Isn’t it better to seperate plugins and mods from each other?
Now we have plugins in the mods folder and mods also.
Maybe for worlds too, in the server root it will look like this:
Root
- Worlds
-
- Survival
-
- Creative
-
- Anything else
Splitting up the worlds doesn’t make much sense. A world is a world, regardless of what implementation did or did not make it. If it’s loadable, it’s loadable. Splitting them up further, while possible, is certainly not the job (nor should we claim responsibility for it) of Sponge.
As far as the plugins and mods both occupying the same folder, this has been a topic of debate before. Ultimately, it was decided that, considering they’re all loaded differently, there was no harm in having them in the same folder. While, having them together, lessens the clutter and potential confusion of having them separated.
If we split them up, I believe we’d have many more people confused as to where their plugins are supposed to go, rather than people who have concerns about them being located in the same area, now.
With splitting up everything, the server folder won’t look like a mess and will be organized. It is much easier to find something when running the server on a user interface OS like windows (server) or linux/mac.
And isn’t it clear like this:
Plugins in plugins folder
Mods in mods folder
As it now is:
Plugins in mods folder (can be confusing)
Mods in mods folder
Looking in that folder, what is a mod and what is a plugin? How do I seperate them so I know what plugins are and what mods instead of looking the name of the mod/plugin on the internet every time.
It’s not as if we don’t understand your point. You’re entirely right that, given the right circumstances, confusion could happen.
However, we’ve determined that less confusion will occur if we keep them in the same place. What is/isn’t confusing for you isn’t necessarily the same for everyone else.
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A simple solution to your confusion would be to prefix them, for example “sponge-PermissionsEx.jar” or “mod-TinkersConstruct.jar”
Obviously i have used 2 variations in this example, sponge or plugin as opposed to forge or mod, this would be somewhat of a pain if you run a server with lots of mods but that’s just the expense you make for organisation
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Another solution is to just make a folder called “plugins” or “sponge” in the mods folder if this bugs you. (And don’t want to go through the effort of renaming jars)
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Wait that works? IMO this should be the recommended layout if it works. People ignoring the advice will put them in the mods folder, stuff will work, people wanting to organize them into subfolders can.
If it doesn’t work due to forge restrictions, well bad luck.
If it doesn’t work due to sponge restrictions we should strive to fix sponge.
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Oh god, please no. You want to talk about an organizational nightmare? Let’s have several folders that you can randomly put plugins in and have them work.
What you guys aren’t grasping is that these forums to not represent the average user. Dare I say it, generally, the people who take the time to register and discuss topics here are more inclined to understand the system better.
You guys are suggesting great ideas, but are missing the point.
The average person, who probably outnumbers registered numbers by a very large portion, will swarm the forums when they don’t understand where things are supposed to go.
Let’s not create more opportunities for confusion which we have to support at a later date by adding more than a single directory in which plugins could be placed. The average user will mix-and-match and that’s an extra forum post asking for help.
The idea is to lessen confusion for the average user, and that means keeping everything in one place.
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Maybe just make a program that, when ran, iterates through all jars in a given directory and then finds any and all Sponge plugins jars and prefix them with whatever you like.
Doesn’t give more confusion for new users, but gives organization for experienced users.
You could even have a custom launch script that organizes the plugins first, and then starts the servers.
EDIT: I’ll probably end up making this myself tomorrow.
That would be awesome, but I think it would be a nice idea to create a plugin that moves the path of the plugins to /server/plugins and that plugin will stay at the mods folder.
It will look like this:
Server
-Plugins
–All the plugins that you want
-Mods
–The mods that you want
–The plugin that changes the path for all other plugins
I hope that you understand it, then we don’t have to run additional programs.
Thanks, but when I said that, i was thinking the people who cared about it could organize that way. I’m assuming that sponge follows the same reasoning forge does, if it’s anywhere in the mod folder, even within another folder inside thier, it’s a mod.
Is it? Oh, I will make a mods and plugins folder in thr mods folder then, will try it later today.
In my opinion if the ‘average’ user cannot make sense of a basic folder structure described by FPSUsername, then that user shouldn’t be operating a server at all. I think whether or not the plugins are separated into a different directory should be configurable.
The average user isn’t a “server owner”. They’re just trying to host a game for them and their friends; Usually on their own computer.
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I still think the option should be configurable never the less.
Guys, if it bugs you that much, you could just create a plugins folder and symlink it into the mods folder. Honestly tho, this is such a minuscule problem…
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It really doesn’t bother me that much, just thought that the suggestion to tell people in the documentation that they can, if they wish put them into sub folders to organize isn’t going to cause mass mayhem if it works as described by The_Doctors_Life and would BOTH reduce the amount of spam from people suggesting they should be in different folders, AND be simple enough that if the advice is ignored and the plugins end up in the mods folder anyway, CAN NOT CAUSE ANY ISSUES THAT WOULD BE REPORTED.
It’s not having 2 different folders that could cause things to not work as originally intended, but optional organization. It’s not several optional folders, it’s 1 folder that gets scanned.
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Well, thank goodness you can not only test this, but make a pr to the docs if it works! (Don’t expect somone else do work for you 
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Tried this out of curiosity. No dice.
Someone should make this a thing.
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