Uploading High Scores to My Web Site

[Klogg]

Hey guys! I just made an arcade-style game, and I am interested in having it upload high scores to my web site. The problem is, I have no prior experience with ASP, no idea how it works, and no idea where to start. So needless to say, I think I'm gonna need some help here.

 

Okay, there was my confusation (I know, not a real word... I think) in general question. Here's a specific one now. For me to use ASP.NET on my web site, does my web host have to allow it or something? Or is it possible to use it on any web site? If not, could I have my game compare the player's high score with the lowest high score on the Internet and send the new score to me by email if it is higher? I could then update it manually without too much work.

 

Well, I'd appreciate your help here. Thanks. And by the way, you should check out my game. And go ahead and check out my other games and programs while you're there, too. :)

[Klogg]

No one has any advice?

[PWNettle]

Your host would have to have the ability to host ASP.Net - and allow you to use .Net.

 

For your situation, a good solution would be to make a web service that runs on your web host. You could post to it from your arcade app to 'upload' scored - and you could even have your web service provide feedback letting you know if the posted score was a new high or whatever. Or, you could hit the web service to obtain current high score data before you post. Either way, a web service is a good option because it let's you post and get a response easily.

 

I'd suggest checking out MSDN or google, or maybe even searching here to get started with a webservice and the relative code for "hitting" it from a winforms app. It's a bit involved to explain in it's entirety in one thread. Once you get something going and have specific questions I'm sure the experts here could help you with any problems you encounter.

 

Paul

[Klogg]

Okay, so does that mean that if I don't have a web host that supports ASP.NET, I have no hope of uploading my scores? :) Because I don't think my web host supports it (I'm just using the space that my ISP provides for free), and I don't really want to pay to get web space. Thanks for the help, by the way.

[PWNettle]

There may be other ways but they might be a bit less interactive.

 

You could use FTP if your host supports it (most likely - since that's how you usually move files to and from your web area). You might download the latest high scores when it comes time to do something with them, incorporate the latest game score into the file if it's worthy, save the new file, then upload it back to your web host. To use FTP like this you wouldn't need a programmatic component on your web host - just FTP access to your own little area. FTP is fairly easy to do to and from a windows forms app.

 

The biggest drawback to this method is that FTP isn't always super fast - it can take a few moments to establish connectons and do the transfers. So, if you had a lot of users submitting scores at the same time there's a chance they could wipe out each other's high scored. In the ASP.Net webservice scenario this would be far less likely to happen since the bulk of the work would happen on the server.

 

*shrug*

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that if someone is using your app they might not be too keen on the idea of it making web connections - even if your intentions are noble.

 

Paul

[Klogg]

Okay, thanks for the advice.

[dapanther]

I don't think you are stuck to just ASP. You should be able to use most any scripting language or any of the server pages technologies (ASP/JSP/ETC.). The issue is how you get the data to the page. I would think that you would want to look at sockets or something along that line so you can send an http request to the page and pass the data in an encrypted string. Just my thoughts....

 

Dapanther

[coldfusion244]

Why don't you use a MySQL or Access database?

 

For Access, you don't need an ODBC. That would be the simplest way. All you would have to do is add the Access modification and connection information into your project and checking it vs. the database. Access is only good for 3-5 connections. If you are looking to have more connections to the database at one time.

 

MySQL, your host would have to support it, but it would allow for a much higher yield or users. It also has higher scalability and such...

 

Hope this helps...