Allow users to edit addon config while in-game

[MexicanR]

I'm trying to figure out how I let server owners edit their config without having to leave the game. I know the basic concept or at least i think I do.
1. Keep a clientside version of the config
2. When changes are made send to the server
3. Overwrite all previous data from the old configs with the new info. both clientside & serverside

I have absolutely no clue on how to program this though. All help is greatly appreciated!

[whitestar]

Net messages & using file.write in the data folder(where your config will be kept) -- dangerous doe if someone exploits it.

[MexicanR]

[QUOTE=whitestar;50151120]Net messages & using file.write in the data folder(where your config will be kept) -- dangerous doe if someone exploits it.[/QUOTE]

Is there a more secure way to do it, or make it hard for someone to exploit?

[CoreWaffle]

Addons users you mean people that are using your addon (server owners).

Then you can just make a nice gui or just console command with sufficient checks and net message and update the config with the data you got.

[whitestar]

[QUOTE=MexicanR;50151136]Is there a more secure way to do it, or make it hard for someone to exploit?[/QUOTE]

check serverside if the sending player is in a specific usergroup (wich has to be added in the config in a subtable first time as example, superadmin).

[Semajnad]

Also make sure you check the data being written to make sure it's expected. I was going to suggest SQL data storage as an alternative, but same applies.

Just in all circumstances just make sure what the client has changed, the server recognizes as a valid change.

[editline]17th April 2016[/editline]

Simple example, if you had a Boolean - true or false - when it hits the server, check it is either true or false before adding to the config - very simple example. Make sure they haven't put bananas or something. But in Boolean circumstances you'd use a tickbox anyway.

[Semajnad]

Talked over Steam, we discussed using JSON to store the data and retrieve on server start into a Lua table, allowing the Lua table to be written back as JSON on config change.

Any input is appreciated, as I know data handling, but not Lua security well, so if there's something major I've missed in the way of exploits just say.

-- Check if the json config exists, if it doesn't, write the empty tables in lua to the file as a starting point - this will avoid the need to have the txt file already.
-- If it does exist, it'll copy the existing config to the default table, overwriting it.

hook.Add("Initialize", "CheckConfigExistance", function()
    if !file.Exists( 'ras_config.txt' ) then
        file.Write( "ras_config.txt", util.TableToJSON( RAS.Config ) )
    else
        local data = file.Read( "ras_config.txt" )
        RAS.Config = util.JSONToTable( data )
    end
end
 
-- This is how you use your config - as normal with Lua tables.
if RAS.Config.One.Enabled then
    -- blah blah blah
end
 
-- This is how you'd change a config value and update the file, ready for next restart.
function SetOneEnabled( bool )
    RAS.Config.One.Enabled = bool
    file.Write( "ras_config.txt", util.TableToJSON( RAS.Config ) )
end

RAS.Config = {}
RAS.Config.One = {}
RAS.Config.One.Enabled = true
RAS.Config.Two = {}
RAS.Config.Two.Int = 1