New Devlog: Sharing Game Data

[Rhaegar]

Brendan has unveiled the new Data Service API in his latest devlog.

You can read all about it by visiting this link!

/ Rhaegar

[Gin]

wow...what?! crazy! .... o_0

[dpi209]

Huzzah!
Finally!

Great devlog and definitely a step into the right direction!

[Rhaegar]

Known Issue:

The Server Status data is currently showing "0" for all population fields. This is being worked on.

[ArmEagle]

Ok, it looks pretty nice so far!

What I was wondering is whether FLS could provide a clean image of the worldmap as can be seen in the game. Perhaps both from 'm' as well as from using 'l' to get the local map on the open sea?

[ktatroe]

Originally Posted by ArmEagle Ok, it looks pretty nice so far! What I was wondering is whether FLS could provide a clean image of the worldmap as can be seen in the game. Perhaps both from 'm' as well as from using 'l' to get the local map on the open sea?

Yes! I meant to post that as well. I'll get it in place this evening and point folks at it (we have the image ready to go, I just have to get it posted to the site).

[ArmEagle]

Btw, why isn't http://www.burningsea.com/explore/li...FlipConfig.xml updated anymore?
Things like that (and for all upgrades, avatar equipment) would make things so much easier for websites. Just update it after every new live build.

Btw, when things go wrong with the servers, as it did a bit earlier today. All API requests tend to return error pages, of internal server errors. Even your own server status page gives simple-xml errors.

Though I prefer more 'data'/functionality, this is a little bit sloppy (though I do it myself too : ). And actually, I'd rather have a corrupt page (non-xml error messages) than a validly parsing, empty xml page, since I think that would mess up my pages .

[ArmEagle]

And while I'm busy asking questions anyway:

the PvPranges are said to be in meters. Any chance that they should be read as if they are 100 times larger? 1700 meters, being 170 kilometers, roughly equal to 100 miles? (And what is the exact ration between meters and miles you're using?)

Also, I've asked it before.. But what are the default ranges for full and pirate? The API sets these ranges to "0" on most ports. I guess then it's meant to be the 'default'. But without knowing these default values I had to guess.

[ktatroe]

Hey, guys. On Thursday this week, I'll be pushing the first of several changes coming down the pipe over the next month to the Data Service API. I wanted to give the folks that consume the data a little bit of a heads up, so they can be ready to use it when it goes live.

The first is the addition of the <updated> element within each XML snippet. This element contains in its CDATA the timestamp of the last time that particular feed was retrieved and stored at the web service, in RFC 3339 format. (See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3339.txt).

This change required wrapping the NationScoreBoard element in a new element, <RvRScoreboard>. For example,

<RvRScoreBoard>
<updated>2008-06-24T16:09:59-07:00</updated>
<NationScoreBoard roundState="RVR_NORMAL" ... />
</RvRScoreBoard>

Next, the new feeds will (finally) include Invincible and Testbed, so you'll be able to track and use data from those two servers.

Finally, although this probably won't happen in this Thursday's update, plan on the Data Service API not recognizing servers other than the current NA/EU servers, plus Testbed and Invincible at some point in the near future.

The servers themselves aren't going away yet, but there's no reason to continue to export and track data on servers that are no longer active.

These aren't the only Data Service work being done this milestone, but we felt these important enough to get in place as soon as possible.

[ArmEagle]

*Big Eyes and claps in hands happily!*
Hi ktatroe! Welcome back!

Originally Posted by ktatroe Hey, guys. On Thursday this week, I'll be pushing the first of several changes coming down the pipe over the next month to the Data Service API. I wanted to give the folks that consume the data a little bit of a heads up, so they can be ready to use it when it goes live. The first is the addition of the <updated> element within each XML snippet. This element contains in its CDATA the timestamp of the last time that particular feed was retrieved and stored at the web service, in RFC 3339 format. (See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3339.txt). This change required wrapping the NationScoreBoard element in a new element, <RvRScoreboard>. For example, <RvRScoreBoard> <updated>2008-06-24T16:09:59-07:00</updated> <NationScoreBoard roundState="RVR_NORMAL" ... /> </RvRScoreBoard>

Ok, that will require a slight change in parsing the data then. But this was indeed a requested feature. I think I'll surely make us of this somewhere eventually.
And, you're adding the timezone offset, great! I guess for now this is the only place you use it. Going to apply it to other time fields in the future?

I just made my code accept both the current and this new format, so I'll transition smoothly.

Next, the new feeds will (finally) include Invincible and Testbed, so you'll be able to track and use data from those two servers. Finally, although this probably won't happen in this Thursday's update, plan on the Data Service API not recognizing servers other than the current NA/EU servers, plus Testbed and Invincible at some point in the near future. The servers themselves aren't going away yet, but there's no reason to continue to export and track data on servers that are no longer active. These aren't the only Data Service work being done this milestone, but we felt these important enough to get in place as soon as possible.

Yes, I'm awaiting the final closing of those servers for a while now. But I'm simply querying based on what the serverlist returns, so that will be fine. Thanks for the heads up though!

About Invincible and Testbed.. Isn't there also an Australian Testbed? I thought I saw that somewhere, sometime. If so, I guess that one isn't added? Or if it is, I thought it was also named, simply "Testbed". That could mess up things, since the server name is it's ID in many places. (So I guess you simply don't add that one, if it even exists)