User Manual – Big Fish Games

Satellite Gamesite System – Admin Panel

Table of Contents

About This Manual

This manual will provide all the information you need to create as well as manage a website through the admin panel of SGS (Satellite Gamesite System) provided by Big Fish Games.

Organization

This manual is organized accordingly:

• SGS Admin Interface
• Using Site Settings Menu
• Creating New Custom Pages
• Using Modules
• Viewing PHP Info About Your PHP Server
• Leaving SGS Admin Panel
• Signing Out Of SGS Admin

To find what you are looking for quickly, refer to the table of contents and search for a topic based upon a menu item.

Conventions

This guide uses the following conventions to highlight certain words and phrases that differentiate their meaning visually.

Before We Begin

Like any other business that needs an entrepreneur to have some prerequisites, building your own website with Game Store Builder also requires some things to be completed in advanced. Given below are some things that you will need in order to create your own game website to sell Big Fish games and earn money.

• Sign up for a website hosting account
• Sign up with Big Fish Games and create an account
• Download Satellite Gamesite System and unzip it on your computer
• Upload the unzipped SGS file on your web server through FTP or browser based file transfer
• Open your website and run the installer

After SGS has been installed on your system, SGS Admin can be accessed to administer your game website and its contents.

Admin Interface

The administration panel of SGS enables a user to control the various aspects of his/her SGS game website with ease. Simple to use and uncomplicated, the main interface of SGS admin panel is divided into three parts namely the left pane, the center pane and the right pane. While the left pane contains the Menu of SGS admin panel, the center pane has the main work area and the left pane specifies options and additional information, if any.

By default, SGS admin opens in the Main section which shows all the basic information about the website along with other options to administer the website. From the Main section, users are able to navigate to any section of their choice and return back to the Main section again by clicking the Main button in the navigation Menu.

The center pane of SGS in the Main section contains:

• Shortcut to Site Settings section
• Shortcut to the Modules section
• Shortcut to the Custom Pages section
• Shortcut to the PHP Info section

While the center pane in Main section will act more or less like a shortcuts menu to important navigation Menu items, the right pane consists of the Site Info section. The Site Info section enables a user to have a quick view of the vital information about his/her SGS.

A quick view at the Site Info section will inform a user about:

• Sitename – Name of the SGS website.
• SGS Version – The version of SGS that is employed.
• Language – The default language of SGS.
  
  Note - The default language for SGS is English i.e. en
• Gametype – Types of games available through SGS
• Template – The template used on SGS website

For creating as well as administering your game website, there are three main sections available under SGS admin panel namely, Site Settings, Custom Pages and Modules. Next, we will look at these sections in detail and how to use them.

Using Site Settings Menu

The Site Settings section in SGS admin panel can be used to control almost everything that is related with the SGS website. While the welcome screen of Site Settings section consists of all the shortcuts to various options, the right pane consists of the same options and acts like a sub-menu for navigating within Site Settings section.

The various options available under Site Settings are:

• Preferences – Used to set the general preferences of SGS like Sitename and tagline etc.
• Front Page – Use this page to set the various options related to the front or the default site entry page of the website.
• Metatags – Contains various information about the website like copyright text and keyword metatags used by search engines to identify the content of a website.
• Template – Use this option to set the look and feel of your website.
• Cache Options – Set cache options for your website.
• Game Options – How the game will be displayed? - Set it here.
• Comment Options – Configure how comments will be applied on your website.
• Languages – Set language preferences.
• SEO options – Set Url’s that are to be optimized for search engines.

Preferences

The Preferences option under Site Settings options is used to set three things namely,

• Site name
• Site Tagline
• Disclaimer

Using the Preferences option is very easy. Give a name to your website by writing a name in the Site Name text box, write a site tagline in the Site Tagline text box, write a disclaimer in the Disclaimer textbox and click Submit to save your settings. Successful submission of Preferences information will result in a success alert like shown below.

Note – The disclaimer text box is fully HTML enabled and can contain HTML links to other WebPages with the help of HTML href tag. Users can also use the basic HTML formatting tags like <b></b> for bold, <i></i> for italic, <u></u> for underline and such tags like <br/> for line break.

Front Page

The Front Page option is used to set the front page of your website. Users can set the address of their home page or select the Default Page view by selecting the appropriate view from the drop down options available.

In the Front Page option, give a full Url to specify the index page of your website or leave this option blank and fill the Default Page and Index View sections for the default web page of your website.

In the Default Page drop down box, select a page from your website or choose Index View and correspond it with the content that it will be shown from the Index View drop down box. For example, Selecting Index View in the Default Page drop down menu and corresponding it with New-download option in Index View will make New-download page to be the Index page of your website.

Note – Other pages in the Default Page drop down box will be the custom pages that you create from the Custom Pages option.

Press the Submit button to save any changes made to the front page. Successful changes to the front page will result in a success alert being displayed.

Metatags

The metatags option in SGS allows a user to specify some information about his/her game website. This information is generally used by search engines to understand the nature of content that is posted on your website. The keywords and website description of your website decides the relevancy of your webpage to keywords searched by the users and accordingly, your website is listed in the search engine results. A very useful option and one of the most important SEO techniques, using metatags is of utmost importance for a website because it helps it attract more visitors through search engines.

The Metatags option is used to set three things namely,

• Copyright – Includes the copyright information of your website.
• Description – Goes in the description metatag of your website and includes the basic description of your website.
• Keywords – Lists the keywords you want to optimize your website on.

Note - The keywords you write in the keywords text box should be related to the content you are posting on your website. For example, you can have Games, Action Games, Adventure Games, Puzzles as your keywords if you want to focus on optimizing your game website based on these keywords.

Press the Submit button to save your Metatags settings.

Template

For setting the look and feel of your website, use the Template option of Site Settings section. This option will not only provide you with easy to use, one click method of aesthetically changing your website, it will also allow you to impart you with a professional looking game website in seconds.

In the Template option of Site Settings section, select the template from the drop down menu and press the submit button to change the template that is applied on your website. Successful completion of the task will result in a success alert being displayed.

Cache Options

SGS uses the advanced XML cache option to allow a user manage the time for which SGS XML cache will remain stored on the server. Selecting the Cache Time and pressing the Submit button will lead to a success alert specifying that the current cache options has changed to what you specified.

Game Options

Game options in the Site Settings section of SGS admin panel can be used to set the display settings of the game.

The various settings available in the Game Options are:

• Display Feature Flash – Enabling this feature (By selecting Yes) will result in the usage of flash for animation and graphics. If this feature is disabled (by selecting No) images will be used instead of flash based graphics.
• Browse View – Specifies the number of results shown when games are browsed in the Browse archive.
• Search View – Specifies the number of rows (games) available when a keyword is searched.
• Display Alt Version – Use icons to specify if the games are available in windows and/or Mac format.

Using the above drop down boxes and setting their value will result in modifications to the way your game website is displayed. After setting the required options, press Submit button and save the Game Option settings. If settings are set successfully, SGS will return a success message.

Comment Options

Commenting feature is very important for a website that has to be built around an e-commerce model. A website that gives notice to the valuable feedback of its customers is bound to do wonders in selling products and gain huge profits. The SGS admin panel allows its users to employ commenting by the Comment Options under Site Settings section.

The Comment Options settings allow a user to enable commenting and tweak them to suit his/her requirements. The various settings available in Comment Options are:

• Allow Site Comments – Use this option to enable/disable commenting.
• Comment View – The number of comments to view.
• Allow Game Comments – Whether to allow comments on games or not.
• Name Required – Set if the name of an individual is required for writing comments or not.
• Email Required – Set if giving an email address is necessary for writing comments or not.
• Url Required – Set if the Url of user’s website is necessary or not.

After setting all the commenting options, press the Submit button to save your settings.

In order to delete inappropriate comments or spam, the administrator will have to manually delete the comments on the SGS frontend while logged in as the administrator.

Languages

Game websites are used by a different number of users with different language needs. SGS admin panel allows a user to set the language of his/her game website by setting the Languages Options under Site Settings.

While the default language is English, users can set other languages by selecting a different language in the Default Languages drop down bar.

Providing a default language is not a solution that can satisfy the different language needs of website visitors. Successful websites employ methods like Multilanguage support and allow their users to set the language of their preference. For specifying if the Multilanguage options is enabled or disabled, use the Multilanguage drop down menu. Enabling Multilanguage support will enable the “Select Language” option on all the pages and allow a user to select from German, English or French as their preferred language.

After setting the Language options, press Submit to save changes and check your website for Select Language box.

Custom Pages

With SGS admin panel, users can also create custom pages and use them to store content they like. The Custom Pages section of SGS admin allows a user to create as well as delete and edit an existing custom page according to his/her choice. Here, we will have a look at the procedure of creating and manipulating custom pages on a SGS based game website.

Creating New Custom Pages

For creating a new custom page, Visit the Custom Pages section from the Left menu and click New Page in the Right pane (Options) that appears.

Given below are the various settings available with New Custom Page creation:

• File Name – The name of file which will be made.
• Caption – Write a suitable option which will be visible on the custom page.
• Content – Input content you want in to publish in your custom page. This column follows all the HTML editing rules and is suitable for writing HTML code for creating content.
• Default Language – Specify the default language of your custom page.
• Description META Tag – Enter a description of the custom page. This description will be entered in a META Tag of the custom page for the search engines to recognize.
• Keywords META Tag – Write keywords that will relate to your custom page. These keywords too will be used by search engines to know more about your page.
• Allow Comments – Check to allow commenting on this page.

After you have specified the required information in the desired columns, you will have to press the Submit button to save the changes made.

Once you have pressed the submit button, you will be informed that the custom page has been created. Press the Continue button to go to the view custom pages screen.

Viewing Custom Pages

By pressing the View Pages button on the right pane (Options), you will be able to view all the custom pages created by you.

If you want, you can also click on the custom page to view it in the browser window.

Editing Existing Custom Pages

For editing the custom pages created earlier, you can press the Edit link in the View Pages section. After pressing Edit, users will be redirected to the custom page creation screen where they will be able to edit the custom page created earlier.

Deleting Custom Pages

Pressing Delete in the View Pages section will lead to the deletion of custom page.

After you press the Delete link, you will be asked to confirm your request. Pressing the Confirm button will lead to the deletion of custom page.

Using Modules

There are various modules in SGS that would allow you to create a unique experience for your website visitor. With SGS admin panel module section, users not only get the flexibility to tweak the various modules present in the game website, they also get the ability to arrange the modules the way they want!

While the central pane in Modules section consists of all the modules present in SGS website, the right pane (Options) consists of Module Layout settings that will allow a user to set the layout options of his/her modules.

Various Modules present in SGS module sections are:

• Banners – Configure and tweak banners in your webpage.
• Featured Areas – Set a caption for Featured Areas section of your webpage.
• Browse Archive – Set a caption for browse archive section of your webpage.
• Custom Pages – Set a caption for the custom pages of your website.
• Example Module – Create and manage a custom module.

Module Layout

The module layout option in Modules section allows a user to set the layout of different modules on a page. Click the Module Layout option on the options side bar to view the module layout screen.

The module layout screen is divided in two parts namely,

• Module Layout Setting Area (Center pane)
• Module Layout selection Area (Right pane)

Module Layout Selection Area

Users can select the area they want to set the layout of and that area will be displayed in the Module Layout Setting Area. Then users can easily set the position of individual modules according to their preferences.

There are two options in the Module Layout Setting Area menu, they are:

• Layout – Select from Page and Page_play page layouts where Page represents all the main WebPages of your website and Page_play represents the page where a game is played.
• Area – Here, users can select the sidebar option that will allow them to add modules to the sidebar. Users can easily add side bar modules like banners of required sizes, Language modules, browse module, login module, online new releases modules, top online games module, online player module, RSS feeds module, and even your custom created modules.

Module Layout Setting Area

The center pane area consists of all the modules arranged the way they would be in the website. These can be positioned according to the preference of a user. Modules in SGS layout have 5 buttons that represent:

• (Move to the top)
• (Move to one position above current position)
• (Move to one position below current position)
• (Move to the lowest position)
• (Delete module)

All components can be positioned as well as deleted using these buttons.

To enable a Module in the Sidebar

To enable module in sidebar, select Page in the Layout drop down box of right pane (options) menu. In the Area drop down bar, select SidebarModule drop down bar and click the Enable and wait for the page to reload. After the page gets refreshed, select the required module from the button.

In the Module Layout Setting Area, select the module and fix its position by using the Up, down, topmost or bottommost button. If you are not satisfied with the module, you can also delete it by pressing the Delete button present above the module.

Configuring Banners from Module Section

With SGS admin panel, banners can be configured to contain specific information that is deemed suited by the user. Click the Banners link in the center screen of Modules section to go to edit banners screen.

Select a Banner in the Edit banner screen.

Once the banner is specified, select the campaign this banner will follow. Select an option from the following and submit the results:

• Random
• My Bigfishgames
• Bigfishgames
• Online Community

A success alert will notify you that the banner has been changed. Click the Continue button to go to View Banner option from where you will be able to view all the created banners and administer them from there only.

View Banners

The View Banners screen allows a user to view the banners and their related properties. View Banners screen shows various options like Banner name, Campaign the banner will follow, Caption of the banner, Render of the banner and options required to tweak a banner. From the View Banners screen only, users will be fully able to edit, preview as well as set the Display Preferences of the banners.

Display Properties

While Edit is used to edit a banner, Preview allows a user to see how a banner looks like. The Preferences link allows a user to set the display preferences of a banner. By setting the Render and Caption, users will be able to create better looking banners easily.

Reset Banners

Users can reset all the banners by using this option. Once clicked, SGS admin asks a user to confirm his/her decision to reset all the banners.

Setting Captions

SGS allows a user to set captions on the modules. Options like Featured Areas, Browse Archive, Custom Pages allow a user to set captions on them. For setting the caption of an option:

• Select an option from the Module screen

• Write a caption in the caption screen and press Submit button to have a caption there.

This caption will be displayed everywhere the Featured Areas module is kept.

Example Module

The Example module of SGS admin panel allows SGS users to create their own module. The Example module is created by first selecting the Edit Prefs option from the Right pane and then selecting the values in it. After the values to the respective Example Item’s are set, their data can be edited from the Edit Data option on the right pane.

Creating a Custom Module

Follow the given guidelines for creating a custom module

• Once you are in the Example Module, Click on Edit Prefs option in the Options menu.
• Select an item (you can select three) from the Example Item and give it a caption in the Example Caption text box. Once you have filled the data, click the Submit button to save you settings.

• After you see the success alert, select Edit Data on the right pane under Options menu.
• Write the data you want to fill in your custom module under the Content text box and click Submit when done. You have created a module in SGS admin panel, now you can add, delete as well as position this module anywhere you want on a webpage.

If you want to create more modules you will have to go into the modules folder using a FTP program and duplicate the example folder, or any other module you would like to start from.

Viewing PHP Info About Your PHP Server

The PHP Info section in SGS admin panel is all about the information of PHP installed on your server. Even though it may seem that all this information is worthless because you are not really doing any high end programming, sometimes is becomes very necessary to have knowledge of PHP information for things to work on your website.

Every PHP related information available with SGS admin panel is available in the PHP Info section and can be navigated with the help of Options menu on the right pane. The options menu contains:

• General – Informs about the general information about PHP like the System php is installed on, build date etc.
• PHP Credits – The PHP credits option lists the various users who have helped in the creation of such a beautiful open source web programming language.
• Configuration – This option lists the various configuration settings used with your version of PHP.
• Modules – All the modules that are used with PHP installation are listed here.
• Environment – This option lists the various variables and their values pertaining to the PHP environment.
• PHP Variables – To see a list of all the PHP variables and their values, use this option.
• PHP License – Shows the license of your PHP installation.

Leaving SGS Admin Panel

After you have completed setting up the changes in SGS admin panel, you would really want to see how your website looks. Use Leave AdminIndex page of your website. You can reenter the admin area anytime by clicking the Admin Area link under Login Module of your website or hit the Back button of your browser. section to go to the

Signing Out Of SGS Admin

If you are complete with SGS administration, click Logout to completely log out of the SGS system. Logout is a different process from Leave Admin as in case of Leave Admin, the system still remembers the login details of a user but in the case of Logout, system erases all the login information and a user will have to login again incase he/she wants to enter the admin panel again.

Additional Support

For additional support, including discussion boards and articles please visit the http://gamestorebuilder.com website.

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