc" 			=> "misc_bigscreen.php",
	"Contact" 		=> "contact.php"
);

// Subnavigation "Misc"
$__SUBNAV["Misc"] = array(
	"Article: the bigscreen" 	=> "misc_bigscreen.php",
	"Article: music encoding" 	=> "misc_musicencoding.php",
	"Banners"			=> "banners.php",
	"Partynet Information" 		=> "partynet.php",
);
$__SUBNAV_INFO["Misc"] = array(
	"Width" 			=> 160
);

4. Creating Competitions-Slides

This is the most difficult part of customizing PartyMeister, although you won't have to edit much, if you'll stick to the provided slide-templates.
You need the following files in /<shared_folder>/mediapool/templates/slidemeister/

  • compo_start.jpg
    This one is the "Coming-Up" slide. The appearance is determined by the function smRenderCompoSupportSlide();

  • compo_now.jpg
    This one is the "Compo-NOW" slide. The appearance is determined by the function smRenderCompoSupportSlide();

  • compo_end.jpg
    This one is the "End of Competition" slide. The appearance is determined by the function smRenderCompoSupportSlide();

  • compo_participants.jpg
    This one is the "Participants" slide. This one is needed, if you have anonymous competitions. The appearance is determined by the function smRenderCompoSupportSlide();

  • compo_prizegiving.jpg
    This one is the "Prizegiving" slide. The appearance is determined by the function smRenderCompoSupportSlide();

  • compo.jpg
    This one is the template for all competition-entry slides and by far the most work ahead of you. The appearance is determined by the function smRenderCompoSlide();

  • timetable.jpg
    This one is the template for all timetable-related slides. The appearance is determined by the function smRenderTimetable();

  • announce.jpg
    This one is the template for all the slides, that you generate via OrgaNet > Beamsystem > Slides. The sample announce.jpg is inside <shared_folder>/mediapool/video/SlideBG/.
    Just replace it and, if necessary, change the safe-area (see OrgaNet-Manual for further information).

  • welcome.png
    This is the staring screen for BOOBS, if there is no playlist running.
    It's inside <shared_folder>/mediapool/boobs/. Just replace it.

Now that you know where everything is, you'll probably want to know HOW you change the appearance :) To do that, we use a class called SlideMeister. Please click here for a thorough demonstration.
All slide-generation functions reside in OrgaNet /_admin/_shared/sm_slidemeister.inc.php and are nicely documented.

The color of the different timetable-categories can be edited in OrgaNet "Partysystem > Timetable > Manage Timetable-Categories".

If you want to use different fonts than the ones provided, just copy your TTF-fonts over to /<shared_folder>/mediapool/boobs/fonts/

Finally, if you want to test the modifications to your slides, point your browser to http://orga.party/_admin/sm_slide_tests.php

Notice: You'll have to port your changes to sm_slidemeister.inc.php in PartyNet /_shared/functions/sm_slidemeister.inc.php to create a valid Beamslide preview for your visitors!

5. Creating SiegMeister-Slides

You can customize SiegMeister by modifying template.xml in <shared_folder>/mediapool/templates/siegmeister/.
Additionally, you can change the background-image by replacing background.png. If you want to animate something, you can specify 8 frames of animation (ani_01.png to ani_08.png).
There are two sound-files that you can change, too. dotz.wav is the sound for an entry, that drops out of the race for the first place. fanfare.wav plays after the first place has been determined.

6. Modifying the results.txt ASCII

The template for the results ASCII can be found in <shared_folder>/mediapool/templates/pm_votes_ascii.txt. At the moment there's only support for changing the header. But you can always edit your results.txt after it has been generated :) We will add more customizing with later releases.

7. Modifying jingles.xml

BOOBS can play your jingles by pressing the F-Keys. Just modify the jingles.xml in <shared_folder>/mediapool/boobs/ and put your .wav files in <shared_folder>/mediapool/audio/mp3/.

That's it :)

8. Using the configuration-options

Many options can (and must) be edited and toggled on/off in the PartyMeister configuration table. You can access it in OrgaNet "Administration > Configuration".
Some of them don't need to be changed. In fact, changing them might break something :)
Here's a list of the options you may change. Please stick to them for the moment:

Name Function Options
party_start Starting day of your Party Date
(YYYY-MM-DD)
party_end Ending day of your Party Date
(YYYY-MM-DD)
voting_deadline Voting Deadline :) Date
(YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM)
voting_style Determines the type of voting. in "tUM" style you can vote for every entry individually with points ranging from -1 (SUCKS) to 5 (RULEZ). In "classic" style, you can choose the best three entries from every competition. tUM/classic
generate_timetable_slides Switch to 1 for Timetable-Slide-Generation, 0 for testing purposes. 0/1
generate_results Generate results.txt and copy it to the PartyNet for download 0/1
foodwave_limit Sets the number of orders allowed for a FoodWave before it closes down. Any number
download_method Sets the download-method for the releases. Allowed options are HTTP and FTP HTTP/FTP
show_timetable Show Timetable in Partynet 0/1
show_results Show results in Partynet 0/1
myparty_seminars Toggle the display of "Seminars" on the "My Party"-page 0/1
myparty_foodorders Toggle the display of "FoodOrders" on the "My Party"-page 0/1


What is it?

PartyMeister is a complete intranet and beamsystem solution for Demoparties. Click here to get a general overview.

Who uses it?

Originally developed for the Ultimate Meeting, PartyMeister has been used at Breakpoint 2005/2006 and many other parties.
Read more about our users here!

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