Manual Permission Config vs. Using a plugin

I am not new to hosting private servers, but the time has come where I think I might want a public server. So, permissions for player hierarchy are certainly a must. I see lots of plugins, the most recent I think is PermissionsEx. However, I am very comfortable using Notepad++ and just adding the permissions myself. My questions are...

• What are the advantages/disadvantages to using a permissions plugin versus doing it manually?
• Can you recommend any good permission plugins and what do they offer?

Thanks!

 

Bumped so I don't have to repost.

I have explored options and am looking at PermissionsEx and Essentials Group Manager. The thing is that I don't see any reason to use either aside from promoting, demoting and giving specific players permissions, where I could just edit the file manually. Anyone care to chime in here?

FYI: I plan on running the following plugins:

• WorldEdit
• WorldGuard
• CommandBook (not sure)
• Essentials Core
• mChat
• iConomy
• ChestShop
• Falsebook
• SimpleClans
• OtherDrops (when it is updated)
• WorldBorder
• Mobs!

 

Bukkit's default permissons (int the permissions.yml under the server folder) aren't always supported from a variety of plugins. Some require Permission managers (like PermissionsBukkit, bPermissions, and PermissionsEx). If you say you'll have some plugins that will require a permissions manager, you'll have to set that entirely up using the permissions manager.

Reason for all of this: the BukkitPermissions is a different permissions system from the SuperPerms (old bukkit permissions, think Permissions 2.7,3.x)

Plugins I've used so far:

PermissionsBukkit - Supported by all, but I wanted to have prefixes for players/groups for HeroChat (mChat doesn't have channels by default, it's an exterior plugin. So HeroChat is what I'm using) Issue is that it is rarely updated. Should support all, it works, but as it hasn't been updated for a while, there may be some quirks.

bPermissions - I've heard lots of good things about this. Not much bad to say. Only issue that I'd consider with this is that there is no such thing as inheritance. Mods can't inherit from users, Admins can't inherit from mods etc. With my setup, it'd just make the file way too large to set up permissions for each and every group without inheritance. Although this plugin has no issues when it comes to permission nodes from all plugins (so I've heard). Supports all plugins in your post above.

PermissionsEx - My current plugin of choice. I've got it set up with more plugins than I should. It is developed with SuperPerms and BukkitPerms bridging. It has some quirks but is completely configurable in game. Inheritance and specific player customizations are easily done with in game commands. Supports all plugins listed above in your post.

GroupManager - This is part of Essentials. I leaned away from using Essentials as there is a log of features that I'm not going to use. Can't say much else. Supports all plugins above.

Default BukkitPerms (from server) - Doesn't support SuperPerms, so any plugins that still use those will be defaulting to op. I don't see how this could be helpful. It's equivalent to using PermissionsBukkit. It is simple true false permissions. Never attempted to use this, always resorted to a permissions manager.

I hope this helps and anyone giving me light on some plugins that I may be wrong about (trust me, I'm not going to snap back or anything like that, I'm simply somewhat experienced in permissions setups and some plugins).

 

Thanks for the info! Yeah, the more I have been reading up from other sources, I see that PEX is the way to go. Thanks for the tip. BTW, nice to see you here on Bukkit forums!

 

Heh, nice to see a familiar face again Again, just be weary sometimes PEX CAN misinterpret some family permissions (like say myplugin.user should give myplugin.blah myplugin.bleh myplugin.boo, sometimes it won't actually give those family of permissions. Something I'm experiencing right now with a plugin I'm using )

 

I will keep that in mind. At any rate, I will most likely go OCD and designate each permission specifically.

 

OH and one more thing:

In PEX if you're wanting to restrict players from building (say you have a different world, or you're going for a greylist, log in for the first time, register then get "promoted" to be able to build) there's the ModifyWorld plugin that manages that, simply you'll have to look at those permission nodes and for the first timers just use something along the lines:
-modifyworld.build
-modifyworld.drop
-modifyworld.pickup etc.
You could even restrict chat and damage All of it on the wiki for PEX.

 

this is some useful information, this is a great community!
i guess pex is the way to go