Quill - Minecraft Plugin

Quill is a Minecraft plugin that modernizes a very old-school server workflow: players write something in a signed book, submit it, and the staff team reviews it later through an in-game interface.

I created this plugin because, when I was younger, the first Minecraft server I truly spent time on had a long-term progression system based on applications written in books. Players would write their application in-game, drop the signed book into a hopper, and admins would read it afterwards.

Even if its main use case is player applications, the system can also be used for many other book-based submissions: whitelist forms, staff applications, roleplay backstories, reports, event registrations, lore entries, or any other workflow where players need to submit structured written content.

Quill keeps the original charm of Minecraft book submissions while removing the awkward parts of the old process.

📋 Features

📖 Submission System

• Submit signed books directly with /quill apply
• Save book title, content, author UUID, date, and status in MySQL
• Read submitted books back in-game through the written book interface

🧭 Review & Moderation

• Browse all submissions in a paginated GUI
• Browse a specific player's submissions with /quill look <player>
• Let players review their own submissions with /quill self
• Change submission status from a dedicated management GUI
• Filter the global list by status using GUI toggle buttons

🔧 Advanced Features

• Full permission management
• Async database access for submission loading and browsing
• Reload configuration without restarting the server
• Staff notification on join when pending submissions exist
• Fully customizable messages, GUI titles, item names, and status labels

🤖 Discord Integration

• Optional webhook notification for new submissions
• Includes author name, title, and page count
• Safe fallback if webhook sending fails

🚀 Installation

Requirements

• Spigot/Paper Minecraft server 1.20.6 or higher
• Java 21 or higher
• MySQL database access

Steps

1. Download the latest plugin JAR
2. Place the JAR file in the plugins folder
3. Start or restart the server once to generate plugins/Quill/config.yml
4. Configure the MySQL connection settings
5. Optionally set a Discord webhook URL
6. Restart the server

⚙️ Configuration

Main Files

• plugins/Quill/config.yml — General configuration for messages, GUI text, statuses, database connection, and Discord webhook

Commands

Command	Permission	Description
/quill	quill.look	Opens the global applications GUI
/quill apply	quill.apply	Submits the signed book in the player's main hand
/quill look <player>	quill.look	Opens the applications of a specific player
/quill self	quill.self	Displays the player's own submitted books
/quill reload	quill.reload	Reloads the configuration

Permissions

Permission	Description	Default
quill.*	Grants all plugin permissions	OP
quill.apply	Allows submitting a signed book	OP
quill.look	Allows browsing submissions	OP
quill.notify	Allows receiving pending/new submission notifications	OP
quill.reload	Allows reloading the plugin configuration	OP
quill.status	Allows changing the status of a submission	OP
quill.self	Allows viewing your own submissions	OP

🎨 Customization

Menus & Messages

• Customizable messages under messages
• Customizable GUI labels under menus
• Customizable status names under settings.status
• Custom status colors in the application management menu

Status Workflow

Quill currently supports four submission states:

• Pending
• Accepted
• Refused
• Archived

📊 Settings Reference

messages:
  configuration-reload: '&7Configuration has been reloaded.'
  apply-done: '&7Application &d%title%&7 has been submitted.'

settings:
  status:
    waiting: 'Pending'
    accepted: 'Accepted'
    refused: 'Refused'
    archived: 'Archived'

database:
  username: 'your_username'
  password: 'your_password'
  name: 'your_database'
  url: 'localhost:3306'

discord:
  webhook-url: ''

🔗 Discord Webhook Setup

1. Create a webhook in your Discord channel settings
2. Paste its URL into discord.webhook-url
3. Restart the server or run /quill reload
4. Submit a signed book with /quill apply

Webhook Message Content

When enabled, Quill sends a message containing:

• the author name
• the book title
• the page count

🗂️ Project Structure

src/main/java/fr/loot1/quill/
├── Quill.java                          # Main plugin class
├── commands/
│   └── QuillCommand.java               # /quill command handler
├── guis/
│   ├── GuiApplicationManager.java      # Status management GUI
│   ├── GuiApplications.java            # Global applications GUI
│   ├── GuiHolder.java                  # Shared GUI utilities
│   ├── GuiPaginatedApplications.java   # Paginated GUI base class
│   └── GuiPlayerApplications.java      # Player-specific applications GUI
├── listeners/
│   ├── GuiListener.java                # GUI event listener
│   └── PlayerJoinListener.java         # Pending applications notification on join
├── managers/
│   ├── ConfigManager.java              # Config file manager
│   ├── DatabaseManager.java            # MySQL access and persistence
│   └── PlayerCacheManager.java         # Cached player names for tab completion
├── objects/
│   ├── Application.java                # Submission data model
│   └── ApplicationList.java            # Paginated result wrapper
└── utils/
    ├── DiscordWebhook.java             # Discord webhook HTTP client
    └── GlowHelper.java                 # GUI glow helper

Dependencies

Dependency	Type	Notes
HikariCP	Library	Database connection pooling
Gson	Library	Book content serialization
MySQL	External service	Required for storage
Spigot/Paper 1.20.6+	Server	—
Java 21+	Runtime	—

Authors

Role	Author
Plugin design, development, and implementation	Loot1