Speaking from experience, converting saved stuff to sql is a hellish task, literally. Pfiles moreso, because there's a million things that should be done, such as writing out alias tables, etc.. It's certainly not the easiest thing in the world to do.
That said: I'd start small. If you've got hedit, etc on your game, start there. Convert the helpfiles to sql, from there, the social table (if you've got the ability to do so). Doing so will help you grasp the sql setup and functions. At this point I've got the player files completely saved through SQL (not loaded yet, but it will be done shortly, once I find the time). I think (personally), I started with the helpfiles, then went on to socials, then areas (not loading, just saving them for now), area data, completely rewritten notes, etc. Is the benefit worth it? It's just a better way for me to handle it I think. I just wish I had the time now that I did 4 years ago when I was starting on this project to actually CODE what I need to. As far as advice: Go through the mailing list, search for sql (I know it's been said before, but it's always worth repeating). I think Jason's helpfile code is buried in there somewhere, as well as a few of my mails regarding it. That's a great way to get started with it. As well, you'll want to keep in mind that certain characters have to be converted in sql (specifically ' and " and , because of the way queries are worded and used). There's a parser in there somewhere, it's the one I used (with modifications of course). However, if you don't convert those, all it'll take is someone putting one of those characters into some part of their file to trash your game ;) As far as mysql book, books are out of date faster than manuals are. You're best off starting at http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/index.html . Pay close attention to the C API functions. Good luck On Thu, 2004-03-11 at 01:42, Dale Kingston wrote: > Ok have a question but this is more on advise then pretaning to rom... But I > want to start using SQL with the mud. Been hearing alot that alot of muds > have started to switch over to like SQL or XML as things to save their > pfiles and that in. And I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion on a good > MySQL book to get. Hehehehe I was going to get the one for dummies but IDK > if that one will cover all my needs. > > Also if you've already switch, maybe a small bit of advice on maybe > something not to do. Thanks for your time :) >
