You are now familiar with most of the complicated aspects of the Bukkit API. With this knowledge, you can program almost any type of Bukkit plugin. Try putting this knowledge to use by creating a new plugin. You can perhaps try to write an announcement plugin that will rotate through a list of messages that need to be broadcast on a server. Think about all the Bukkit API concepts and how you can use them to add new features to the plugin. For example, with an announcement plugin, you can do the following:
- Add commands to allow an administrator to add messages that need to be announced
- Add permissions to control who can add messages and even who can see the messages that are announced
- Add an
EventHandlermethod to listen for when players log in so that a message can be sent to them - Add a
config.ymlfile to set how often messages should be announced - Add a save file to save and load all the messages that will be announced
- Use the Bukkit scheduler to repeatedly broadcast the messages while the server is running
For any plugin that you make, think of each segment of the Bukkit API to figure out some way to improve the plugin by adding more features. This will surely make your plugin and server stand out.
There are some topics that were not discussed in this book, but they are simple enough; you can learn how to use them on your own by reading the API documentation. Some interesting features that can spruce up a Bukkit plugin are the playSound and playEffect methods, which can be found inside the World and Player classes. I encourage you to read about them and try to use them yourself.
You know how to program plugin commands, player permissions, event listeners, configuration files, the saving and loading of data, and scheduled tasks. All that remains is imagining how to use these newfound skills to create a great and unique plugin for the Bukkit server.