Cool dynamic sig (my own)

**Drumstix42** · #1 01-22-2005, 12:44 AM

Check this out

I got my php signature code from the eq2 forums and molded it how I liked, slapped in a background image, and woot. My site picture links to my site, and my eq2 picture links to my alts. Whatta think?

Quib · #2 01-22-2005, 12:47 AM

Well isn't that snazzy...

Count me as jealous.

Quib

**Drumstix42** · #3 01-22-2005, 12:48 AM

The text is all white (for some reason it's not cooperating with me), but it's acctually making it transparent, so to see it better, switch to the light style on the forums

insomniac · #4 01-22-2005, 04:39 AM

i want one!
If i remember correctly that site wasnt english.. so .. linky?
oh and i suck at php so some instuctions would be nice

it looks like dos...

tonyis3l33t · #5 01-22-2005, 10:04 AM

wow thats great, now teach us how ya did it heheh
________
AngyStrip4U cam

**Drumstix42** · #6 01-22-2005, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by insomniac

i want one!
If i remember correctly that site wasnt english.. so .. linky?
oh and i suck at php so some instuctions would be nice

it looks like dos...

Pffft, I didn't use a site generator, lol. Only used the code to pull the data from the site, the rest is my doing.

If you wanted instructions, you would have to have a host that has PHP and GD support. Unless you got me to host it for you.... hehe.

Basically the code pulls the data and assigns them to different data variables...

$traits_a[x] where x is a number
$guild_a[x]
...and...
$attr_a[x]

Then I just used what PHP knowledge I had of creating dynamic images, placed it where I wanted and voila.

I asked, and attempting to pull data from the Achievements page, I could care less about showing my attributes, but I decided to fill some space

All I have to do is open the file, and change the playerId to change what shows up, but what is on there right now is my main, and click the pic links to my alts page. So all is well.

**Drumstix42** · #7 01-22-2005, 05:03 PM

Updated. I figured out how to get the data from the achievements page too. Woot woot.

*edit* Oh yeah, it didn't like my BG picture before I think cause it had layers, so I'll stick with simple bg, and replace logo with text.

**Drumstix42** · #8 02-01-2005, 09:11 AM

I discovered my problem with background images and color, in that it was only when I used a GIF, and used the PHP gif functions. They still worked, but text was all in white. It works great with JPEGs though. So hopefully I can come up with a more creative background. I really like Humudce's BG

Humudce · #9 02-01-2005, 12:18 PM

I actually have 2 different backgrounds that I use. I tried to do a Merge File but it doesn't work with Gif files so I did 2 different backgrounds and change them depending on the Alignment of my Guild Members for example.

**Drumstix42** · #10 02-03-2005, 09:55 PM

Fonts are fun!

Did a little more modifying to my sig now. To better see the difference.

Here's the old one:

And the new:

*reload the page if both don't show*

0ctavius · #11 02-04-2005, 04:14 PM

This is not terribly difficult to accomplish. I acctually wrote my own signature generator from scratch and added some other features.

Namely I was tired of having to parse data from the eq2players website all the time, so I had it update an entry in a database instead, with a timestamp. If the data in the db is more than 4 hours old, it grabs the data from eq2players again, and updates the database.

The image I generate is then always pulled from my database. This reduces how many reads and parses have to be done from eq2players, as well as adds fault tolerance (in the event eq2player is down, my script will just use the database data without updating) I then added a feature that allows it to dynamically use a different background image based on what the user wants (passing a variable) and if the one they choose doesn't exist it will automatically use a default background image...

Another idea that I may add to my next version is the ability to instead put your personal stats (health, defense, etc...) in a tooltip for the image (alt attribute) instead of in the image itself.

Of course this would all be super easy if they just went ahead and added xml data to eq2players so we can get the data pure without having to parse it from an html page...

taco-man · #12 02-04-2005, 06:06 PM

ecellent work 0ctavius! any plans on releasing it to the public?

**Drumstix42** · #13 02-04-2005, 06:24 PM

I've had that idea since the begining of this discovery... but I haven't done much research on doing it. Having a database isn't a problem in my case though, have a phpBB forums at my site. But it is a good way of doing it. I wonder if it states somewhere when the stats get updated... It seems the player page gets updated much faster than the achievements page. And even longer would be the history of when and where you level'd up.

wdavis111 · #14 02-04-2005, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drumstix42

Check this out

I got my php signature code from the eq2 forums and molded it how I liked, slapped in a background image, and woot. My site picture links to my site, and my eq2 picture links to my alts. Whatta think?

Drumstix42... I've searched for a while now on the SOE forums site and can't find the source code for all this... can you be more specific? Thanks!

**Drumstix42** · #15 02-04-2005, 11:52 PM

It was in EverQuest II : The Help Desk : EQ2Players

topic was called somethign like Integrating EQ2 roster

there's a zip in the first posts, comes with guild roster code, and player code, the rest is for you to figure out

0ctavius · #16 02-05-2005, 11:08 AM

I will release a version that for the public soon. I have gotten a lot of requests for it. To be honest it is not completely dynamic in that some things like the guild id is hardcoded. I need to move it to the config file or even pass it as a variable before moving forward. Then I have a few small things to add to make something I am happy enough with to release to the public...

here is an example:
http://eq2.obsidian-aegis.com/script...9203&img=panel

**Drumstix42** · #17 02-05-2005, 12:15 PM

Yeah but stuff like that, using the PHP extension, you can't use that on all boards. That's why I use the GIF extension and use an HTACCESS file to let file be read as PHP.

Humudce · #18 02-05-2005, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 0ctavius

I will release a version that for the public soon. I have gotten a lot of requests for it. To be honest it is not completely dynamic in that some things like the guild id is hardcoded. I need to move it to the config file or even pass it as a variable before moving forward. Then I have a few small things to add to make something I am happy enough with to release to the public...

here is an example:
http://eq2.obsidian-aegis.com/script...9203&img=panel

Wow looks nice...

zoriouz · #19 02-05-2005, 02:06 PM

yeah it does!

ger · #20 02-15-2005, 11:24 AM

Another question: is there any way to force GD to add a stroke to the text? Working on a personalized theme, but I need a stroke around the text (outline) for it to show up legibly.

**Drumstix42** · #21 02-15-2005, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ger

Another question: is there any way to force GD to add a stroke to the text? Working on a personalized theme, but I need a stroke around the text (outline) for it to show up legibly.

I highly doubt it. There's some texts out there with stroke on them already, if you can find any good ones

ger · #22 02-15-2005, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drumstix42

I highly doubt it. There's some texts out there with stroke on them already, if you can find any good ones

Hm…guess I should start looking into making my own stroked font.

Can't be that much harder than the other font work I've done.

Degolas · #23 02-15-2005, 12:50 PM

sweet it's working

Thx for all the help. btw why it doesn't always show up here when i reply even if i check the "show sig" when i reply...

ger · #24 02-15-2005, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Degolas

sweet it's working

Thx for all the help. btw why it doesn't always show up here when i reply even if i check the "show sig" when i reply...

Dolby has the forums set to only display sigs once per page to decrease load/scroll times.

godsfshrmn · #25 05-13-2005, 06:54 PM

Hey guys I have been working out the bugs on my sig generator in the past few weeks and it is now working pretty well. Its only been up for about two weeks and already have over 100 people sign up. I am using it right now in my signature, and there are random example sigs on the website.

http://www.eqsig.com

EDIT: for some reason this got merged w/ this post, which was totally a different service. remotely hosted and i have wrote my own code