SFS1X: Simple Extension

Hi. In this tutorial I'll explain how to make the most Simple Extension, most known as "Hello World" Extension.

Importat Note: This is a Zone Level Extension, so it's attached to a Zone. There are the Room Level Extensions too, but the only difference is that they're attached to a Room instead.

An Extension, as the name says, is a way to extend the server functionalities. It has many uses like handling the Login proccess (by verifying the credentials in a database), handling a game (like the score of each player in the game) and any other things.

So let's begin the tutorial!

First you need to create a new ActionScript File. Then you only need to put there this code:

function init()
{
 trace("Hello World!")
}

function destroy(){
 trace("Bye World!")
}

function handleRequest(cmd, params, user, fromRoom){
 trace("Request Received from: "+user.getName())
}

function handleInternalEvent(evt){
 trace("Event received: "+evt.name)
}

As you can see, the Extension has only this functions (plus the handleRequest function) to handle the server events. 

The init function handles the init event that is fired when the extension is inited (after the Zone is inited). In this case, we only display the "Hello World!" message, that can be checked in the console, after the correspondent Zone is inited.

The destroy function handles the destroy event that is fired when the extension is destroyed. In this case, we only display the "Bye World!" message, that can be checked in the console.

The handleInternalEvent function handles all the internal events that are fired, like userJoin, userExit, etc. In this case we only display the name of the event received. 

The handleRequest function handles the request event sent by the client (with the sendXtMessage). 

Now you only need to deploy the Extension. To do that, you need to copy you ActionScript File to the [SmartFoxServer Installation Folder]\Server\sfsExtensions folder, then you need to add your Extension to the Zone where you want to place it. For that you need to enter the following code, in the <Extensions> block that is in your Zone block. So it will stay like this:

<Zone name="Your Zone" blablablabla>
        bla
        bla
        bla
        <Extensions>
                <extension name="MostSimpleExtension"  className="MostSimpleExtension.as" type="script" />
        </Extensions>
</Zone>

The extension configuration has the following parameters:

name - Is a name that will be used to refer to the Extension. Used in the sendXtMessage(extensionName, blablabla)
className - Is the name of the ActionScript File of the Extension.
type - Is the type of the extension. As it is an ActionScript extension, its type is script. If it was a Java Extension, its type would be java.

After this, you only need to start your Server.

And that's all. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions, fell free to ask me (by commenting or by dropping me a pm in the sfs forums).

SFS1X: Basic Server Configuration

Hi. This tutorial isn't finished yet. I'll update it as I need in my future tutorials. So let's begin!

Zone

A Zone is like an application (like a game, a chat, etc.) or a group of rooms, if you prefer, and each room has its players that can join all the rooms inside the zone where they are. You can create a new Zone only by editing the config.xml under [SmartFoxServer Installation Folder]\Server (with any text editor like notepad)

To create a new zone, you only need to add this code before the <Zones> section. (Each zone is defined by a <Zone> block)

<Zone name="ZoneName" uCountUpdate="true" maxUsers="200" customLogin="false">
</Zone>

This is a simple Zone. Of course there are much more parameters to set in the Zone like for example roomListVars, that sets if the rooms can have or not Room Variables. Here's an explanation about the above parameters:

name - is the name of the Zone
uCountUpdate - if set to true, it sends to the clients an userCountUpdate event when the number of players/users in a room changes.
maxUsers - sets the maximum amount of users that the Zone will handle
customLogin - if set to false, the server handles the login proccess, but if set to true, the server doesn't handle the login process. When it receives the login request from the client, it redirects it for the Zone Extension, that will handle the login proccess.

This is just the first part of the configuration of a Zone. You need also to configure the default Rooms that will be always in the Zone and there are many other things to configure like the buddyList (optional), the Database Manager (optional), the Extensions (optional), Moderators (optional), etc.

Database Manager

To configure the Database Manager, you need to add this code in the Zone where you want to add it.

<DatabaseManager active="true">
  <Driver>The Driver</Driver>
    <ConnectionString>The URL</ConnectionString>
  <UserName>Database Username</UserName>
  <Password>Database Password</Password>
  <TestSQL><![CDATA[Test SQL Statement]]></TestSQL>
  <MaxActive>100</MaxActive>
  <MaxIdle>100</MaxIdle>
  <OnExhaustedPool>fail</OnExhaustedPool>
  <BlockTime>5000</BlockTime> 
</DatabaseManager>

I think I don't need to explain the paremeters of the Database Manager, as its names tell everything.

I'll explain the of this parameters later.

For more information about the Basic Configuration, you can check the docs (http://www.smartfoxserver.com/docs/index.htm?http://www.smartfoxserver.com/docs/docPages/config/basics.htm)

Stay tuned for updates ;-)

SFS1X: Simple Login

Hello readers! In this tutorial I'll explain how to make a simple Flash application that connects and then logs in the server. I'll explain how to make a Database Login in the next tutorial.


You can download the source code of this tutorial here.


So, let's begin!


First open your Flash and create a new Input TextField (using the Text Tool, shortcut key: T) and give it the Instance Name "userName" without the quotes and set its Behavior property to Single line (Like the following image).

You can also select the Show border around text button () in the TextField. This way it will show a black border around it.

Then you need to create a button. For that you first draw your button, then you convert it to a Button Symbol (Right-click in the button, select "Convert to Symbol...") and give it the Instance Name "login_btn" without the quotes (Like the following image).

If you want, you can add the status Dynamic TextField to show the connection status.
Finally add a new KeyFrame and give it the label "lobby" and add give to the first frame the label "login", so it looks like this:

In the Lobby I only put a Dynamic TextField with the Instance Name "display" without the quotes.
After this, you only need to add this code in the first frame:

import it.gotoandplay.smartfoxserver.*
stop();

var ip:String = "127.0.0.1";
var port:Number = 9339;
var zone:String = "simpleChat";

status.text = "Connecting..."

userName._visible = false;
login_btn._visible = false;

var smartfox:SmartFoxClient = new SmartFoxClient()
smartfox.debug = true
smartfox.connect(ip, port)

smartfox.onConnection = function (success)
{
 if (success)
 {
  status.text = "Successfully connected!"
  userName._visible = true;
  login_btn._visible = true;
  login_btn.onRelease = sendLogin;
  Selection.setFocus(userName);
 }
 else
 {
  status.text = "Can't connect!"
 }
}

smartfox.onLogin = function(resObj:Object)
{
 if (resObj.success)
 {
  gotoAndStop("lobby");
  display.text = "Logged in as "+resObj.name;
 }
 else
 {
  status.text = "Error";
  trace("Error Message: "+resObj.error);
 }
}

function sendLogin(){
 if(userName.text != ""){
  status.text = "Logging in..."
  smartfox.login(zone, userName.text)
 }
}

As part of the code is from the Simple Connect Tutorial, I'll only explain the new code.
So here's the explanation:

userName._visible = false;
login_btn._visible = false;

This simple lines of code just hide the userName TextField and the login button to prevent the user from trying to login before being connected. That's why you find this code:

userName._visible = true;
login_btn._visible = true;

When it successfully connects, to show the userName TextField and the login button again to let the user login.

login_btn.onRelease = sendLogin;

This line of code is the same as putting this code in the button:

on(release){
 _root.sendLogin();
}

It calls/executes the function when the login button is clicked.

Selection.setFocus(userName);

What this line of code does is selecting the userName TextField, to facilitate the login to the user. This way the user only needs to write his/her username. For unknown reasons this code only works if you open the swf file or if you open it on the browser.

function sendLogin(){
 if(userName.text != ""){
  status.text = "Logging in..."
  smartfox.login(zone, userName.text)
 }
}

This function first verifies if the userName TextField is empty, and if it isn't, it sends the login request to the server. For further details about the login you can check the docs (http://www.smartfoxserver.com/docs/docPages/tutorials_basic/02_simpleChat_p1/index.htm) and the AS2.0 API (http://www.smartfoxserver.com/docs/docPages/as2/html/it_gotoandplay_smartfoxserver_SmartFoxClient.html#login).

smartfox.onLogin = function(resObj:Object)
{
 if (resObj.success)
 {
  gotoAndStop("lobby");
  display.text = "Logged in as "+resObj.name;
 }
 else
 {
  status.text = "Error";
  trace("Error Message: "+resObj.error);
 }
}

This function handles the onLogin event, that is fired when the login successes or fails. The resObj is an object that returns when that function is called. 
This object has the following variables/properties:
- success Boolean that returns true when the login successes and returns false when the login fails.
- name String that is the public name that everyone sees.
- error String that returns an error message if the login failed.


For more information about the resObj and the login process you can check the AS2.0 API docs (http://www.smartfoxserver.com/docs/docPages/as2/html/it_gotoandplay_smartfoxserver_SmartFoxClient.html#onLogin)


Tip: Don't forget to set the Local playback security to Access network only. For more information about this, you can check this tip.

You can download the source code of this tutorial here.

And that's all. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions, fell free to ask me (by commenting or by dropping me a pm in the sfs forums).

Stay tuned for the next tutorial (Database Login) ;-)

SFS1X: Simple Connect

Hello again. In this tutorial I'll explain how to make a simple Flash application that connects to your server.


You can download the source code of this tutorial here.


First open your Flash and create a new Flash File (ActionScript 2.0).
Create a new Dynamic TextField (using the Text Tool, shortcut key: T) and give it the instance name "status" without the quotes. (Like the following image)

Now the code. Add this simple code to the first frame:

import it.gotoandplay.smartfoxserver.*
stop();

var ip:String = "127.0.0.1";
var port:Number = 9339;
var zone:String = "simpleChat";

status.text = "Connecting..."

var smartfox:SmartFoxClient = new SmartFoxClient()
smartfox.debug = true
smartfox.connect(ip, port)

smartfox.onConnection = function (success)
{
 if (success)
 {
  status.text = "Successfully connected!"
 }
 else
 {
  status.text = "Can't connect!"
 }
}

Here's the explanation of the code:

import it.gotoandplay.smartfoxserver.*

This line imports the SmartFoxClient class.

stop();

This line stops the animation.

var ip:String = "127.0.0.1";

This line sets the variable ip. This variable represents the ip of the machine where the sfs is running, that the Flash application will connect. If the sfs is running in your pc, you can let the ip as 127.0.0.1, but if the sfs isn't running in your pc or you want to publish the Flash application on the web, you need to set the ip as your external ip (the one given from http://www.whatismyip.com/)

var port:Number = 9339;

This line sets the variable port. This variable represents the port where sfs is running (the one configured in the config.xml between the and )

var zone:String = "simpleChat";

This line sets the variable zone. This variable represents the name of the Zone you want to connect. For further explanation about what is a Zone, please check the sfs docs (http://www.smartfoxserver.com/docs/docPages/config/basics.htm#zone)

status.text = "Connecting..."

This line tells the status textField to show the text "Connecting..."

var smartfox:SmartFoxClient = new SmartFoxClient()

This line creates a new instance of the SmartFoxClient object.

smartfox.debug = true

This line sets smartfox's debug flag to true. This way smartfox will output everything that it sends to the server and receives from it. Very useful when developing as it helps solving bugs.

smartfox.connect(ip, port)

This line is the most important in this example. It is the one that makes the SmartFoxClient connect to the previously set ip and port.

smartfox.onConnection = function (success)
{
 if (success)
 {
  status.text = "Successfully connected!"
 }
 else
 {
  status.text = "Can't connect!"
 }
}

This function handles the onConnection event. The onConnection event is fired when it successfully connected or when the connection timed out. It returns a boolean (success) that is true when it successfully connected and is false when it failed connect. When it successfully connects, the status textField shows "Successfully connected" but when it can't connect, it shows "Can't connect".

Tip: Don't forget to set the Local playback security to Access network only. For more information about this, you can check this tip.

You can download the source code of this tutorial here.


And that's all. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions, fell free to ask me (by commenting or by dropping me a pm in the sfs forums).

Stay tuned for the  next tutorial ;-)

SFS1X: Installing the API

Hi. In this tutorial I'll teach you how do you install the API so that you can develop applications that use sfs.
There are 2 ways to do this. The docs way and the Rjgtav's way.


First I'll explain the docs way, that is better explained in the docs (http://www.smartfoxserver.com/docs/docPages/api/installing.htm)


All you need to do is to point the classpath of your application to the location of the api of the actionscript version you're using.
For example if you're using AS2.0 you need to point it to [SmartFoxServer Installation Folder]\Flash API\Actionscript 2.0
while if you're using AS3.0 you need to point it to [SmartFoxServer Installation Folder]\Flash API\Actionscript 3.0.


To set the classpath of your project all you need to do is click in the "Settings..." button in Properties panel, then click in the  "Settings..." button on the right side of the ActionScript version and finally click in the target icon button. Then you only need to select one of the folders I told before.
All of this is better explained in the docs.


Now the Rjgtav's way.
In my way, you only need to copy the ("it" folder for AS2.0 or "it" and "com" folders for AS3.0) located under the respective folders that were previously mentioned to the folder of your project. So simple as that (at least for me it works). But I suggest you to use the one explained in the docs xD.


Important Note: You only need to do this about the API in the pc where the projects are. When you upload your game to your website, you only need to upload the .swf file, because when publishing, Flash compiles all the imported API's in the .swf file, saving some work.

SFS1X: Initial Server Configuration

Hello and welcome to the 1st tutorial of this blog. First of all, Happy New Year to everyone! Before starting the tutorial, I would like to talk a little about the blog and my objective while writing it.
I decided to write this blog because lately in the sfs community many people has asked questions that were already answered some time ago and also because I would like to share my knowledge and experience with the SmartFoxServer and Flash.
Now to the tutorial.
Today I'l explain how to initially configure the SmartFoxServer.


First you need to download SmartFoxServer from http://www.smartfoxserver.com/products/.


Warning: If you're using Windows Vista/7, please install in a different folder than the Program Files one (because of the write privileges).


Then, you need to open the port 9339 in the firewall and if you're behind a router, you need to forward that port to the internal ip of your pc. For further informations please check http://portforward.com/


After this you only need to execute the file start.bat (for Windows users) or the by executing the command ./sfs start (for Linux users).


This is better explained in http://www.smartfoxserver.com/docs/docPages/intro/installation.htm


Now the configuration part.


To configure the server you need to edit the config.xml file under [SmartFoxServer Installation Folder]\Server (You can edit it with any text editor like notepad)


The first parameter you need to set is the ServerIP. Here you set the ip you want the server to bind (your external ip given by http://whatismyip.org/ or http://www.whatismyip.com/, it doesn't matter).


Tip: If you are behind a router, i suggest you to put an * in the ServerIP. This way it will bind all the available socket addresses and you won't need to care about changing the ServerIP all the time anymore.


Then you need to set the ServerPort. Here you can set the port you want (don't forget to open it in the firewall and forward it if you're behind a router).


Warning: The port mustn't be used by any other program/software you have. That way the server won't work and will give startup errors.


If you want you can also configure initially the administrator login information. For that you only need to change the AdminLogin and AdminPassword parameters.


Of course you'll need to configure much more parameters (basically all of them), but this is the basic you need to put the server running.


For further information you can check the sfs docs (http://www.smartfoxserver.com/docs/)


If you have any questions, fell free to ask me (by commenting or by dropping me a pm in the sfs forums).
See you till the next tutorial ;-)