[API] Dekaron Armory Project

Hi, idk exactly where to start but due to alot of work, i'll have some free time and i'm up to start creating something new, new such as an Armory for Dekaron.
For who's dont know what an armory is, i will try to explain. (we will have compatibility and options when setuping the API ofc for the diferent versions such as A2 base or A9)

Armory - This system is made to check the player profile, such as pvp rating, gear statistics/individual gear, achivements and such more things of dekaron player profile (character's indeed).

I think this can be quite usefull making this as an API, because people can implement for their website the armory, even because i'm going to start to making this in JS(99%) client-side and some connections with php to database just to gather the information.

So what's my idea to implement this project? I'm going to make this API divided by 2 sides.
1st side is Item database (mainly have 2 ways of doing this), the 1st way is adding the csv to the database and it load by positions as csv normaly works and the 2nd way is adding the item manualy for the database but i really prefer the 1st one.
2nd side is Armory, where will load player information and will be prepared for implementations.

I really hope to get some useful ideas from you guys such as the way you prefer to see the things, how you wanna the database working because the Armory idea in the other games its more simplier, because the items are quite equal but in dekaron every pserver has its own index, items etc..

Soon i'll start showing how i want the structure but meanwhile i hope you like this idea and help with ideas ;)

i love you enthusiasm!!!

Here are some ideas / suggestion / what ever ..
So your making an api, like an image with character name, lvl, bla bla bla, when you click on it you will get the full profile page, great!

So how will you get the data? Let them install a PHP / JS / ... script? nah, they dont want too, or scared to get hacked or just plain dumb .. or will you ask for DB access? No one will do that

So what about items? hmm every server has a different item.csv how you going to manage that? And what if they update/change some things?

Achievements? like what?

And what about duplicated names / characters?

I can help if you want ;)

janvier all can be done just need time i see something like this in some game where you can see player stats and all set like weapon armor and many other things.

about this "And what about duplicated names" you can't make two the same name, btw not all odb must be read.

Underfisk i know what you want to make, and this is really nice idea. + for you and good luck.

Alright so first of all thanks for suggestion :)

Instalation - I'll make a simple installer such as let the user set the MSSQL information (user,pw,ip etc) and test connection because i just let user install it if the connection test be successful. Anyway in everypart in controllers i check before try to query if the connection is stable just doing the story of TCE(Try.catch.excp) and basically i pretend in my querys to set a standart way of getting data. How? The returns will be via AJAX to Javascript/jQuery in client-side so the user cannoct inject anything because there are no points except search character, guild etc... (We could talk more about this detailed sql part).

Achivements - I guess will discard or let to the final of options because for it happen we'll need to create an db for save achives.

Items Database - I think the most viable way is load the CSV by uploading (the server manager) and every own server in the API will get it, because i will not host anything (otherwise the API would be paied and it will be free and open source). After load CSV to server-side i wanna make allways sure that we got the file before load anything to profile and by checking if the index that is saved in the user bag really exists in the item file responding to the item type such as wep,armor etc.. It wont be that hard

Duplicated name's/char - Idk exactly what do you mean with this part but for example, in SQL every char has the own id key (primary key) and it cannoct be duplicated, so when i'm loading the characters, im loading the account first, and after i gather the character list and when i get it, i will get the characters the his ID and not by name(strings as primary key are a mistake). The armory code wont be hard but the ideas behind it are important to define how the API will work afterall.

Anyway resuming this API consist in a Javascript client-side witch get via AJAX the php data (i'll use codeigniter framework, MVC) and at the server-side i'll create the API connections beetween by controllers, the database of game, the database of items and the real armory functions class. Dont get confused and watch this out, because my idea is better than this one.

For example, if you see World of Warcraft armory, you see atm they show you character according to the race (the background is set according to it) and i have 2 ways of doing it. The same way they do, with every class has the char creation background or load the exactly map background where the last player info was gathered. Another thing is the behaviour of item, this means when you click in the item, it moves you on to the database page where you can see the default information of that item.

We could talk better about this later, just pm me :)

Believe it or not this can be done quite easily using web services and XML. Export your items to SOAP and secure the generated XML page with a password. The site will have to send the password to have access to the page and render the content. Basically it's the same way you would take content from an RSS feed. What you do is create a feed from your data in the database in XML elements. This is the easiest way to make your API.

For the CSV's that's easy. Just read the CSV files from the folder and import them into the database table. Write a script that does updates after the first import. Only downside is the database will be huge with all the info from the CSV files, so you might only want to import certain columns.

I have written many SOAP, XML and web service feeds from databases.

freez00 dont complicate what is simple :)
I mean, the only protection that can be more dangerous here is database connections, the rest its clearly a data encrypted that cames and when we receive it we show the profile items by just the items not linking the ID from database :).
Btw ye thanks for advice but i will just try to make the item search database gathering from CSV's its better than add manually. I will just need to make a standart for A3 and A9 because the a9 has extra lines and some extra features as dk ranks etc.

Btw thx everyone for your interest :) Iam still here to hear more feature suggestions or new ideas for this API

I would personally love a "what-if" type of calculator, but this would be pretty difficult to implement, although it would be fun. You can read the specific server's item files to determine what items are able to go in a specific item slot, and the user can then select their currently equipped item and swap it out for another, and it would calculate the difference to their stat page. As a VERY scaled down example, lets say they currently have Abrasax Pants equipped - 81 defense. I select this item, I'm presented with either A) a list containing all Vicious Summoner pants items on the server or B) at the very least all fortified version of my pants. To keep it simple, lets say I select Abrasax Pants +9. My stat sheet would show my current statistics, but also would show the modified increase in defense from 81 -> 149 defense, as well as any other stat changes.

This would start to get REALLY complex once you start adding sockets and gems, but I feel like this would be an excellent way for a player to plan out their armor progression.

i know exactly what you mean (i think)

See: [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]
(I used to play the game so :) )

I used it to set skills, cuz in the game there are NO (or expensive) resets you have to plan very carefully how you build your character, also depending on you stats / build / armor / weapon(s)

Can be VERY easily converted to dekaron, however, depending on the server setting, you can be 5 stats per level ... in most cases, so you need add an additional line that allows you to set a custom "stats per level"

Nah i was following more the type of WoW armory, its complex but with my dekaron it will fit well.
I got already a friend who is professional designer and will do the models to the classes for web but one thing harder is the items model into the char, this means if we will do it we need every item in every model and we dont have exactly items so i will discard it and make a universal icon, but in terms of design it will suit good for websites :)

Example of armory : [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Just to keep you updated guys, we're still deciding design stuff and some workflow for API, meanwhile you can contribute if you are up to ;)

The project is on going and i'll create the CMS and incorporate the armory on the website.
Soon i'll post more news about the project but as i'm building up a big platform there are for sure new features never seen.

The API is going to be released soon.
I was been structuring the best way of doing this and i decided to make client-side and server-side which will be easier in some ways.

There will be a discussion after i release about hosting the API server-side for multiple server's use but i guess we'll do if people be interested and contribute.

Thanks for waiting and i hope you like the project