Question about Coronium from a total newbie

Third Party Coronium
#1

Hi guys, I’ve only dived into Corona SDK a few months ago, but so far I’m having a blast and love being an app developer. I have no experience with programming or computer science prior to this, so please bear with me.  I want to add a leaderboard to my app.  One best score for each user, that’s it!  :slight_smile:   However,  

  1. Should I use GameCenter if my app is not a game but more of an utility app in which people are scored and can compare their results?  GameCenter’s UI doesn’t seem to be easily customizable, and the current style of the interface does not fit with my app at all.  I assume that people will be confused if they see GameCenter in a non-game app.  :unsure:  This leads to my 2nd question.

  2. After browsing online, I think my best option to create a customizable leaderboard is through Coronium, which is a cloud service for Corona.

http://coronium-cloud-docs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

On the installation instruction, however, it appears that I also need either Ubuntu or Amazon web services. Beside vaguely knowing they host the Coronium cloud service, I know nothing about why, what, and how I can work with either Ubunta or Amazon web services. What are the main differences between the two? 

  1. What do I need to learn to create this simple leaderboard in my app besides Coronium SDK/API?  For a total computer science beginner like me, do I also need to learn MySQL, SSL, shell commands…etc?  Is there any hand-holding tutorial that teaches how to apply all of these things together?   Again I just want to create a really simple leaderboard where I can see my best score against other people, that’s it!

Thank you in advance!  I’d really appreciate any feedbacks on these!   :lol: 

#2

Hi,

For #1, I think people are used to seeing the different interface in GameCenter, so I wouldn’t let that worry you too much. Using GameCenter may be the easiest route if you’re just starting your app development journey.

The Coronium Cloud Platform is a free self-managed cloud stack aimed at Corona SDK developers, it uses Lua as its scripting engine and is very flexible. It does require a minimal amount of interaction, sometimes through the command line. But it also has a graphical dashboard that can handle most of your needs. If you use Amazon it’s a simpler set-up. If you go Ubuntu, you should already have some minimal knowledge of getting around Linux.

In either case I think it’s important to note that the hosting does cost money (unless you have the AWS free year trial). So while the Coronium software is free, the hosting is on the developer.

As much as I love getting any user on-board with Coronium, my advice is probably to use GameCenter first time out.

I will try and post a leaderboard code example using Coronium in this forum later today.

Cheers.

#3

Hello Develephant, thank you so much for replying back to me.  I came across your article posted back in June 2nd, 2014, and it has a leaderboard sample file there.  Is that still current?  I like what I see very much.  Coronium seems to be easy to learn and uses LUA, and I’d definitely like to go ahead with this if possible.   :slight_smile:

Regarding your advice on Gamecenter, due to the nature of my app, I would like to have both iPhone users to compare their scores with Android phone users.  You cannot do that in Gamecenter right?  If it’s not possible via Gamecenter, I see Coronium as my best option.  

Finally, just a quick question: is Ubuntu and Digital Ocean mutually exclusive or that I would actually need both?  I checked out Digital Ocean’s pricing policy and it’s seem very reasonable.  If I go ahead with it, do I still need Ubuntu?  

#4

Hi,

I think it’s important to note that some of the current videos are a little out-of-date in places, so always refer to the docs (docs.coronium.io). That leaderboard code is pretty old, I am going to posting a new one very shortly, once my 2 extra arms pop out. Lol. :slight_smile:

You can choose between DigitalOcean (select Ubuntu 14.04) or Amazon EC2 (A pre-built Ubuntu 14.04 image). DO is more cost-effective overtime (and generally faster to work with than Amazon), but Amazon handles scalability better, so it’s up to you to decide what level of complexity do you want at first.

The DO install takes more time. As it installs and configures an entire Coronium Cloud stack for you. You then want to turn that into a “snapshot”, then you can launch as many instance as you see fit without rebuilding the stack each time.

DigitalOcean install page: https://coronium.io/ubuntu/

The Amazon EC2 images are the simplest to set up, being pre-built Coronium stack, but involves more complexity in regards to settings, cost, etc.

RE: GameCenter not cross-sharing between platforms is correct.

Cheers.

#5

Thank you very much Develephant for helping me on this!  I will give it a try over the weekend and hope everything goes well.  And I look forward to the new leaderboard sample!   :lol: 

#6

Hello Develephant, you mentioned a while ago that you will post some new material on a revamped Leaderboard, have you posted it somewhere already?  Thanks!  

#7

Hi shaosc3,

Still on my to-do list. I’ll try to get to that over the weekend.

Cheers.

#8

Hi,

For #1, I think people are used to seeing the different interface in GameCenter, so I wouldn’t let that worry you too much. Using GameCenter may be the easiest route if you’re just starting your app development journey.

The Coronium Cloud Platform is a free self-managed cloud stack aimed at Corona SDK developers, it uses Lua as its scripting engine and is very flexible. It does require a minimal amount of interaction, sometimes through the command line. But it also has a graphical dashboard that can handle most of your needs. If you use Amazon it’s a simpler set-up. If you go Ubuntu, you should already have some minimal knowledge of getting around Linux.

In either case I think it’s important to note that the hosting does cost money (unless you have the AWS free year trial). So while the Coronium software is free, the hosting is on the developer.

As much as I love getting any user on-board with Coronium, my advice is probably to use GameCenter first time out.

I will try and post a leaderboard code example using Coronium in this forum later today.

Cheers.

#9

Hello Develephant, thank you so much for replying back to me.  I came across your article posted back in June 2nd, 2014, and it has a leaderboard sample file there.  Is that still current?  I like what I see very much.  Coronium seems to be easy to learn and uses LUA, and I’d definitely like to go ahead with this if possible.   :slight_smile:

Regarding your advice on Gamecenter, due to the nature of my app, I would like to have both iPhone users to compare their scores with Android phone users.  You cannot do that in Gamecenter right?  If it’s not possible via Gamecenter, I see Coronium as my best option.  

Finally, just a quick question: is Ubuntu and Digital Ocean mutually exclusive or that I would actually need both?  I checked out Digital Ocean’s pricing policy and it’s seem very reasonable.  If I go ahead with it, do I still need Ubuntu?  

#10

Hi,

I think it’s important to note that some of the current videos are a little out-of-date in places, so always refer to the docs (docs.coronium.io). That leaderboard code is pretty old, I am going to posting a new one very shortly, once my 2 extra arms pop out. Lol. :slight_smile:

You can choose between DigitalOcean (select Ubuntu 14.04) or Amazon EC2 (A pre-built Ubuntu 14.04 image). DO is more cost-effective overtime (and generally faster to work with than Amazon), but Amazon handles scalability better, so it’s up to you to decide what level of complexity do you want at first.

The DO install takes more time. As it installs and configures an entire Coronium Cloud stack for you. You then want to turn that into a “snapshot”, then you can launch as many instance as you see fit without rebuilding the stack each time.

DigitalOcean install page: https://coronium.io/ubuntu/

The Amazon EC2 images are the simplest to set up, being pre-built Coronium stack, but involves more complexity in regards to settings, cost, etc.

RE: GameCenter not cross-sharing between platforms is correct.

Cheers.

#11

Thank you very much Develephant for helping me on this!  I will give it a try over the weekend and hope everything goes well.  And I look forward to the new leaderboard sample!   :lol: 

#12

Hello Develephant, you mentioned a while ago that you will post some new material on a revamped Leaderboard, have you posted it somewhere already?  Thanks!  

#13

Hi shaosc3,

Still on my to-do list. I’ll try to get to that over the weekend.

Cheers.