External Configuration File / Database / Webservice

Martin

First: Thanks for this great SDK and the supporting community ! I tested it for quite a while and now I'm about to start a game-project together with two other person.

We were thinking about how it would be possible for non-programmers to test the app and tweak it.

So I'm aiming for an external configuration file which could change variables while the app is running on a test-device. An example would be to change the density, friction & restitution of a box2d fixture. Best thing would be to change the variables on a website and have them loaded into the app on the fly, but also an ondevice-change/file/database would be ok.

I think I would give these concepts a try:
- UrlLoader
- luasockets
- lsqlite3

But as I don't want to invent the wheel twice here the question to the community: Is there anybody out there who used an external configuration file for variables in lua/gideros before ?

Thanks a lot
Martin

ar2rsawseen

Actually I was working on something I called GSS (Gideros Style Sheets) where you can define and style object by ID or classes (very similar to CSS), change object properties and even define box2d properties externally. I got as far as creating a proof of concept and idea behind it was that designers could tweak the app by themselves (without damaging developer's code), by only changing GSS.

But implementing it required huge refactoring of the existing app code, I didn't find an efficient way to implement it seamlessly, and didn't have enough time to continue searches for right implementation.

Now that you mention it, I could probably try to take a fresh look at it. Only the property changing was not remote and on the run. One still would have to reload the app for it to work

Martin

Gideros Style Sheets sounds great !

Was it just reloading the app or did you have to recompile it ?
So I guess if it's restarting it wouldn't be a problem to load the GSS-file via UrlLoader
or luasockets ?

I would love to see how you managed to proof the concept.

ar2rsawseen

I'll try to bring it up and at least modify to a demonstrable state

But my priority right now is to finish new game template

Don't really understand the difference between reloading and recompiling an app, when using it on Gideros player. Do you mean without pushing the play button?

Well anyway, need to think about this option too. Maybe will figure out something for dynamic loading

Martin

With compiling I mean after it was deployed to a device without the player:
http://www.giderosmobile.com/DevCenter/index.php/Deployment

But never mind I'm looking forward to your new game template as well - I really appreciate what you're doing at http://appcodingeasy.com ! It helped me a lot so far...