ShrimpWorks

Update 14 April 2013:

This project hasn’t been maintained or updated since original release. It’s possible it still works out-the-box with an appropriate PHP configuration, however your mileage may vary. It’s still here mostly for archival and reference purposes.

A userbar is a small image (350x19) typically used in the ‘signatures’ of forum (the phpBB, vBulletin, etc type) users, to show their support for software, hardware, food, pretty much anything.

DynaBar adds another dimension to userbars, as it generates them dynamically from plugins (a small PHP script which determines the text displayed on the userbar).

This allows users to show all kinds of real-time information in their userbar signature images, such as game statistics, weather, their currently playing song, random texts, etc, etc.

Features

• Userbar content is completely dynamic, and can be generated from information available in real-time.
• All content is provided via a simple plugin system, plugins are easy to create and can return any information, and gather that information from any source.
• Complete interactive userbar designer, allowing users to create their own userbars quickly and easily, using any available plugins, and a host of visual options. As you work, a preview is updated so you see the results of your changes instantly. Cross-browser compatible.
• Once generated, userbars are cached (each plugin can define it’s own cache timeout), saving bandwidth and server resources.
• Userbar browser, showig all userbars created with DynaBar, and presenting simple HTML and Forum cut-and-paste code.
• Ability for users to create animated/rotating userbar “groups”. String multiple userbars into a single animated one, still maintaining its dynamic DynaBar content.
• No database or other advanced back-ends required.
• Simple setup - dump the scripts onto your server, set some directory permissions, and you’re ready to go. No direct server access or administrative interaction required.
• PHP 4 and PHP 5 compatible. (individual plugins may have more specific requirements).
• Suitable for installations on community websites, as an extra ‘service’ for users. Plugins are simple enough to enable webmasters to create custom content for their community/site quickly and easily.

Default plugins

These plugins are part of the default DynaBar 2 installation. If you’ve created a plugin and would like linkage, please leave a comment.

• Battlefield 2 - Fetches various player stats directly from the Battlefield 2 stats servers.
• Fortune - When running on a Linux or BSD server with the fortune application installed, can generate random furtunes.
• Hamachi - Displays the status of a Hamachi user (http://hamachi.cc/)
• QStat - When running on a Linux server with the Quakestat application installed, can show various live game-server stats, including current map, player load, server name and IP.
• Quotes - Randomly chooses from 10 user-defined plain-text quotes/messages.
• RSS - Display the latest headline from a valid RSS feed. PHP5 only.
• LastFM (Scrobbler) - Show the most recently played music track of a LastFM user. (http://last.fm/)
• LastFM Artist Sloganizer - Choose from a LastFM user’s top 10 artists and Sloganize it.
• Sloganizer - Uses the Sloganizer service/website to randomly generate a custom slogan (http://www.sloganizer.net/en/)
• User Spy (Spy) - Displays various information about the user viewing the userbar. Will tell a person their IP, browser and operating system.
• Text - Show a plain-text user-defined string.
• TrackMania - Can show the global or national rank, and score of a TrackMania player. (http://www.trackmanianations.com/)
• Uptime - When run on a Linux/BSD/Unix server, will show the server’s uptime.
• XFire - Get information from an XFire user’s profile. Uses code from http://customsigs.free.fr/ to collect the profile data. (http://www.xfire.com/)

Demo

Check out the demo. Browser and group creator.

Please only use this demo installation as a test for creating userbars and exploring DynaBar features and functionality. Don’t link to images created here from forum signatures or similar. Thanks.

Download

Download DynaBar 2.

See the included README in the “docs” directory for additional installation and usage information.