XML thing for chars

[ArcticWolf]

Does anyone have a paper about XML or doc that I could use to parse the file? I'd like to try something...

[Ertial]

Wow, I haven't been on for a day and the topic has three pages .
My idea was too make a standard for a page that users can fill in to show the stats of their chars. And maybe add the URL to a central database. But the suggestions are going for generating the files by NGD, or at least with data from NGD's database. For that we really need help from NGD.
The clan is a base thing that should definitely be there. But I don't know how to get the other information there(up to date, get the exact numbers(quests, RP).
Maybe rankings would be good, but we have to find a flexible way.
Maybe we should try to create a central database, where players can add their information and change it, and which gives all players a own page, with a link to a generated XML file. I could host it, unless it gets too popular.
It's a bit the opposite of what I suggested at first, instead of gathering information from independent XML files, we have information at one place.
Which option do you like the best? If we've decided we should set up a team, so who wants to help, which language should we use for the central information giving system thing?

@Xeph, I don't know a good page, but I learned the basics from a Dutch PHP book and I do the same as I did with PHP, if I don't know something I look it up on the internet. I learn the best that way.

EDIT: I just thought of something else. Shouldn't clans have a own XML file? I'll make a concept for it too.

[Ertial]

I've found some tutorials.
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp
http://www.w3schools.com/schema/default.asp

This are some other examples:
http://files.qense.nl/schema.xsd
http://files.qense.nl/text.xml
http://files.qense.nl/clan.xml

is there a better way to 'include' the schema?

[ArcticWolf]

Thanks Yest!!! I'll take a look now and see if I can parse the file and do something on Java... At least a program that handles a single file.

Look, there are pros and cons of having a centralized database, and they are:

• Pros:
  • You have all the info in one place, so backing up data would be easier.
  • There's a standard file format or database schema, which makes things a lot easier for programmers.
  • Databases are easy to query from different languages such as Java or PHP.
• Cons:
  • If you're the host and the service gets too popular (I mean, TOO popular), then you should transfer the database to a dedicated hosting (could be a free one).
  • If you're not used to back up your data... You know =/

I don't see any really great flaw on having everything on a centralized database, and there's one key point that justifies the decision of using MySQL: databases are designed to manage data in this way, while XML seems to be more to config files and sort of things.

Anyway, what if the user wants to host his or her datasheet on a website? Well, there could be an XML generator made with PHP, or even with Java.

XML Seems to be easier than setting up a database, though.

[Ertial]

Yes. But a central place to view them would be great. I think clans would really love to have a list of their members with their stats.
We should make a standard for the XML files, so they will all be the same and write something to bundle the information. But what to do with players who don't have a own website?
A central list would require an awful amount of searches on websites. I mean, if we create a list of all the English Regnum Players, we'll have loads of users.
Maybe we should do this:
-Single files, if you're clanless you can give the url of a single file.
-Clan file, all clans install a program which generates one single XML file with all the members in it, this requires less requests. Clans can import single XML files too.
-If you're clanless and have no host, you can put your information in the central database.

All players have at the software where they are known, indirectly or not, a own page with a link to a generated XML file with just their char.

I just realized that this can require a massive amount of MB/s , does anyone has experience with that? Is it doable without massive load times and angry webhosts?

[Kiirani]

Originally Posted by Yest

Yes. But a central place to view them would be great. I think clans would really love to have a list of their members with their stats.
We should make a standard for the XML files, so they will all be the same and write something to bundle the information. But what to do with players who don't have a own website?

On this note, straight xml is not good for displaying straight off on a website. You have far more browser problems than with html and it's certainly less known (for example, I don't know it). If they did decide to host the file on a website, the only good it would be for is downloading it to view in an external viewer, which is far less useful than querying a database to receive html pages. The database could also be set up to have a user that everybody could use just to query information for dynamic images, generating their own page etc.

A central list would require an awful amount of searches on websites. I mean, if we create a list of all the English Regnum Players, we'll have loads of users.
Maybe we should do this:
-Single files, if you're clanless you can give the url of a single file.
-Clan file, all clans install a program which generates one single XML file with all the members in it, this requires less requests. Clans can import single XML files too.
-If you're clanless and have no host, you can put your information in the central database.

All players have at the software where they are known, indirectly or not, a own page with a link to a generated XML file with just their char.

I just realized that this can require a massive amount of MB/s , does anyone has experience with that? Is it doable without massive load times and angry webhosts?

On the subject of webhosts -

Crappy free ones are out of the question

Decent free/cheap ones should NOT get a huge strain on bandwidth from a simple character database. It's all just text

If we set up a database, why should we do single xml files? We could offer a php script to query character information from another server. People could put that script on their sites and away they go. (I mentioned this a little above here in the post)

[Ertial]

I was thinking about a webscript in PHP with a MySQL database that shows users in its database and from external ones.
You can add URLs to it and they will be imported once a day. The URLs will be links to an XML file, outputted by the webscript or a lone XML file from a single user.
You can see lists of users, members of clans and maybe even highscores

First thing to do now is create a team and find a place to develop it. We can make than UML things. Who wants to help? Should we use Launchpad(my favourite) or SourceForge. I think three or even two developers could do it, but of course more would speed up it a bit and there is also a template designer needed.
Knowledge of Object Oriented PHP is required, or at least a ability to learn it quick

[Kiirani]

I have this knowledge but I'm unlikely to be motivated enough to help, sorry :/

I'm on irc if you need someone to bounce ideas off or discuss program design with.

[ArcticWolf]

I hate UML. Sorry, I had to say it... Well, I don't really hate it, it's just that it's not my thing. Anyway, I should practice, so I'll try to help with that.

I'm willing to help with the MySQL database, but I'm not so experienced on PHP.

Let me see if I can get any help from the spanish forums, I know two users who are good at programming and could be interested on this.

[Ertial]

Nice! UML isn't required, but I think it will make developping easier.