I have a big project I would like to get your help. Basically, it's a Snap! Server, and it would work like a Snap! project instance, but its in the server and you could send actions to it and you could store sprites, sound, text, numbers, costumes and with that you could make a game. But idk how to start @dardoro and @programmer_user?
It depends on what your goals and resources are.
To host Snap! on the server as a NodeJS application, you need to choose the DOM and Canvas implementation, then port the browser app to Node. It might be quite a daunting task.
But, you may start the project as multiple instances of Snap! in different browsers to avoid frame susspension. Next, choose a transport depending on the expected information transfer rate:
- WebRTC, realtime application
- MQTT, a well-known protocol, built into Snap! as a library
- Netsblox messaging (with 0.5s latency to avoid server overload, suitable for turn-based strategies)
- Custom Websocket/HTTP messaging
Then build your application logic the usual way.
If your app gets some momentum, then try to make the server part hostable.
How to host that Snap! instance, could I use some website like Replit?
Yes, but the source code needs to be prepared to be used that way.
Or, directly, if you have a shell account and can run a browser on the server.
There was already some information about running the remote "virtual browser" on the Replit host, but I'm not sure if it conforms to the TOS.
So you will make a server completely repl.it free?
It depends on what "server" means to you.
I was thinking more of the peer-to-peer model. Many projects constantly exchange messages, e.g. "move P1 to x,y" and act accordingly to the other players' actions.
Sometimes, the most powerful computer, with the fastest connection, can be designated as a server, to handle environment changes, perform some validation, or decide a loss/win.
Basically:
IDE of server cannot be directly viewed, but a block will retrieve things from it to replicate it to the client
To achieve that, I will actually copy Snap! source and get UI things (such as screen but not the complete IDE)
So it's like a Linux machine, right? You know, those machines that came around from the 1970s or 80s all the way until, well, today, before the cloud or internet was invented, right?
Yep.
Sorry for reviving this topic, I just want to say to you if anyone wants to work with me in order to make this project a reality. Someone who knows to use JavaScript and Snap! things maybe, to replace CloudVars.
I can
mee too
Amazing! Did you read about the things above?
https://snap.berkeley.edu/snap/snap.html#present:Username=d4s_over_dt4&ProjectName=netbloxx_no_js
It's not about cors,you just need to put some json type headers
the next problem is it needs project id and username plus it cannot store lists
I think I will let you think about this:
There are sprites, clones, and a backdrop in an IDE, but the difference is that it is stored in a server and users can send information to that server to make changes in that instances. The thing is that idk how to do it, it is super hard for me to understand JS and cloning the necessary parts of an IDE to the server. Also idk where to host the server, all of this without using JS blocks.
Wow is super tiring to explain!
I tried to clone the complete Snap interface, but no next steps are known to me.
How would I implement those?
Is it like collaboration software? Like nestbox?
I could help.
Yeah, everyone is welcomed
And I don't have a place to host the server yet
You could just have an MQTT based project that does it all in snap, with no other languages (ex cept maybe javascript) involved.