The Union Platform (tm)

hi erik,
welcome to union! good timing on your database question. we are actually right now in the final planning phases of our persistence implementation. in an upcoming release, you'll be able to save any client or room attribute to a database by simply setting a flag on the attribute when you define it. the system we're working on will also allow you to add records to and remove records from remote datasets, or populate an attribute as the "result" of a dataset query. we still have a fair amount of work to do on the persistence feature, but we're actively building it now.

as for creating general server-side extensions, which could also include custom database connectivity, yes, you use modules. here's a quotation from the docs:

"Modules are custom code that can be deployed inside Union Server. There are two types of modules: server modules and room modules. Server modules add functionality to the entire server and are not associated with a specific room. Room modules add functionality to a room. Room modules can be written in Java or almost any scripting language that has an invocable syntax (eg. Javascript, Python)."

more info here:
http://www.unionplatform.com/?page_id=11

please let me know if you have any other questions!

colin

You are awesome Colin!

Thank you for the reply. I don't know how i missed that whole module tutorial page, I thought I clicked everywhere, yikes!

Now I just have to write a mySQL python union module, shouldn't be too hard, any tips I should think about before I begin?

The persistence implementation however sounds awesome, any wide estimate on when it will be beta released?

Thank you very much!

-Erik

I'm not really a python guy, so i don't have any specific tips, but feel free to send over questions if you encounter issues.

we can't commit to any specific dates on the persistence release, but we'd love to see it in developer hands before year end.

also, just curious, what kind of information are you planning to store?

colin

Well I'm building an online multiplayer card game (sorta like magic the gathering).
So I would like to store/retrieve:

User profile ( username, id's, etc)
Card Deck (all cards owned by user)
Record (history of wins, loses, games played etc. )

That is pretty much it. Its a relatively simple game.

End of the year? So should I just wait for it or roll my own module ?
I'm not the most experienced database guy, I just make AS3 games.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions !

-Erik

ah, cool. your scenario is a 100% fit for our upcoming persistence implementation. we could get you on some early unreleased builds if you're willing to put up with some instability and api volatility. it might be a few weeks before we could give you the first build. let me know what your timing is like.

btw, please do let us know if you have specific flex needs that Reactor is not meeting, or is making painful. we're very open to tweaks that accommodate flex development. i also have some basic flex 3 (halo) components for things like user lists, room lists, basic chat UI, etc. let me know if you'd like a look at that code.

colin

Yeah that would be great, would love to get in early ! Totally willing to beta test.

The goal of our team is to release a beta of the game by the end of the year or end of January at most.
You can check out the website of the game if you're interested:
http://www.jollygrim.com

We have a working version of the game, using: C++, RakNet networking library ( http://www.jenkinssoftware.com/) and CEGUI (http://www.cegui.org.uk) and mySQL

but were exploring the idea of moving to Flash (for several reasons), when I stumbled upon Union. Really excited about it.

Let me know what you think.

-Erik

Oh oh did the website scare you away ? ( its a work in progress ) = (

Pretty Please?
We are a small indie team, and would really appreciate your support, and would try to
be the best possible beta testers ever!

Also, definitely would like seeing the flex3 (halo) components. (spark sounds spiffier though = )

hey erik,
the site most definitely did not scare us away ; )

just the opposite! it's great. love the style. it just so happens that derek and i are both hardcore gamers so we'd love to see your stuff Unionized : )

we'll definitely contact you with pre-release builds. as i said, it'll be a few weeks before we can get you a build, but end-of-year to early 2010 sounds perfect as a target date for a persistence-enabled release.

re: flex...yeah, spark looks great, but we needed to work with a known quantity for now, so we went with halo. we'll move to spark in the future.

shall i contact you at your factory email address when the first persistence build is ready?

colin

Colin, Thank you, = ) and yes you can email me on that address !

It will really be an honor for us to work with Union ! 

Meanwhile today I have already started porting our art / code
over to flash.

I haven't ran into any problems yet, I'll let you know if I
hit any bumps.

-Erik