Utilizing servers to fetch and access information (newbie) Where to start!

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

Greetings,

I have created a few simple games with Corona SDK.  They are typically high-score chasers, and utilizing gamecenter leaderboards.  Problem is - Gamecenter (nothing on Coronas end) has been very glitchy to say the least.

So I’d like to expand upon my knowledge and dive into Server/Client side logic.  My goal would be to setup a server that can store all the scores - sort them into a ‘database’ (I use that term very lightly) then be able to show them on website and hopefully show scores in-game as well (top 5 or whatever - then current users score/rank).

Being relatively new to most programming languages - which would be most useful to learn?  Javascript?  PhP? Combination of others?  Would a website from ‘godaddy’ be able to do this stuff - or would a cloud type server be more appropiate?

Any other useful bits of information to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated, any cloud-based plugins would be good for this?

-Seth

#2

Two answers:

  1. Use your own web host and learn PHP and MySQL. I’m using this model for a Trivia game I have out. It’s low traffic.

  2. Let someone else do the heavy lifting such as http://coronimum.io

Lets talk about the second option first. Coronium will be the basic the Corona Cloud service when we reboot it. The scripting language is Lua. The service does all of the database heavy lifting for you. You make simple Corona like API calls and magic happens at the server. Right now, there are three ways to use it. Chris (@develephant) has installers for Amazon AWS (pay by volume) and Digital Ocean (fixed amount). You get cloud services so as  your app grows, it will grow with you. A third option is if you have access to an Ubuntu Linux server, you can self-host. If you don’t want to learn the server side of this, then this is a great option. But if you want to develop skills that you can use later, then …

you might want to consider option #1. Personally, I love GoDaddy for getting and keeping track of my domain names. But their server hosting doesn’t seem to be as fast as other providers. This may have changed. I’ve not looked at them in years. But regardless, make sure you get a Linux hosting service (GoDaddy offers Windows and Linux) if you want to do PHP and MySQL. If you want to use .NET and MSSQL, then GoDaddy’s Windows server makes more sense.  Once you get your web hosting setup, then it’s a matter of creating a MySQL database (of course other database options are out there) and then write some PHP scripts that will take HTTP GET or POST input and output JSON.

Corona’s network.request() API call can talk very well to that combination. I know other developers who have had good experience with .NET setups too.

Rob

#3

I ultimately decided to roll my own server using Google App Engine. I spent months trying out Parse Server, Coronium, Firebase, and others, but in the end App Engine won out. Why?

  • I don’t need a domain or SSL certificate to use it. GAE comes with a free https://your app.appspot.com url which is sufficient
  • It’s free up to a certain point, which means one fewer monthly bill to pay, particularly during development
  • It’s extremely stable
  • It’s extremely scalable. If you get lucky and your app traffic spikes, you don’t need to upgrade/resize your machine
  • Lots of bonus features like versioning, dos defense, security patching

Coronium is an appealing option but ultimately it’s not currenty well supported enough for a production game, imho. Chris is doing amazing work but this is more than a one man job. If the Corona team creates a highly stable hosted version I’d reconsider.

App Engine is very hands off. Once you write you app, it basically runs itself forever. And personally I’d rather focus on my game client than game server.

#4

Help!!

I need to know how to fetch and send a datatable using Corona Sdk

#5

This tutorial might be of some use:  https://coronalabs.com/blog/2012/11/20/how-to-download-json-data-from-mysql-using-corona-sdk/

Rob

#6

Two answers:

  1. Use your own web host and learn PHP and MySQL. I’m using this model for a Trivia game I have out. It’s low traffic.

  2. Let someone else do the heavy lifting such as http://coronimum.io

Lets talk about the second option first. Coronium will be the basic the Corona Cloud service when we reboot it. The scripting language is Lua. The service does all of the database heavy lifting for you. You make simple Corona like API calls and magic happens at the server. Right now, there are three ways to use it. Chris (@develephant) has installers for Amazon AWS (pay by volume) and Digital Ocean (fixed amount). You get cloud services so as  your app grows, it will grow with you. A third option is if you have access to an Ubuntu Linux server, you can self-host. If you don’t want to learn the server side of this, then this is a great option. But if you want to develop skills that you can use later, then …

you might want to consider option #1. Personally, I love GoDaddy for getting and keeping track of my domain names. But their server hosting doesn’t seem to be as fast as other providers. This may have changed. I’ve not looked at them in years. But regardless, make sure you get a Linux hosting service (GoDaddy offers Windows and Linux) if you want to do PHP and MySQL. If you want to use .NET and MSSQL, then GoDaddy’s Windows server makes more sense.  Once you get your web hosting setup, then it’s a matter of creating a MySQL database (of course other database options are out there) and then write some PHP scripts that will take HTTP GET or POST input and output JSON.

Corona’s network.request() API call can talk very well to that combination. I know other developers who have had good experience with .NET setups too.

Rob

#7

I decided to roll my own AWS server with NGINX/NodeJS/MySQL (Behind an API) for account information MongoDB for public/scalable data delivery

#8

I ultimately decided to roll my own server using Google App Engine. I spent months trying out Parse Server, Coronium, Firebase, and others, but in the end App Engine won out. Why?

  • I don’t need a domain or SSL certificate to use it. GAE comes with a free https://your app.appspot.com url which is sufficient
  • It’s free up to a certain point, which means one fewer monthly bill to pay, particularly during development
  • It’s extremely stable
  • It’s extremely scalable. If you get lucky and your app traffic spikes, you don’t need to upgrade/resize your machine
  • Lots of bonus features like versioning, dos defense, security patching

Coronium is an appealing option but ultimately it’s not currenty well supported enough for a production game, imho. Chris is doing amazing work but this is more than a one man job. If the Corona team creates a highly stable hosted version I’d reconsider.

App Engine is very hands off. Once you write you app, it basically runs itself forever. And personally I’d rather focus on my game client than game server.

#9

Help!!

I need to know how to fetch and send a datatable using Corona Sdk

#10

This tutorial might be of some use:  https://coronalabs.com/blog/2012/11/20/how-to-download-json-data-from-mysql-using-corona-sdk/

Rob

#11

I decided to roll my own AWS server with NGINX/NodeJS/MySQL (Behind an API) for account information MongoDB for public/scalable data delivery