GameBase - Video Games Database - Documentation

GameBase - Documentation

  • created: 16/12/2015
  • latest update: 16/12/2015
    • %%AUTHOR%%

Thank you for purchasing my script. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this documentation file, please feel free to email via the item support contact form. Thank you so much!

Overview

With the GameBase Video Games Search Engine Database script you can have your own instant and fully automated video games website filled with tons of games, reviews and video content without any updating or maintenance required.

Today's video game industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that has surpassed the total gross profits from cinema, recorded music and dvd sales combined. There are millions of people searching online for game related content making it an extremely hot niche and this greatly monetized script provides just what they looking for.

No scraping or huge database needed with this script, it updates itself to always get the newest video games, reviews and videos as soon as they are available so there is no manual updating or maintenance required and it is also very light on your server resource and bandwidth usage.

The homepage has a featured games carousel that can show 8 games that you select to be featured, also on the homepage are the latest videos and reviews, popular gaming platforms and the homepage will also be cached for fast loading.

Game pages have detailed information, game graphics, video materials, reviews, related games, advertisement spots, Amazon affiliate link and is AddThis social sharing and Disqus comments ready.

Browsing and searching for games, videos and reviews is easy with the GameBase script which has sorting options and pagination for those sections.

All pages are SEO optimized with OpenGraph meta tags and search engine friendly url structure ideal for search engines like Google to crawl and index your website. You also have the option to create your own unique page titles to improve search engine results.

To monetize your website traffic GameBase has build in advertisement spots on all pages perfectly integrated to boost your ad revenue and a optional buy game links on game pages for Amazon affiliates.

The clean responsive design is making it also easy for mobile, desktop or tablet users to view and navigate the website.

Features

Requirements

Installation

The installation is very easy. Let's guide you through the steps.

Step 1) Site configuration

First you need to open the siteconfig.php file located in the Files folder with your text editor (Notepad) and edit the fields with your details and save it.
The siteconfig.php file has 4 sections explained here:

Main Settings
  • Website URL (Without www!) (Do Not End With '/')
    • Note: If you install in a subfolder make sure the website url points to that folder url and add the foldername to the rewritebase (RewriteBase /foldername) in the .htaccess file.
  • Website title
  • Giantbomb API key (Required)
    • Get an Giant Bomb Api Key: Login to your Giant Bomb account or register for free and go to giantbomb.com/api/ and copy you API key.
  • Contact form mail receiver (Optional)
  • AddThis ID for share buttons (optional)
  • Disqus shortname for comments (optional)
  • Amazon affiliate ID (optional)

    • Featured Games Carousel Settings
    Here you can select which games to want to be featured on the homepage carousel, there are 8 spots available and you only need to fill in the id for the games that you want.
    Get the game ID: Search your site for the games that you want, go to that game page and copy the id from the url, here is an example url:
    http://gamebase.armorthemes.com/game/42905/halo-5-guardians/ so in this example url the game id is 42905.

    Notice: If you want to see changes that you made to the homepage directly you need to remove the cached file from the cache folder, or wait 8 hour and it will auto refresh.

    SEO Settings
    Here you can edit homepage and other page titles.
  • Homepage title
  • Homepage meta description
  • Website meta keywords
  • Searchpage title
  • Video game page title (Comes between game title and site title)
  • Review page title (Comes between review title and site title)
  • Video page title (Comes between video title and site title)

    • Text Settings
    Here you can edit text that is being used on the site.
  • Searchbox text
  • Homepage carousel title
  • Homepage video title
  • Homepage reviews title
  • Searchresultspage title
  • Platform widget title
  • Commentbox title
  • Page text
  • Previous page button text
  • Next page button text
  • Footer home link text
  • Footer privacy link text
  • Footer dmca link text
  • Footer contact link text


    • Important: Make sure you fill in your details between the ' ' symbols. When you are done make sure you save the siteconfig.php file.

    And remove the files in the cache to refresh the cache manually.


    Step 2) Place your analytics and advertisements code (optional).

    Open the folder Files/ads here you will find the files to place your head code and your advertisements code in.
    Simply open the file with your text editor, paste your code in and save it.

    head_code.php - Your head code (for analytics).
    homepage_ad_728x90.php - Home page ad (Size 728x90).
    sidebar_ad_300x250.php - Top sidebar ad on the search and video pages (Size 300x250).
    sidebar_ad_300x600.php - Bottom sidebar ad on the search pages (Size 300x600).
    singlepage_ad_728x90.php - Single page ad (Size 728x90).
    category_ad_728x90.php - Category page ad (Size 728x90).


    Step 3) Now you are ready to upload the contents of the Files folder to your webserver.

    Open up your FTP program and connect to your server, in this example I will use FileZilla.
    Upload the contents of the Files folder to your public_html folder.


    Congratulations, the installation has now been completed, enjoy your site!

    Usage

    The GameBase script will update itself to always get the newest video games, reviews and videos as soon as they are available on the Giant Bomb Api so there is no manual updating or maintenance required.

    For faster loading the homepage will be cached, so if you want to see changes that you made to the homepage directly you need to remove the cached file from the cache folder, or wait 8 hour and it will auto refresh.

    Support

    Frequently asked questions

    Why do all the site links lead to a '404 not found' page?

    - That sounds like its missing the .htaccess file, please check if you uploaded it, select 'show hidden files' in your file manager if you cannot see it.

    How do i install GameBase in a subfolder?

    - Make sure the website url in the siteconfig.php points to the folder url and add the foldername to the rewritebase (RewriteBase /foldername) in the .htaccess file.

    Why do some games do not have a summary?

    - Sometimes summary text is not available by the api, mostly newly released games, when later text has been added to the api it will show on your site.

    How do i add Disqus comments to my site?

    - For Disqus comments you need to register with Disqus (https://disqus.com/admin/signup/?utm_source=New-Site) after creating a comment section you get a 'shortname' that is the one to fill in the siteconfig.php file.

    Do i need to manual update to get new games?

    - This script uses the GiantBomb Api to get all the content data, so there is no need for manual updating, you always have the latest games.

    Will search engines like Google index my site?

    - Yes, this script is optimized for search engines to be able to organic crawl and index the urls.

    Are the games available in other languages?

    - No, the review and game text are only available in English.

    Are you available for custom work?

    - No, i am not available for custom work.

    If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this documentation file, please feel free to email via the item support contact form. Thank you so much!