New Windows based XML socket server..

[Emphatic]

Hi!

I've been working on an xml socket server.
It's very easy to navigate, and very stable. As it's still in early test phase, i don't have a demonstration up yet, however you can see a screenshot at http://www.flashnexus.com

What i'm looking for is a wishlist from designers, as to what I should add to it. Currently it has the following features:

-BanList, by ip or username, to problems users.
-Admin controls, to be able to disconnect / ban a user remotely
-'Groups' so you can have many different movies communicating with it with ease.
-Database backend
-telnet safe, only allows logged on users to receive messages, unlike a lot of the java servers.

You can tell more from the screenshot!

Any thoughts guys?

Steve
steve@flashnexus.com

[Emphatic]

Sorry, few other features I thought were worth mentioning.

Each 'group' has an admin user, which can retrieve database information, such as:

-high scores
-how many users logged on
-who is logged on
-How many users on database
-Retrieving a users email address

These were designed fo give you the ability to retrieve this information for score boards, profiles etc.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again
Steve

[yahya20001]

hi...

I am working on a game programme and i want to use socket program to have a smooth connection between the users. I dont know what should i write in the server and with what software(java...vb..etc).
Secondly, I am using XML. I could able to get the fields and its values in flash. But when i try to change the values from Flash... Iam not able to. I dont know the procedure. Please suggest me...

[Emphatic]

Hi

It's difficult to answer your questions, as you've not provided enough details. What is your hosting solution?
Unix, Windows NT? Also, what do you require the server to do? TO simply relay messages to everyone connected, the 'aquaserver' available at http://www.figleaf.com/development/flash5/ will do what you want.

If however you are hosting on windows, and require something more secure, flash nexus might be appropriate. I'm trying to finish add new features to it, so once finished will provide most things you could want natively 'out of the box'. I'm also trying to get a good set of documentation written for it.

Any flash XML guru's out there interested in writing anything for flash xml side of things?

Steve

[K.A.R.L. 2000]

some stats on it's performance under different loads and scalability would be nice.

Also, the option to send messages NOT as XML would be key. XML can take a while to parse, and ususally isn't necessary in chat apps or games.
[Edited by K.A.R.L. 2000 on 04-10-2001 at 03:09 PM]

[Emphatic]

Hi

You've a valid point, xml does take time to parse. I could add an option on the server to work as a simple relay, to send any message onto all connected users. However you obviously lose functionality there.The free java servers currently online, aquaserver for one, will do this perfectly well, the aim for flash nexus was/is to add features otherwise not possible with the java servers being distributed.

Thanks for the input!

Steve

[Subway]

Originally posted by K.A.R.L. 2000
Also, the option to send messages NOT as XML would be key. XML can take a while to parse, and ususally isn't necessary in chat apps or games.

Yes, that's really the key for online gaming. Tested a socket some weeks ago with normal XML connection and it is too slow.

For the chat functionality: It would be nice if every user can disable other users. So if someone just writes crap, and no admin is up, you don't have to recieve and read all the crap he is writing.

The possibility to let the script check for words like ****, **** ... I think it's faster when you do this on the server cause Flash is really not that good with string searches.

More later ...

[Emphatic]

Hi Subway, thanks for the reply!

XML socket servers are perhaps not the fastest solution. The disadvantage of using non xml, is trying to format messages to enable the server to logon etc, so the server knows who is who. Perhaps if flash was to send a message in a certain format, "logon,nickname,password" might be another way of doing it. I'm not sure if this style of message would be faster, server side, however.

I'm trying to get a beta version of the server ready, so I can fully test it with many users, this is obviously very key before i could comment on performance issues.

Steve

[Emphatic]

As for the banning certain words, yes, that would be a good feature, I'll add it sometime today! I also like the idea of 'ignoring' someone, which I shall also add.

Thanks for the input!

[Subway]

Originally posted by Emphatic
Thanks for the input!

If it's all in what I need then I'm a really happy man when it's out.

Something like a direct message to an other chater and only to this one would be nice, too.

*chater2*Hello! How are you?*/*

Maybe a similar syntax like the above. I'm thinking about some other usefull tags, cause fast chaters don't use the mouse very often.

For Bold:

*bold*Hello! How are you?*/*

More ideas later

[Emphatic]

Hiya

As it stands the server can send messages to the following:

One particular user, eg 'johnny'
All users connected
All users in specified group, eg 'red team'

Tags like 'bold' etc, i think would best be sorted out client side. Although flash is bit of a pain with strings!Doing it server side will slightly slow down performance, and i'm trying to keep it full featured, but fast.

[Subway]

Yes, we don't need this tags for the server script. Thx god we have html textfields

[Subway]

An other idea: If an user opens the socket, do a handshake to make it more secure.

Like:
-Sending a Nr. to Flash
-Flash makes some calculation and sends a new Nr. back
-The socket check the Nr. and if the Nr. is not ok the socket disconnect.

Someting easy like: newnumber = number + securitynumber
... where the securitynumber is different for every server (Selected by the admin)

I know, it's no really secure, but better then nothing.

[Emphatic]

That's a good idea.

I think with these, I will add an option to enable handshakes/extra security to be enabled and disabled.

I've currently got it so that only registered users, who are logged in can send or receive messages.

This stops telnet users and those trying to cause trouble.

[Subway]

How is it working with the groups?

If you logged in you see all the groups, do you see how many users are in each chat room? And what's the limit for one room?

Three other question:
-Is there something like an archive function to look at the past discusions.
-Do you send the date/time of the message?
-A userhas to register a nickname first, right? And is this stored in a db for the next login?

More questions to come

[Emphatic]

Groups can be specified by the client. For example you could login with
<login username="bleh" pass="bleh" group="whatever" />
The client can send a request to the server, for a list of users in that group, the server would respond with a comma delimited list like
<users group="whatever" usernames="bob,betty,fred,jack" />
etc. This would then enable you to .split these into an array. There's no limit for any one group, you can have as many groups as u want, and the group names are all set by the client.

As yet there's no archive, however if that would be of interest, I can add it as a feature.

You don't send the date time of the message, unless you want to. You could add a tag for time.. or you could let the server set the time. This way the time zone will be the same between users.

A user has to register his or her username and that is in a database, correct. If a 'guest' login is required, that's no problem either, i have an option 'must users be registered?'.

Hope that answers your questions

[Subway]

That's great, cause there goes my next question: Is it possible to make istant mails. For example if my friend is not on but I want to let him now that I'm on at a specific time or something like "I want to chat with you, please send me a mail to bla@bla.com when you see this instant mail..."

You have a db connect so this should be not a problem.


An other question: If someone want to go in a privat room with someone, what are the steps to do? Do you open directly a new room or has the other person to confirm it first. The second way would be perfect.

Next question
Is it possible to have moderators? Not for all the admin functions possible, just to hold the place clean.

More later

[Subway]

Addition to the above question:

For multiplayer games it will be perfect when we can use the db you have connected directly with your script for all the data to store in the db, like for save game or something.

Three function would be great:
-Query
-Add
-Delete

This can look like:
todo = "query"
position = 1
maxcount = 10
dsn = "gamedb"
query = "Select * from Angaben where field1='member' AND field2='password'"
fields = "field3, field4, field5"

Best with XML syntax.

[Emphatic]

Hi

Yes it will be possible to send messages to an offline user, these will be saved in database.

Moderators will also be possible! It would be up to the client to allow moderators to perform whatever tasks required, but i have a 'level' field for database, which is set to 'normal' at default. This could be admin, or whatever you wanted.

You could use a 3 dimensional array to retrieve Usernames and 'level' To match them up.

Saving games will be a feature. One example of doing this would be saving a characters position using _x and _y values, and a co-ordinates based system.

This would also be perfect for making 'dynamically creating isometric rooms'. Where co-ordinates set where an item is to be positioned. This could be great for tile based games, where you could duplicate a movie clip based on co-ordinates saved on the server! A 'Mobiles disco' style chat room could be created with a small file size!

Steve

[NETbreed]

Hey Guys!

Just getting in on the chat here! I've started writing my own Windows XML Socket Server that I will release under GNU license as freeware [ala FlashMailer] when I'm happy it's featured enough. It's only been in development for about 5 days so I don't even have screenshots or anything for you all to drool at !

Emphatic, I hope you don't mind but I might like to implement a few of the features above [and any other goood ones that come out of this thread ;o]. If you're intending to sell your socket server [which I think is the general idea] then we wouldn't really be in competition anyway since corporates don't yet trust something they don't have to pay for ! Just let me know if I'm stepping on toes here!

Just to let you know I'm writing my server using C/C++. Not only will this mean that it kicks-ass in the speed department, but it will also be easily portably since Unix/Linux has native support for sockets.

Anyway, good luck with your project. Maybe it would be good to compare notes sometime!

Regards,

Steve