Hello everyone!

This is by far the biggest update BoringGroups has ever had. I've been working tirelessly to not only add powerful new features but to completely rebuild the plugin from the ground up to be more stable, efficient, and ready for large-scale server networks. Welcome to the Network & Automation Update!

Major New Feature: Full MySQL & BungeeCord Support!
You asked for it, and here it is! BoringGroups now has full support for MySQL data storage. When enabled, the plugin will store all your group definitions (prefixes, permissions, parents) AND all your player data in the database.

What does this mean for you?

• Automatic BungeeCord Syncing: If you run a network, you can now manage your ranks from any server. Create a group, change a prefix, or give a player a permission on Server 1, and the changes will instantly sync and appear on Servers 2, 3, and all others connected to the same database!
  
  
• Effortless Migration: Already have your groups set up in groups.yml? No problem! A new command, /group import, will automatically read your YAML file and save all your groups to the database in one go.
  
  
• Performance & Scalability: For large servers, using a database is significantly faster and more reliable than reading from flat files.
  

Major New Feature: In-Game Emoji Resource Pack Generator!
This is a game-changer. You no longer need to manually create resource packs or mess with JSON files to get custom emojis. The new Emoji Packager does it all for you!

How it works:

1. Create a folder for your pack (e.g., plugins/BoringGroups/emoji_images/my_pack/).
   
   
2. Drop all your custom .png emoji images into that folder.
   
   
3. Run the command /emoji package my_pack.
   
   
4. The plugin will instantly generate a complete, ready-to-use resource pack ZIP file inside a new Resource Packs folder.
   
   
5. It also generates a ready-to-use <packName>_emojis.yml file with the correct emoji names and Unicode characters, ready to be copied into your main emojis.yml.
   
   
6. Finally, it gives you the SHA-1 hash in chat, which you can click to copy directly to your clipboard for your server.properties file!
   

Full Changelog - v1.6.0
✨ New Features

• MySQL & BungeeCord Support: All group and player data can now be stored in a central MySQL database, allowing for automatic syncing across a network.
  
  
• Emoji Resource Pack Generator: New command /emoji <package|list> <packName> allows you to automatically generate a complete resource pack and a corresponding emojis.yml config from a folder of PNG images.
  
  
• YAML to MySQL Importer: New command /group import seamlessly migrates all group data from groups.yml into the MySQL database.
  
  
• Full PlaceholderAPI Integration:
  
  • BoringGroups will now parse placeholders from other plugins (e.g., %vault_eco_balance%) in your chat and tab formats.
    
    
  • BoringAPI now provides placeholders to other plugins, including %boringgroups_group%, %boringgroups_prefix%, and %boringgroups_rank_expiry%.
    
• New GUI Help Section: The settings menu now contains a "Help & Information" section explaining core plugin features.
  

✅ Improvements

• Complete Code Refactor: The entire plugin has been rewritten from the ground up, with all code organized into proper packages. This results in better performance, stability, and makes it much easier to add new features in the future.
  
  
• The "Reload Plugin" button in the GUI and the /group reload command are now smarter and will correctly handle reloading from either YAML or MySQL.
  
  
• Chat prompts for setting prefixes and formats now provide more detailed examples.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a major bug where success/failure messages were not being sent when setting a group prefix or format via the GUI's chat input.
  
  
• Fixed emojis not appearing correctly in placeholders (like %boringgroups_prefix%) when used in other plugins like scoreboards.
  
  
• Corrected the build order dependency between BoringAPI and BoringGroups to prevent Method does not override errors.
  

⚠️ Important Information for Updating
To use the new MySQL feature, you must delete your old config.yml file from the plugins/BoringGroups/ folder to allow the new one to generate. You can then edit

This is a huge update for BoringGroups, focused on performance, stability, and future-proofing the plugin. I've been working hard behind the scenes to completely refactor the codebase and add some powerful new features for server owners.



The Scalability Update: MySQL Support!


The biggest new feature is optional MySQL support! You can now switch from the default YAML file storage to a high-performance MySQL database. This is highly recommended for larger servers or networks that want faster, more reliable data handling for player groups and permissions.

Don't worry, YAML is still the default and works perfectly for most servers! To switch, simply edit the new storage section in your config.yml and restart.



Complete Code Refactor


This update also includes a complete internal refactor. I've reorganized the entire codebase to make it cleaner, more efficient, and much easier to add new features in the future. This means better stability for you and faster updates for me!



New Admin Tools & Quality of Life


I've also added some new tools to make managing your server even easier:

• New Settings Menu: The previously unused 'Settings' button in the GUI now opens a new menu for plugin-wide actions.
  
  
• In-Game Reloader: You can now reload all the plugin's configuration files (config.yml, groups.yml, emojis.yml) directly from the new settings menu without needing to restart the entire server.
  
  
• Help & Information GUI: A new help section in the settings menu provides in-game explanations for features like prefixes, emojis, and permissions.
  

Following the recent major update, a critical bug was discovered.

The Bug: In the previous version, BoringGroups would fail to load if the optional BoringAPI plugin was not also installed. This was not the intended behavior.

The Fix: This hotfix version completely resolves the dependency issue. You can now run BoringGroups perfectly on its own without needing BoringAPI. You only need to install BoringAPI if you want to use BoringGroups features in other plugins (like BoringMSG).

It is highly recommended that all users update to this version to ensure stability.

A massive new update for BoringGroups has just been released, and it’s packed with features designed to make managing your server easier and more powerful than ever before.

The headline feature of this update is the brand new in-game GUI system! You can now manage almost every aspect of the plugin without needing to rely on commands. Just type /group to open a clean and intuitive menu where you can create groups, edit prefixes, manage permissions, and set up inheritance with just a few clicks.

Here’s a full list of what’s new in this version:

• [NEW] Complete GUI System: Say goodbye to memorizing commands! The new GUI allows for fast, visual management of all your groups and their settings.
  
  
• [NEW] Group Inheritance: You can now set "parent" groups for your ranks. This allows them to automatically inherit permissions and prefixes, saving you a huge amount of time and effort when configuring complex rank structures.
  
  
• [NEW] Developer API (BoringAPI): We've launched a new companion plugin, BoringAPI! This is a lightweight API that allows your other plugins (like BoringMSG) to hook into BoringGroups to fetch player prefixes, permissions, and even use the emoji system.
  
  
• [NEW] Emoji Category Permissions: You can now grant access to entire categories of emojis with a single permission node, like boringgroups.emoji.smileys_and_people, making emoji permission setup a breeze.
  

IMPORTANT: BoringGroups will work perfectly on its own. However, if you want to use its placeholders (like {prefix}) in other plugins (such as BoringMSG), you will need to download and install our new, lightweight BoringAPI plugin as well.

As always, please be sure to back up your server before updating. If you run into any bugs, please report them.