Can SkyTable handle data files as well as numbers and strings?
Hi,
It is meant to handle the same data you would have in a general Lua “data” style table. So no functions, userdata, etc. Basically, if the table can be json encoded, then it can be stored in SkyTable. You may be able to store the binary data, but I have not tested for that.
-dev
Awesome, I’m excited to try this and thanks for all the networking help over the years (I used to be “sharp100” instead of “sporkfin” - and I’m still working on the evolutionary biology game)
-Jonathan
@sporkfin - No problem, thanks for the support.
If I may ask, what would be your use case for data files? I may be able to add some additional functionality.
And, as long as your game is “evolving” I’m sure it will be great. 
-dev
@dev - The data files (JSON) are tables with about 120 paired values representing the DNA of each creature. It’s really more like 360 because references to their parent’s DNA persists in the table as well.
The user can store a small number their favorite “evolved” creatures on the server to reintroduce to the population later in the current game or a future game. Of course, my app has methods to read the DNA from the JSON file and restore or build the creature. I have this working in Coronium but SkyTable seems more straightforward.
Eventually, I’d like to develop a system for trading and sharing your favorites creatures with friends and posting images to social media (generated from the DNA). I’m poking around PlayFab to see if their trading system will work for this.
I’m open to suggestions for technologies and approaches. SkyTable + PlayFab or anything else that would help me accomplish my goals.
Backend, serverside wrangling is not my forte. I don’t have strong intuitions for how to solve problems in that environment relying instead on brute force attempts to reach a solution :) I’ve always made it work but my solutions are functional rather than elegant. Back in my web development days I ran SMARTY templates (php, MySQL, apache) as the backend for client-based Flash projects. Again, utilitarian, not pretty ; )
Currently, I set up a server using Parse and then when it died I switched to Coronium. My impulse now is to use a paid service for by backend but running my own would, of course, be preferable if I can manage it.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your use case. SkyTable would be perfect for the JSON handling as that’s exactly what is was built for. Let me think a little bit about the sharing aspect, as that could be useful.
As far as generating and posting images, I might confer with you directly. This is a very cool idea, and something I have done in the past when I too developed using Flash for a game that allowed users to share dynamically created game content via social media.
-dev