LuckPerms – Part 3: Entering Data into the Database

"The story so far..."

If you've followed the steps in part 2 of this article series, you've installed, configured, and set up the LuckPerms permissions plugin on your Minecraft server. You've also created a MySQL database in your Holy control panel to store the information that LuckPerms will need to verify.

Now, the last step is to enter that information into the database. This is probably the step that will take the longest and, unfortunately, it's the step for which we can provide the least support. Much of the information entered will be unique to your server, and you, the server administrator, will have to create it. This is where you'll take steps to enforce the rules you want on your server, what is allowed and what isn't.

This guide will provide you with a basic framework on how to enter information into the database that LuckPerms will use to create groups, add lists of allowed commands to those groups, and then assign users to those groups.

Outline the Groups and Allowed Commands

This was briefly touched on in Part 1 of this series. Now is the time to start developing the group structure on your server.

How many groups? What are they called? What distinguishes them? What are their roles? What commands are allowed on your server? What commands are prohibited? What items are prohibited? What areas are off-limits? etc., etc., etc. You, the server administrator, will need to answer all of these questions. Everything has to be decided by you. This is where you'll create much of what distinguishes your server from others.

Assign Permissions to Groups

One of the basic things to remember about permissions plugins is that you are generally only entering a list of allowed commands for groups and users. Every time a user tries to use a command (or causes any other event that triggers a permissions check), LuckPerms will check if that command is on the list of commands they are allowed to use. If so, the command works. If not, it prevents the command from working.

Remember that the default response to all requests is "NO!" You don't need to make a list of things you don't want users to do. Instead, make a list of things they are allowed to do. LuckPerms will happily say "NO!" to everything else.

Database Access

There are two ways to access the database, now that it's set up. One is built into the control panel under the "MySQL Database" tab of the Holy control panel, and the second method is actually a feature built into LuckPerms (another reason to recommend LuckPerms over some other permissions plugins).

Holy "MySQL Database" Database Access

Access to your MySQL database can be done by clicking the "MySQL Database" button in the control panel, and then clicking the blue "PHPMyAdmin" hyperlink to the right of "Web-based Admin Panel".

You will see the following page open in your browser. Use the information on the "MySQL Database" page for "Database Username" and "Database Password" to access the database.

[Minecraft_luckperms_phpadmin]

LuckPerms Built-in Editor

/lp editor

LuckPerms can also access the database from in-game commands (while playing in your Minecraft world) and by using a "/lp editor" command in your Minecraft server console, which will open a browser-based editor for LuckPerms in the console window. It will result in a link in the console window that will look something like the example below:

"[2018-07-14 21:37:37] [pool-4-thread-1/INFO] [net.minecraft.server.dedicated.DedicatedServer]: https://luckperms.github.io/editor/-identifier-"

The -identifier- at the end is randomly generated for each session.

Click the link and you should see the following open in your browser:

[Minecraft_luckperms_lpeditor]

You are now connected to the MySQL database and can edit the information in it.

LuckPerms Resources

There is an incredible amount of material online to help you use LuckPerms, which is one of the reasons we have focused this article series on this particular permissions manager. The creators of LuckPerms have a wiki, FAQ, and tutorials available on their website. Below are some links to some of the most useful sections.

[LuckPerms Main Page](https://luckperms.github.io/)

[LuckPerms Wiki](https://github.com/lucko/LuckPerms/wiki)

[Command List](https://github.com/lucko/LuckPerms/wiki/Command-Usage)

[LuckPerms Discord](https://discordapp.com/invite/luckperms)

IRC: If you use IRC, you can contact LuckPerms on the following IRC networks. SpigotMC - irc.spi.gt - #luckperms EsperNet - irc.esper.net - #luckperms

Data Entry Commands

The following are just some of the total commands for entering information into LuckPerms. There is no way we can cover them all here, but these are some to cover the basics: creating a group, giving permissions to the group, and then assigning users to that group.

The following commands can be entered on the console command line, in the Holy control panel for your server. Commands are usually preceded by a forward slash.

Some of these functions can also be performed by logging into the database and directly manipulating the data fields using the dropdown menus.

Update Dropdown Menus

/LP Tree

The LuckPerms editor provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface for database management, with data fields with dropdown menus for much of the data entry. This is not only faster than manually entering information, but it also helps eliminate the possibility of errors when entering information. When LuckPerms is first started, these dropdown menus are mostly empty.

If you type the "/lp tree" command in your Minecraft server console, it will create dropdown menus in each of the text boxes, with all standard entries available for LuckPerms.

When you start using LuckPerms, this will only include the default options, but more options will become available as you create them (and LuckPerms performs permission checks). You can run the command again to update the entries in the dropdown menus as more options become available.

Create Groups

/lp creategroup <group name>

Assign Permissions to Groups and Individual Users

The following commands will add permissions to a group or to individual users:

/lp group <group name> permission set <permission> <true|false>

/lp user <username> permission set <permission> <true|false>

Add Users to Groups

/lp user <user> parent add <group>