So, in my spare time I've been working on a fun little project. I play on MUSHes (sort of like a MUD only more for RolePlay than hack and slash) a lot and I've always wanted to do a web character generator. My vision on how this works is basically that I have 2 databases. One that CFMX interfaces with (secure) and the other that the mush interfaces with (insecure), something like this:
CFMX <-> Secure db <-> Insecure db <-> TinyMUSH 3.0 patchlevel 4#1 TinyMUSH has the ability to interface with MySQL, but because you can't specify a password for the mush to log into mysql with, I've decided that this is a 'hostile' zone because of that. Which is why I call it an insecure database. So, basically all the stats of a character will be placed into the secure db. The insecure db will be quick snapshots or a transportation layer for the mush to interface with. I still had one problem though. The data will remain in the transportation layer until something kicks off within the MUSH itself. How else would that data get sucked into the game? I kept thinking about it and ... well, I had two options. One, every time staff made a change to a character on the web, they'd have to type a command (like +synch) on the actual game. That's stupid and tedious. I needed a robot or something to interface with the mush. I called upon one of my best friends in Atlanta, Don Stauffer (goes by the old Mush name of Hyperion) who works for <http://www.air2web.com/>air2web.com. Great guy, loves java stuff. Came from a 'C' background (self taught) and he taught himself java because the demands were high for it. He now writes java api's for wireless protocols for air2web.com. I asked Don if he could make me a java api that would allow me to use CFMX to telnet into the mush, kick off a few commands and logoff. He finished it today and gave me a robot.jar file. This thing is *great*. I was able to put the jar file into my "CfusionMX\wwwroot\WEB-INF\lib" directory, hiccup the server and ... write: <cfobject type="java" name="newRobot" class="com.don.robot.Robot" action="create"> <cfscript> myRobot = newRobot.getInstance(); myRobot.login(myserver_name,port,'Javabot',bot_password); myRobot.command('page todd=Booya'); myRobot.command('page todd=Tired of this crap, logging off..'); myRobot.logoff(); </cfscript> The in game results: JavaBot has connected. JavaBot pages: Booya JavaBot pages: Tired of this crap, logging off.. JavaBot has disconnected. Is this not cool or what?! :) :) Now, ColdFusion MX can seamlessly handle the web chargen of the game and handle the synchronization of actual game data within the game (as well as recieve feedback on whether something was successful or not!). In fact, because of how much I can do with the javabot api, I'm beginning to wonder if I need the insecure database at all.. I can just have the JavaBot set all the game attributes on the player object as needed. We'll see... I realize that a lot of people are wanting to learn flash for remoting, etc. However, if you get a chance to explore with ColdFusion MX and Java. Do it. It's worth every penny to explore and have fun with the possibilities of using CFMX and Java together. You can use java to enhance / extend your CFMX experience. Even if it's for something stupid and trivial as a game. :) Hope this inspires someone to have fun... =) ~Todd ---------- Todd Rafferty ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - http://www.web-rat.com/ Team Macromedia Volunteer for ColdFusion http://www.macromedia.com/support/forums/team_macromedia/ http://www.devmx.com/ ---------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
