Targets & Sync

Targeting is the part that decides whether an announcement should run on the current server. Sync is the part that moves changes between servers.

Target Types

AnnouncementGUI supports five target modes.

LOCAL

Broadcast only on the server that originally created the announcement.

How it works:

• each announcement stores owner-server-id
• the current server matches only when owner-server-id == server.id

Use this when:

• you are managing one Paper server
• you want an announcement that stays private to the creator server even when sync is enabled

SERVER

Broadcast only on one specific server ID.

Example target value:

lobby-1

SERVERS

Broadcast on multiple specific server IDs.

Example target values:

lobby-1, lobby-2, survival-1

GROUP

Broadcast on every server whose server.groups contains one of the configured group values.

Example target value:

lobby

If the current server has:

groups:
  - "lobby"
  - "network"

then a GROUP announcement targeting lobby will match.

GLOBAL

Broadcast everywhere.

This is the broadest mode. On a multi-server setup, it still depends on sync or shared data propagation. GLOBAL means “allowed everywhere,” not “telepathically copied everywhere.”

Setting Targets in the GUI

Inside the editor:

• left click the target item to cycle through target types
• right click to enter target values when the type requires them

Target values are entered as comma-separated text.

Redis Sync Overview

When sync.enabled: true, AnnouncementGUI starts a Redis Pub/Sub service.

The plugin publishes these event types:

• announcement upsert
• announcement delete
• force broadcast request

Other servers listening on the same channel receive the event and update local storage or trigger the requested broadcast.

Required Redis Rules

For network sync to work correctly:

1. every server must have a unique server.id
2. all syncing servers must use the same Redis URI
3. all syncing servers must use the same Redis channel
4. the plugin version and config structure should stay aligned across the network

Example Network Setup

Lobby server

server:
  id: "lobby-1"
  groups:
    - "lobby"

Survival server

server:
  id: "survival-1"
  groups:
    - "survival"

Shared Redis block

sync:
  enabled: true
  type: "REDIS"
  redis:
    uri: "redis://:password@redis.example.com:6379/0"
    channel: "announcementgui:sync"

Practical Target Examples

Local welcome panel

• target type: LOCAL
• no target values
• result: only the owner server runs it

One specific lobby

• target type: SERVER
• target values: lobby-1

Two survival instances

• target type: SERVERS
• target values: survival-1, survival-2

All lobby servers

• target type: GROUP
• target values: lobby

Entire network

• target type: GLOBAL
• no target values

Important Limitations

The current implementation uses:

• local YAML storage on each server
• Redis events for change propagation

That means:

• Redis is not a shared database
• a server that is offline during an event can miss the update
• YAML still exists on every server independently after sync

If you need stronger consistency than that, the next step would be shared SQL storage, which is not implemented in this plugin yet.

Good Operating Rules

• keep server.id short and predictable
• keep group names lowercase and consistent
• use LOCAL for server-specific content created by staff on one server
• use GROUP for category-wide announcements
• use GLOBAL only when the message really belongs everywhere