SpongeAPI Status
Since our last Status Update, several major features have been added by our developers:
- Data API: An all encompassing API that is designed to have the most expandability and uniqueness of manipulating data from the four biggest sources of data: Blocks, ItemStacks, Entities, and TileEntities.
- Text API 2: Completely refactors all of the previous Messaging API to use classes for easier testability, easier registration and creation of Texts and more
- Player Networking API: An easy to understand representation of “plugin” channels and registration of custom channels for sending custom data to clients.
- Inventory API: A uniquely refined inventory system that aims at expandability and introduces “querying” to getting the information of an inventory you’re interested in and less worried about the ambiguous type of inventory you have.
- Bans API: An easy to understand ban system for SpongeAPI.
- Commands Revision 2: Introduces a powerful command system with easy to use utilities and easy to set up structure.
- World Management: Multiple world support is in! SpongeAPI can now register, create, generate, and modify worlds at a whim!
- Statistics: A proper statistics representation with granting, removing, modifying, and grouping of various statistics that players are granted over time for various actions
If you need help in setting up your workspace, have a look at the relevant documentation for your setup: https://docs.spongepowered.org/en/plugin/basics/workspace/index.html
Sponge Implementation Status
Due to the massive amount of new commits to SpongeAPI, there are now a great deal of features that need to be added to the Implementation. Despite this, work on the Implementation is progressing excellently, with Multiworld, World Generation, the Data API and performance patches being added.
We still do not feel that the Implementation is in a state in which we can make it widely available, however you can always build Sponge from source if you really want to have it now. Check out these tutorials from @gabizou and @mumfrey on how to import Sponge to your preferred IDE:
Docs Status
The documentation has undergone a major rearrangement recently, courtesy of Tyrannokapi. As a result, SpongeDocs pages are now friendlier and are ordered in a more logical fashion. There are sections for Server Owners, Plugin Developers, and Contributors that progress through setup and use of the various tools provided by Sponge.
As a result of the recent flood of commits to SpongeAPI, we now have a huge back catalogue of documentation that needs to be done. As always, we need your assistance to better assess and document the various aspects of Sponge.
The areas where we feel that the most documentation is required include Inventory, Items, Persistence, Permissions, Data and WGEN/Biomes. We’ve added some information on Granite to SpongeDocs but, overall, there is a great deal more that needs to be added in the future.
Ore and Web Projects Status
Development on Ore has continued these past few weeks. Progress is still on track for its completion by the Sponge implementation’s completion (or the release of a relatively stable version that we are comfortable with plugins and server owners using). As the Ore project matures, we have adopted a two-layered architecture with a client-side browser app backed by an API similar to Bukget’s. This means that we are able to develop a richer experience for users quickly but get an easily extensible backend for free.
As we approach release, the Sponge web unification (a key word this time around) has commenced. We have begun to write CSS in order to migrate the Sponge web sites into a more consistent visual style. While a brand-new forum theme is rather complex, we’ll be sure to roll it out along with the rest of the sites. The documentation’s look will most likely not change much in the upcoming unification; the current documentation theme is a pilot for how Sponge’s web presence will eventually look and feel.
Minecon 2015
Sponge is going to Minecon! Be on the lookout for:
@AzureusNation - Granite Developer.
@drtshock / Trent - Moderator.
@gratimax - Web Development
@lukegb - Sysadmin Extraordinaire.
@me4502 - Developer, Public Relations.
@mumfrey - Developer, Master of Mixins.
@Owexz - Communications Coordinator.
We’re still waiting for Mojang to get back with us as to the possibility of having a Panel and/or Booth; we’ll be sure to keep everyone informed as to what we’ll be doing at Minecon!
Donations
We’ve finally made a Patreon page for those of you who’d like to give us monthly donations. You can find our page here, with 6 available donation tiers:
Stone Donor -$10/month
Quartz Donor -$20/month
Iron Donor -$30/month
Gold Donor -$40/month
Emerald Donor -$50/month
Diamond Donor -$100/month
In order to show our gratitude for your support of Sponge, we will provide you with a coloured tag on our forums indicating your donor status. The tag is purely aesthetic, your forum account will remain the same in terms of functionality.
We greatly appreciate any and all support for this project, not only monetary donations, but also developing plugins, helping others and having fun!
State of Sponge III
State of Sponge III will be held at 9PM UTC on Saturday 25th April. You can check your local time here: Every Time Zone: time zone converter, compare time zone difference and find best time for a meeting with one click
We plan on making this the best State of Sponge yet! As per usual, we will discuss our progress on all of our projects, including Sponge for Forge and SpongeAPI, as well as the Docs, Forums and the Ore project (as well as a potential surprise or two). We will have new Gource visualisations for your enjoyment. Additionally, we will host a demo server loaded with plugins, from the full-featured to the highly experimental. If you’d like the chance to have your plugin featured during SoS, get developing!
As always, we will be having a Q&A session, be sure to post any questions you have below, or tweet them with the hashtag #StateOfSponge, the more questions you have, the better!
We hope to see you there!
Join us at: Twitch
Good job guys, looks like progress is being made.
But, I know it’ll go well. Thanks for the update guys. I guess I can stop telling people I was throwing stones at you guys as a “Donation”, now.