squad.xml

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Example of a logo, provided by "squad.xml"
 To support the multiplayer community in their effort to play as teams, like many Arma clans and squads are trying to, it is possible to create a common information file - the "squad.xml" -, which is stored on a personal webspace or on an FTP server and loaded by the Arma game server, if a member of this team is playing on it.

Beside detailed information about the single player and its team which can be gained by pressing "P" ingame, the feature supports also a common logo, which will be displayed on vehicles, if such team has boarded it.


Preliminaries

If you feel unfamiliar with the XML file format itself and/or have questions about basic XML markup, you are advised to consult literature, documentation (http://www.w3.org/XML) or tutorials (http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp) as fundamental questions about the XML technology itself will not be covered here. There are multiple resources on in the World Wide Web that can help you learning XML.


Squad.xml File Content

The file consist of three main parts:

Head

This part defines the doctype. Just leave it as it is! 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE squad SYSTEM "squad.dtd">
<?xml-stylesheet href="squad.xsl" type="text/xsl"?>

Squad properties

<squad nick="ESN">
	<name>Example Squad Name</name>
	<email>email@example.com</email>
	<web>www.example.com</web>
	<picture>logo.paa</picture>
	<title>Use this e.g. for your squads name or your squads URL</title>
Property Max-Length Description
nick 64 The clan-tag, is displayed together with players nickname. Attention: Don't use reserved XML tags -> Link
name 64 Squad name
email 64 Your contact email
web 64 Your Website Address
picture 64 Your logo (optional), it has to in the same folder as the "squad.xml" file
title 64 Squad name, displayed on vehicles manned by squad members
⚠
Do not use any characters beside A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and space in the nick attribute inside the squad element of your squad.xml. This may lead to strange behaviour e.g. the information from your member block is displayed but the information from the squad block is not. So, if your Tag is like "=[TAG]=", put the value like "TAG" into the nick attribute of the squad element.

Member list

<member id="123456" nick="=[TAG]= John">
		<name>John Doe</name>
		<email>john.doe@example.com</email>
		<icq>N/A</icq>
		<remark>Mostly harmless</remark>
</member>
</squad><!-- closing squad -->
Property Max-Length Description
id N/A your Player-UID, always the same and irrespective of your selected character
nick 64 your nick, the same as used with your selected character
name 64 your "real" name...
email 64 your personal email
icq 64 your personal ICQ number
remark 128 as the name says it...
⚠
  • The value in the nick attribute of the member element must represent the exact name of your player's profile name.
  • Note that personal details are completely optional and do not
ⓘ
  • You can leave any field blank, but it is recommended to fill it with a "N/A" instead.
  • Extend the members list by adding another XML-"Member" block.


How to get your Player-UID

  • Start ArmA and select the player edit-menu

    Start ArmA and select the player edit-menu

  • In the bottom-right corner you will find your 6-digit UID

    In the bottom-right corner you will find your 6-digit UID

  • Arma 2 player profile

    Arma 2 player profile

  • Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead player profile

    Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead player profile

  • Arma 3 player profile

    Arma 3 player profile


Logo Creation

To create a logo for the use with "squad.xml" you'll need:

  • a bitmap manipulating software (aka "Paintprogram") which is able to handle bitmaps in TGA or JPG format.
  • TexView 2 or the PAA plugin for the use with Adobe Photoshop

For a logo without transparency you can use an ordinary JPG without further treatment. To get transparency you'll have to convert a TGA to PAA format. It is recommended to alwayd use PAA and to avoid alpha blending.

Create the TGA

In this tutorial we'll use GIMP - a open source tool - to create our sample-logo.

⚠
All logos must a have resolution of 2^x / 2^y (e.g. 16 / 16, 32 / 32, 64 / 64, 256 /256)
  • Step 1: Create a new file

    Step 1: Create a new file

  • Step 2: Select the appropriate size of image and set background color to transparency

    Step 2: Select the appropriate size of image and set background color to transparency

  • Step 3: Draw your logo and save as TGA, uncheck RLE compression checkbox...

    Step 3: Draw your logo and save as TGA, uncheck RLE compression checkbox...

  • Step 4: after selecting TGA this window appears...

    Step 4: after selecting TGA this window appears...

As this description only covers 'Gimp', here is an old tutorial made for Flashpoint, using Photoshop 6 and explaining how to get an alphachannel working within the TGA-Picture (Note: If you're using Photoshop 7, you'll need to download patch from adobe, since it does not save alphachannel in targa files). You can stick with 'Texview I' as long as those new tools need time to get published. The whole thing is working the same way like it did in Flashpoint, till now. The linked tutorial was part of newsreports by ofp.info.

Convert TGA to PAA

Your logo should be something like this
  1. Start TexView
  2. Open your "logo.tga"
  3. Save it as "logo.paa" (replace *.tga with *.paa in the "save as"-dialog)
ⓘ
Your are absolutely free to name your logo as you like. The filename "logo.tga" etc. is just an example.


Publish your Squad data

To use the "squad.xml" you'll have to upload the following files to a webspace:

  • squad.xml (mandatory)
  • squad.dtd (mandatory)
  • squad.xsl (optional), needed to show the "squad.xml" in a webbrowser, but isn't needed by the Arma gameserver
  • logo.paa (optional)

All files will have to be in the same directory!

⚠
.PAA files will not load on IIS 6.0+ without manually adding a custom paa MIME type in the IIS Manager: 'application/octet-stream'
See Microsoft Support: IIS 6.0 does not serve unknown MIME types.


How to use it as a team-member

  • You have to have your own member-block in the "squad.xml" file
  • Additionally you have to put the full URL of the "squad.xml" of your team into the "Clanpage" field in the player edit-menu (e.g https://www.example.com/squad.xml). As reference see the picture "Arma UID 2" in section How to get your Player-UID.


Files

Download

Source code

squad.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE squad SYSTEM "squad.dtd">
<?xml-stylesheet href="squad.xsl" type="text/xsl"?>
<squad nick="">
	<name></name>
	<email></email>
	<web></web>
	<picture></picture>
	<title></title>
	<member id="" nick="">
		<name></name>
		<email></email>
		<icq></icq>
		<remark></remark>
	</member>
</squad>

squad.dtd

<!ELEMENT squad (name, email, web?, picture?, title?, member+)>
<!ATTLIST squad nick CDATA #REQUIRED>
<!ELEMENT member (name, email, icq?, remark?)>
<!ATTLIST member id CDATA #REQUIRED nick CDATA #REQUIRED>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT email (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT icq (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT web (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT picture (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT title (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT remark (#PCDATA)>

squad.xsl

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet
	version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="text()">
	<xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*">
	<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="/">
	<HTML>
	<HEAD>
		<TITLE><xsl:value-of select="/squad/name"/></TITLE>
		<LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="squad.css"></LINK>
	</HEAD>
	<!--
	XSL template for "squad.xml", used in "Armed Assault" (Ref: "http://www.armedassault.com")
		and "{{arma2}}" (Ref: "http://www.arma2.com")
	See also the Arma-Wiki page: "http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/squad.xml"
	Created by TomNedry, 26.Jan07
		Reviewed by TomNedry, 15.Jul09
	License: Creative Common (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/deed.de)
	To have a squad logo in the HTML output, just put a "sqd_logo.png" in the same folder...
	-->
	<BODY>
	<!--Main TABLE -->
	<TABLE class="main">
		<TR>
			<TD class="left_row" valign="top">
		<!-- Squad Info Table -->
				<TABLE class="sqd_info">
					<TR height="30">
						<TD class="one">
							<DIV class="sqd_name">
								<xsl:value-of select="/squad/name"/>
							</DIV>
						</TD>
					</TR>
					<TR height="30">
						<TD class="two">
							<DIV class="sqd_title">
								<xsl:value-of select="/squad/title"/>
							</DIV>
						</TD>
					</TR>
					<TR height="100%">
						<TD width="100%" height="100%" valign="top">
							<DIV class="sqd_logo">
								<TR height="100%">
									<TD width="100%" height="100%" valign="top">
										<DIV class="sqd_logo">
											<img alt="Picture: Squad Logo">
												<xsl:attribute name="src">
													<xsl:value-of select="concat(substring-before(/squad/picture,'.paa'),'.png')"/>
												</xsl:attribute>
											</img>
										</DIV>
									</TD>
								</TR>
							</DIV>
						</TD>
					</TR>
					<TR height="10">
						<TD class="sqd_website">
							Web site: 
							<A>
								<xsl:attribute name="href">
								http://<xsl:value-of select="/squad/web"/>
								</xsl:attribute>
								<xsl:value-of select="/squad/web"/>
							</A>
						</TD>
					</TR>
					<TR>
						<TD class="sqd_email">	
							e-mail:
							<A>
								<xsl:attribute name="href">
								mailto:<xsl:value-of select="/squad/email"/>
								</xsl:attribute>
								<xsl:value-of select="/squad/email"/>
							</A>	
						</TD>
					</TR>
				</TABLE>
		<!-- Squad Info Table -->
			</TD>
			<TD class="right_row" valign="top">			
		<!-- Member-Info Table -->
				<TABLE class="member_info">
					<Tr>
						<Th>Members</Th>
						<Th>e-mail</Th>
						<Th>ICQ</Th>
					</Tr>
					<xsl:for-each select="/squad/member">
					<TR>
						<xsl:attribute name="class">
							<xsl:choose>
								<xsl:when test="position() mod 2 = 0">one</xsl:when>
								<xsl:otherwise>two</xsl:otherwise>
							</xsl:choose>
						</xsl:attribute>
						<TD class="member_name" rowspan="2">
							<xsl:value-of select="name"/>
						</TD>
						<TD class="member_email">
							<A>
								<xsl:attribute name="href">
									mailto:<xsl:value-of select="email"/>
								</xsl:attribute>
								<xsl:value-of select="email"/>
							</A>
						</TD>
						<TD class="member_icq">
							<xsl:value-of select="icq"/>
						</TD>
					</TR>
					<TR>
						<xsl:attribute name="class">
							<xsl:choose>
								<xsl:when test="position() mod 2 = 0">one</xsl:when>
								<xsl:otherwise>two</xsl:otherwise>
							</xsl:choose>
						</xsl:attribute>
						<TD class="member_remark" colspan="2" valign="top">
							<xsl:value-of select="remark"/>
						</TD>
					</TR>
					</xsl:for-each>
				</TABLE>
		<!-- Member Info Table -->					
		<!--Main TABLE -->
			</TD>
		</TR>
	</TABLE>
	<p style="font-family:verdana;font-size:7pt;color:darkgrey;text-align:center;padding:10px;">
	"squad.xsl" by <strong>TomNedry</strong>, last change: 15.Jul09
	</p>
	</BODY>
	</HTML>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
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squad.css

/*
	CSS template for "squad.xml", used in "Armed Assault" (Ref: "http://www.armedassault.com")
	and "{{arma2}}" (Ref: "http://www.arma2.com")
	See also the Arma-Wiki page: "http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/squad.xml"
	Created by TomNedry, 26.Jan07
	Reviewed by TomNedry, 15.Jul09
	License: Creative Common (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/deed.de)
*/

body
{
	font-family:Arial;
	background-color:#eaece5;
	margin:0;
}

a:link 
{ 
	text-decoration:none;
	color:#800000;
}
a:visited 
{
	text-decoration:none;
	color:#800000;
}
a:hover 
{ 
	text-decoration:none;
	color:#ffffff;
}
a:active 
{ 
	text-decoration:none;
}
a:focus { 
	text-decoration:none;
}

th
{
	background-color:#aeb399;
	font-family:Arial;
	font-size:10pt;
	font-weight:bold;
	padding:4px;
}

tr.one
{
	background-color:#dde4c3;
	width:100%;
	padding:4px;
}
tr.two
{
	background-color:#d2d9b8;
	width:100%;
	padding:4px;
}
td.one
{
	background-color:#aeb399;
	width:100%;
}
td.two
{
	background-color:#e2e9c7;
	width:100%;
}
.main
{
	text-align:center;
	width:100%;
	border:0 solid #333333;
}
div.sqd_name
{
	text-align:center;
	font-family:Arial;
	font-size:12pt;
	font-weight:bold;
}
div.sqd_title
{
	text-align:center;
	font-family:Arial;
	font-size:10pt;
}
div.sqd_logo
{
	text-align:center;
	font-size:8pt;
	padding:5px;
}
.sqd_info
{
	border:1px dotted darkgrey;
	width:100%;
	padding:0;
	border-spacing:0;
}
.sqd_website
{
	font-family:Arial;
	font-size:10pt;
	text-align:center;
	background-color:#aeb399;
	width:100%;
	padding:4px;
	border-spacing:0;
}
.sqd_email
{
	font-family:Arial;
	font-size:10pt;
	text-align:center;
	background-color:#aeb399;
	width:100%;
	padding:4px;
	border-spacing:0;
}
.left-row
{
	vertical-align:top;
	height:100%;
}
.right-row
{
	vertical-align:top;
	height:100%;
}
.member_info
{
	border:1px dotted darkgrey;
	width:100%;
	padding:0;
	border-spacing:0;
}
.member_name
{
	font-family:Arial;
	color:black;
	font-size:10pt;
	padding:4px;
}
.member_email
{
	font-family:Arial;
	color:black;
	font-size:8pt;
	padding:4px;
}
.member_icq
{
	font-family:Arial;
	color:black;
	font-size:8pt;
	padding:4px;
}
.member_remark
{
	font-family:Arial;
	color:black;
	font-size:8pt;
	text-align:center;
}
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See Also


Tools/Programs


Online Arma XML Hoster/Editors

These hosters allow you to create and edit Arma 3 squad.xml files directly online and you will be provided with a unique link to your squad.xml to put into your game profile.

Retrieved from "https://community.bistudio.com/wiki?title=squad.xml&oldid=339678"