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Re: Catalog Heaven updates every minute

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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:29 PM
I have a program on my computer that checks the Catalog for new items, uploads any changes to the site, and waits 60 seconds before doing it all over again.

Then my game checks for updates every 60 seconds.

So basically, if a new asset comes out it'll be in my game in about the time it takes to join.
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nickbricknick464 is not online. nickbricknick464
Joined: 22 Aug 2008
Total Posts: 8302
31 Jul 2012 04:35 PM
Interesting. Care to tell us how it changes the game or more in genreal about the program.
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Cenort is not online. Cenort
Joined: 20 Nov 2009
Total Posts: 9679
31 Jul 2012 04:37 PM
Seranok's new name is the cachebuster
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:39 PM
Basically:

Program:
parses Catalog, downloads XML of assets to get identifying characteristics, serializes the table as a string, uploads the string to the site

Game:
constantly checks for updates, downloads new serialized table, deserializes it by calling loadstring on it
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Trioxide is not online. Trioxide
Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Total Posts: 32902
31 Jul 2012 04:40 PM
[ Content Deleted ]
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:40 PM
I don't update the game silly.
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:41 PM
I mean, I only update the game to change the Scripts in the game.
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Techboy6601 is not online. Techboy6601
Joined: 29 Jun 2009
Total Posts: 4914
31 Jul 2012 04:42 PM
You should run this on some sort of VPS, since you can't always guarantee that your computer will be up when a new catalog item is added.

Also, care to explain more about the program?

Like what it was written in, and how it uploads information to a model on ROBLOX? Does it use low-level socket operations or some kind of web framework?
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:42 PM
But basically my system has to hop through so many hoops just because such-and-such isn't supported and such-in-such can't be done on the server and so on.
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nickbricknick464 is not online. nickbricknick464
Joined: 22 Aug 2008
Total Posts: 8302
31 Jul 2012 04:43 PM
What does this program run as?

How does your game download it ? Model?
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Techboy6601 is not online. Techboy6601
Joined: 29 Jun 2009
Total Posts: 4914
31 Jul 2012 04:45 PM
If this program was written with something like C++ or C, you could easily port it to Linux (if it's not already).

If you're running this on Windows, are you using it as a service? Does it have any form of UI at all?
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:47 PM
I wrote a Lua program that:
- opens the serialized table text file
- sends GET requests to /Catalog.aspx and interprets the results
- sends GET requests to determine the category of new assets
- sends GET requests to download the XML of new assets
- serializes the results to the text file
- if there are new assets then it opens a separate program written in C#

The C# program:
- uploads the results as an XML Model file which is a series of StringValues with the Values being the encrypted serialized assets table
- informs the servers that there is an update

The server:
- sends GET requests to check if there are updates
- if so, downloads the latest version and distributes
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popinman322 is not online. popinman322
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
Total Posts: 5184
31 Jul 2012 04:47 PM
... and then Sorcus published an asset to the last page of the catalog, just to mess with you. :P
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:48 PM
If it's on the last page of the Catalog I frankly don't care about it, since no one else will know about it. And if I did know about it, it would take only a few seconds to add it to my table.
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nickbricknick464 is not online. nickbricknick464
Joined: 22 Aug 2008
Total Posts: 8302
31 Jul 2012 04:49 PM
What interests me most is the automation of uploading assets.
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Techboy6601 is not online. Techboy6601
Joined: 29 Jun 2009
Total Posts: 4914
31 Jul 2012 04:50 PM
The server being the ROBLOX server or an external one? I'm assuming external since you mentioned HTTP operations but I just want to make sure.
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:51 PM
I have been wanting to move it to a server for reliability's sake, and so I don't have to keep my computer on and connected to the internet 24/7 but:

- no expertise in that area
- hard to change my C# code to Lua
- would i have to pay D:
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nickbricknick464 is not online. nickbricknick464
Joined: 22 Aug 2008
Total Posts: 8302
31 Jul 2012 04:51 PM
Plenty of half decent webhosting out there.
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popinman322 is not online. popinman322
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
Total Posts: 5184
31 Jul 2012 04:51 PM
@Sera

A new limited item, on the last page. Someone would find it and buy it out... xD

Frankly, I'd rather focus on game quality instead of frequent updates. :P
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:52 PM
@Techboy6601

Sometimes when I say 'server' I mean ROBLOX game servers. But I don't even have my own server so I do all of my requests and so all of my requests are done to roblox.com
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:53 PM
> Frankly, I'd rather focus on game quality instead of frequent updates. :P

I am reasonably satisfied with my game's quality. And my goal for the longest time has been that when a new gear came out people could instantly join my game and test it out. All I have to do is get around that ScriptState check and I'll be in the clear as far as that goes.
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abx1 is not online. abx1
Joined: 13 Nov 2008
Total Posts: 4979
31 Jul 2012 04:54 PM
if you have some sort of android tablet you could port Linux and run it off that.
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Seranok is not online. Seranok
Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 11083
31 Jul 2012 04:54 PM
How would I "port" my program to a server? Would the server even be able to support running Lua?
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Techboy6601 is not online. Techboy6601
Joined: 29 Jun 2009
Total Posts: 4914
31 Jul 2012 04:58 PM
"- no expertise in that area
- hard to change my C# code to Lua
- would i have to pay D:"

1) copy + paste required files
2) Wine
3) plenty of free shells out there
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popinman322 is not online. popinman322
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
Total Posts: 5184
31 Jul 2012 04:58 PM
@Sera

Lua isn't networked, so you'll have to bind the st00f by yourself... You could probably use Java and JLua, but JLua is incomplete... I think you'd have to wait for me to finish my LunarMacro system...

OR, you could learn C and use the libc manual to build bindings for Lua itself...
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