Quick Start: Display Your First VelaBoard Sidebar

Build a PlayerSidebar and a SharedSidebar with VelaBoard in minutes, starting from the ScoreboardAPI entry point through to show().

VelaBoard’s API is built around three core objects: ScoreboardHandler, Scoreboard, and a sidebar. This page shows you the complete flow to display a sidebar to a player and a shared sidebar visible to multiple players.

Display a player sidebar

A PlayerSidebar is scoped to a single player. Use it for per-player HUDs that show individual data like score or level.

1. Get the handler

   Obtain the ScoreboardHandler from the API entry point.

   ScoreboardHandler handler = ScoreboardAPI.getHandler();
   
2. Create a scoreboard

   Create a Scoreboard instance through the handler.

   Scoreboard board = handler.createScoreboard();
   
3. Register the player

   Add the player to the scoreboard before creating any sidebars for them.

   board.addPlayer(player);
   
4. Create the sidebar

   Create a PlayerSidebar with a display title.

   PlayerSidebar sidebar = board.createPlayerSidebar("§6My Plugin");
   
5. Set lines

   Populate the sidebar lines. Line 0 is the top line.

   sidebar.setLine(0, "§7Score: §f100");
   sidebar.setLine(1, "§7Level: §f5");
   
6. Assign and show

   Assign the sidebar to the player, then call show() to display it.

   sidebar.setPlayer(player);
   sidebar.show();
   

Display a shared sidebar

A SharedSidebar shows the same content to multiple players at once. Use it for server-wide information like online player count or a global event status.

// Create a shared sidebar with an ID and a display title
SharedSidebar shared = board.createSharedSidebar("server-info", "§bServer Info");

// Set lines
shared.setLine(0, "§7Online: §f" + Bukkit.getOnlinePlayers().size());

// Add a player and show to all registered players
shared.addPlayer(player);
shared.show();

To show the sidebar to a specific player by UUID without adding them to the default roster, use showTo(UUID):

shared.showTo(player.getUniqueId());

Call this code from within a Bukkit event handler such as PlayerJoinEvent, or at any point after the player is fully online. Calling addPlayer or show before the player has joined will have no effect.

You can use § color codes or Adventure API text components in both sidebar titles and line content. For dynamic lines that update over time, call setLine again with new content and re-call show() to refresh the display.