Games Admin

Activating the Games feature

The Games feature is activated on the Admin > Features page (tiki-admin.php?page=features). To enable the feature, check (tick) the box for Games and click Change preferences.

As of Tiki 1.9.7, this feature hasn't been actively maintained and seems to have lost some functionality as Tiki has evolved. Specifically, the web-based game upload form apparently doesn't work properly, and the game description isn't saved or displayed. However, if games are uploaded with ftp, the feature can be used normally except that there will be no description text for each game.

The games section can be accessed from the application menu and it will display the available games as in this screen:

To administer Games, go to Main Menu and click on the "Games" menu.

Games configuration

There are no configuration options for this feature. Once it is activated and the necessary files uploaded, it can be used.

Permissions

Permission to play games must be assigned. Like other Tiki permissions, access to the Games feature is given on a group basis. To enable users to play the games, the appropriate permission — tiki_p_play_games — must be given to a Tiki user group on the Admin > Groups page (tiki-admingroups.php) (see Permissions). To allow a group to administer the Games feature, the permission tiki_p_admin_games should be given to that group.

Management of games

Users with permission to admin games can upload new games and remove games. (The game description editing/uploading doesn't seem to work so should be ignored for now.) Tiki maintains stats of the number of times each game is played and automatically displays games from the most-played to the least-played. Games are stored in the "games" directory so users may download the binary game if they want.

Adding new games

The upload screen (tiki-list_games.php?uploadform=1) seems to be nonfunctional at this time, so games can be added to the site by uploading them directly to the games directory (ftp, etc.). For each game there are normally three files: the binary (.swf), the description (.txt) and the thumbnail (.gif or .jpg — .png not tested but may work). (Normally, if a description file isn't uploaded, it can be edited later within Tiki, but as of Tiki 1.9.7, this edit isn't being saved.)

Upload screen previously used to add games (currently out of order):

Game and thumbnail file formats and upload directory locations

The upload form indicates "Flash binary (.sqf or .dcr)". The .sqf format is FreeMotion Flash Movie (Namo Inc.), and .dcr is a Shockwave Movie (Macromedia Inc.) file. Maybe these were more common when this feature was created, but .swf ( Macromedia Flash Movie) files work fine.

For a game named foo.swf:

• Copy/transfer foo.swf to games/flash/
• Copy/transfer foo.swf.gif or foo.swf.jpg to games/thumbs/
• Copy/transfer foo.swf.txt to games/thumbs/ (Not functional at this time so this step can be skipped.)

• Games (overview)
• Games User (user information)
• Games Details (technical details regarding Flash games, etc.)