Frequently Asked Questions

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Dragon menus and options
  • What are the items on the Statistics page?
    The statistics page provides some statistical data about the users and games of the server.
     
    The standard view shows a table with the number of games and moves on the server showing how many games are in:

    The next Statistics graph shows the accumulated number of running games and users from the server foundation in 2001 till the present with one data-point per day.
     
    Next graph shows a Rating histogram with a distribution of ratings amoung the active users on DGS.
     
    On the top there is a link to a Statistics about user countries distribution. The table shows the country (represented by its flag) and the number of users that selected that particular country. Below the table the remaining countries with flags are shown, that are not chosen.
  • Are there any key shortcuts defined on Dragon?
    Yes, on some of the links and buttons on Dragon there are key shortcuts defined. When you place the mouse cursor over a link without moving it for a short time, a preset "accesskey" is shown in a hovering text, e.g. [&s] over the "Status" link in the main menu.
     
    How the shortcut is activated depends on your operating system. On many systems, you use the the Alt-key in combination with the "accesskey", e.g. Alt-s to access the Status page link. On Mac OS you would use Control-s instead.
     
    Key shortcuts defined as access keys are (the underline character is used as mnemonic to help in memorizing it):
    •  s : main menu Status
    •  r : main menu waiting Room
    •  p : main menu user info (Player)
    •  b : main menu messages (mail Box)
    •  m : main menu send a Message
    •  i : main menu Invite
    •  n : main menu New Game
    •  u : main menu Users
    •  c : main menu Contacts
    •  g : main menu Games
    •  h : main menu faq / Help
    •  d : main menu Docs
    •  f : main menu Forums
    •  v : main menu features (Voting)
       
    •  o : logOut
       
    •  l : bottom bar transLate (for translators only)
       
    •  1-9 : walk through the links at the bottom of the page (from left to right and from top to bottom)
       
    •  x : eXecute (if there is a submit button on a page)
    •  w : previeW (if there is a preview button on a page)
    •  e : filter-sEarch (if there is search button on a page)
    •  z : filter-reset (if there is reset button on a page)
    •  > : next page (if a list has multiple pages)
    •  < : previous page (if a list has multiple pages)
  • What are Bookmarks?
    Bookmarks on Dragon are used as shortcuts to certain pages and with interesting links, that otherwise would need several clicks to reach or would bloat other pages with too much text links.
    You can find the bookmarks in the select-box in the top Dragon bar on each page. If you have JavaScript enabled, selecting a bookmark will automatically take you to the page (without clicking on the "Show"-button).
     
    Comments about some of the available bookmarks:
    • My running MP-games : Your running multi-player-games
    • Latest forum posts : the latest forum posts from 4 weeks are shown using the forum search.
    • Opponents online : your opponents in running games being "online" within the last 10 minutes are shown using the opponents page
    • Users online : all users being "online" within the last 5 minutes are shown using the users page
  • What are Bulletins?
    Bulletins are global announcements of a certain category shown to all users or only to a selected group of people configured by a target type.
     
    When there are new bulletins for you, the number of unread bulletins is shown in red color in the main menu, for example "Bulletins (3)".
    Unread bulletins are shown on the top of the status page (or on the quick status) and must be marked as read to go away. Some bulletins also have an expire date on which they disappear automatically if not marked as read before that time.
     
    All bulletins are archived and can be viewed on the Bulletins page. In that list you can also see how many users viewed and read the bulletin, which is a useful information for some kind of announcements.
     
    Each bulletin has a category:
    • Maintenance: Announcement of site admins about a planned server maintenance, for which the server must be taken down. For example for software update or for bugfixes.
    • Admin Announcement: Announcement of site admins about general topics regarding the site without a server outage.
    • Tournament News: News about a specific DGS tournament using Dragons tournament feature (not enabled yet as of Dec-2012).
       
    • Tournament Announcement: Announcement about some form of tournament.
    • Feature Info: Used to spread information about specific features, e.g. after Dragon server upgrades, or to give hints and tips how to avoid often seen user mistakes.
    • Private Announcement: Announcements from users to other users. Only specific use cases are allowed or must be allowed by an admin. One main use case is to talk with the other players of a multi-player-game.
    • Advertisement: Advertisements from users to other users. Must be granted by an admin.

    The last four categories are more informal and can be unsubscribed from, if you are not interested in such announcements. To subscribe or unsubscribe them see "Show Bulletin Categories" in your user profile. You are unsubscribed from the category Advertisement per default as this must be an opt-in category regarding the server policy.
     
    Each bulletin also has a target type specifying the receiving users:
    • All users: bulletin is shown to all users.
    • User list: bulletin is only shown to a specific list of users.
    • MP-game: bulletin is only shown to the players of a multi-player-game. A link to the game-players page of the game is included in the bulletin.
    • Tournament directors: bulletin is only shown to tournament directors of a specific tournament given by the tournament-ID. A link to the tournament is included in the bulletin.
    • Tournament participants: bulletin is only shown to tournament participants of a specific tournament given by the tournament-ID. A link to the tournament is included in the bulletin.
  • What are Search Profiles?
    Below most of the table listings with filters on Dragon there's a "Search" button and a select-box to the left with actions to modify the used filter values for a search.
     
    There are actions to use the current filter values, clear or reset the values. The other actions in the select-box allows to save or load the filter values of the current search.
     
    Here's a brief explanation of the actions in the select-box:
    • Current values: The default-selection for a search, which is using all new filter-values, that a users enters. So the "current values" (from the filters) are used for a search.
       
    • Clear values: This is a search with all filters cleared (emptied). Also the default-values are cleared (e.g. the "Last move"-day restriction to avoid too heavy queries for the show-games-page). This does not change a saved profile, it's only changing the next search.
       
    • Reset values: This is a search with all filter-values reseted to their defaults (as it's provided in the site-code). This does not change a saved profile, it's only changing the next search.
       
    • Save as default: This selection saves the current used filter-values as the default-search. For example you can set the maximum rows in the waiting-room to 100 rows, select the action "Save as default" and press "Search". This will save this particular query as the default. So the next time you open the Waiting-room that default-search is used instead.
       
    • Save profile: This also saves the filter-values as search-profile, but the difference is, that it's not used implicitly when the page is opened anew (still the site-code default is used). Instead, it needs to be explicitly loaded with the "Load profile" action, that appears when a search is saved (either as non-default or default profile).
       
    • Load profile: Load saved filter-values from search-profile (default or non-default). There's only ONE search profile. The difference of usage is just, if it's used as default or not.
       
    • Delete profile: The saved search-profile will be deleted, which means on next page opening, the side-coded default search is used again.

    Besides the filter-values, also the max. rows, sort columns and sort order is saved in the search profile.
     
    Not all table listings support search profiles, and not all table listings support all actions.
  • What are Templates?
    Templates can be used to store standard input values for sending private messages, for the game-settings of invitations and waiting-room game-offers. Each user has its own templates; they are not shared.
    When you have a standard set of game-settings you use often, you can save it as a template, so you don't have to remember all the values.
     
    You can save a template under a given name, which must be unique per user and not exceed 10KB in text size. Each user can save up to 30 templates in total for the three types of templates (message, invitation, new-game).
     
    Related help entries:

    The templates page can be reached from various pages: FAQ, Send Message, New Game, Site map
  • How to save a template?
    Here's an explanation how to save a template:
    • Save game-invitation template: Open a game invitation, change the game-settings to your liking, then press "Save Template".
    • Save new-game template: Open one of the views for a new game-offer for the waiting-room, change the game-settings to your liking, then press "Save Template".
    • Save private message template: Open the dialog to send a private message, fill in the standard text you want, then press "Save Template".

    You are forwarded to the Templates page, where all your existing templates are shown. You can save the data in one of the 30 available slots:
    • New template: Select the radio-button "New template", enter a new (and unique) name, then press "Save Template".
    • Replace template: Select the radio-button of the template you want to overwrite. To use the same name, leave the name input field empty, otherwise enter a new name to rename it as well. Then press "Save Template".
  • How to use a template?
    After you saved the form data, you can use the template in the following ways:
    • For each template, the "Actions" column shows the template actions (see below) you can perform for the template.
    • With "New Game"-templates you can also open new invitations or vice versa, though not in all cases. For example, multi-player-game templates can not be used for invitations.
    • When you have a new invitation or private message with already entered recipient and you previewed it, the message page shows a bottom-link "Templates with user-id [...]". Following this link, you can choose a template for invitation or private message and the original recipient is included in the form-data. Like this you don't have to copy the user-id for later filling-in after choosing a template.

    The templates page lists all your saved templates. The table listing shows four columns:
    • Actions: linked icons with template actions:
      (img) : opens a new invitation with the saved template-data
      (img) : opens a new game-offer for waiting-room with the saved template-data
      (img) : opens the page to send a new private message with the saved template-data
      (img) : delete template asking for confirmation first
       
    • Type: template type: "Message", "Invite", "New Game"
    • Name: template name
    • Last changed: date of last change
  • How can I hide or show columns in table listings?
    This concerns all the following lists:

    To add a column select the one you want to add in the pull-down menu at the bottom of the page, and click the "Add Column" button next to it. To remove a column click on the red 'x' ((img)) next to the column header. There may be columns that are static and can't be removed.
  • How can I change the order of table listings?
    This concerns all the following lists:

    The order of the forum entries can be changed with a separate "Order" element placed in the forum search form.
     
    To change the order of a table listing, click on the table headers that are underlined. For these a sorting is defined and can be changed.
    Clicking another time on the same table header link switches the sort direction (between ascending and descending).
     
    Clicking on an other table column header makes the current (clicked) column the main-sort and the previous sort column the secondary sort. There are only two levels: a 1st (main-)sort that is marked with a dark blue arrow ((img) or (img)) and a 2nd (sub-)sort marked with a light blue arrow ((img) or (img)) used when the row values of the main-sort are identical.
  • Can I mark a row to get a better orientation in big tables?
    This is possible for those whose browser supports JavaScript (enabled in the browser configuration) and who have JavaScript enabled in the Dragon user profile.
     
    Double-clicking on a row at a place where there is no link in a table listing, e.g. the running games list, will highlight the row. Another double-click reverts the highlighting. This can be done on more than one row at once.
     
    The highlighting is not preserved when you reload the page with the same or new content.
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