💻 Installation
Requirements
- Paper 1.21 or newer. Spigot is not supported: the plugin builds messages as components.
- Java 21.
Nothing else is required. Every plugin listed in For developers is optional and detected at startup.
Getting it running
- Put the jar in
plugins/. - Start the server. The folder and its files are written on first run.
- Stop, edit what you want, start again.
The files
Everything lives in plugins/PolaroidChat/.
| File | What it decides |
|---|---|
config.yml | Nicks, notifications, keywords, mentions, menus, history slots |
database.yml | Where player data is stored |
commands.yml | Which root aliases exist (/nick, /msg, …) |
formats.yml | How a chat message is built, per rank |
channels.yml | The channels, and the ones players make themselves |
announcements.yml | What the server says on a timer |
emojis.yml | The shortcuts players type |
lang/messages_en.yml | Every word the plugin says |
menus/ | Every menu, and the templates they share |
Reloading
/polaroidchat reload picks up every file above except commands.yml. Root aliases are
registered with the server at startup, so adding or removing one needs a full restart.
Storage
database.yml picks one of two.
SQLite (the default) writes to data.db in the plugin folder. Nothing to set up, and it is
the right answer for a single server.
MySQL is for several servers sharing one set of nicks and colours:
storage:
type: mysql
mysql:
host: localhost
port: 3306
database: polaroidchat
username: root
password: ''
The remaining keys tune the connection pool and are safe to leave alone.
Upgrading
Files carry a version. When the jar ships a newer one, the plugin:
- copies your file to
backups/<name>.<timestamp>, - rebuilds it from the new template, keeping every value you had set,
- keeps whole sections that are yours to fill — your announcements, your chat formats, your colour swatches, your history tiers, your own templates.
A key that no longer exists is dropped. If you had customised a setting that moved into a shared block, its old value does not carry over — check the backup after a version bump.