BBG Framework

[karnedge]

I've been working a Framework for the past few months... something that is focused on BBGs obviously. The reason I even bothered putting it together was I thought it was a bit strange there wasn't any frameworks based on gaming (that I liked). I just wanted something I could drop in for User authentication and handle that stuff which means I could just straight into my game.

Anyway, it is nearing completion, well it will be in a releasable state that is, and I thought I would get everyone's thoughts here... a few questions:

What license should I use for the framework?
I want people to use and modify it and all that, and any modifications should come back to the community (for the Framework) but you can still use the framework to make a game and make profit off of it or even sell the game. I mean this makes sense to me... if someone thinks it would be better as being something simpler please say so. Right now, as far as I can tell... the best license would be GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, version 3.

Would anyone want to help contribute to this framework?
I want to put into an SVN (which honestly I've never worked with) on my own server or even another server if someone wants to provide. I really want everyone's input on this framework. I think for the most part it is in a fairly descent coding structure and pretty easy to manipulate.

What should be the name of the Framework?
Anyone have any better names... I just choose: Browser Based Game Framework for its generic and "duh" sense.

---------------------
The basic purpose...
The basic purpose of the framework is allow a drop in code that easy to build on and use. There is some stuff in the framework right now that is probably unnecessary so what happens to that stuff is make those "Addons" for the framework. So you can download the basic framework then also get the pagination class and attributes class to add to the framework as well... I really would like to see a great community sourcing to eventually come to this. This is why I am hoping you guys want to make this framework way better than I ever will by myself.

What I think could be improved on...
 - Pagination is very ugly and is too much trouble to add into a module.
 - 3rd party plugin system (which I added because I wanted to bridge a Forum and not reinvent one)
 - URI handling could be better, but I just dont have any better ideas on it.
 - Have config/settings class built into the entire framework object

What does it already have...
 - Module system, adding a new page would be just adding /modules/newpage/newpage.php which URL-wise would equal www.domain.com/newpage/
 - Modules extend Authentication types for auto-checking
 - Registration is confirmed via email with tokens
 - New passwords must be confirmed through email via token first then a new password is sent
 - Accounts can be edited for password and email
 - Profiles can be edited and viewed, and you can view members list
 - Pagination
 - Form validation
 - Admin Panel (very simple one)
 - Templates (using smarty) php is seperated from html
 - Permissions system using Pattern IDs (based on Barrikor's idea)
 - Client-end error handling (errors like invalid password, etc)
 - Attributes
 - Internal Announcement/News system
 - User's activity log (like "you should made level 2", etc)



Anyway, please post your feedback. Let me know what you guys think and especially if you wanna help. I am open to any ideas... even if it means to rewrite teh code entirely to make it better or making the name BBGamezone Framework ha.

- Dylan Greer

[Delifisek]

You should have to look CMS/Frameworks

Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3

and all of them HUGE and slow (you can't cache HTML output  in browser games because of too many updates).

You have to build own.

[jannesiera]

You should have to look CMS/Frameworks

Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3

and all of them HUGE and slow (you can't cache HTML output  in browser games because of too many updates).

You have to build own.

Read the post, Delifisek. He has made his own framework.

[Chris]

the best license would be GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, version 3.

It has all disadvantages of GPL plus... if you made any changes to your game you have to give to competitors all your unique code. When you make new anti cheater protections you have to send te code to cheaters so they can analyse it and find a way to override it. It just does not make any sense, who would pay such a price for a framework? Maybe if you made a complete game that can be used without many modifications then maybe... But still why not use one of thousands other free game sources that do not have such restrictions?

Why not Public Domain, or at least BSD?

[Harkins]

If anti-cheater protections fail when cheaters see how they're coded, they didn't work in the first place. Public code just shortens the feedback loop to find out what doesn't work.

The point of AGPL is that using shared code has the price of sharing your code. If a game developer doesn't want to share, they don't get to build on the shared resource for nothing. There's a gigantic argument we could have about why people want to create this obligation, but in the end it boils down to being karnedge's choice for what conditions he wants to attach to his work.

Anyways, glad to hear your project is coming along well. You should give it a unique name... if it's going to power your ctrlHack game, call it ctrlCode, ctrlFramework, publicCtrl or something. If you want SVN and decide on an open source license, SourceForge.net will give you free hosting.

[Delifisek]

You should have to look CMS/Frameworks

Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3

and all of them HUGE and slow (you can't cache HTML output  in browser games because of too many updates).

You have to build own.

Read the post, Delifisek. He has made his own framework.

Ups sorry my bad 

[xBleuWolfx]

For a license, you could go with Creative Commons Licensing. From what I understand, many open source projects use it and I'm going to use it for any upcoming open source projects I work on.

[Delifisek]

I think, best fit was New BSD.

Because, the game develepment thing was someting about earn money. Every noobie thinks they got next big idea. So ? they want to keep secret their ideas... GPL needs to open code just because of this those noobies wont choose your FW. You lost popularity.

Of course there where a problem, if some big bad company may use your FW for own nastiny projects and won't pay you any penny.

And me thinks, In open source world. Most important thing was creating community.

After then everything was possible.

Regards

[karnedge]

Maybe if you made a complete game that can be used without many modifications then maybe... But still why not use one of thousands other free game sources that do not have such restrictions?

Why not Public Domain, or at least BSD?

The point of the framework is allow a solid backbone for browser games to use without having to worry about tedious stuff like authentication which is just going to be reinvented over and over. As for the AGPL pick, you make a good point about having to redistribute code over and over when modifications are made... but that's why I asked. I wanted to know what would be the best License for this work so no one gets screwed over when they use the framework for their game. I was thinking BSD was a good idea as well.

The point of AGPL is that using shared code has the price of sharing your code. If a game developer doesn't want to share, they don't get to build on the shared resource for nothing. There's a gigantic argument we could have about why people want to create this obligation, but in the end it boils down to being karnedge's choice for what conditions he wants to attach to his work.

Well, I'm terrible about reading and figuring these things out. That's why I am asking, I want the framework to help BBG developers and I want a community (open sourced) effort on it. I don't want to be the only developer of the framework, I can only do so much with it. So figuring out a good license is very key right away.

Anyways, glad to hear your project is coming along well. You should give it a unique name... if it's going to power your ctrlHack game, call it ctrlCode, ctrlFramework, publicCtrl or something. If you want SVN and decide on an open source license, SourceForge.net will give you free hosting.

It is going to power my ctrlHack game and I originally was calling it ctrlFramework actually but I thought I'd change it to something more synonymous with PBBG's. But, you're right Sourceforge.net would be a great place for it.

I think, best fit was New BSD.

Because, the game develepment thing was someting about earn money. Every noobie thinks they got next big idea. So ? they want to keep secret their ideas... GPL needs to open code just because of this those noobies wont choose your FW. You lost popularity.

The BSD license seems pretty good.

[Chris]

Licence: I think BSD & MIT are the best. Why not making it double licenced? You can choose the one you want after you downloaded it. MIT is especially good since it clearly states that sublicencing is allowed, so you can change it to GPL if you want to use it in other GPL projects for example.

I think you are taking it from the wrong side. It is not important how many people help develop it, but how many people use it in their games. In addition, since it is only framework not a complete game, there will be not much room for improvement anyway.

My advice, go for it, make a package to download, some website, forum (for starters you can make a topic on this forum), etc. Then others either will join the project or not. Once you have something to show people will be more willing (for example I would need to take a look at the code before commiting myself).

There is no MIT/BSD framework available, so it definitely has potencial.

[karnedge]

Licence: I think BSD & MIT are the best. Why not making it double licenced? You can choose the one you want after you downloaded it. MIT is especially good since it clearly states that sublicencing is allowed, so you can change it to GPL if you want to use it in other GPL projects for example.

That's a great idea, and i really seem fond of the BSD license as well. The MIT license was my original pick when i first started thinking about creating a framework but I couldn't really figure out what its about other than being a an elite tech college lol.

I think you are taking it from the wrong side. It is not important how many people help develop it, but how many people use it in their games. In addition, since it is only framework not a complete game, there will be not much room for improvement anyway.

The only reason I stress so much on the community development is that I feel my coding practices are a bit under par. While I am confident that most of the code is well done at least for one person to see (magic eye), I feel some of it can definitely be either optimized in some better way or even redone completely. Not too mention, I'd like to see expansions to the framework like Combat modules, Map exploration modules, etc. And it would take others for me to see what modules and classes are just not necessary for the core gaming framework and should be separate plugins for it instead.

My advice, go for it, make a package to download, some website, forum (for starters you can make a topic on this forum), etc. Then others either will join the project or not. Once you have something to show people will be more willing (for example I would need to take a look at the code before commiting myself).

There is no MIT/BSD framework available, so it definitely has potencial.

Yeah sounds good. I've set up a project page at sourceforge.net for it under the name of BBGFramework for now. Once I get this last part done, I'll be throwing it up there.

[karnedge]

I have created the initial release for the Framework at:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/bbgframework/

Please make all comments to the Projects forum topic I created:
http://community.bbgamezone.net/index.php/topic,2240.0.html

[Crazy-T]

Code: [Select]

' FATAL ERROR: Could not find: /home/usr/public_html/game/modules/game/game.php

#0 {main}I set up the database then put sql in. Edited the config to match. When i load the site i get that error ^. Any idea's why?

[karnedge]

Code: [Select]

' FATAL ERROR: Could not find: /home/usr/public_html/game/modules/game/game.php

#0 {main}I set up the database then put sql in. Edited the config to match. When i load the site i get that error ^. Any idea's why?

Reply:
http://community.bbgamezone.net/index.php/topic,2240.msg14600.html

[Barrikor]

@ Karnedge

About the license, I'd actually avoid BSD and MIT....

BSD and MIT have the small problem that people are allowed to create proprietary forks. Plus MIT allows people to take chunks of your code and add it to their own proprietary projects. In my view, LGPL is a safer option.

(By the way, I took a look at your code for a little bit, your coding style is excellent)

[karnedge]

@ Karnedge

About the license, I'd actually avoid BSD and MIT....

BSD and MIT have the small problem that people are allowed to create proprietary forks. Plus MIT allows people to take chunks of your code and add it to their own proprietary projects. In my view, LGPL is a safer option.

Well I'm not quite that literate when it comes to these things of a legal nature. It seemed most people liked the MIT (or) BSD solution. I want to promote open source but I don't want people to get screwed over when they use the framework and they want to sell their game or something, much less not be able to add to the framework or make plugins for it.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

(By the way, I took a look at your code for a little bit, your coding style is excellent)

I appreciate that very much.