This document outlines how to configure NuVotifier for a variety of different configurations. It should be used by server administrators looking to set up NuVotifier on their network.

Key vs Token

This document uses the terms token and key. These are two separate terms, and it is important to understand the differences.

Key

Keys in terms of NuVotifier refer to the old Votifier style RSA keys. They are typically distributed as a pair of files - a public and private key. When dealing with RSA keys, you can share your public key with server lists, but make sure to keep your private key safe with you. You can find these keys auto-generated under plugins/(Nu)Votifier/rsa/, where your public key is named public.key, while your private key is labeled private.key. Make sure not to separate the two, as they only work together as a pair.

Token

Tokens in terms of NuVotifier refer to a new short string of characters. This string of characters is secret, and should never be exposed to anyone but you or server lists which support NuVotifier voting (check with the server list first). Tokens are most commonly used internally within a network for use when using the proxy vote forwarding method.

Single Server Configuration (Bukkit / Spigot / Sponge)

These instructions apply to users setting up a single server to accept votes from a server list. In most cases, these are the steps you want to follow.

Installing the plugin on a server

To install NuVotifier, you should get a copy from one of the following locations:

• Github - Official release location
• SpigotMC - SpigotMC release mirror

The NuVotifier jar should then be placed within the plugins/ folder of your Minecraft server. When you then start your server, NuVotifier will generate the necessary configuration and initial keys for you.

Configuring the plugin

By default, NuVotifier generates a configuration that is already suitable for a single-server configuration. However, you may need to change the port NuVotifier listens on, if you use a shared host or run multiple servers on the same machine.

You can then add your server to server lists using the port you configured while also supplying your public key. At this point, you should be able to send a test vote to your server!

Once you've verified NuVotifier can accept votes from your server lists, you'll need to set up a vote listener. See the next section for more details.

A Note on Changing the Port

The port must be between 1 and 65535 and not in use by any other service, including the port of the server NuVotifier will be running on. For example, if Minecraft is running on the default port (25565), you cannot set port also to 25565.

Depending on your host and if you have a dedicated IP, you might have to change the ip value. Usually, the default of 0.0.0.0 works.

Vote Listeners

Once you've installed and configured NuVotifier, you'll need to install a vote listener. NuVotifier does not include any listeners by default - this is left up to plugins to do. We've included a partial list of listeners for Bukkit-based servers and Sponge.

Bukkit

Here is a partial list of well-known vote listeners for Bukkit servers (Spigot, Paper, ...):

• SuperbVote
• Enjin
• VotingPlugin
• UltimateVotes (paid)
• VoteParty (paid)

If none of these suit you, there are plenty of listeners you can search for.

Sponge

A well-known choice is SeriousVote, check Sponge ore's website for alternatives.

Multi-server / Network configuration

If you have more than one server and are using a Minecraft proxy (such as BungeeCord or Velocity), you'll need to follow these instructions.

Single-Proxy BungeeCord/Velocity Networks

When running a single-proxy network, NuVotifier acts as a both a vote receiver (from voting websites) as well as a vote forwarder (emitting events for proxy based vote listeners). NuVotifier's vote forwarding logic is advanced enough to be used in a wide variety of ways.

Installing the plugin on the servers

NuVotifier should be installed on each of the servers you wish to process votes on, as well as the proxy server. The proxy's NuVotifier server will act as the public facing Votifier instance, where as the Minecraft servers will instead receive votes forwarded from the proxy's NuVotifier.

Like the single server installation, you can download NuVotifier at any one of the following locations:

• Github - Official release location
• SpigotMC - SpigotMC release mirror

The same JAR works for both proxies and servers.

Likewise, you'll also want a vote listener on each server - check the section for single-server setups for some well-known choices.

The plugin should then be placed in the plugins/ directory of the proxy server as well as each of the Minecraft servers.

In the next sections, we'll discuss the two forms of vote forwarding supported by NuVotifier: plugin messaging based forwarding and proxy forwarding. You should pay very close attention to these two sections as they contain crucial information for configuring forwarding.

Plugin messaging based forwarding

If you have just one proxy, plugin messaging-based vote forwarding is the easiest way to set up vote forwarding. With some exceptions, plugin messaging-based vote forwarding can work in multi-proxy networks.

Before you continue, make sure your backend servers can only be accessed by your proxy (no direct connections!) or a malicious attacker could spam your server with votes. NuVotifier protects this channel but only if every connection goes through your proxy.

Now you can configure each of the Minecraft servers to accept votes from the plugin messaging channel. Open each of the servers' NuVotifier configurations. Each one should have method under the forwarding configuration section set to pluginMessaging. Since we are receiving forwarded votes through plugin messaging and not through network ports, we should set port on each of the Minecraft servers to -1. This will disable NuVotifier's port, while still allowing it to receive forwarded plugin messaging votes.

Now with the server configuration completed, we will configure the proxy. Open the proxy's NuVotifier plugin (found under the plugins/NuVotifier/ directory, called config.yml for BungeeCord, and config.toml for Velocity). Then apply the following changes:

1. Set port should be to an unbound port. The default 8192 works well, however you may have to change it depending on your hosting provider.
2. Set method under forwarding to pluginMessaging.

This sets up a basic default setup that forwards all votes sent to the proxy to each Minecraft server connected to the proxy (all servers you can get to when typing /server). You may want to change this, but if the default configuration is acceptable you may skip the next section.

Setting up vote forwarding behavior

By default, NuVotifier forwards all votes sent to the proxy to each Minecraft server connected to the proxy. You can manually exclude some of these servers by first uncommenting excludedServers, then adding the server's name to the excludedServers list. NuVotifier will not send votes to any server on this list. Likewise, if you only send the vote to the server the player joined, these servers are ignored.

NuVotifier can also selectively send the vote to only the server which the player has joined. This option can be turned on by setting onlySendToJoinedServer to true. When this option is on, the vote will attempt to go to the server which the player is currently on. If the player is offline, then NuVotifier will then attempt to send the vote to the joinedServerFallback. If the vote cannot be sent to the joinedServerFallback, then the vote is saved in the cache until the vote can be sent to the joinedServerFallback server - note this will not send it to the next server the player joins! If you do not want a fallback server and would rather the vote be applied when the player next joins, set joinedServerFallback to ''. This will cause NuVotifier to save the vote until the player joins again.

By default, votes are saved for 10 days in the cache. This time can be increased or decreased by changing the cacheTime field. This number can be as high or low as you want. It is measured in days within the cache. This is valid for both the file and memory cache.

Proxy based vote forwarding

In more complex network situations, it may be required to instead use the proxy based vote forwarding. This configuration is less flexible and more difficult to set up properly - most people should use plugin messaging based forwarding. Proxy based forwarding does not support vote caching or advanced forwarding configurations. If you cannot use plugin messaging forwarding, then the following section will describe how to set up proxy based vote forwarding. If you still require advanced forwarding features or more advanced behaviors, it may be worthwhile to write your own plugin to perform the proper forwarding logic (you will know if you need to do this).

In proxy based vote forwarding, one of your proxy servers acts as the head vote receiver. This server will be the one you configure the voting websites to vote to. You can set up multiple vote receivers and load balance between them, however this configuration has limited benefit and is probably more work than it is worth. Instead of communicating through plugin messaging like the plugin messaging forwarding strategy, proxy forwarding instead acts like a voting website to each of the backend servers and duplicates the vote it receives to each of the backend servers it is configured with.

First, we will set up all of the Minecraft servers before setting up the head vote receiver. For each of the servers, NuVotifier should be configured to bind to an unused port. This port must be valid. If you have multiple Votifiers on the same IP/server, make sure that the port which you are using between NuVotifier instances are different. Remember the port number as we will need it later to insert into the proxy NuVotifier configuration. In addition to the port number, you will also need the default token - this is the string auto generated by NuVotifier under the default key under tokens. Since we are using proxy forwarding, change disable-v1-protocol to true - we will only be using the new NuVotifier protocol within our network (vote receiver -> minecraft server). Once all configured, that is all we need to do. The rest of the defaults will work.

Now we will configure the vote receiving NuVotifier proxy server. The port should be configured as described many times above, being a unique port. Instead of setting method to pluginMessaging like above, we will set method to proxy. This will tell NuVotifier that we instead want to proxy the votes instead of forward them through plugin messaging channels.

The last step is to set up the proxy forwaring settings. Under the proxy section is a place to enter each server. Create a unique name for each of the server's you will be forwarding votes to. The default proxy NuVotifier configuration already has two Minecraft servers filled in - Hub and Hub2. You should replace these with your own servers - the names of the servers do not matter. Under each of these servers, we need to configure address, port, and token. address is the IP address of the Bukkit/Sponge server. This may be localhost or 127.0.0.1 if the Minecraft server is on the same physical server as the vote receiving NuVotifier server. port is the port of the Bukkit/Sponge NuVotifier server. token is the default token of the Bukkit/Sponge NuVotifier server. This can be found within its configuration, usually under the token section. Once the servers are configured, NuVotifier will forward all votes it receives to the servers configured under the proxy section.

Debugging NuVotifier

If you find you don't know what is wrong, remember to check the console logs in each of the server's running NuVotifier.
For very large/busy servers, there's an hidden configuration to "quiet" those debug logs.

Reloading NuVotifier

For Bukkit and Sponge, you may reload NuVotifier through the /nvreload command in your server console only - this command will not work in-game by design. Make sure to ensure that it completed correctly before assuming NuVotifier works!
For Bungee and Velocity, the command is /pnvreload.

Simulating a vote

For Bukkit and Sponge, you may simulate a vote through the /testvote command.
For Bungee and Velocity, the command is /ptestvote.

Default Configurations

If you find you have messed up NuVotifier beyond repair, you can grab a default configuration from the following locations (depending on the server it is installed on):

• Bukkit
• Sponge
• Bungeecord

You can also regenerate this configuration by deleting the old configuration and restarting the server.