as you can see from the before and after it makes quite a nice effect

Here are some of the things I have learned.

Undefined index (action).

This is located for your "switch" function. In order to call a specific part of the file to run. Depending on the type of action you are calling you could use:

$_GET['action'] = isset($_GET['action'])  && ctype_alpha($_GET['action']) ? $_GET['action'] : null;

when the ***.php?action= only uses letters

You can use

$_GET['action'] = isset($_GET['action'])  && ctype_alnum($_GET['action']) ? $_GET['action'] : null;

for when you need to use both letters and number values

or

$_GET['action'] = isset($_GET['action'])  && ctype_digit($_GET['action']) ? $_GET['action'] : null;

For only numbers

ALOT of undefined functions are found in this line:

global $ir,$c,$userid, $db;

These are queries located in the global files. So if for instance you are trying to call $ir but your global line does not contain $ir you might get a undefined function. Simply by adding $ir to the global line can fix this in most cases. I have found $db and $h are the most common functions left out of the global line. $h is mostly to end a page, while $db is used to define the mysql or mysqli engine. They $c variable is included in a lot of the mods you will find, but basically is no longer used in the most recent version of McCodes.

Using arrays over a single variable can add a wider range of functionality and choices for your members. They are no longer stuck to only one way, black & white. Now there are grey areas where a member can choose their route over a time way road.

Code example thanks to [uSER=70347]NonStopCoding[/uSER]

if(in_array($r['itmtype'],array(15,19,33)))

Adding an item to users inventory, you would use

 item_add(*userid*,*itemID*,*quantity*);

Removing an item from inventory

item_remove(*userid*,*itemID*,*quantity*);

Sending an event

event_add(*userid*,*message*);

Restrictions based on time - thanks to [uSER=70574]TheMasterGeneral[/uSER]

require('globals.php');
$endtime=140000000;
$starttime=130000000;
$currenttime=time();
if ($endtime < $currenttime)
{
//nope
}

Delete logs after 24 hours - Thanks to [uSER=70574]TheMasterGeneral[/uSER]

$Time=time();
$DeleteTime=$Time-86400; //86400 is 24 hours
$db->query("DELETE FROM `your_logs_table` WHERE `timestamp` <= {$DeleteTime}");

I'm curious as the what are the most common questions you see asked. As in relation to a new mod install and configuration into McCodes general details. Many mods have questions specific to just themselves. I'd like to keep this as a universal thread so we don't confuse readers with details unrelated to them. (such as myself!, lol)

https://www.owasp.org/index.php/XSS_Filter_Evasion_Cheat_Sheet

Click controls to see the filters and security options for them as well.

And when in doubt just block em out!

I check my awstats regularly to find out some important info on my visitors. First, the refer. Don't know the refer? google them. if they come off spammy. block that refer (.htaccess if nothing else). Had a recent injection? View your latest visitors to that specific page (assuming you know where the injection came form. Filter through the ips, and whois them. Then decide if you want to cdir or simply block that single ip. And do not forget to block AWS Amazon web service. They are mutterfutters for real! Amazon sells various crawlers (like a search engine crawlers) that basically let someone crawl anonymously as a test drive.

Amazon full cdir as published by amazon at http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-ip-ranges.html

Any thoughts on this would greatly help the community i think?

Okay guys, some basic mods you can do really easy to make your game more fun for your users!

In gym you should make it possible to gain more stats based on luck!

How do we do this? Simple!

add a simple if statment with a rand();

Why would this be fun for your users? Well maybe they get sick of seenig the same value every time they train?!

Giving them a chance to get more stats out of luck strives players to train more!

Jobs!

The standard jobs in mccodes requires nothing but stats.

Add something along the lines of active time (in game time)

say if they want to be a manager at said job, they would have to be active for 4 hours in game a day!

Energy Refills!

What if sometimes a player got it for free while doing things in the game?

Say idk, while mailing someone? they get a free energy refill!

Simple stuff like this keeps players in the game longer and thus makes a more active game.

Simple mini games!

One of the better mini games is tag "your it".

This wouldn't be hard to set up at all!

With very minimal coding needed

no more than 20 lines and you could have a nice little game going on.

Post some of your idea's below.

If any of them look really fun i'll help code them up! (nothing too advanced as i suck!)

Ive been working on a test site recently which will contribute to a game I will be making soon.

However I don't feel im completely ready and confident with mccodes so I need someone to help me

Here and there with functions etc. Ive left my Skype below for you all. :)

Thanks in advance!

Skype: jamesrage4

Okay guys, I was wondering if any of you could teach me the basics of coding please?

It would be great if someone teaches me, I will really appreciate it. Please some people don't be mean to me, I see other post were people are mean, and I don't like it when people are mean upsets my feeling.

Thanks.

~The Phantom~

I wanted to know, if someone could re-direct me to a forum thread explaining how to remove all use of your Crons to Timestamps?

On a side note, is there any actual difference other then the obvious one?

Thanks.

I am looking to change brave into a percentage, Can anyone tell me how to do this please?

Thank you.

I would like to give MCCodes developers a useful tip.

How many times haven't you missed a $h->endpage(); initialization? I know I have had my fair share of times.

When it comes to output buffering for template systems, it's really a nuisance to work with.

So, I've come up with a hack for it...

MCCodes uses a class named headers for all it's templating needs, and using a bit of OOP knowledge one can automatically "close" a script that doesn't have the endpage() initialization present.

It's called a destructor. It executes automatically every time the class is destroyed, or in human terms, when the script has finished executing.

One can simply place the endpage() initialization in there, with a logical statement, so that you never get caught of guard by it again.

So here's a little bit of code that could make your life easier... It works on all versions of MCCodes, to my knowledge that is.

<?php

class headers {

  // simple $h->endpage missing fix 
  private $page_closed = false;

  function __destruct() {
     if (empty($this->page_closed)) 
        $this->endpage();

     return true;
  }

// the rest of the script

  function endpage() {
     global $db,$c,$userid, $set,$ir;


     $this->page_closed = true;

     // rest of code
 }
} // end of headers{}

It might be useful to some, and not to others.

But I just thought I would share this age old hack.

Spudinski.

Am i missing somthing here ????

SPREADSHEETS:

I use spreadsheets when ever possible to keep my knowledge of a game at an advantage. so how does a Spreadsheet help ?

well if i was to Categorise my Spreadsheet usage and show how it works maybe it could help others with their game plan....

1 = create a spreadsheet for weapons and items listing their cost and usage also add how many people use certain weapons items this will help you understand which items/wepaons are not being used and ones that er beig used more than others and will give you a better response on which items/weapons need asjusting for game play..

2 = Create a speadsheet for your users which displays how many days they spend on your game which page they visit more than others and more than anything if the player is able to help another player with a forum question. you may find this daunting but doing so will give you a better idea of new potential staff too employ.

3 = create a spreadsheet for every area in your game this will enable you to understand which pages are being used more than others and how long a user stays on any particular page.

4 = create a spreadsheet for all mods youve applied to your game and where possible allow the script to inform you of user activity. If a mod in a game isnt being used as much as another then maybe that mod is in need of an update and where pages are being used more than others this doesnt mean that page is doing well but maybe a money spinner for players...

We will mainly cover common types of phrase errors, or more widely known as syntax errors. Here are a few errors and examples on how to fix them.

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING

This will be the most common of syntax errors. There is no "absolute" reason why this may happen, but I'll mention a few it might occur.

1. You might have forgotten to end a line with a semi-colon, usually just check these first.

2. An unclosed quote( ' or " ) or bracket( } or ] ), meaning that the function, variable or statement was not ended correctly.

3. Unclosed comments are one of my favorites for this error, make sure you open and close your comments correctly.

It is possible for this error to point to the same line that the error actually is, but mostly it is further up in the script(usually one line).

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING

This error goes hand to hand with the previous one, but usually only 1. applies. A missing quote is usually the mistake.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end

The main culpret for this errors are curley brackets( expecially } ). Make sure each statement, whether it be a function, if-else statement, switches or loops, is closed with a curley bracket.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting ‘,’ or ‘;’

This may be casued by not escaping quotes correctly, or simply forgetting to end the statement with a semi-colon.

This could also be because of a missing join character ( , or . ). Check for this when you are joining variables and strings together.

Refer to the first solution for more information.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING

Usually a using the ` character in my experiance. But it could also appear when you do not escape quotes, or missed closing a quote. Mainly just incorrect usage of quotes now that I think of it.

The best advice I can give anyone who experiances a lot of syntax/phrase errors is to do yourself the plesure of buying a decent PHP IDE(Integrated Development Environment). A good paid one is Zend Studio by Zend, but if you are on the short bit of life NetBeans by Sun which will do the job just as good.

If anyone experiances any other phrase/syntax errors, please post them here and I will add the solution to them in this thread.

Explain.

THANKS FOR THE HELP IN ADVANCE!

So, what i would imagine of course you have your basic post or get data, the function would be easily added to pages, and it has to do everything in one! For your data, You would have something like:

$_POST['data'];

Right? Yes.

So what would simplify adding security would be to put the variable into a "Master Secure" function of sorts, something like:

MasterSecure($_POST['data']);

instead of

$_POST['data'];

(replace completely with it inside of mastersecure)

Now we are getting somewhere!

But you may think, how will you make it work for strings, integers and such properly? Well, that's where PHP coding comes in :)

You would first write your function, of course. It would have to be in header.php or your global data, i would recommend globals because it can be included in login.php/register.php without issues.

SO, what we need to do is make the variable you added carry into the function:

function MasterSecure($var_to_be_cleaned)
{
}

So there, now every time you call the function, it will carry your $post or $get INTO IT for cleaning. So now that its going in, how do we know what to clean it with if we don't know what data type it is? Well that's where the BRAIN FART comes in, im not much with those PHP functions off the top of my head, but i know someone is. I could look them up right now but don't know what they're called! But don't worry, PHP is powerful, i know it can be done, and i know its something simple.

So now your function receives your post/get, and checks what data type it is. Now comes the part where you add the IF statements.

function MasterSecure($var_to_be_cleaned){

/* Here you check for the datatype so you can decide which if statement to put it through. */

//Use string cleaners, such as strip_tags.
if(data type is string) {
$var_to_be_cleaned = strip_tags('$var_to_be_cleaned'); //I believe it should have the '' around it.
print $var_to_be_cleaned;
}

else if(data type is integer){
$var_to_be_cleaned = abs($var_to_be_cleaned);
print $var_to_be_cleaned;
}
/*Your variable is then spit back out of the function and into your script, cleaned and ready to go! */

}

So there we have it, a hopefully working master securer, working for all versions of mccodes.

BELOW: I will be keeping track of the actual function in a script box and will be adding/modifying as i get new posts.

function msecure($var) {

if(is_int($var)) {

print abs(intval($var));

}

else if(is_string($var)

print mysql_real_escape_string($var);

}

else{ print "Warning - Invalid Data"; }

}								

So, for our first technique, its pretty simple. Say we want to make sure a variable (in this case $var) is a positive number. We would do the following....

<?php
  $var = 1; // Will Turn out true    $var2 = -1; // False   $var2 = abs((int) $var2); // Will return false and will be turned into positive ( i believe, feel free to tell me otherwise )
?>