Settings Questions


What is the "Default Display?"
This is pretty simple. If display.cgi does recieve any information concerning which scores to display, what scores should be displayed? If you want the first 10 to be displayed, you'd input "1-10" without the quotes.


What is "How often to clear normal scores?"
This option allows you to tell the script how often to clear the normal scores. You may not to want to clear the normal scores ever. In that case, just set this option to 0.


What is "Check this box to update this using the new time interval?"
This option allows refers to the time of the next clearing of the normal scores. If this box is unchecked, that time will stay the same. If you check this box, the time will be changed using the information that you entered into "How often to clear the normal scores." Say that the next time for clearing is "under 29 days." If you check this box and set "How often to clear the normal scores" to 5. The next clearing time will change from "under 29 days" to "under 5 days."


What is this "Generated INI" thing?
This option allows you to have the UHSD create an INI file containing the number of normal and all-time scores specified. If you set the fields to 0, no INI file will be created. The reason for this option is that a nice and neat generated INI file is much easier to use than the normal scores.dat file. In addition, to access the scores.dat file, you'd have to change the permissions, giving anyone access to the file. Although, the INI file generated (which is called scores.ini and which is located in the same directory as scores.dat) is accessible by anyone, the security codes will not be in the INI file, so the file will not be much help to potential hackers. The INI file will follow this general format:

[entrynumber]
fieldname=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
[entrynumber]
fieldname=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
[aentrynumberforall-timescore]
fieldname=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
[aentrynumberforall-timescore]
fieldname=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue
fieldname
=fieldvalue

There will be a fieldname=fieldvalue for every field that you have (except for the security code). There will be a [entrynumber] for each entry and a [aentrynumber] for each all-time entry.

So, one INI file may look like this:

[0]
score=21562
player=Matt
ip=192.168.0.3
date=3/22/2001 2:03 PM EST
[1]
score=20010
player=Mike
ip=127.127.15.6
date=3/28/2001 4:26 PM EST
[a0]
score=9873210
player=Matt
ip=192.168.5.78
date=1/13/2001 5:16 AM EST
[a1]
score=8732160
player=Carl
ip=254.123.5.28
date=12/29/2001 1:36 PM EST

If you're still having problems, you can check out one of the example file on my web site.


What is the HTML Filter?
This one is pretty simple. If you check this box, any entries added to the high score list will be strppied of any HTML that may appear in any of the fields.


What is do the time settings do?
The time on your server may not be the same time as you want. You can adjust the time to what you want by adding a certain number of hours to the server time (you can use negative numbers to subtract hours) to sychronize it with your desired time. The time zone field allows you to name your time zone. This just lets your users know what time zone they are seeing times from.


What are Anti-Duplication Modes, and why would I use them?
As secure as this script is, it still has some vulnerabilities. One is that a user can continually re-submit a score that he/she has attained. To stop this, I have added three Anti-Duplication Modes:

  1. None-This will allow all scores that pass the security check.
  2. No Duplicate Scores-This option does not allow scores that already exist, even if the user is different and if the score is legitamate. I would only recommend this if you have problems with people resubmitting scores or if you have a game where duplicate scores are unlikely.
  3. No Duplicate Security Codes-This option will not allow scores with the same secuity code. In fact, it will not allow different scores with the same security code, which shouldn't matter anyway. This mode is useful because it allows you to add randomness into your security code. For more information on this, check out the duplication.txt file.

What is "Page to display after score has been added?"
After a score is added, the script needs to know what page to display. By default, it will display thanks.html, but you may not want this, so you may eneter what ever page you'd like. Fell free to use any page (you can use http://www.bumderland.com/index.html, if you want).


What is "Allowed Referers" for?
The referer check checks to see the address from which the user accessed the add script contains one of the possible texts from the "Allowed Referers" list. You will likely not use this as games usually do not register as referers. To disengage the referer check, simply leave the field empty.


Back to Index