DS-Ads

DS-Ads — announcements for Minecraft; one universal JAR

Your message. Your players. Your server.

Chat · Titles · Boss bars · Action bars

DS-Ads gives your community a clear place to hear what matters: rules, events, helpful reminders and a welcome when they join. Configure each announcement once, choose how it appears and deliver it across a single server or a proxy network.

DS-Ads 9.1.0 · Minecraft 1.13–26.3 Spigot / Paper · BungeeCord · Velocity · One universal JAR

01 / Make your message seen

A quiet reminder in the action bar. A welcome across the screen. A chat message players can click. Enable the formats that suit the moment, or combine several in the same ad.

Four formats: multi-line interactive chat, title and subtitle, boss bar, and action bar

Chat. Write multi-line announcements with clickable URLs and hover text. Center individual lines when you want a more deliberate layout.
Title & subtitle. Put a headline and a second line on screen, with configurable fade-in, stay and fade-out times.
Boss bar. Keep a message at the top of the screen. Set its color, style and duration.
Action bar. Show compact messages above the hotbar without filling the chat.

See DS-Ads in action

Recorded with earlier builds; the current interface and configuration may differ.

02 / The right message. On time.

Automatic rotation. Choose a cooldown and add named ads in YAML. One usable ad is selected at random each cycle; multiple usable ads avoid immediate repetition.
A welcome that feels intentional. Send a dedicated welcome ad after a configurable join delay. On proxies, it runs after the first server connection and does not repeat on every server switch.
An audience for each ad. Require a recipient permission and filter by world on Spigot/Paper or by server on BungeeCord/Velocity. Leave those fields empty to include everyone.
Staff control. Reload settings, enable or disable automatic delivery, and send a configured announcement to one player or its eligible audience.

Formatting, placeholders & sound

MiniMessage. Use named colors, HEX colors, gradients and text styles. Older clients display the nearest legacy color; full RGB requires Minecraft 1.16+.
Interactive chat. Add clickable URLs and hover text to chat lines. Wrap a chat line in <center>...</center> to center it on all supported platforms.
PlaceholderAPI. Optional on Spigot/Paper. Install the expansions for the placeholders you use; they work in all ad text fields. DS-Ads does not provide its own placeholder expansion.
Sounds. Spigot/Paper chat announcements can play Bukkit sound names or resource keys. An empty Sound value disables audio. Proxies do not play these notification sounds.

03 / From a server to a network

The same universal JAR includes the server and proxy implementations. Choose where announcements run and use the settings generated for that platform.

Platform feature matrix: all four formats, MiniMessage, centered chat, rotation, welcome messages and permission audiences on all platforms; world filters on Spigot/Paper and server filters on proxies; PlaceholderAPI, sounds and join/leave suppression on Spigot/Paper only

Spigot / Paper: Minecraft 1.13–26.3. Use the Java version required by your server. Folia support is not claimed.
BungeeCord / Velocity: use the same JAR in the proxy plugins folder and grant staff permissions through your proxy permission manager. Velocity requires Java 17 or newer, or the newer Java version required by your installed proxy.
PlaceholderAPI: optional on Spigot/Paper. The plugin works without it; only install it when your messages use its placeholders. There is no proxy PlaceholderAPI integration.
Network setup: run DS-Ads on the proxy for network announcements, or on individual servers for local announcements. Avoid configuring the same automatic messages at both levels unless you want duplicate delivery.

04 / Ready when you are

A readable YAML file, a small command set and settings you can change without a restart.

Install & configure

Place DS-Ads-9.1.0.jar in the plugins folder of your chosen server or proxy, then start it.
Open the generated Settings.yml in the plugin data folder. Edit the named ads under Ads-Configuration and the separate Welcome-Ad.
Choose formats, timing and recipients. On proxies use Servers; on Spigot/Paper use Worlds. Install PlaceholderAPI and its required expansions only if your server messages use them.
Run /ads reload, then preview an ad with /ads send Ad-Rules YourPlayerName. Grant staff only the command permissions they need.

Commands — complete reference

Command: /ads · Alias: /dsads · All commands can also be run from the console.

`/ads reload`

Permission: ads.reload Reload Settings.yml. Invalid YAML keeps the previous working configuration.

`/ads enable`

Permission: ads.manage Enable automatic announcements and the welcome ad; save the enabled state.

`/ads disable`

Permission: ads.manage Stop automatic announcements and welcome messages; hide active boss bars and save the disabled state.

`/ads send <ad> <player>`

Permission: ads.send Force a configured ad to one online player. This bypasses recipient/location filters and the automatic enabled switch.

`/ads send <ad> *`

Permission: ads.send Send a configured ad to eligible online players, respecting its permission and location filters.

Use a configured name from Ads-Configuration. Command completion suggests allowed subcommands, ad names and online players. A direct player send is a staff preview/forced send; it can still run while automatic delivery is disabled.

Permissions — staff & recipients

ads.send — Send announcements manually. Configuration key: Permissions.Send

ads.manage — Enable/disable automatic delivery; receive update notices when enabled. Configuration key: Permissions.Manage

ads.reload — Reload the configuration. Configuration key: Permissions.Reload

On Spigot/Paper these default staff nodes are granted to operators. On proxies, assign them using your permission manager. The console is allowed. Change the command nodes in Permissions; a blank configured command node falls back to its default.

The Permission inside an ad controls who receives it. It can be any node you choose, such as community.announcements.events. An empty recipient permission allows everyone. It does not grant access to /ads commands.

Configuration — example & timing reference

Merge this example into your generated Settings.yml. It shows a welcome chat message and a named rotating ad. The example URL is a placeholder; replace it with your own server rules page.

# Merge these sections into the generated Settings.yml.
# Keep the generated Plugin-Version and Config-Version values.
Plugin-Configuration:
  Enabled: true
  Disable-Join-Leave-Messages: false
  Debug: false
  Update-Checker: true

Permissions:
  Send: "ads.send"
  Manage: "ads.manage"
  Reload: "ads.reload"

Welcome-Ad:
  Enabled: true
  Delay-Seconds: 1
  Content:
    Chat:
      Enabled: true
      Sound: ""
      Lines:
        - "<center><gold>Welcome!</gold> <gray>Enjoy your stay.</gray>"

Ads-Configuration:
  Cooldown: 120
  Ad-Rules:
    Worlds: []
    Permission: ""
    Chat:
      Enabled: true
      Sound: ""
      Lines:
        - "<center><gold>Build together. Play fair.</gold>"
        - "<gray><click:open_url:https://example.com/rules><hover:show_text:'<gray>Open the rules'>Read the server rules</hover></click></gray>"
    Boss-Bar:
      Enabled: true
      Message: "<gold>Build together. Play fair.</gold>"
      Color: "WHITE"
      Style: "PROGRESS"
      Duration-Seconds: 8
    Action-Bar:
      Enabled: true
      Message: "<gray>Your next adventure starts here.</gray>"
    Title:
      Enabled: false
      Title: "<gold>Welcome!</gold>"
      Subtitle: "<gray>Enjoy your stay.</gray>"
      Fade-In: 10
      Stay: 60
      Fade-Out: 20

Cooldown. Ads-Configuration.Cooldown is in seconds (default 120; minimum 5). The first automatic ad waits for a full cooldown.
Selection. One usable ad is selected at random per cycle. With multiple usable ads, the previous ad is not selected immediately again.
Welcome delay. Welcome-Ad.Delay-Seconds is in seconds and is limited to 0–60. On proxies, the welcome ad runs on the first server connection, not on every server switch.
Recipients. Each periodic ad can require a Permission. An empty value allows all players. This is separate from staff command permissions.
Locations. Use Worlds on Spigot/Paper and Servers on BungeeCord/Velocity. An empty list allows all locations. These filters apply to periodic ads and manual broadcasts.
Title timing. Fade-In, Stay and Fade-Out use ticks (20 ticks = 1 second). Boss-Bar.Duration-Seconds uses seconds, with a minimum of 1.
Boss bar settings. Colors: PINK, BLUE, RED, GREEN, YELLOW, PURPLE, WHITE. Styles: PROGRESS, NOTCHED_6, NOTCHED_10, NOTCHED_12, NOTCHED_20.
Proxy configuration. Replace Worlds with Servers and omit Sound and Disable-Join-Leave-Messages. PlaceholderAPI is not integrated on proxies.
Ad names. Use the name under Ads-Configuration, such as Ad-Rules. Welcome-Ad is configured separately and cannot be selected by /ads send.

Updating & safe reloads

Version 9.1 updates supported 9.0.x configuration files in place, preserving values, ads and comments. The previous file is saved under old-configs/. Keep the generated version fields unchanged.

If a reload finds invalid YAML, DS-Ads reports the error and keeps the previous working configuration. If startup configuration is invalid, announcements remain inactive until you fix it and run /ads reload. Ads with no enabled delivery format are skipped with a warning.

/ads enable and /ads disable save the enabled state. Disabling stops rotation and welcome messages and clears active boss bars. Direct manual sends remain available to authorized staff.