Board Game Arena - Уклад удзельніка [be]

Main game logic: yourgamename.game.php

2020-10-27T12:24:59Z

Een: /* Language dependent games API */ fix typo + add Belarusian to languages

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This is the main file for your game logic. Here you initialize the game, persist data, implement the rules and notify the client interface of changes.

== File Structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described directly with comments in the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* Constructor: where you define global variables.
* setupNewGame: initial setup of the game. Takes an array of players, indexed by player_id. Structure of each player is...?
* getAllDatas: where you retrieve all game data during a complete reload of the game.
* getGameProgression: where you compute the game progression indicator.
* Utility functions: your utility functions.
* Player actions: the entry points for players actions.
* Game state arguments: methods to return additional data on specific game states ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#args more info here]).
* Game state actions: the logic to run when entering a new game state ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#action more info here]).
* zombieTurn: what to do it's the turn of a zombie player.
* upgradeTableDb: function to migrate database if you change it after release on production.

== Accessing player information ==

'''Important''': In the following methods, be mindful of the difference between the "active" player and the "current" player. The '''active''' player is the player whose turn it is - not necessarily the player who sent a request! The '''current''' player is the player who sent the request and will see the results returned by your methods: not necessarily the player whose turn it is!

; getPlayersNumber()
: Returns the number of players playing at the table
: Note: doesn't work in setupNewGame (use count($players) instead).

; getActivePlayerId()
: Get the "active_player", whatever what is the current state type.
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multiplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; getActivePlayerName()
: Get the "active_player" name
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; loadPlayersBasicInfos()
: Get an associative array with generic data about players (ie: not game specific data).
: The key of the associative array is the player id. The returned table is cached, so ok to call multiple times without performance concerns.
: The content of each value is:
: * player_name - the name of the player
: * player_color (ex: ff0000) - the color code of the player
: * player_no - the position of the player at the start of the game in natural table order, i.e. 1,2,3

; getCurrentPlayerId()
: Get the "current_player". The current player is the one from which the action originated (the one who sent the request).
: '''Be careful''': This is not necessarily the active player!
: In general, you shouldn't use this method, unless you are in "multiplayer" state.
: '''Very important''': in your setupNewGame and zombieTurn function, you must never use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message (these actions are triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to these actions).

; getCurrentPlayerName()
: Get the "current_player" name
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; getCurrentPlayerColor()
: Get the "current_player" color
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; isCurrentPlayerZombie()
: Check the "current_player" zombie status. If true, player is zombie, i.e. left or was kicked out of the game.

; getActivePlayerColor()
: This function does not seems to exist in API, if you need it here is implementation
function getActivePlayerColor() {
$player_id = self::getActivePlayer();
$players = self::loadPlayersBasicInfos();
if( isset( $players[ $player_id ]) )
return $players[ $player_id ]['player_color'];
else
return null;
}

== Accessing the database ==

The main game logic should be the only point from which you should access the game database. You access your database using SQL queries with the methods below.

'''IMPORTANT'''

BGA uses [http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/sql-syntax-transactions.html database transactions]. This means that your database changes WON'T BE APPLIED to the database until your request ends normally (web request, not database request). Using transactions is in fact very useful for you; at any time, if your game logic detects that something is wrong (example: a disallowed move), you just have to throw an exception and all changes to the game situation will be removed. This also means that you need not (and in fact cannot) use your own transactions for multiple related database operations.

; DbQuery( $sql )
: This is the generic method to access the database.
: It can execute any type of SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT query on the database.
: You should use it for UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT queries. For SELECT queries, the specialized methods below are much better.

; getUniqueValueFromDB( $sql )
: Returns a unique value from DB or null if no value is found.
: $sql must be a SELECT query.
: Raise an exception if more than 1 row is returned.

; getCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Returns an associative array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: The key of the resulting associative array is the first field specified in the SELECT query.
: The value of the resulting associative array is an associative array with all the field specified in the SELECT query and associated values.
: First column must be a primary or alternate key.
: The resulting collection can be empty.
: If you specified $bSingleValue=true and if your SQL query request 2 fields A and B, the method returns an associative array "A=>B"

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
1234 => array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
1235 => array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
1234 => 'myuser0',
1235 => 'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getNonEmptyCollectionFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if the collection is empty

; getObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Returns one row for the sql SELECT query as an associative array or null if there is no result
: Raise an exception if the query return more than one row

Example:
<pre>
self::getObjectFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'" );

Result:
array(
'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1
)
</pre>

; getNonEmptyObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if no row is found

; getObjectListFromDB( $sql, $bUniqueValue=false )
: Return an array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: the result if the same than "getCollectionFromDB" except that the result is a simple array (and not an associative array).
: The result can be empty.
: If you specified $bUniqueValue=true and if your SQL query request 1 field, the method returns directly an array of values.

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
'myuser0',
'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getDoubleKeyCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Return an associative array of associative array, from a SQL SELECT query.
: First array level correspond to first column specified in SQL query.
: Second array level correspond to second column specified in SQL query.
: If bSingleValue = true, keep only third column on result

; DbGetLastId()
: Return the PRIMARY key of the last inserted row (see PHP mysql_insert_id function).

; DbAffectedRow()
: Return the number of row affected by the last operation

; escapeStringForDB( $string )
: You must use this function on every string type data in your database that contains unsafe data.
: (unsafe = can be modified by a player).
: This method makes sure that no SQL injection will be done through the string used.
: Note: if you using standard types in ajax actions, like AT_alphanum it is sanitized before arrival,
: this is only needed if you manage to get unchecked string, like in the games where user has to enter text as a response.

<pre>

</pre>

Note: see Editing [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]] to know how to define your database model.

== Use globals ==

Sometimes, you want a single global integer value for your game, and you don't want to create a DB table specifically for it.

You can do this with the BGA framework "global." Your value will be stored in the "global" table in the database, and you can access it with simple methods.

'''initGameStateLabels'''

This method should be located at the beginning of ''yourgamename.php.'' This is where you define the globals used in your game logic, by assigning them IDs.

You can define up to 79 globals, with IDs from 10 to 89 (inclusive). You must '''not''' use globals outside this range, as those values are used by other components of the framework.

<pre>
self::initGameStateLabels( array(
"my_first_global_variable" => 10,
"my_second_global_variable" => 11
) );
</pre>

'''setGameStateInitialValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Initialize your global value. Must be called before any use of your global, so you should call this method from your "setupNewGame" method.

'''getGameStateValue( $value_label )'''

Retrieve the current value of a global.

'''setGameStateValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Set the current value of a global.

'''incGameStateValue( $value_label, $increment )'''

Increment the current value of a global. If increment is negative, decrement the value of the global.

Return the final value of the global.

== Game states and active players ==

=== Activate player handling ===

; $this->activeNextPlayer()
: Make the next player active in the natural player order.
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->activePrevPlayer()
: Make the previous player active (in the natural player order).
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->gamestate->changeActivePlayer( $player_id )
: You can call this method to make any player active.
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->getActivePlayerId()
: Return the "active_player" id
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multipleactiveplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multipleactiveplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

=== Multiple activate player handling ===

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive()
: All playing players are made active. Update notification is sent to all players (triggers onUpdateActionButtons).
: Usually, you use this method at the beginning (ex: "st" action method) of a multiplayer game state when all players have to do some action. Do not use method if you going to do some more chages in active player list, i.e. if you want to take away multi-active right after, use setPlayersMultiactive instead.

Example of usage:
<pre>
function st_MultiPlayerInit() {
$this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive();
}
</pre>
And this is declaration of state:
<pre>
2 => array(
"name" => "playerTurnPlace",
"description" => clienttranslate('Other player must place ships'),
"descriptionmyturn" => clienttranslate('${you} must place ships (click on YOUR SHIPS board to place)'),
"type" => "multipleactiveplayer",
'action' => 'st_MultiPlayerInit',
'args' => 'arg_playerTurnPlace',
"possibleactions" => array( "actionBla" ),
"transitions" => array( "next" => 4, "last" => 99)
),
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersNonMultiactive( $next_state )
: All playing players are made inactive. Transition to next state

; $this->gamestate->setPlayersMultiactive( $players, $next_state, $bExclusive = false )
: Make a specific list of players active during a multiactive gamestate. Update notification is sent to all players who's state changed.
: "players" is the array of player id that should be made active.
: If "exclusive" parameter is not set or false it doesn't deactivate other previously active players. If its set to true, the players who will be multiactive at the end are only these in "$players" array

: In case "players" is empty, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise

; $this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $player_id, $next_state )
: During a multiactive game state, make the specified player inactive.
: Usually, you call this method during a multiactive game state after a player did his action. It is also possible to call it directly from multiplayer action handler.
: If this player was the last active player, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise
Example of usage (see state declaration of playerTurnPlace above):
<pre>
function actionBla($args) {
self::checkAction('actionBla');
// handle the action using $this->getCurrentPlayerId()
$this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $this->getCurrentPlayerId(), 'next');
}
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->getActivePlayerList()
: With this method you can retrieve the list of the active player at any time.
: During a "game" type gamestate, it will return a void array.
: During a "activeplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array with one value (the active player id).
: During a "multipleactiveplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array of the active players id.
: Note: you should only use this method in the latter case.

; $this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( $next_state_if_none )
: Sends update notification about multiplayer changes. All multiactive set* functions above do that, however if you want to change state manually using db queries for complex calculations, you have to call this yourself after. Do not call this if you calling one of the other setters above.
Example: you have player teams and you want to activate all players in one team
<pre>
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='0'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='1' WHERE player_id='$player_id' AND player_team='$team_no'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );

$this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( 'error' );
</pre>

; updating database manually
: Use this helper function to change multiactive state without sending notification
<pre>
/**
* Changes values of multiactivity in db, does not sent notifications.
* To send notifications after use updateMultiactiveOrNextState
* @param number $player_id, player id <=0 or null - means ALL
* @param number $value - 1 multiactive, 0 non multiactive
*/
function dbSetPlayerMultiactive($player_id = -1, $value = 1) {
if (! $value)
$value = 0;
else
$value = 1;
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive = '$value' WHERE player_zombie = 0 and player_eliminated = 0";
if ($player_id > 0) {
$sql .= " AND player_id = $player_id";
}
self::DbQuery($sql);
}
</pre>

=== States functions ===
; $this->gamestate->nextState( $transition )
: Change current state to a new state. Important: the $transition parameter is the name of the transition, and NOT the name of the target game state, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for more information about states.

; $this->checkAction( $actionName, $bThrowException=true )
: Check if an action is valid for the current game state, and optionally, throw an exception if it isn't.
: The action is valid if it is listed in the "possibleactions" array for the current game state (see game state description).
: This method MUST be the first one called in ALL your PHP methods that handle player actions, in order to make sure a player doesn't perform an action not allowed by the rules at the point in the game.
: If "bThrowException" is set to "false", the function returns '''false''' in case of failure instead of throwing an exception. This is useful when several actions are possible, in order to test each of them without throwing exceptions.

; $this->gamestate->checkPossibleAction( $action )
: (rarely used)
: This works exactly like "checkAction" (above), except that it does NOT check if the current player is active.
: This is used specifically in certain game states when you want to authorize additional actions for players that are not active at the moment.
: Example: in ''Libertalia'', you want to authorize players to change their mind about the card played. They are of course not active at the time they change their mind, so you cannot use "checkAction"; use "checkPossibleAction" instead.

This is how PHP action looks that returns player to active state (only for multiplayeractive states). To be able to execute on js side do not checkAction on js side for this specific one.

function actionUnpass() {
$this->gamestate->checkPossibleAction('actionUnpass'); // player chane mind about passing while others were thinking
$this->gamestate->setPlayersMultiactive(array ($this->getCurrentPlayerId() ), 'error', false);
}

; $this->gamestate->state()
: Get an associative array of current game state attributes, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for state attributes.
$state=$this->gamestate->state(); if( $state['name'] == 'myGameState' ) {...}

== Players turn order ==

'''getNextPlayerTable()'''

Return an associative array which associate each player with the next player around the table.

In addition, key 0 is associated to the first player to play.

Example: if three player with ID 1, 2 and 3 are around the table, in this order, the method returns:
<pre>
array(
1 => 2,
2 => 3,
3 => 1,
0 => 1
);
</pre>

'''getPrevPlayerTable()'''

Same as above, but the associative array associate the previous player around the table. Here seems also the "0" missing.

'''getPlayerAfter( $player_id )'''

Get player playing after given player in natural playing order.

'''getPlayerBefore( $player_id )'''

Get player playing before given player in natural playing order.

Note: There is no API to modify this order, if you have custom player order you have to maintain it in your database
and have custom function to access it.

== Notify players ==

To understand notifications, please read [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-bga-framework-at-a-glance The BGA Framework at a glance] first.

'''IMPORTANT'''

Notifications are sent at the very end of the request, when it ends normally. It means that if you throw an exception for any reason (ex: move not allowed), no notifications will be sent to players.
Notifications sent between the game start (setupNewGame) and the end of the "action" method of the first active state will never reach their destination.

'''notifyAllPlayers( $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Send a notification to all players of the game.

* notification_type:
A string that defines the type of your notification.

Your game interface Javascript logic will use this to know what is the type of the received notification (and to trigger the corresponding method).

* notification_log:
A string that defines what is to be displayed in the game log.

You can use an empty string here (""). In this case, nothing is displayed in the game log.

If you define a real string here, you should use "clienttranslate" method to make sure it can be translate.

You can use arguments in your notification_log strings, that refers to values defines in the "notification_args" argument (see below).
Note: Make sure you only use single quotes ('), otherwise PHP will try to interpolate the variable and will ignore the values in the args array.

* notification_args:
The arguments of your notifications, as an associative array.

This array will be transmitted to the game interface logic, in order the game interface can be updated.

Complete notifyAllPlayers example (from "Reversi"):

<pre>
self::notifyAllPlayers( "playDisc", clienttranslate( '${player_name} plays a disc and turns over ${returned_nbr} disc(s)' ),
array(
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getActivePlayerName(),
'returned_nbr' => count( $turnedOverDiscs ),
'x' => $x,
'y' => $y
) );
</pre>

You can see in the example above the use of the "clienttranslate" method, and the use of 2 arguments "player_name" and "returned_nbr" in the notification log.

'''Important''': NO private data must be sent with this method, as a cheater could see it even it is not used explicitly by the game interface logic. If you want to send private information to a player, please use notifyPlayer below.

'''Important''': this array is serialized to be sent to the browsers, and will be saved with the notification to be able to replay the game later. If it is too big, it can make notifications slower / less reliable, and replay archives very big (to the point of failing). So as a general rule, you should send only the minimum of information necessary to update the client interface with no overhead in order to keep the notifications as light as possible.

Note: you CAN use some HTML inside your notification log, however it not recommended for many reasons:
* Its bad architecture, ui elements leak into server now you have to manage ui in many places
* If you decided to change something in ui in future version, old games reply and tutorials may not work, since they use stored notifications
* When you read log preview for old games its unreadable (this is log before you enter the game reply, useful for troubleshooting or game analysis)
* Its more data to transfer and store in db
* Its nightmare for translators, at least don't put HTML tags inside the "clienttranslate" method. You can use a notification argument instead, and provide your HTML through this argument.

If you still want to have pretty pictures in the log check this [[BGA_Studio_Cookbook#Inject_images_and_styled_html_in_the_log]].

If your notification contains some phrases that build programmatically you may need to use recursive notifications. In this case the argument can be not only the string but
an array itself, which contains 'log' and 'args', i.e.

$this->notifyAllPlayers('playerLog',clienttranslate('Game moves ${token_name_rec}'),
['token_name_rec'=>['log'=>'${token_name} #${token_number}',
'args'=> ['token_name'=>clienttranslate('Boo'), 'token_number'=>$number, 'i18n'=>['token_name'] ]
]
]);

'''notifyPlayer( $player_id, $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Same as above, except that the notification is sent to one player only.

This method must be used each time some private information must be transmitted to a player.

Important: the variable for player name must be ${player_name} in order to be highlighted with the player color in the game log

== About random and randomness ==

A large number of board games rely on random, most often based on dice, cards shuffling, picking some item in a bag, and so on. This is very important to ensure a high level of randomness for each of these situations.

Here's are a list of techniques you should use in these situations, from the best to the worst.

=== Dice and bga_rand ===

'''bga_rand( min, max )'''
This is a BGA framework function that provides you a random number between "min" and "max" (inclusive), using the best available random method available on the system.

This is the preferred function you should use, because we are updating it when a better method is introduced.

As of now, bga_rand is based on the PHP function "random_int", which ensures a cryptographic level of randomness.

In particular, it is '''mandatory''' to use it for all '''dice throw''' (ie: games using other methods for dice throwing will be rejected by BGA during review).

Note: rand() and mt_rand() are deprecated on BGA and should not be used anymore, as their randomness is not as good as "bga_rand".

=== shuffle and cards shuffling ===

To shuffle items, like a pile of cards, the best way is to use the BGA PHP [[Deck]] component and to use "shuffle" method. This ensures that the best available shuffling method is used, and that if in the future we improve it your game will be up to date.

As of now, the Deck component shuffle method is based on PHP "shuffle" method, which has quite good randomness (even it is not as good as bga_rand). In consequence, we accept other shuffling methods during reviews, as long as they are based on PHP "shuffle" function (or similar, like "array_rand").

=== Other methods ===

Mysql "RAND()" function has not enough randomness to be a valid method to get a random element on BGA. This function has been used in some existing games and has given acceptable results, but now it should be avoided and you should use other methods instead.

== Game statistics ==

There are 2 types of statistics:
* a "player" statistic is a statistic associated to a player
* a "table" statistic is a statistic not associated to a player (global statistic for this game).

See [[Game statistics: stats.inc.php]] to see how you define statistics for your game.

'''initStat( $table_or_player, $name, $value, $player_id = null )'''

Create a statistic entry with a default value.

This method must be called for each statistic of your game, in your setupNewGame method.
If you neglect to call this for a statistic, and also do not update the value during the course of a certain game using setStat or incStat, the value of the stat will be undefined rather than 0. This will result in it being ignored at the end of the game, as if it didn't apply to that particular game, and excluded from cumulative statistics.

'$table_or_player' must be set to "table" if this is a table statistic, or "player" if this is a player statistic.

'$name' is the name of your statistic, as it has been defined in your stats.inc.php file.

'$value' is the initial value of the statistic. If this is a player statistic and if the player is not specified by "$player_id" argument, the value is set for ALL players.

'''setStat( $value, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Set a statistic $name to $value.

If "$player_id" is not specified, setStat consider it is a TABLE statistic.

If "$player_id" is specified, setStat consider it is a PLAYER statistic.

'''incStat( $delta, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Increment (or decrement) specified statistic value by $delta value. Same behavior as setStat function.

'''getStat( $name, $player_id = null )'''

Return the value of statistic specified by $name. Useful when creating derivative statistics such as average.

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Manage player scores and Tie breaker ==

=== Normal scoring ===

At the end of the game, players automatically get a rank depending on their score: the player with the biggest score is #1, the player with the second biggest score is #2, and so on...

During the game, you update player's score directly by updating "player_score" field of "player" table in database.

Examples:
<pre>

// +2 points to active player
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=player_score+2 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

// Set score of active player to 5
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=5 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

</pre>

Note: don't forget to notify the client side in order the score control can be updated accordingly.

=== Tie breaker ===

Tie breaker is used when two players get the same score at the end of a game.

Tie breaker is using "player_score_aux" field of "player" table. It is updated exactly like the "player_score" field.

Tie breaker score is displayed only for players who are tied at the end of the game. Most of the time, it is not supposed to be displayed explicitly during the game.

When you are using "player_score_aux" functionality, you must describe the formula to use in your gameinfos.inc.php file like this:

<pre>
'tie_breaker_description' => totranslate("Describe here your tie breaker formula"),
</pre>

This description will be used as a tooltip to explain to players how this auxiliary score has been calculated.

=== Co-operative game ===

To make everyone win/lose together in a full-coop game:

Add the following in gameinfos.inc.php :
'is_coop' => 1, // full cooperative

Assign a score of zero to everyone if it's a loss.
Assign the same score > 0 to everyone if it's a win.

=== Semi-coop ===

If the game is not full-coop, then everyone loses = everyone is tied. I.e. set score to 0 to everybody.

=== Only "winners" and "losers" ===

For some games, there is only a group (or a single) "winner", and everyone else is a "loser", with no "end of game rank" (1st, 2nd, 3rd...).

Examples:
* Coup
* Not Alone
* Werewolves
* Quantum

In this case:
* Set the scores so that the winner has the best score, and the other players have the same (lower) score.
* Add the following lines to gameinfos.php:

<pre>
// If in the game, all losers are equal (no score to rank them or explicit in the rules that losers are not ranked between them), set this to true
// The game end result will display "Winner" for the 1st player and "Loser" for all other players
'losers_not_ranked' => true,
</pre>

Werewolves and Coup are implemented like this, as you can see here:
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=werewolves&section=lastresults
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=coupcitystate&section=lastresults

Adding this has the following effects:
* On game results for this game, "Winner" or "Loser" is going to appear instead of the usual "1st, 2nd, 3rd, ...".
* When a game is over, the result of the game will be "End of game: Victory" or "End of game: Defeat" depending on the result of the CURRENT player (instead of the usual "Victory of XXX").
* When calculating ELO points, if there is at least one "Loser", no "victorious" player can lose ELO points, and no "losing" player can win ELO point. Usually it may happened because being tie with many players with a low rank is considered as a tie and may cost you points. If losers_not_ranked is set, we prevent this behavior and make sure you only gain/loss ELO when you get the corresponding results.

Important: this SHOULD NOT be used for cooperative games (see is_coop parameter), or for 2 players games (it makes no sense in this case).

=== Solo ===

If game supports solo variant, a negative or zero score means defeat, a positive score means victory.

=== Player elimination ===

In some games, this is useful to eliminate a player from the game in order he/she can start another game without waiting for the current game end.

This case should be rare. Please don't use player elimination feature if some player just has to wait the last 10% of the game for game end. This feature should be used only in games where players are eliminated all along the game (typical examples: "Perudo" or "The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow").

Usage:

* Player to eliminate should NOT be active anymore (preferably use the feature in a "game" type game state).
* In your PHP code:
self::eliminatePlayer( <player_to_eliminate_id> );
* the player is informed in a dialog box that he no longer have to played and can start another game if he/she wants too (whith buttons "stay at this table" "quit table and back to main site"). In any case, the player is free to start & join another table from now.
* When your game is over, all players who have been eliminated before receive a "notification" (the small "!" icon on the top right of the BGA interface) that indicate them that "the game has ended" and invite them to review the game results.

=== Scoring Helper functions ===

These functions should have been API but they are not, just add them to your php game and use for every game.

// get score
function dbGetScore($player_id) {
return $this->getUniqueValueFromDB("SELECT player_score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set score
function dbSetScore($player_id, $count) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score='$count' WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set aux score (tie breaker)
function dbSetAuxScore($player_id, $score) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score_aux=$score WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// increment score (can be negative too)
function dbIncScore($player_id, $inc) {
$count = $this->dbGetScore($player_id);
if ($inc != 0) {
$count += $inc;
$this->dbSetScore($player_id, $count);
}
return $count;
}

== Reflexion time ==

; function giveExtraTime( $player_id, $specific_time=null )
: Give standard extra time to this player.
: Standard extra time depends on the speed of the game (small with "slow" game option, bigger with other options).
: You can also specify an exact time to add, in seconds, with the "specified_time" argument (rarely used).

== Undo moves ==

Please read our [[BGA Undo policy]] before.

'''Important''': Before using these methods, you must also add the following to your "gameinfos.inc.php" file, otherwise these methods are ineffective:
'db_undo_support' => true

; function undoSavepoint( )
: Save the whole game situation inside an "Undo save point".
: There is only ONE undo save point available (see BGA Undo policy).

; function undoRestorePoint()
: Restore the situation previously saved as an "Undo save point".
: You must make sure that the active player is the same after and before the undoRestorePoint (ie: this is your responsibility to ensure that the player that is active when this method is called is exactly the same than the player that was active when the undoSavePoint method has been called).

== Managing errors and exceptions ==

Note: when you throw an exception, all database changes and all notifications are cancelled immediately. This way, the game situation that existed before the request is completely restored.

; throw new BgaUserException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a user error
: You must throw this exception when a player wants to do something that he is not allowed to do.
: The error message will be shown to the player as a "red message", so it must be translated.
: Throwing such an exception is NOT considered a bug, so it is not traced in BGA error logs.

Example from Gomoku:
<pre>
throw new BgaUserException( self::_("There is already a stone on this intersection, you can't play there") );
</pre>

; throw new BgaVisibleSystemException ( $error_message)
: You must throw this exception when you detect something that is not supposed to happened in your code.
: The error message is shown to the user as an "Unexpected error", in order that he can report it in the forum.
: The error message is logged in BGA error logs. If it happens regularly, we will report it to you.

; throw new BgaSystemException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a system exception. The message will be hidden from the user, but show in the logs. Use this if the message contains technical information.
: You shouldn't use this type of exception except if you think the information shown could be critical. Indeed: a generic error message will be shown to the user, so it's going to be difficult for you to see what happened.

== Zombie mode ==

When a player leaves a game for any reason (expelled, quit), he becomes a "zombie player". In this case, the results of the game won't count for statistics, but this is cool if the other players can finish the game anyway. That's why zombie mode exists: allow the other player to finish the game, even if the situation is not ideal.

While developing your zombie mode, keep in mind that:
* Do not refer to the rules, because this situation is not planned by the rules.
* Try to figure that you are playing with your friends and one of them has to leave: how can we finish the game without killing the spirit of the game?
* The idea is NOT to develop an artificial intelligence for the game.
* Do not try to end the game early, even in a two-player game. The zombie is there to allow the game to continue, not to end it. Trying to end the game is not supported by the framework and will likely cause unexpected errors.

Most of the time, the best thing to do when it is zombie player turn is to jump immediately to a state where he is not active anymore. For example, if he is in a game state where he has a choice between playing A and playing B, the best thing to do is NOT to choose A or B, but to pass. So, even if there's no "pass" action in the rules, add a "zombiepass" transitition in your game state and use it.

Each time a zombie player must play, your "zombieTurn" method is called.

Parameters:
* $state: the name of the current game state.
* $active_player: the id of the active player.

Most of the time, your zombieTurn method looks like this:

<pre>
function zombieTurn( $state, $active_player )
{
$statename = $state['name'];

if( $statename == 'myFirstGameState'
|| $statename == 'my2ndGameState'
|| $statename == 'my3rdGameState'
....
)
{
$this->gamestate->nextState( "zombiePass" );
}
else
throw new BgaVisibleSystemException( "Zombie mode not supported at this game state: ".$statename );
}
</pre>

Note that in the example above, all corresponding game state should implement "zombiePass" as a transition.

'''Very important''': your zombie code will be called when the player leaves the game. This action is triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to this action. In your zombieTurn function, you must '''never''' use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message.

== Player color preferences ==

BGA players (Club members) may now choose their preferred color for playing. For example, if they are used to play green for every board game, they can select "green" in their BGA preferences page.

Making your game compatible with colors preferences is very easy and requires only 1 line of PHP and 1 configuration change :

On your gameinfos.inc.php file, add the following lines :

// Favorite colors support : if set to "true", support attribution of favorite colors based on player's preferences (see reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method)
// NB: this parameter is used only to flag games supporting this feature; you must use (or not use) reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method to actually enable or disable the feature.
'favorite_colors_support' => true,

Then, on your main <your_game>.game.php file, find the "reloadPlayersBasicInfos" call in your "setupNewGame" method and replace :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

By :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences( $players, array( /* LIST HERE THE AVAILABLE COLORS OF YOUR GAME INSTEAD OF THESE ONES */"ff0000", "008000", "0000ff", "ffa500", "773300" ) );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

The "reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences" method reattributes all colors, taking into account players color preferences and available colors.

Note that you must update the colors to indicate the colors available for your game.

2 important remarks :
* for some games (ex : Chess), the color has an influence on a mechanism of the game, most of the time by giving a special advantage to a player (ex : Starting the game). Color preference mechanism must NOT be used in such a case.
* your logic should NEVER consider that the first player has the color X, that the second player has the color Y, and so on. If this is the case, your game will NOT be compatible with reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences as this method attribute colors to players based on their preferences and not based as their order at the table.

Colours currently listed as a choice in preferences:

* #ff0000 Red
* #008000 Green
* #0000ff Blue
* #ffa500 Yellow
* #000000 Black
* #ffffff White
* #e94190 Pink
* #982fff Purple
* #72c3b1 Cyan
* #f07f16 Orange
* #bdd002 Khaki green
* #7b7b7b Gray

== Legacy games API ==

For some very specific games ("legacy", "campaign"), you need to keep some informations from a game to another.

This should be an exceptional situation: the legacy API is costing resources on Board Game Arena databases, and is slowing down the game setup process + game end of game process. Please do not use it for things like:
* keeping a player preference/settings (=> player preferences and game options should be used instead)
* keeping a statistics, a score, or a ranking, while it is not planned in the physical board game, or while there is no added value compared to BGA statistics / rankings.

You should use it for:
* legacy games: when some components of the game has been altered in a previous game and should be kept as it is.
* "campaign style" games: when a player is getting a "reward" at the end of a game, and should be able to use it in further games.

Important: you cannot store more than 64k of data (serialized as JSON) per player per game. If you go over 64k, storeLegacyData function is going to FAIL, and there is a risk to create a major bug (= players blocked) in your game. You MUST make sure that no more than 64k of data is used for each player for your game. For example, if you are implementing a "campaign style" game and if you allow a player to start multiple campaign, you must LIMIT the number of different campaign so that the total data size to not go over the limit. We strongly recommend you to use this:

try
{
$this->storeLegacyTeamData( 'my_variable', $my_data );
}
catch( feException $e )
{
if( $e->getCode() == FEX_legacy_size_exceeded )
{
// Do something here to free some space in Legacy data (ex: by removing some variables)
}
else
throw $e;
}

; function storeLegacyData( $player_id, $key, $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Store some data associated with $key for the given user / current game
: In the opposite of all other game data, this data will PERSIST after the end of this table, and can be re-used
: in a future table with the same game.
: IMPORTANT: The only possible place where you can use this method is when the game is over at your table (last game action). Otherwise, there is a risk of conflicts between ongoing games.
: TTL is a time-to-live: the maximum, and default, is 365 days.
: In any way, the total data (= all keys) you can store for a given user+game is 64k (note: data is store serialized as JSON data)

; function retrieveLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Get data associated with $key for the current game
: This data is common to ALL tables from the same game for this player, and persist from one table to another.
: Note: calling this function has an important cost => please call it few times (possibly: only ONCE) for each player for 1 game if possible
: Note: you can use '%' in $key to retrieve all keys matching the given patterns

; function removeLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Remove some legacy data with the given key
: (useful to free some data to avoid going over 64k)

; function storeLegacyTeamData( $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Same as storeLegacyData, except that it stores some data for the whole team within the current table
: Ie: if players A, B and C are at a table, the legacy data will be saved for future table with (exactly) A, B and C on the table.
: This is useful for games which are intended to be played several time by the same team.
: Note: the data total size is still limited, so you must implement catch the FEX_legacy_size_exceeded exception if it happens

; function retrieveLegacyTeamData()
: Same as retrieveLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

; function removeLegacyTeamData()
: Same as removeLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

== Language dependent games API ==

This API is used for games that are heavily language dependent. Two most common use cases are:
* Games that have a language dependent component that are not necessarily translatable, typically a list of words. (Think of games like Codenames, Decrypto, Just One...)
* Games with massive communication where players would like to ensure that all participants speak the same language. (Think of games like Werewolf, The Resistance, maybe even dixit...)

If this option is used, the table created will be limited only to users that have specific language in their profile. Player starting the game would be able to chose one of the languages he speaks.

There is a new property language_dependency in gameinfos.inc.php which can be set like this:
'language_dependecy' => false, //or if the property is missing, the game is not language dependent
'language_dependecy' => true, //all players at the table must speak the same language
'language_dependecy' => array( 1 => 'en', 2 => 'fr', 3 => 'it' ), //1-based list of supported languages

In the gamename.game.php file, you can get the id of selected language with the method '''getGameLanguage'''.
; function getGameLanguage()
: Returns an index of the selected language as defined in gameinfos.inc.php.

Languages currently available on BGA are:
'ar' => array( 'name' => "العربية", 'code' => 'ar_AE' ), // arabic
'be' => array( 'name' => "беларуская мова", 'code' => 'be_BY' ), // Belarusian
'bn' => array( 'name' => "বাংলা", 'code' => 'bn_BD' ), // bengali
'bg' => array( 'name' => "български език", 'code' => 'bg_BG' ), // bulgarian
'ca' => array( 'name' => "català", 'code' => 'ca_ES' ), // catalan
'cs' => array( 'name' => "čeština", 'code' => 'cs_CZ' ), // czech
'da' => array( 'name' => "dansk", 'code' => 'da_DK' ), // danish
'de' => array( 'name' => "deutsch", 'code' => 'de_DE' ), // deutsch
'el' => array( 'name' => "Ελληνικά", 'code' => 'el_GR' ), // greek
'en' => array( 'name' => "English", 'code' => 'en_US' ), // english
'es' => array( 'name' => "español", 'code' => 'es_ES' ), // spanish
'et' => array( 'name' => "eesti keel", 'code' => 'et_EE' ), // estonian
'fi' => array( 'name' => "suomi", 'code' => 'fi_FI' ), // finnish
'fr' => array( 'name' => "français", 'code' => 'fr_FR' ), // french
'he' => array( 'name' => "עברית", 'code' => 'he_IL' ), // hebrew
'hi' => array( 'name' => "हिन्दी", 'code' => 'hi_IN' ), // hindi
'hr' => array( 'name' => "Hrvatski", 'code' => 'hr_HR' ), // croatian
'hu' => array( 'name' => "magyar", 'code' => 'hu_HU' ), // hungarian
'id' => array( 'name' => "Bahasa Indonesia", 'code' => 'id_ID' ), // indonesian
'ms' => array( 'name' => "Bahasa Malaysia", 'code' => 'ms_MY' ), // malaysian
'it' => array( 'name' => "italiano", 'code' => 'it_IT' ), // italian
'ja' => array( 'name' => "日本語", 'code' => 'ja_JP' ), // japanese
'jv' => array( 'name' => "Basa Jawa", 'code' => 'jv_JV' ), // javanese
'ko' => array( 'name' => "한국어", 'code' => 'ko_KR' ), // korean
'lt' => array( 'name' => "lietuvių", 'code' => 'lt_LT' ), // lithuanian
'lv' => array( 'name' => "latviešu", 'code' => 'lv_LV' ), // latvian
'nl' => array( 'name' => "nederlands", 'code' => 'nl_NL' ), // dutch
'no' => array( 'name' => "norsk", 'code' => 'nb_NO' ), // Norwegian
'oc' => array( 'name' => "occitan", 'code' => 'oc_FR' ), // Occitan
'pl' => array( 'name' => "polski", 'code' => 'pl_PL' ), // polish
'pt' => array( 'name' => "português", 'code' => 'pt_PT' ), // portugese
'ro' => array( 'name' => "română", 'code' => 'ro_RO' ), // romanian
'ru' => array( 'name' => "Русский язык", 'code' => 'ru_RU' ), // russian
'sk' => array( 'name' => "slovenčina", 'code' => 'sk_SK' ), // slovak
'sl' => array( 'name' => "slovenščina", 'code' => 'sl_SI' ), // slovenian
'sr' => array( 'name' => "Српски", 'code' => 'sr_RS' ), // serbian
'sv' => array( 'name' => "svenska", 'code' => 'sv_SE' ), // swedish
'tr' => array( 'name' => "Türkçe", 'code' => 'tr_TR' ), // turkish
'uk' => array( 'name' => "Українська мова", 'code' => 'uk_UA' ), // Ukrainian
'zh' => array( 'name' => "中文 (漢)", 'code' => 'zh_TW' ), // Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan)
'zh-cn' => array( 'name' => "中文 (汉)", 'code' => 'zh_CN' ), // Simplified Chinese (Mainland China, Singapore)

== Debugging and Tracing ==

To debug php code you can use some tracing functions available from the parent class such as debug, trace, error, warn, dump.

self::debug("Ahh!");
self::dump('my_var',$my_var);

See [[Practical_debugging]] section for complete information about debugging interfaces and where to find logs.

Translations

2020-10-25T11:11:12Z

Een: /* On server side (PHP) */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Using BGA Studio, the game you create is ready to be translated to each language by the BGA community. To make this possible, you only need to specify which string must be translated and how to combine them.

== How translation works? ==

When developing your game, all strings must be in English. Strings must be coherent with the English version of the game.

Before the release of the game, BGA team will do the French translation of the game.

After the release of the game, the BGA players community will translate the game in every language.

== What should be translated? ==

Every text that can be visible by the player when the game is running normally. This includes tooltips, texts on cards, error messages, ...

This does NOT include error messages that are not supposed to happen (unexpected errors).

== What rules should I follow for the original English strings? ==

For a coherent and homogeneous interface, here are some rules about ending a sentence with a final dot '.'

* As a general rule:
** If a sentence is displayed isolated in the interface => no final dot
** If a sentence is followed or could be followed by another sentence in the same interface space => final dot.

* In detail:
** No final dot:
*** button labels
*** section titles
*** menu elements
*** links triggering an isolated action
*** anything that is not a full sentence
*** current action in the status bar
** Final dot:
*** complete explanation sentence, that can be chained with another sentence
** We can tolerate a dot or no dot (but it should be consistent inside the game) for:
*** isolated tooltip / isolated small sentence
*** game log (no dot is usually preferable)
*** error messages (except if more than one sentence in the error message => final dot mandatory in this case)

Otherwise, you should try to follow as closely as possible the general style and format (including capitalization) used in the English rulebook and game material of the game.

== Focus on translating notifications ==

Usually, translating a website is simple: you just call a function on every string you have to translate, and the string is translated in the player's language. On Board Game Arena, this is exactly the same with the "_( string )" function.

However, there is one difference on BGA: notifications. The server is sending notifications to players, and most of the time the notifications are the same for every players, no matter what language each player is using. This is why notifications are translated on client side in the proper language, even if the strings are defined on server side.

== WARNING: how to make sure your strings will be translated ==

For each game, our translation tool is doing a full scan of the code, looking for translator markers like "_()" or "clientranslate()"... (see below the list of translation markers).

If your original string is not "physically" inside one of this marker, it won't be translated.

<pre>
// Examples: the following strings will be translated:
var mystring_translated = _("my string"); // JS
$mystring_translated = self::_("my string"); // PHP
$mystring_translated = sprintf( self::_("my string with an %s argument"), $argument ); // PHP

// Examples: the following strings WILL NOT be translated:
$my_string = "my string";
$not_translated = self::_( $my_string ); // The original string is not bordered by a translator marker => no translation
$not_translated = self::_( sprintf( "my string with a %s argument", $argument ) ); // Same thing
</pre>

== How to not make translators crazy ;) ==

* When you need the same string twice, try to reuse exactly the same string (with the same case) to minimize the number of strings.
* Do not mark as translatable a game element that does not have to be translated (ex: if the name of a monster on a card is "Zzzzz", maybe there's no need to translate it).
* Words does not come in the same order in each language. Thus, when you have to translate a string with an argument, do not write something like:
<pre>self::_("First part of the string, ").$argument.' '.self::_("second part of the string")</pre>
Write instead:
<pre>sprintf( self::_("First part of the string, %s second part of the string"), $argument )</pre>
(or the equivalent "dojo.string.substitute" in Javascript)
* When translators are going to translate your game, the most difficult task for them is to get the context of the string to be translated. The more the string is a short insignificant string, the more difficult is the task for them. As a rule of thumb, try to avoid insignificant short strings. You can also leave a comment on what is the context of the string in the translation program (English to English) if you are the developer of the game.
* The BGA translation policy is to be flexible on grammar... We prefer to write "player gets 1 coin(s)" than write two versions of the same string for plural and singular - it reduces the number of strings to translate.
* Instead of writing nice strings like "With the effect of ZZZ, player XXX gets a new YYY", which is very difficult to translate, write strings like "ZZZ: XXX gets YYY".
* Use present tense instead of past, i.e. "player gets wood" instead of "player got wood"
* Avoid using gender specific pronouns, i.e. instead of "player returns card to *his* hand" use "player returns card to *their* hand" or just avoid using it, i.e. "player picks up the card"

== On client side (Javascript) ==

On client side, things are quite simple: you just have to use the "_()" function for all strings you want to translate.

Examples:
<pre>
// Get a string in player's language:
var translated = _("original english string");

// Get a string in player's language with parameter:
var translated = dojo.string.substitute( _("You can pick ${p} cards and discard ${d}"), {
p: 2,
d: 4
} );
</pre>

'''WARNING:''' in Javascript strings to translate, you should never use '\n', '\t' or such, as it will break the translation bundle and result in all the Javascript translation to fail. In any case, the strings will result in HTML code, and such character codes won't have any impact on the HTML rendering. You should use HTML markup instead.

'''ANOTHER WARNING:''' you cannot use this function _() in the javascript object constructor, but you can achieve the same if you use it the setup method

== On server side (PHP) ==

On PHP side, you can use 3 different functions to specify that a string must be translated.

'''clienttranslate( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function is '''transparent''': it will return the original English string without any change. It's only purpose is to mark this string as "must be translated", and to make sure the translated version of the string will be available on client side.

In general, you use clienttranslate:
* On your states.inc.php, for field "description" and "descriptionmyturn".

<pre>
"description" => clienttranslate('${card_name}: ${actplayer} must discard 4 identical energies'),
</pre>

* On "material.inc.php", when defining texts for game material that must be displayed on client side.
<pre>
$this->card_types = array(

1 => array(
'name' => clienttranslate("Amulet of Air"), // Thus, we can use "_( card_name )" on Javascript side.
</pre>

* When sending a notification with "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer", for the game log string and all game log arguments that need a translation.

<pre>
// A game log string with no argument:
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'pickLibraryCards', clienttranslate("Everyone draw cards from his library"), array() );
</pre>

As a consequence there is no point passing variables to this function, i.e.
<pre>
notif="foo"; self::notifyAllPlayers( 'log', clienttraslate(notif)); // BAD
notif=clienttranslate("foo"); self::notifyAllPlayers( 'log', notif); // GOOD
</pre>

Translating arguments is a little bit more complex. It is using the "i18n" special argument as below:

<pre>
// In the following example, we translate the game log itself, but also the "card_name" argument:

self::notifyAllPlayers( 'winPoints', clienttranslate('${card_name}: ${player_name} gains ${points} point(s)'), array(
'i18n' => array( 'card_name' ), // <===== We specify here that "card_name" argument must be translated
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getActivePlayerName(),
'points' => $points,
'card_name' => $this->card_types[8]['name'] // <==== Here, we provide original English string.
) );
</pre>

Pay attention when using 'i18n' argument when translating argument for client : do NOT use same argument for both translation AND key code for client side action (like using 'card_name' to move it on player board as described in the example). It's pretty obvious in the example, but it can be very tricky when translation is made at the end of the development (which is often the case). Use explicit argument name like 'card_name_translated' by example.

'''WARNING:''' you should NEVER use concatenation with clienttranslate, as it would result in a different string to translate at runtime than the one retrieved statically in the translation system, and so translation would not be applied. If you need to compose a string, use substitution and the i18n parameter (but you also have to pay attention not to compose sentences in a way that is dependent upon the English language specific syntax, or it may be impossible to translate correctly in another language: sometimes, you need multiple full sentences rather than relying on substitution).

'''self::_( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function returns a string translated in the language of CURRENT user (i.e. player who send the request to the server) (be careful, this is NOT the active player).

Most of the time, you don't need to translate strings on server side, except on the following 3 situations:
* When throwing an exception because the player did a forbidden move.

<pre>
// This will display a translatable red message to the player that just did some wrong action:
throw new BgaUserException( self::_('You must choose 3 cards') );

// ... notice the use of BgaUserException that signals that this exception is "expected". In theory, all exception that are expected should be translated.
</pre>

* In "yourgame.view.php", when creating the labels for the game interface used in your template (.tpl) file.

<pre>
$this->tpl['CARDS_FOR_YEAR_2'] = self::_("Your cards for year II");
</pre>

* Eventually, in your material.inc.php, if for example you need to use some string elements in your exceptions.

<pre>
// In material.inc.php, $this->energies[n]['nametr'] has been created with the self::_() method. Now we can do this:
throw new BgaUserException( self::_("To execute this action you need more: ").' '.$this->energies[$resource_id]['nametr'] );
</pre>

* Eventually, in your "getAllDatas" PHP method, as the data return by this method is used only by current user.

'''totranslate( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function works exactly like 'clienttranslate', except it tells BGA that the string is not needed on client side.

You should not use this function, except on the following cases:
* Statistics name in stats.inc.php
* Option names and option values name in gameoptions.inc.php

Translations

2020-10-25T11:10:38Z

Een: /* On server side (PHP) */ warning on concatenation

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Using BGA Studio, the game you create is ready to be translated to each language by the BGA community. To make this possible, you only need to specify which string must be translated and how to combine them.

== How translation works? ==

When developing your game, all strings must be in English. Strings must be coherent with the English version of the game.

Before the release of the game, BGA team will do the French translation of the game.

After the release of the game, the BGA players community will translate the game in every language.

== What should be translated? ==

Every text that can be visible by the player when the game is running normally. This includes tooltips, texts on cards, error messages, ...

This does NOT include error messages that are not supposed to happen (unexpected errors).

== What rules should I follow for the original English strings? ==

For a coherent and homogeneous interface, here are some rules about ending a sentence with a final dot '.'

* As a general rule:
** If a sentence is displayed isolated in the interface => no final dot
** If a sentence is followed or could be followed by another sentence in the same interface space => final dot.

* In detail:
** No final dot:
*** button labels
*** section titles
*** menu elements
*** links triggering an isolated action
*** anything that is not a full sentence
*** current action in the status bar
** Final dot:
*** complete explanation sentence, that can be chained with another sentence
** We can tolerate a dot or no dot (but it should be consistent inside the game) for:
*** isolated tooltip / isolated small sentence
*** game log (no dot is usually preferable)
*** error messages (except if more than one sentence in the error message => final dot mandatory in this case)

Otherwise, you should try to follow as closely as possible the general style and format (including capitalization) used in the English rulebook and game material of the game.

== Focus on translating notifications ==

Usually, translating a website is simple: you just call a function on every string you have to translate, and the string is translated in the player's language. On Board Game Arena, this is exactly the same with the "_( string )" function.

However, there is one difference on BGA: notifications. The server is sending notifications to players, and most of the time the notifications are the same for every players, no matter what language each player is using. This is why notifications are translated on client side in the proper language, even if the strings are defined on server side.

== WARNING: how to make sure your strings will be translated ==

For each game, our translation tool is doing a full scan of the code, looking for translator markers like "_()" or "clientranslate()"... (see below the list of translation markers).

If your original string is not "physically" inside one of this marker, it won't be translated.

<pre>
// Examples: the following strings will be translated:
var mystring_translated = _("my string"); // JS
$mystring_translated = self::_("my string"); // PHP
$mystring_translated = sprintf( self::_("my string with an %s argument"), $argument ); // PHP

// Examples: the following strings WILL NOT be translated:
$my_string = "my string";
$not_translated = self::_( $my_string ); // The original string is not bordered by a translator marker => no translation
$not_translated = self::_( sprintf( "my string with a %s argument", $argument ) ); // Same thing
</pre>

== How to not make translators crazy ;) ==

* When you need the same string twice, try to reuse exactly the same string (with the same case) to minimize the number of strings.
* Do not mark as translatable a game element that does not have to be translated (ex: if the name of a monster on a card is "Zzzzz", maybe there's no need to translate it).
* Words does not come in the same order in each language. Thus, when you have to translate a string with an argument, do not write something like:
<pre>self::_("First part of the string, ").$argument.' '.self::_("second part of the string")</pre>
Write instead:
<pre>sprintf( self::_("First part of the string, %s second part of the string"), $argument )</pre>
(or the equivalent "dojo.string.substitute" in Javascript)
* When translators are going to translate your game, the most difficult task for them is to get the context of the string to be translated. The more the string is a short insignificant string, the more difficult is the task for them. As a rule of thumb, try to avoid insignificant short strings. You can also leave a comment on what is the context of the string in the translation program (English to English) if you are the developer of the game.
* The BGA translation policy is to be flexible on grammar... We prefer to write "player gets 1 coin(s)" than write two versions of the same string for plural and singular - it reduces the number of strings to translate.
* Instead of writing nice strings like "With the effect of ZZZ, player XXX gets a new YYY", which is very difficult to translate, write strings like "ZZZ: XXX gets YYY".
* Use present tense instead of past, i.e. "player gets wood" instead of "player got wood"
* Avoid using gender specific pronouns, i.e. instead of "player returns card to *his* hand" use "player returns card to *their* hand" or just avoid using it, i.e. "player picks up the card"

== On client side (Javascript) ==

On client side, things are quite simple: you just have to use the "_()" function for all strings you want to translate.

Examples:
<pre>
// Get a string in player's language:
var translated = _("original english string");

// Get a string in player's language with parameter:
var translated = dojo.string.substitute( _("You can pick ${p} cards and discard ${d}"), {
p: 2,
d: 4
} );
</pre>

'''WARNING:''' in Javascript strings to translate, you should never use '\n', '\t' or such, as it will break the translation bundle and result in all the Javascript translation to fail. In any case, the strings will result in HTML code, and such character codes won't have any impact on the HTML rendering. You should use HTML markup instead.

'''ANOTHER WARNING:''' you cannot use this function _() in the javascript object constructor, but you can achieve the same if you use it the setup method

== On server side (PHP) ==

On PHP side, you can use 3 different functions to specify that a string must be translated.

'''clienttranslate( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function is '''transparent''': it will return the original English string without any change. It's only purpose is to mark this string as "must be translated", and to make sure the translated version of the string will be available on client side.

In general, you use clienttranslate:
* On your states.inc.php, for field "description" and "descriptionmyturn".

<pre>
"description" => clienttranslate('${card_name}: ${actplayer} must discard 4 identical energies'),
</pre>

* On "material.inc.php", when defining texts for game material that must be displayed on client side.
<pre>
$this->card_types = array(

1 => array(
'name' => clienttranslate("Amulet of Air"), // Thus, we can use "_( card_name )" on Javascript side.
</pre>

* When sending a notification with "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer", for the game log string and all game log arguments that need a translation.

<pre>
// A game log string with no argument:
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'pickLibraryCards', clienttranslate("Everyone draw cards from his library"), array() );
</pre>

As a consequence there is no point passing variables to this function, i.e.
<pre>
notif="foo"; self::notifyAllPlayers( 'log', clienttraslate(notif)); // BAD
notif=clienttranslate("foo"); self::notifyAllPlayers( 'log', notif); // GOOD
</pre>

Translating arguments is a little bit more complex. It is using the "i18n" special argument as below:

<pre>
// In the following example, we translate the game log itself, but also the "card_name" argument:

self::notifyAllPlayers( 'winPoints', clienttranslate('${card_name}: ${player_name} gains ${points} point(s)'), array(
'i18n' => array( 'card_name' ), // <===== We specify here that "card_name" argument must be translated
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getActivePlayerName(),
'points' => $points,
'card_name' => $this->card_types[8]['name'] // <==== Here, we provide original English string.
) );
</pre>

Pay attention when using 'i18n' argument when translating argument for client : do NOT use same argument for both translation AND key code for client side action (like using 'card_name' to move it on player board as described in the example). It's pretty obvious in the example, but it can be very tricky when translation is made at the end of the development (which is often the case). Use explicit argument name like 'card_name_translated' by example.

WARNING: you should NEVER use concatenation with clienttranslate, as it would result in a different string to translate at runtime than the one retrieved statically in the translation system, and so translation would not be applied. If you need to compose a string, use substitution and the i18n parameter (but you also have to pay attention not to compose sentences in a way that is dependent upon the English language specific syntax, or it may be impossible to translate correctly in another language: sometimes, you need multiple full sentences rather than relying on substitution).

'''self::_( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function returns a string translated in the language of CURRENT user (i.e. player who send the request to the server) (be careful, this is NOT the active player).

Most of the time, you don't need to translate strings on server side, except on the following 3 situations:
* When throwing an exception because the player did a forbidden move.

<pre>
// This will display a translatable red message to the player that just did some wrong action:
throw new BgaUserException( self::_('You must choose 3 cards') );

// ... notice the use of BgaUserException that signals that this exception is "expected". In theory, all exception that are expected should be translated.
</pre>

* In "yourgame.view.php", when creating the labels for the game interface used in your template (.tpl) file.

<pre>
$this->tpl['CARDS_FOR_YEAR_2'] = self::_("Your cards for year II");
</pre>

* Eventually, in your material.inc.php, if for example you need to use some string elements in your exceptions.

<pre>
// In material.inc.php, $this->energies[n]['nametr'] has been created with the self::_() method. Now we can do this:
throw new BgaUserException( self::_("To execute this action you need more: ").' '.$this->energies[$resource_id]['nametr'] );
</pre>

* Eventually, in your "getAllDatas" PHP method, as the data return by this method is used only by current user.

'''totranslate( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function works exactly like 'clienttranslate', except it tells BGA that the string is not needed on client side.

You should not use this function, except on the following cases:
* Statistics name in stats.inc.php
* Option names and option values name in gameoptions.inc.php

Pre-release checklist

2020-10-19T11:57:58Z

Een:

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

If you think your game is ready to be reviewed by by BGA admins and/or Publisher please consult this checklist first

* Metadata and graphics
** [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]] has correct and up to date information about the game
** Game box graphics is 3D version of the game box (if available) and publisher icon is correct (see [[Game art: img directory]]). Space around the box has to be transparent, not white.
** You have added a game_banner.jpg and some game_displayX.jpg images to make the game page pretty (NB: on the studio, you have to create a build for these images to appear on the studio game page)
** There is no images in img directory which are not needed anymore
** Multiple images (i.e. cards) are compressed in "Sprite" (see [[Game art: img directory]])
** Each image should not exceed 4M
** Total size should not exceed 10M, image compression should be used otherwise
* Server side
** When giving their turn to a player, you give them some extra time with the giveExtraTime() function
** Game progression is implemented (getGameProgression() in php)
** Zombie turn is implemented (zombieTurn() in php). Note: it can only be tested if you explicitly click on the quit button to create a zombie. If you are expelled it does not generated a Zombie.
** You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
** Game has meaningful notification messages (but don't overkill it, more user logs will slow down the loading)
** You implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Special testing
** Game is tested with spectator (non player observer): watch you own game with a different account, which is not in the game, and check that it works (and that no secret information is visible). For example, you start a game with express start and your dev0, dev1, dev2 accounts are playing. Then you connect with your dev4 account in a private browser window, and you go to the game.
** Game is tested with in-game replay from last move feature (by clicking on notification log items)
** Game works in Chrome and Firefox browsers at least. Also very recommended to test in IE 11 and Edge.
** Game works on mobile device (if you don't have mobile device to test at least test in Chrome with smaller screen, they have a mode for that)
** Test your game in realtime mode. Usually people will run out of time if you use default times unless you add call giveExtraTime($active_player_id) before each turn
** Test your game in 3D mode (if it makes sense; 3D mode can also be disabled through the 'enable_3d' parameter for gameinfos.inc.php, but if it "mostly works", it can be nice to keep it activated even if 2D is more appropriate for the game, just because it's fun to look at)
* Cleanup
** Remove all extra console.log from your js code
** Remove all unnecessary debug logging from your php code
** Copyright headers in all source files have your name
* User Interface
** Review BGA UI design Guidelines [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines]]
** Check all your english message for proper use of punctuation, capitalization, usage of present tense in notification (not past) and gender nuturality. See [[Translations]] for English rules.
** If the elements in your game zone don't occupy all the available horizontal space, '''they should be centered'''.
** If your game elements become blurry or pixellated when using the browser zoom, you may want to consider [[Game_art:_img_directory#Use_background-size | higher resolution images with background-size]]
** Non-self explanatory graphic elements should have tooltips
** If graphic elements appear in notification log they should have titles (i.e. title attribute of div) so can be read in non rendered form (i.e. as text only)
** Strings in your source code are ready for translation. See [[Translations]]. You can generate dummy translations for checking that everything is ready for translation from your "Manage game" page.
** A prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes to avoid namespace conflicts, i.e. vla_selected vs selected
** If you are looking for advice on design and some 3rd party testing you can post a message on the developers forum, and ask other developers, there are a lot of people who will gladly do it.
* Finally move to Alpha status
** If possible (meaning if there is not already a project with that name) copy your project to a new project '''matching exactly the name of the game''' (no prefix or suffix). If not possible move on to the next steps, admin will have to retrieve the other project and overwrite it.
** Create a build for your game from the "manage game" page (using the '''Build a new release version''' section) and check the log to make sure that everything builds fine (after a successful build, you should see a new version in "Versions available for production").
** Send an e-mail to studio@boardgamearena.com asking to move the project forward for review. You cannot deploy yourself from the "manage game" page until a first deploy has been done by the admins. Please note that '''everything must be OK on the licensing''' side for a project to be moved to production.
** When admins publish (push to alpha) they will send an email to the developer with all relevant information about the next steps.

Game interface logic: yourgamename.js

2020-10-06T13:22:01Z

Een: /* Sounds */ filname convention

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game interface. Here you will define:

* Which actions on the page will generate calls to the server.
* What happens when you get a notification for a change from the server and how it will show in the browser.

== File structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described below with comments on the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* '''constructor''': here you can define global variables for your whole interface.
* '''setup''': this method is called when the page is refreshed, and sets up the game interface.
* '''onEnteringState''': this method is called when entering a new game state. You can use it to customize the view for each game state.
* '''onLeavingState''': this method is called when leaving a game state.
* '''onUpdateActionButtons''': called when entering a new state, in order to add action buttons to the status bar.
* ''(utility methods)'': this is where you can define your utility methods.
* ''(player's actions)'': this is where you can write your handlers for player actions on the interface (example: click on an item).
* '''setupNotifications''': this method associates notifications with notification handlers. For each game notification, you can trigger a javascript method to handle it and update the game interface.
* ''(notification handlers)'': this is where you define the notifications handlers associated with notifications in '''setupNotifications''', above.

More details:

;onEnteringState(stateName, args)
This method is called each time we are entering into a new game state.
You can use this method to perform some user interface changes at this moment.
To access state arguments passed via calling arg* method use args.args.
Typically you would do something only for active player, using this.isCurrentPlayerActive() check.

'''Warning''': for multipleactiveplayer states:
the active players are NOT actives yet so you must use onUpdateActionButtons to perform the client side operation which depends on a player active/unactive status.
If you are doing initialization of some structure which do not depend on active player, you can just replace
if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
into
if (!this.isSpectator) {
for the main switch in that method.

;onLeavingState(stateName)
This method is called each time we are leaving a game state.
You can use this method to perform some user interface changes at this moment.

;onUpdateActionButtons(stateName, args)
In this method you can manage "action buttons" that are displayed in the action status bar.
To access state arguments passed via calling arg* method use args parameter. Note: args can be null! For game states and when you don't supply state args function it is null.
This method is called when active or multiactive player changes. In classic "activePlayer" state this method is called before the onEnteringState state.
In multipleactiveplayer state it is a mess. The sequencing of call would depends on either you get into that from transition from realoding the hole game (i.e. F5).

See more details in [[Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#Diffrence_between_Single_active_and_Multi_active_states]]

== General tips ==

; this.player_id
: ID of the player on whose browser the code is running.

; this.isSpectator
: Flag set to true if the user at the table is a spectator (not a player).
: Note: This is a variable, not a function.
: Note: If you want to hide an element from spectators, you should use [[Game_interface_stylesheet:_yourgamename.css#spectatorMode|CSS 'spectatorMode' class]].

; this.gamedatas
: Contains the initial set of data to init the game, created at game start or by game refresh (F5).
: You can update it as needed to keep an up-to-date reference of the game on the client side if you need it. (Most of the time this is unnecessary).

; this.isCurrentPlayerActive()
: Returns true if the player on whose browser the code is running is currently active (it's his turn to play).

; this.getActivePlayerId()
: Return the ID of the active player, or null if we are not in an "activeplayer" type state.

; this.getActivePlayers()
: Return an array with the IDs of players who are currently active (or an empty array if there are none).

; this.bRealtime
: Return true if the game is in realtime. Note that having a distinct behavior in realtime and turn-based should be exceptional.

; typeof g_replayFrom != 'undefined'
: Returns true if the game is in instant replay mode (replay during the game)

; g_archive_mode
: Returns true if the game is in archive mode (advanced replay after the game has ended)

---

You may consider making a function like this, to detect if the game is in a read-only state:

// Returns true for spectators, instant replay (during game), archive mode (after game end)
isReadOnly: function () {
return this.isSpectator || typeof g_replayFrom != 'undefined' || g_archive_mode;
}

== Dojo framework ==

BGA uses the [http://dojotoolkit.org/ Dojo Javascript framework].

The Dojo framework allows us to do complex things more easily. The BGA framework uses Dojo extensively.

To implement a game, you only need to use a few parts of the Dojo framework. All the Dojo methods you need are described on this page.

== Javascript minimization (before July 2020) ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the js code is minimized using ShrinkSafe (based on ECMASCRIPT version 3). Some advanced syntax may not be compatible with this process. In particular:
* You should not use reserved keywords from the javascript language as variables.
* You should not declare default argument values in function declarations. The following syntax is invalid for ShrinkSafe: '''function myFunc(requiredArg, optionalArg = 'defaultValue') {}'''
* You should not use '''let''' or '''const''' to declare variables.

'''Tip:''' a developer encountering some problems with this has successfully used [http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/58580/jshint JSHint] on NetBeans to evaluate code to make it compatible for ECMAScript 3. With the plugin installed, set the below options in '''.jshintrc''' file, and then open '''Action Items''' window (in NetBeans):<pre>{ "maxerr": 999, "esversion": 3 }</pre>

'''Tip:''' some online tools also allow to convert between different versions of javascript, such as https://www.typescriptlang.org/play or https://babeljs.io/ or https://extendsclass.com/javascript-fiddle.html

== Javascript minimization (after July 2020) ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the javascript code is minimized using '''terser''' (https://github.com/terser/terser). This minifier works with modern javascript syntax. From your project "Manage game" page, you can now test a minified version of jour javascript on the studio (and revert to the original).

== Accessing and manipulating the DOM ==

'''$('some_html_element_id')'''

The $() function is used to get an HTML element using its "id" attribute.

Example 1: modify the content of a "span" element:

<pre>
In your HTML code:
<span id="a_value_in_the_game_interface">1234</span>

In your Javascript code:
$('a_value_in_the_game_interface').innerHTML = "9999";
</pre>

Note: $() is the standard method to access some HTML element with the BGA Framework. You should not use the '''getElementById''' function.

'''dojo.style'''

With dojo.style you can modify the CSS property of any HTML element in your interface.

Examples:

<pre>
// Make an element disappear
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'display', 'none' );

// Give an element a 2px border
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'borderWidth', '2px' );

// Change the background position of an element
// (very practical when you are using CSS sprites to transform an element to another)
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'backgroundPosition', '-20px -50px' );
</pre>

Note: you must always use dojo.style to modify the CSS properties of HTML elements.

Note²: if you have to modify several CSS properties of an element, or if you have a complex CSS transformation to do, you should consider using dojo.addClass/dojo.removeClass (see below).

'''dojo CSS classes manipulation'''

In many situations, many small CSS property updates can be replaced by a CSS class change (i.e., you add a CSS class to your element instead of applying all modifications manually).

Advantages are:
* All your CSS stuff remains in your CSS file.
* You can add/remove a list of CSS modifications with a simple function and without error.
* You can test whether you applied the CSS to an element with the '''dojo.hasClass''' method.

Example from ''Reversi'':

<pre>
// We add "possibleMove" to an element
dojo.addClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' );

// In our CSS file, the class is defined as:
.possibleMove {
background-color: white;
opacity: 0.2;
filter:alpha(opacity=20); /* For IE8 and earlier */
cursor: pointer;
}

// So we've applied 4 CSS property changes in one line of code.

// ... and when we need to check if a square is a possible move on the client side:
if( dojo.hasClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' ) )
{ ... }

// ... and if we want to remove all possible moves in one line of code (see "dojo.query" method):
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );
</pre>

Conclusion: We encourage you to use '''dojo.addClass''', '''dojo.removeClass''' and '''dojo.hasClass''' to make your life easier :)

'''dojo.query'''

With dojo.query, you can query a bunch of HTML elements with a single function, with a "CSS selector" style.

Example:
<pre>
// All elements with class "possibleMove":
var elements = dojo.query( '.possibleMove' );

// Count number of tokens (i.e., elements of class "token") on the board (i.e., the element with id "board"):
dojo.query( '#board .token' ).length;
</pre>

But what is really cool with dojo.query is that you can combine it with almost all methods above.

Examples:
<pre>
// Trigger a method when the mouse enter in any element with class "meeple":
dojo.query( '.meeple' ).connect( 'onmouseenter', this, 'myMethodToTrigger' );

// Hide all meeples who are on the board
dojo.query( '#board .meeple' ).style( 'display', 'none' );
</pre>

'''dojo.place'''

dojo.place is the best function to insert HTML code somewhere in your game interface without breaking something. It is much better to use than the '''innerHTML=''' method if you must insert HTML tags and not only values.

<pre>
// Insert your HTML code as a child of a container element
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id" );

// Replace the container element with your new html
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id", "replace" );

</pre>

The third parameter of dojo.place can take various interesting values:

"replace" : (see description above).

"first" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the first child.

"last" (default) : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the last child.

"before" : places the node right before the reference node.

"after" : places the node right after the reference node.

"only" : replaces all children of the reference node with the node.

positif integer : This parameter can be a positif integer. In this case, the node will be placed as a child of the reference node with this number (counting from 0). If the number is more than number of children, the node will be appended to the reference node making it the last child.

See also full doc on dojo.place : [https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.7/dojo/place.html]

Usually, when you want to insert some piece of HTML in your game interface, you should use "[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]".

'''addStyleToClass: function( cssClassName, cssProperty, propertyValue )'''

Same as dojo.style(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

=== Animations ===

'''Dojo Animations'''

BGA animations is based on Dojo Animation ([http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.8/animation/ see tutorial here]).

However, most of the time, you can just use methods below, which are built on top of Dojo Animation.

Note: one interesting method from Dojo that could be useful from time to time is "Dojo.Animation". It allows you to make any CSS property "slide" from one value to another.

Note 2: the slideTo methods are not compatible with CSS transform (scale, zoom, rotate...). If possible, avoid using CSS transform on nodes that are being slided. Eventually, the only possible solution to make these 2 compatible is to disable all CSS transform properties, use slideToObjectPos/placeOnObjectPos, and then apply them again.

'''this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay )'''

You can use slideToObject to "slide" an element to a target position.

Sliding element on the game area is the recommended and the most used way to animate your game interface. Using slides allow players to figure out what is happening on the game, as if they were playing with the real boardgame.

The parameters are:
* mobile_obj: the ID of the object to move. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned.
* target_obj: the ID of the target object. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned. Note that it is not mandatory that mobile_obj and target_obj have the same size. If their size are different, the system slides the center of mobile_obj to the center of target_obj.
* duration: (optional) defines the duration in millisecond of the slide. The default is 500 milliseconds.
* delay: (optional). If you defines a delay, the slide will start only after this delay. This is particularly useful when you want to slide several object from the same position to the same position: you can give a 0ms delay to the first object, a 100ms delay to the second one, a 200ms delay to the third one, ... this way they won't be superposed during the slide.

BE CAREFUL: The method returns an dojo.fx animation, so you can combine it with other animation if you want to. It means that you have to call the "play()" method, otherwise the animation WON'T START.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObject( "some_token", "some_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y, duration, delay )'''

This method does exactly the same as "slideToObject", except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will slide to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

Example: slide a token to some place on the board, 10 pixels to the bottom:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectPos( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 0, 10 ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideTemporaryObject( mobile_obj_html, mobile_obj_parent, from, to, duration, delay )'''

This method is useful when you want to slide a temporary HTML object from one place to another. As this object does not exists before the animation and won't remain after, it could be complex to create this object (with dojo.place), to place it at its origin (with placeOnObject) to slide it (with slideToObject) and to make it disappear at the end.

slideTemporaryObject does all of this for you:
* mobile_obj_html is a piece of HTML code that represent the object to slide.
* mobile_obj_parent is the ID of an HTML element of your interface that will be the parent of this temporary HTML object.
* from is the ID of the origin of the slide.
* to is the ID of the target of the slide.
* duration/delay works exactly like in "slideToObject"

Example:
<pre>
this.slideTemporaryObject( '<div class="token_icon"></div>', 'tokens', 'my_origin_div', 'my_target_div' );
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectAndDestroy: function( node, to, time, delay )'''

This method is a handy shortcut to slide an existing HTML object to some place then destroy it upon arrival. It can be used for example to move a victory token or a card from the board to the player panel to show that the player earns it, then destroy it when we don't need to keep it visible on the player panel.

It works the same as this.slideToObject and takes the same arguments.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectAndDestroy( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 1000, 0 );
</pre>

'''this.fadeOutAndDestroy( node, duration, delay )'''

This function fade out the target HTML node, then destroy it.

Example:
<pre>
this.fadeOutAndDestroy( "a_card_that_must_disappear" );
</pre>

CAREFUL: the HTML node still exists until during few milliseconds, until the fadeOut has been completed.

'''Rotating elements'''

You can check here [http://jimfulton.info/demos/dojo-animated-rotate.html an example of use] of Dojo to make an element rotate.

This example combines "Dojo.Animation" method and a CSS3 property that allow you to rotate the element.

IMPORTANT: to asses browser compatibility, you must select the CSS property to use just like in the example (see sourcecode below):

<pre>
var transform;
dojo.forEach(
['transform', 'WebkitTransform', 'msTransform',
'MozTransform', 'OTransform'],
function (name) {
if (typeof dojo.body().style[name] != 'undefined') {
transform = name;
}
});
// ... and then use "transform" as the name of your CSS property for rotation
</pre>

'''Animation Callbacks'''

If you wish to run some code only after an animation has completed you can do this by linking a callback method.

<pre>
var animation_id = this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay );
dojo.connect(animation_id, 'onEnd', dojo.hitch(this, 'callback_function', parameters));
animation_id.play();

…

callback_function: function(params) {
// this will be called after the animation ends
},
</pre>

If you wish to call a second animation after the first (rather than general code) then you can use a dojo animation chain (see tutorial referenced above).

=== Moving elements ===

'''this.placeOnObject( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

placeOnObject works exactly like "slideToObject", except that the effect is immediate.

This is not really an animation, but placeOnObject is frequently used before starting an animation.

Example:
<pre>
// (We just created an object "my_new_token")

// Place the new token on current player board
this.placeOnObject( "my_new_token", "overall_player_board_"+this.player_id );

// Then slide it to its position on the board
this.slideToObject( "my_new_token", "a_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.placeOnObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y )'''

This method works exactly like placeOnObject, except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will be placed to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

'''this.attachToNewParent( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

With this method, you change the HTML parent of "mobile_obj" element. "target_obj" is the new parent of this element. The beauty of
attachToNewParent is that the mobile_obj element DOES NOT MOVE during this process.

Note: what happens is that the method calculate a relative position of mobile_obj to make sure it does not move after the HTML parent changes.

Why using this method?

Changing the HTML parent of an element can be useful for the following reasons:
* When the HTML parent moves, all its child are moving with them. If some game elements is no more linked with a parent HTML object, you may want to attach it to another place.
* The z_order (vertical order of display) depends on the position in the DOM, so you may need to change the parent of some game elements when they are moving in your game area.

CAREFUL: this function destroys original object and places a clone onto a new parent, this will break all references to this HTML element (ex: dojo.connect).

== Players input ==

'''dojo.connect'''

Used to associate a player event with one of your notification method.

Example: associate a click on an element ("my_element") with one of our method ("onClickOnMyElement"):
<pre>
dojo.connect( $('my_element'), 'onclick', this, 'onClickOnMyElement' );
</pre>

Note: this is the only possible correct way to associate a player input event to your code, and you must not use anything else.

'''this.checkAction( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkAction: function( action, nomessage )

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):

* "action"
* "module"
* "class"
return true if action is authorized (ie: the action is listed as a "possibleaction" in current game state).

return false and display an error message if not (display no message if nomessage parameter is true). The displayed error message could be either "This move is not allowed at this moment" or "An action is already in progress".

Example:
<pre>
function onClickOnGameElement( evt )
{
if( this.checkAction( "my_action" ) )
{
// Do the action
}
}
</pre>

'''this.checkPossibleActions( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkPossibleActions: function( action, nomessage )

* this is independent of the player being active, so can be used instead of this.checkAction(). This is particularly useful for multiplayer states when the player is not active in a 'player may like to change their mind' scenario.

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):
* "action"
* "module"
* "class"

'''this.ajaxcall( url, parameters, obj_callback, callback, callback_error )'''

This method must be used to send a player input to the game server.

* url: the url of the action to perform. For a game, it must be: "/<mygame>/<mygame>/myAction.html"
* parameters: an array of parameter to send to the game server. Note that "lock:true" must always be specified in this list of parameter in order the interface can be locked during the server call.
* obj_callback: must be set to "this".
* callback: a function to trigger when the server returns and everything went fine.
* callback_error: (optional and rarely used) a function to trigger when the server returns an error. if no error this function is called with parameter value false.

Usage:
<pre>
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/myaction.html', { lock: true,
arg1: myarg1,
arg2: myarg2,
...
}, this, function( result ) {
// Do some stuff after a successful call
} );
</pre>

'''this.confirmationDialog()'''

Display a confirmation dialog with a yes/no choice.

We advice you to NOT use this function unless the player action is really critical and could ruins the game, because it slows down the game and upset players.

Usage: this.confirmationDialog( "Question to displayed", callback_function_if_click_on_yes );

Example:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure to use this bonus (points penalty at the end of the game) ?'),
dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/seasons/seasons/useBonus.html',
{ id:bonus_id, lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

; addEventToClass: function( cssClassName, eventName, functionName )
: Same as dojo.connect(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

'''this.addActionButton( id, label, method, (opt)destination, (opt)blinking, (opt)color )'''

You can use this method to add an action button in the main action status bar.

Arguments:
* id: an element ID that should be unique in your HTML DOM document.
* label: the text of the button. Should be translatable (use _() function).
* method: the name of your method that must be triggered when the player clicks on this button.
* destination (optional): deprecated, do not use this. Use '''null''' as value if you need to specify other arguments.
* blinking (optional): if set to '''true''', the button is going blink to catch player's attention. Please don't abuse of blinking button.
* color: could be '''blue''' (default), '''red''' or '''gray'''.

You should only use this method in your "onUpdateActionButtons" method. Usually, you use it like this (from Hearts example):

<pre>
onUpdateActionButtons: function( stateName, args ) {

if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
switch( stateName ) {
case 'giveCards':
this.addActionButton( 'giveCards_button', _('Give selected cards'), 'onGiveCards' );
break;
}
}
},
</pre>

In the example above, we are adding a "Give selected cards" button in the case we are on game state "giveCards". When player clicks on this button, it triggers our "onGiveCards" method.

Example using blinking red button:
<pre>
this.addActionButton( 'commit_button', _('Confirm'), 'onConfirm', null, true, 'red');
</pre>

Note: at least in studio example above will make button huge, because it sets it display of blinking things to '''block''',
if you don't like it you have to change css display value
of the button to inline-block (the id of the button is the first argument, i.e 'commit_button' in example above)

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Notifications ==

When something happens on the server side, your game interface Javascript logic received a notification.

Here's how you can handle these notifications on the client side.

=== Subscribe to notifications ===

Your Javascript "setupNotifications" method is the place where you can subscribe to notifications from your PHP code.

Here's how you associate one of your Javascript method to a notification "playDisc" (from Reversi example):

<pre>
// In setupNotifications method:
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
</pre>

Note: the "playDisc" corresponds to the name of the notification you define it in your PHP code, in your "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer" method.

Then, you have to define your "notif_playDisc" method:

<pre>
notif_playDisc: function( notif )
{
// Remove current possible moves (makes the board more clear)
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );

this.addDiscOnBoard( notif.args.x, notif.args.y, notif.args.player_id );
},
</pre>

In a notification handler like our "notif_playDisc" method, you can access to all notifications arguments with "notif.args".

Example:
<pre>
// If you did this on PHP side:
self::notifyAllPlayers( "myNotification", '', array( "myArgument" => 3 ) );

// On Javascript side, you can access the "myArgument" like this:
notif_myNotification: function( notif )
{
alert( "myArgument = " + notif.args.myArgument );
}
</pre>

=== Synchronous notifications ===

When several notifications are received by your game interface, these notifications are processed immediately, one after the other, in the same exact order they have been generated in your PHP game logic.

However, sometimes, you need to give some time to the players to figure out what happened on the game before jumping to the next notification. Indeed, in many games, they are a lot of automatic actions, and the computer is going to resolve all these actions very fast if you don't tell it not to do so.

As an example, for Reversi, when someone is playing a disc, we want to wait 500 milliseconds before doing anything else in order the opponent player can figure out what move has been played.

Here's how we do this, right after our subscription:
<pre>
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
this.notifqueue.setSynchronous( 'playDisc', 500 ); // Wait 500 milliseconds after executing the playDisc handler
</pre>

=== Pre-defined notification types ===

'''tableWindow''' - This defines notification to display [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_dialogs|Scoring Dialogs]], see below.

'''message''' - This defines notification that shows on players log and have no other effect

// You can call this on php side without doing anything on client side
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'message', 'hello', array( ) );

== Tooltips ==

'''this.addTooltip( nodeId, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to the DOM node.

Specify 'helpString' to display some information about "what is this game element?".
Specify 'actionString' to display some information about "what happens when I click on this element?".

You must specify both helpString and actionString. Most of the time, you should use only one and specify a void string ("") for the other one.

Usually, _() must be used for the text to be marked for translation.

"Delay" is an optional parameter. Usually, it is primarily used to specify a zero delay for some game element when the tooltip gives really important information for the game - but remember: no essential information must be placed in tooltips as they won't be displayed in some browsers (see [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines|Guidelines]]).

Example:
<pre>
this.addTooltip( 'cardcount', _('Number of cards in hand'), '' );
</pre>

'''this.addTooltipHtml( nodeId, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to the DOM node (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

'''this.addTooltipToClass( cssClass, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass.

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips.

'''this.addTooltipHtmlToClass( cssClass, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips

'''this.removeTooltip( nodeId )'''

Remove a tooltip from the DOM node.

== Dialogs, warning messages, confirmation dialogs, ... ==

=== Warning messages ===

Sometimes, there is something important that is happening on the game and you have to make sure all players get the message. Most of the time, the evolution of the game situation or the game log is enough, but sometimes you need something more visible.

Ex: someone fulfill one of the end of the game condition, so this is the last turn.

'''this.showMessage( msg, type )'''

showMessage shows a message in a big rectangular area on the top of the screen of current player.

* "msg" is the string to display. It should be translated.
* "type" can be set to "info" or "error". If set to "info", the message will be an informative message on a white background. If set to "error", the message will be an error message on a red background.

Important: the normal way to inform players about the progression of the game is the game log. "showMessage" is intrusive and should not be used often.

=== Confirmation dialog ===

'''confirmationDialog( message, yesHandler, noHandler )'''

When an important action with a lot of consequences is triggered by the player, you may want to propose a confirmation dialog.

CAREFUL: the general guidelines of BGA is to AVOID the use of confirmation dialog. Confirmation dialogs slow down the game and bother players. The players knows that they have to pay attention about each move when they are playing online.

The situation where you should use a confirmation dialog are the following:
* It must not happen very often during a game.
* It must be linked to an action that can really "kill a game" if the player do not pay attention.
* It must be something that can be done by mistake (ex: a link on the action status bar).

How to display a confirmation dialog:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to bake the pie?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.bakeThePie();
} ) );
return; // nothing should be called or done after calling this, all action must be done in the handler
</pre>

=== Multiple choice dialog ===
You can use this dialog to give user a choice with small amount of options:
<pre>
var keys = [1,5,10];
this.multipleChoiceDialog(
_('How many bugs to fix?'), keys,
dojo.hitch(this, function(choice) {
var bugchoice = keys[choice];
console.log('dialog callback with '+bugchoice);
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/fixBugs.html', { bugs: bugchoice}, this, function( result ) {} ); }));
</pre>

=== Dialogs ===

As a general rule, you shouldn't use dialogs windows.

BGA guidelines specify that all game elements should be displayed on the main screen. Players can eventually scroll down to see game elements they don't need to see anytime, and you may eventually create anchors to move between game area section. Of course dialogs windows are very practical, but the thing is: all players know how to scroll down, and not all players know how to show up your dialog window. In addition, when the dialog shows up, players can't access the other game components.

Sometimes although, you need to display a dialog window. Here is how you do this:

// Create the new dialog over the play zone. You should store the handler in a member variable to access it later
this.myDlg = new ebg.popindialog();
this.myDlg.create( 'myDialogUniqueId' );
this.myDlg.setTitle( _("my dialog title to translate") );
this.myDlg.setMaxWidth( 500 ); // Optional

// Create the HTML of my dialog.
// The best practice here is to use [[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]
var html = this.format_block( 'jstpl_myDialogTemplate', {
arg1: myArg1,
arg2: myArg2,
...
} );

// Show the dialog
this.myDlg.setContent( html ); // Must be set before calling show() so that the size of the content is defined before positioning the dialog
this.myDlg.show();

// Now that the dialog has been displayed, you can connect your method to some dialog elements
// Example, if you have an "OK" button in the HTML of your dialog:
dojo.connect( $('my_ok_button'), 'onclick', this, function(evt){
evt.preventDefault();
this.myDlg.destroy();
} );

If necessary, you can remove the default top right corner 'close' icon, or replace the function called when it is clicked:
// Removes the default close icon
this.myDlg.hideCloseIcon();

// Replace the function call when it's clicked
this.myDlg.replaceQuitCallback( function() { ... } );

=== Scoring dialogs ===

Sometimes at the end of a round you want to display a big table that details the points wins in each section of the game.

Example: in Hearts game, we display at the end of each round the number of "heart" cards collected by each player, the player who collected the Queen of Spades, and the total number of points loose by each player.

Scoring dialogs are managed entirely on '''PHP side''', but they are described here as their effects are visible only on client side.

Displaying a scoring dialog is quite simple and is using a special notification type: "tableWindow":
<pre>
// on PHP side:
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table
) );
</pre>

The "table" argument is a 2 dimensional PHP array that describe the table you want to display, line by line and column by column.

Example: display an 3x3 array of strings
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", "three" ), // This is my first line
array( "four", "five", "six" ), // This is my second line
array( "seven", "height", "nine" ) // This is my third line
);
</pre>

As you can see above, in each "cell" of your array you can display a simple string value. But you can also display a complex value with a template and associated arguments like this:
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", array( "str" => clienttranslate("a string with an ${argument}"), "args" => array( 'argument' => 'argument_value' ) ) ),
array( "four", "five", "six" ),
array( "seven", "height", "nine" )
);
</pre>

This is especially useful when you want to display player names with colors. Example from "Hearts":
<pre>
$firstRow = array( '' );
foreach( $players as $player_id => $player )
{
$firstRow[] = array( 'str' => '${player_name}',
'args' => array( 'player_name' => $player['player_name'] ),
'type' => 'header'
);
}
$table[] = $firstRow;
</pre>

You can also use three extra attributes in the parameter array for the notification:

<pre>
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table,
"header" => array('str' => clienttranslate('Table header with parameter ${number}'),
'args' => array( 'number' => 3 ),
),
"footer" => '<div>Some footer</div>',
"closing" => clienttranslate( "Closing button label" )
) );
</pre>

*'''header''': the content for this parameter will display before the table (also, the html will be parsed and player names will be colored according to the current game colors).
*'''footer''': the content for this parameter will display after the table (no parsing for coloring the player names)
*'''closing''': if this parameter is used, a button will be displayed with this label at the bottom of the popup and will allow players to close it (more easily than by clicking the top right 'cross' icon).

=== Scoring animated display ===

Sometimes (Terra Mystica final scoring for example), you may want to display a score value over an element to make the scoring easier to follow for the players.
You can do it with:

<pre>
this.displayScoring( anchor_id, color, score, duration );
</pre>

'''anchor_id''': ID of the element to place the animated score onto (without the '#')

'''color''': hexadecimal RGB representation of the color (should be the color of the scoring player), but without a leading '#'. For instance, 'ff0000' for red.

'''score''': numeric score to display, prefixed by a '+'

'''duration''': animation duration in milliseconds

Note: if you want to display successively each score, you can use ''this.notifqueue.setSynchronous()'' function.

=== Speech bubble ===

For better interactivity in some games (Love Letter for example), you may use comic book style speech bubbles to express the players voices.
This is done with:

<pre>
this.showBubble(anchor_id, text, delay, duration, custom_class)
</pre>

text - what to put in bubble, can be html actually not just text

delay - in milliseconds is optional (default 0)

duration - in milliseconds is optional (default 3000)

custom_class - extra class to add to bubble is optional, if you need to override the default bubble style

'''Warning''': if your bubble could overlap other active elements of the interface (buttons in particular), as it stays in place even after disappearing, you should use a custom class to give it the style "pointer-events: none;" in order to intercept click events.

Note: If you want this visually, but want to take complete control over this bubble and its animation (for example to make it permanent) you can just use div with 'discussion_bubble' class on it, and content of div is what will be shown.

== Update players score ==

The column player_score from the player table is automatically loaded into this.scoreCtrl and therefore into the stars location on the player board. This occurs sometime after the <gamename>.js setup() function. However this score must be updated as the game progresses through player notifications (notifs).

Increase a player score (with a positive or negative number):

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].incValue( score_delta );
</pre>

Set a player score to a specific value:

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].setValue( new_score );
</pre>

Set a player score to a specific value with animation :

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].toValue( new_score );
</pre>

== Players panels ==

=== Adding stuff to player's panel ===

At first, create a new "JS template" string in your template (tpl) file:

(from Gomoku example)
<pre>
var jstpl_player_board = '\<div class="cp_board">\
<div id="stoneicon_p${id}" class="gmk_stoneicon gmk_stoneicon_${color}"></div><span id="stonecount_p${id}">0</span>\
</div>';
</pre>

Then, you add this piece of code in your JS file to add this template to each player panel:

<pre>
// Setting up player boards
for( var player_id in gamedatas.players )
{
var player = gamedatas.players[player_id];

// Setting up players boards if needed
var player_board_div = $('player_board_'+player_id);
dojo.place( this.format_block('jstpl_player_board', player ), player_board_div );
}
</pre>

(Note: the code above is of course from your "setup" function in your Javascript).

Very often, you have to distinguish current player and others players. In this case, you just have to create another JS template (ex: jstpl_otherplayer_board) and use it when "player_id" is different than "this.player_id".

=== Player's panel disabling/enabling ===

'''this.disablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Disable given player panel (the panel background become gray).

Usually, this is used to signal that this played passes, or will be inactive during a while.

Note that the only effect of this is visual. There are no consequences on the behaviour of the panel itself.

'''this.enablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Enable a player panel that has been disabled before.

'''this.enableAllPlayerPanels()'''

Enable all player panels that has been disabled before.

== Image loading ==

See also [[Game_art:_img_directory]].

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

'''dontPreloadImage( image_file_name )'''

Using dontPreloadImage, you tell the interface to not preload a specific image in your img directory.

Example of use:
<pre>
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
</pre>

This is particularly useful if for example you have 2 different themes for a game. To accelerate the loading of the game, you can specify to not preload images corresponding to the other theme.

Another example of use: in "Gosu" game with Kamakor extension, you play with 5 sets of cards among 10 available. Cards images are organized by sets, and we only preload the images corresponding to the 5 current sets with '''ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( image_file_names_array )'''.
<pre>
// By default, do not preload anything
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan1.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan2.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan3.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan4.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan5.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan6.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan7.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan8.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan9.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan10.png' );
var to_preload = [];
for( i in this.gamedatas.clans )
{
var clan_id = this.gamedatas.clans[i];
to_preload.push( 'clan'+clan_id+'.png' );
}
if( to_preload.length == 5 )
{
this.ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( to_preload );
}
</pre>

'''Note:''' You don't need to specify to not preload game box images (game_box.png, game_box75.png...) since they are not preloaded by default.

== Other useful stuff ==

'''dojo.hitch'''

With dojo.hitch, you can create a callback function that will run with your game object context whatever happen.

Typical example: display a BGA confirmation dialog with a callback function created with dojo.hitch:

<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to make this?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/makeThis.html', { lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

In the example above, using dojo.hitch, we ensure that the "this" object will be set when the callback is called.

; updateCounters(counters)
: Useful for updating game counters in the player panel (such as resources).
: 'counters' arg is an associative array [counter_name_value => [ 'counter_name' => counter_name_value, 'counter_value' => counter_value_value], ... ]
: All counters must be referenced in this.gamedatas.counters and will be updated.
: DOM objects referenced by 'counter_name' will have their innerHTML updated with 'counter_value'.

'''onScreenWidthChange()'''
This function can be overridden in your game to manage some resizing on the client side when the browser window is resized. This function is also triggered at load time, so it can be used to adapt to the viewport size at the start of the game too.

'''updatePageTitle()'''
This function allows to update the current page title and turn description according to the game state. If the current game state description this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn is modified before calling the function, it allows to update the turn description without changing state.

Example from Terra Mystica:
<pre>
onClickFavorTile: function( evt )
{
[...]

if ( ... ) {

this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn = _('Special action: ') + _('Advance 1 space on a Cult track');
this.updatePageTitle();
this.removeActionButtons();

this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm1', _("Fire"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm2', _("Water"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm3', _("Earth"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm4', _("Air"),
function() { ... }
);

this.addActionButton( 'action_cancel', _("Cancel"), function() { ... }, false, false, 'gray'
);

return;
}

[...]

}
</pre>

== BGA GUI components ==

BGA framework provides some useful ready-to-use components for the game interface:

[[Studio#BGA_Studio_game_components_reference]]

Note that each time you are using an additional component, you must declare it at the top of your Javascript file in the list of modules used.

Example if you are using "ebg.stock":
<pre>
define([
"dojo","dojo/_base/declare",
"ebg/core/gamegui",
"ebg/counter",
"ebg/stock" /// <=== we are using ebg.stock module
],
</pre>

== Sounds ==

Add a custom sound and make it load with your interface:

Add this in your template (.tpl) file:
<pre>
<audio id="audiosrc_<gamename>_<yoursoundname>" src="{GAMETHEMEURL}img/<gamename>_<yoursoundname>.mp3" preload="none" autobuffer></audio>
<audio id="audiosrc_o_<gamename>_<yoursoundname>" src="{GAMETHEMEURL}img/<gamename>_<yoursoundname>.ogg" preload="none" autobuffer></audio>
</pre>

Note: this is a requirement to provide both a mp3 and a ogg file.

Play the sound (from your .js file):

<pre>
playSound('<gamename>_<yoursoundname>');
</pre>

Disable the standard "move" sound for this move (to replace it with your custom sound):

Add this to your notification handler:

<pre>
this.disableNextMoveSound();
</pre>

Note: it only disable the sound for the next move.

Main game logic: yourgamename.game.php

2020-09-24T09:52:17Z

Een: /* Semi-coop */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game logic. Here you initialize the game, persist data, implement the rules and notify the client interface of changes.

== File Structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described directly with comments in the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* Constructor: where you define global variables.
* setupNewGame: initial setup of the game.
* getAllDatas: where you retrieve all game data during a complete reload of the game.
* getGameProgression: where you compute the game progression indicator.
* Utility functions: your utility functions.
* Player actions: the entry points for players actions.
* Game state arguments: methods to return additional data on specific game states ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#args more info here]).
* Game state actions: the logic to run when entering a new game state ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#action more info here]).
* zombieTurn: what to do it's the turn of a zombie player.
* upgradeTableDb: function to migrate database if you change it after release on production.

== Accessing player information ==

'''Important''': In the following methods, be mindful of the difference between the "active" player and the "current" player. The '''active''' player is the player whose turn it is - not necessarily the player who sent a request! The '''current''' player is the player who sent the request and will see the results returned by your methods: not necessarily the player whose turn it is!

; getPlayersNumber()
: Returns the number of players playing at the table
: Note: doesn't work in setupNewGame (use count($players) instead).

; getActivePlayerId()
: Get the "active_player", whatever what is the current state type.
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multiplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; getActivePlayerName()
: Get the "active_player" name
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; loadPlayersBasicInfos()
: Get an associative array with generic data about players (ie: not game specific data).
: The key of the associative array is the player id. The returned table is cached, so ok to call multiple times without performance concerns.
: The content of each value is:
: * player_name - the name of the player
: * player_color (ex: ff0000) - the color code of the player
: * player_no - the position of the player at the start of the game in natural table order, i.e. 1,2,3

; getCurrentPlayerId()
: Get the "current_player". The current player is the one from which the action originated (the one who sent the request).
: '''Be careful''': This is not necessarily the active player!
: In general, you shouldn't use this method, unless you are in "multiplayer" state.
: '''Very important''': in your setupNewGame and zombieTurn function, you must never use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message (these actions are triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to these actions).

; getCurrentPlayerName()
: Get the "current_player" name
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; getCurrentPlayerColor()
: Get the "current_player" color
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; isCurrentPlayerZombie()
: Check the "current_player" zombie status. If true, player is zombie, i.e. left or was kicked out of the game.

; getActivePlayerColor()
: This function does not seems to exist in API, if you need it here is implementation
function getActivePlayerColor() {
$player_id = self::getActivePlayer();
$players = self::loadPlayersBasicInfos();
if( isset( $players[ $player_id ]) )
return $players[ $player_id ]['player_color'];
else
return null;
}

== Accessing the database ==

The main game logic should be the only point from which you should access the game database. You access your database using SQL queries with the methods below.

'''IMPORTANT'''

BGA uses [http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/sql-syntax-transactions.html database transactions]. This means that your database changes WON'T BE APPLIED to the database until your request ends normally. Using transactions is in fact very useful for you; at any time, if your game logic detects that something is wrong (example: a disallowed move), you just have to throw an exception and all changes to the game situation will be removed.

; DbQuery( $sql )
: This is the generic method to access the database.
: It can execute any type of SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT query on the database.
: You should use it for UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT queries. For SELECT queries, the specialized methods below are much better.

; getUniqueValueFromDB( $sql )
: Returns a unique value from DB or null if no value is found.
: $sql must be a SELECT query.
: Raise an exception if more than 1 row is returned.

; getCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Returns an associative array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: The key of the resulting associative array is the first field specified in the SELECT query.
: The value of the resulting associative array is an associative array with all the field specified in the SELECT query and associated values.
: First column must be a primary or alternate key.
: The resulting collection can be empty.
: If you specified $bSingleValue=true and if your SQL query request 2 fields A and B, the method returns an associative array "A=>B"

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
1234 => array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
1235 => array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
1234 => 'myuser0',
1235 => 'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getNonEmptyCollectionFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if the collection is empty

; getObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Returns one row for the sql SELECT query as an associative array or null if there is no result
: Raise an exception if the query return more than one row

Example:
<pre>
self::getObjectFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'" );

Result:
array(
'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1
)
</pre>

; getNonEmptyObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if no row is found

; getObjectListFromDB( $sql, $bUniqueValue=false )
: Return an array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: the result if the same than "getCollectionFromDB" except that the result is a simple array (and not an associative array).
: The result can be empty.
: If you specified $bUniqueValue=true and if your SQL query request 1 field, the method returns directly an array of values.

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
'myuser0',
'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getDoubleKeyCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Return an associative array of associative array, from a SQL SELECT query.
: First array level correspond to first column specified in SQL query.
: Second array level correspond to second column specified in SQL query.
: If bSingleValue = true, keep only third column on result

; DbGetLastId()
: Return the PRIMARY key of the last inserted row (see PHP mysql_insert_id function).

; DbAffectedRow()
: Return the number of row affected by the last operation

; escapeStringForDB( $string )
: You must use this function on every string type data in your database that contains unsafe data.
: (unsafe = can be modified by a player).
: This method makes sure that no SQL injection will be done through the string used.
: Note: if you using standard types in ajax actions, like AT_alphanum it is sanitized before arrival,
: this is only needed if you manage to get unchecked string, like in the games where user has to enter text as a response.

<pre>

</pre>

Note: see Editing [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]] to know how to define your database model.

== Use globals ==

Sometimes, you want a single global integer value for your game, and you don't want to create a DB table specifically for it.

You can do this with the BGA framework "global." Your value will be stored in the "global" table in the database, and you can access it with simple methods.

'''initGameStateLabels'''

This method should be located at the beginning of ''yourgamename.php.'' This is where you define the globals used in your game logic, by assigning them IDs.

You can define up to 79 globals, with IDs from 10 to 89 (inclusive). You must '''not''' use globals outside this range, as those values are used by other components of the framework.

<pre>
self::initGameStateLabels( array(
"my_first_global_variable" => 10,
"my_second_global_variable" => 11
) );
</pre>

'''setGameStateInitialValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Initialize your global value. Must be called before any use of your global, so you should call this method from your "setupNewGame" method.

'''getGameStateValue( $value_label )'''

Retrieve the current value of a global.

'''setGameStateValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Set the current value of a global.

'''incGameStateValue( $value_label, $increment )'''

Increment the current value of a global. If increment is negative, decrement the value of the global.

Return the final value of the global.

== Game states and active players ==

=== Activate player handling ===

; $this->activeNextPlayer()
: Make the next player active in the natural player order.
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->activePrevPlayer()
: Make the previous player active (in the natural player order).
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->gamestate->changeActivePlayer( $player_id )
: You can call this method to make any player active.
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->getActivePlayerId()
: Return the "active_player" id
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multipleactiveplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multipleactiveplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

=== Multiple activate player handling ===

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive()
: All playing players are made active. Update notification is sent to all players (triggers onUpdateActionButtons).
: Usually, you use this method at the beginning (ex: "st" action method) of a multiplayer game state when all players have to do some action. Do not use method if you going to do some more chages in active player list, i.e. if you want to take away multi-active right after, use setPlayersMultiactive instead.

Example of usage:
<pre>
function st_MultiPlayerInit() {
$this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive();
}
</pre>
And this is declaration of state:
<pre>
2 => array(
"name" => "playerTurnPlace",
"description" => clienttranslate('Other player must place ships'),
"descriptionmyturn" => clienttranslate('${you} must place ships (click on YOUR SHIPS board to place)'),
"type" => "multipleactiveplayer",
'action' => 'st_MultiPlayerInit',
'args' => 'arg_playerTurnPlace',
"possibleactions" => array( "actionBla" ),
"transitions" => array( "next" => 4, "last" => 99)
),
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersNonMultiactive( $next_state )
: All playing players are made inactive. Transition to next state

; $this->gamestate->setPlayersMultiactive( $players, $next_state, $bExclusive = false )
: Make a specific list of players active during a multiactive gamestate. Update notification is sent to all players who's state changed.
: "players" is the array of player id that should be made active.
: If "exclusive" parameter is not set or false it doesn't deactivate other previously active players. If its set to true, the players who will be multiactive at the end are only these in "$players" array

: In case "players" is empty, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise

; $this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $player_id, $next_state )
: During a multiactive game state, make the specified player inactive.
: Usually, you call this method during a multiactive game state after a player did his action. It is also possible to call it directly from multiplayer action handler.
: If this player was the last active player, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise
Example of usage (see state declaration of playerTurnPlace above):
<pre>
function actionBla($args) {
self::checkAction('actionBla');
// handle the action using $this->getCurrentPlayerId()
$this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $this->getCurrentPlayerId(), 'next');
}
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->getActivePlayerList()
: With this method you can retrieve the list of the active player at any time.
: During a "game" type gamestate, it will return a void array.
: During a "activeplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array with one value (the active player id).
: During a "multipleactiveplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array of the active players id.
: Note: you should only use this method in the latter case.

; $this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( $next_state_if_none )
: Sends update notification about multiplayer changes. All multiactive set* functions above do that, however if you want to change state manually using db queries for complex calculations, you have to call this yourself after. Do not call this if you calling one of the other setters above.
Example: you have player teams and you want to activate all players in one team
<pre>
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='0'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='1' WHERE player_id='$player_id' AND player_team='$team_no'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );

$this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( 'error' );
</pre>

; updating database manually
: Use this helper function to change multiactive state without sending notification
<pre>
/**
* Changes values of multiactivity in db, does not sent notifications.
* To send notifications after use updateMultiactiveOrNextState
* @param number $player_id, player id <=0 or null - means ALL
* @param number $value - 1 multiactive, 0 non multiactive
*/
function dbSetPlayerMultiactive($player_id = -1, $value = 1) {
if (! $value)
$value = 0;
else
$value = 1;
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive = '$value' WHERE player_zombie = 0 and player_eliminated = 0";
if ($player_id > 0) {
$sql .= " AND player_id = $player_id";
}
self::DbQuery($sql);
}
</pre>

=== States functions ===
; $this->gamestate->nextState( $transition )
: Change current state to a new state. Important: the $transition parameter is the name of the transition, and NOT the name of the target game state, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for more information about states.

; $this->checkAction( $actionName, $bThrowException=true )
: Check if an action is valid for the current game state, and optionally, throw an exception if it isn't.
: The action is valid if it is listed in the "possibleactions" array for the current game state (see game state description).
: This method MUST be the first one called in ALL your PHP methods that handle player actions, in order to make sure a player doesn't perform an action not allowed by the rules at the point in the game.
: If "bThrowException" is set to "false", the function returns '''false''' in case of failure instead of throwing an exception. This is useful when several actions are possible, in order to test each of them without throwing exceptions.

; $this->gamestate->checkPossibleAction( $action )
: (rarely used)
: This works exactly like "checkAction" (above), except that it does NOT check if the current player is active.
: This is used specifically in certain game states when you want to authorize additional actions for players that are not active at the moment.
: Example: in ''Libertalia'', you want to authorize players to change their mind about the card played. They are of course not active at the time they change their mind, so you cannot use "checkAction"; use "checkPossibleAction" instead.

; $this->gamestate->state()
: Get an associative array of current game state attributes, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for state attributes.
$state=$this->gamestate->state(); if( $state['name'] == 'myGameState' ) {...}

== Players turn order ==

'''getNextPlayerTable()'''

Return an associative array which associate each player with the next player around the table.

In addition, key 0 is associated to the first player to play.

Example: if three player with ID 1, 2 and 3 are around the table, in this order, the method returns:
<pre>
array(
1 => 2,
2 => 3,
3 => 1,
0 => 1
);
</pre>

'''getPrevPlayerTable()'''

Same as above, but the associative array associate the previous player around the table. Here seems also the "0" missing.

'''getPlayerAfter( $player_id )'''

Get player playing after given player in natural playing order.

'''getPlayerBefore( $player_id )'''

Get player playing before given player in natural playing order.

Note: There is no API to modify this order, if you have custom player order you have to maintain it in your database
and have custom function to access it.

== Notify players ==

To understand notifications, please read [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-bga-framework-at-a-glance The BGA Framework at a glance] first.

'''IMPORTANT'''

Notifications are sent at the very end of the request, when it ends normally. It means that if you throw an exception for any reason (ex: move not allowed), no notifications will be sent to players.
Notifications sent between the game start (setupNewGame) and the end of the "action" method of the first active state will never reach their destination.

'''notifyAllPlayers( $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Send a notification to all players of the game.

* notification_type:
A string that defines the type of your notification.

Your game interface Javascript logic will use this to know what is the type of the received notification (and to trigger the corresponding method).

* notification_log:
A string that defines what is to be displayed in the game log.

You can use an empty string here (""). In this case, nothing is displayed in the game log.

If you define a real string here, you should use "clienttranslate" method to make sure it can be translate.

You can use arguments in your notification_log strings, that refers to values defines in the "notification_args" argument (see below).
Note: Make sure you only use single quotes ('), otherwise PHP will try to interpolate the variable and will ignore the values in the args array.

* notification_args:
The arguments of your notifications, as an associative array.

This array will be transmitted to the game interface logic, in order the game interface can be updated.

Complete notifyAllPlayers example (from "Reversi"):

<pre>
self::notifyAllPlayers( "playDisc", clienttranslate( '${player_name} plays a disc and turns over ${returned_nbr} disc(s)' ),
array(
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getActivePlayerName(),
'returned_nbr' => count( $turnedOverDiscs ),
'x' => $x,
'y' => $y
) );
</pre>

You can see in the example above the use of the "clienttranslate" method, and the use of 2 arguments "player_name" and "returned_nbr" in the notification log.

'''Important''': NO private data must be sent with this method, as a cheater could see it even it is not used explicitly by the game interface logic. If you want to send private information to a player, please use notifyPlayer below.

'''Important''': this array is serialized to be sent to the browsers, and will be saved with the notification to be able to replay the game later. If it is too big, it can make notifications slower / less reliable, and replay archives very big (to the point of failing). So as a general rule, you should send only the minimum of information necessary to update the client interface with no overhead in order to keep the notifications as light as possible.

Note: you CAN use some HTML inside your notification log, however it not recommended for many reasons:
* Its bad architecture, ui elements leak into server now you have to manage ui in many places
* If you decided to change something in ui in future version, old games reply and tutorials may not work, since they use stored notifications
* When you read log preview for old games its unreadable (this is log before you enter the game reply, useful for troubleshooting or game analysis)
* Its more data to transfer and store in db
* Its nightmare for translators, at least don't put HTML tags inside the "clienttranslate" method. You can use a notification argument instead, and provide your HTML through this argument.

If you still want to have pretty pictures in the log check this [[BGA_Studio_Cookbook#Inject_images_and_styled_html_in_the_log]].

If your notification contains some phrases that build programmatically you may need to use recursive notifications. In this case the argument can be not only the string but
an array itself, which contains 'log' and 'args', i.e.

$this->notifyAllPlayers('playerLog',clienttranslate('Game moves ${token_name_rec}'),
['token_name_rec'=>['log'=>'${token_name} #${token_number}',
'args'=> ['token_name'=>clienttranslate('Boo'), 'token_number'=>$number, 'i18n'=>['token_name'] ]
]
]);

'''notifyPlayer( $player_id, $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Same as above, except that the notification is sent to one player only.

This method must be used each time some private information must be transmitted to a player.

Important: the variable for player name must be ${player_name} in order to be highlighted with the player color in the game log

== About random and randomness ==

A large number of board games rely on random, most often based on dice, cards shuffling, picking some item in a bag, and so on. This is very important to ensure a high level of randomness for each of these situations.

Here's are a list of techniques you should use in these situations, from the best to the worst.

=== Dice and bga_rand ===

'''bga_rand( min, max )'''
This is a BGA framework function that provides you a random number between "min" and "max" (inclusive), using the best available random method available on the system.

This is the preferred function you should use, because we are updating it when a better method is introduced.

As of now, bga_rand is based on the PHP function "random_int", which ensures a cryptographic level of randomness.

In particular, it is '''mandatory''' to use it for all '''dice throw''' (ie: games using other methods for dice throwing will be rejected by BGA during review).

Note: rand() and mt_rand() are deprecated on BGA and should not be used anymore, as their randomness is not as good as "bga_rand".

=== shuffle and cards shuffling ===

To shuffle items, like a pile of cards, the best way is to use the BGA PHP [[Deck]] component and to use "shuffle" method. This ensures that the best available shuffling method is used, and that if in the future we improve it your game will be up to date.

As of now, the Deck component shuffle method is based on PHP "shuffle" method, which has quite good randomness (even it is not as good as bga_rand). In consequence, we accept other shuffling methods during reviews, as long as they are based on PHP "shuffle" function (or similar, like "array_rand").

=== Other methods ===

Mysql "RAND()" function has not enough randomness to be a valid method to get a random element on BGA. This function has been used in some existing games and has given acceptable results, but now it should be avoided and you should use other methods instead.

== Game statistics ==

There are 2 types of statistics:
* a "player" statistic is a statistic associated to a player
* a "table" statistic is a statistic not associated to a player (global statistic for this game).

See [[Game statistics: stats.inc.php]] to see how you define statistics for your game.

'''initStat( $table_or_player, $name, $value, $player_id = null )'''

Create a statistic entry with a default value.

This method must be called for each statistic of your game, in your setupNewGame method.
If you neglect to call this for a statistic, and also do not update the value during the course of a certain game using setStat or incStat, the value of the stat will be undefined rather than 0. This will result in it being ignored at the end of the game, as if it didn't apply to that particular game, and excluded from cumulative statistics.

'$table_or_player' must be set to "table" if this is a table statistic, or "player" if this is a player statistic.

'$name' is the name of your statistic, as it has been defined in your stats.inc.php file.

'$value' is the initial value of the statistic. If this is a player statistic and if the player is not specified by "$player_id" argument, the value is set for ALL players.

'''setStat( $value, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Set a statistic $name to $value.

If "$player_id" is not specified, setStat consider it is a TABLE statistic.

If "$player_id" is specified, setStat consider it is a PLAYER statistic.

'''incStat( $delta, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Increment (or decrement) specified statistic value by $delta value. Same behavior as setStat function.

'''getStat( $name, $player_id = null )'''

Return the value of statistic specified by $name. Useful when creating derivative statistics such as average.

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Manage player scores and Tie breaker ==

=== Normal scoring ===

At the end of the game, players automatically get a rank depending on their score: the player with the biggest score is #1, the player with the second biggest score is #2, and so on...

During the game, you update player's score directly by updating "player_score" field of "player" table in database.

Examples:
<pre>

// +2 points to active player
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=player_score+2 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

// Set score of active player to 5
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=5 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

</pre>

Note: don't forget to notify the client side in order the score control can be updated accordingly.

=== Tie breaker ===

Tie breaker is used when two players get the same score at the end of a game.

Tie breaker is using "player_score_aux" field of "player" table. It is updated exactly like the "player_score" field.

Tie breaker score is displayed only for players who are tied at the end of the game. Most of the time, it is not supposed to be displayed explicitly during the game.

When you are using "player_score_aux" functionality, you must describe the formula to use in your gameinfos.inc.php file like this:

<pre>
'tie_breaker_description' => totranslate("Describe here your tie breaker formula"),
</pre>

This description will be used as a tooltip to explain to players how this auxiliary score has been calculated.

=== Co-operative game ===

To make everyone win/lose together in a full-coop game:

Add the following in gameinfos.inc.php :
'is_coop' => 1, // full cooperative

Assign a score of zero to everyone if it's a loss.
Assign the same score > 0 to everyone if it's a win.

=== Semi-coop ===

If the game is not full-coop, then everyone loses = everyone is tied. I.e. set score to 0 to everybody.

=== Only "winners" and "losers" ===

For some games, there is only a group (or a single) "winner", and everyone else is a "loser", with no "end of game rank" (1st, 2nd, 3rd...).

Examples:
* Coup
* Not Alone
* Werewolves
* Quantum

In this case:
* Set the scores so that the winner has the best score, and the other players have the same (lower) score.
* Add the following lines to gameinfos.php:

<pre>
// If in the game, all losers are equal (no score to rank them or explicit in the rules that losers are not ranked between them), set this to true
// The game end result will display "Winner" for the 1st player and "Loser" for all other players
'losers_not_ranked' => true,
</pre>

Werewolves and Coup are implemented like this, as you can see here:
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=werewolves&section=lastresults
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=coupcitystate&section=lastresults

Adding this has the following effects:
* On game results for this game, "Winner" or "Loser" is going to appear instead of the usual "1st, 2nd, 3rd, ...".
* When a game is over, the result of the game will be "End of game: Victory" or "End of game: Defeat" depending on the result of the CURRENT player (instead of the usual "Victory of XXX").
* When calculating ELO points, if there is at least one "Loser", no "victorious" player can lose ELO points, and no "losing" player can win ELO point. Usually it may happened because being tie with many players with a low rank is considered as a tie and may cost you points. If losers_not_ranked is set, we prevent this behavior and make sure you only gain/loss ELO when you get the corresponding results.

Important: this SHOULD NOT be used for cooperative games (see is_coop parameter), or for 2 players games (it makes no sense in this case).

=== Solo ===

If game supports solo variant, a negative or zero score means defeat, a positive score means victory.

=== Player elimination ===

In some games, this is useful to eliminate a player from the game in order he/she can start another game without waiting for the current game end.

This case should be rare. Please don't use player elimination feature if some player just has to wait the last 10% of the game for game end. This feature should be used only in games where players are eliminated all along the game (typical examples: "Perudo" or "The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow").

Usage:

* Player to eliminate should NOT be active anymore (preferably use the feature in a "game" type game state).
* In your PHP code:
self::eliminatePlayer( <player_to_eliminate_id> );
* the player is informed in a dialog box that he no longer have to played and can start another game if he/she wants too (whith buttons "stay at this table" "quit table and back to main site"). In any case, the player is free to start & join another table from now.
* When your game is over, all players who have been eliminated before receive a "notification" (the small "!" icon on the top right of the BGA interface) that indicate them that "the game has ended" and invite them to review the game results.

=== Scoring Helper functions ===

These functions should have been API but they are not, just add them to your php game and use for every game.

// get score
function dbGetScore($player_id) {
return $this->getUniqueValueFromDB("SELECT player_score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set score
function dbSetScore($player_id, $count) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score='$count' WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set aux score (tie breaker)
function dbSetAuxScore($player_id, $score) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score_aux=$score WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// increment score (can be negative too)
function dbIncScore($player_id, $inc) {
$count = $this->dbGetScore($player_id);
if ($inc != 0) {
$count += $inc;
$this->dbSetScore($player_id, $count);
}
return $count;
}

== Reflexion time ==

; function giveExtraTime( $player_id, $specific_time=null )
: Give standard extra time to this player.
: Standard extra time depends on the speed of the game (small with "slow" game option, bigger with other options).
: You can also specify an exact time to add, in seconds, with the "specified_time" argument (rarely used).

== Undo moves ==

Please read our [[BGA Undo policy]] before.

'''Important''': Before using these methods, you must also add the following to your "gameinfos.inc.php" file, otherwise these methods are ineffective:
'db_undo_support' => true

; function undoSavepoint( )
: Save the whole game situation inside an "Undo save point".
: There is only ONE undo save point available (see BGA Undo policy).

; function undoRestorePoint()
: Restore the situation previously saved as an "Undo save point".
: You must make sure that the active player is the same after and before the undoRestorePoint (ie: this is your responsibility to ensure that the player that is active when this method is called is exactly the same than the player that was active when the undoSavePoint method has been called).

== Managing errors and exceptions ==

Note: when you throw an exception, all database changes and all notifications are cancelled immediately. This way, the game situation that existed before the request is completely restored.

; throw new BgaUserException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a user error
: You must throw this exception when a player wants to do something that he is not allowed to do.
: The error message will be shown to the player as a "red message", so it must be translated.
: Throwing such an exception is NOT considered a bug, so it is not traced in BGA error logs.

Example from Gomoku:
<pre>
throw new BgaUserException( self::_("There is already a stone on this intersection, you can't play there") );
</pre>

; throw new BgaVisibleSystemException ( $error_message)
: You must throw this exception when you detect something that is not supposed to happened in your code.
: The error message is shown to the user as an "Unexpected error", in order that he can report it in the forum.
: The error message is logged in BGA error logs. If it happens regularly, we will report it to you.

; throw new BgaSystemException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a system exception. The message will be hidden from the user, but show in the logs. Use this if the message contains technical information.
: You shouldn't use this type of exception except if you think the information shown could be critical. Indeed: a generic error message will be shown to the user, so it's going to be difficult for you to see what happened.

== Zombie mode ==

When a player leaves a game for any reason (expelled, quit), he becomes a "zombie player". In this case, the results of the game won't count for statistics, but this is cool if the other players can finish the game anyway. That's why zombie mode exists: allow the other player to finish the game, even if the situation is not ideal.

While developing your zombie mode, keep in mind that:
* Do not refer to the rules, because this situation is not planned by the rules.
* Try to figure that you are playing with your friends and one of them has to leave: how can we finish the game without killing the spirit of the game?
* The idea is NOT to develop an artificial intelligence for the game.
* Do not try to end the game early, even in a two-player game. The zombie is there to allow the game to continue, not to end it. Trying to end the game is not supported by the framework and will likely cause unexpected errors.

Most of the time, the best thing to do when it is zombie player turn is to jump immediately to a state where he is not active anymore. For example, if he is in a game state where he has a choice between playing A and playing B, the best thing to do is NOT to choose A or B, but to pass. So, even if there's no "pass" action in the rules, add a "zombiepass" transitition in your game state and use it.

Each time a zombie player must play, your "zombieTurn" method is called.

Parameters:
* $state: the name of the current game state.
* $active_player: the id of the active player.

Most of the time, your zombieTurn method looks like this:

<pre>
function zombieTurn( $state, $active_player )
{
$statename = $state['name'];

if( $statename == 'myFirstGameState'
|| $statename == 'my2ndGameState'
|| $statename == 'my3rdGameState'
....
)
{
$this->gamestate->nextState( "zombiePass" );
}
else
throw new BgaVisibleSystemException( "Zombie mode not supported at this game state: ".$statename );
}
</pre>

Note that in the example above, all corresponding game state should implement "zombiePass" as a transition.

'''Very important''': your zombie code will be called when the player leaves the game. This action is triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to this action. In your zombieTurn function, you must '''never''' use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message.

== Player color preferences ==

BGA players (Club members) may now choose their preferred color for playing. For example, if they are used to play green for every board game, they can select "green" in their BGA preferences page.

Making your game compatible with colors preferences is very easy and requires only 1 line of PHP and 1 configuration change :

On your gameinfos.inc.php file, add the following lines :

// Favorite colors support : if set to "true", support attribution of favorite colors based on player's preferences (see reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method)
// NB: this parameter is used only to flag games supporting this feature; you must use (or not use) reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method to actually enable or disable the feature.
'favorite_colors_support' => true,

Then, on your main <your_game>.game.php file, find the "reloadPlayersBasicInfos" call in your "setupNewGame" method and replace :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

By :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences( $players, array( /* LIST HERE THE AVAILABLE COLORS OF YOUR GAME INSTEAD OF THESE ONES */"ff0000", "008000", "0000ff", "ffa500", "773300" ) );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

The "reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences" method reattributes all colors, taking into account players color preferences and available colors.

Note that you must update the colors to indicate the colors available for your game.

2 important remarks :
* for some games (ex : Chess), the color has an influence on a mechanism of the game, most of the time by giving a special advantage to a player (ex : Starting the game). Color preference mechanism must NOT be used in such a case.
* your logic should NEVER consider that the first player has the color X, that the second player has the color Y, and so on. If this is the case, your game will NOT be compatible with reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences as this method attribute colors to players based on their preferences and not based as their order at the table.

Colours currently listed as a choice in preferences:

* #ff0000 Red
* #008000 Green
* #0000ff Blue
* #ffa500 Yellow
* #000000 Black
* #ffffff White
* #e94190 Pink
* #982fff Purple
* #72c3b1 Cyan
* #f07f16 Orange
* #bdd002 Khaki green
* #7b7b7b Gray

== Legacy games API ==

For some very specific games ("legacy", "campaign"), you need to keep some informations from a game to another.

This should be an exceptional situation: the legacy API is costing resources on Board Game Arena databases, and is slowing down the game setup process + game end of game process. Please do not use it for things like:
* keeping a player preference/settings (=> player preferences and game options should be used instead)
* keeping a statistics, a score, or a ranking, while it is not planned in the physical board game, or while there is no added value compared to BGA statistics / rankings.

You should use it for:
* legacy games: when some components of the game has been altered in a previous game and should be kept as it is.
* "campaign style" games: when a player is getting a "reward" at the end of a game, and should be able to use it in further games.

Important: you cannot store more than 64k of data (serialized as JSON) per player per game. If you go over 64k, storeLegacyData function is going to FAIL, and there is a risk to create a major bug (= players blocked) in your game. You MUST make sure that no more than 64k of data is used for each player for your game. For example, if you are implementing a "campaign style" game and if you allow a player to start multiple campaign, you must LIMIT the number of different campaign so that the total data size to not go over the limit. We strongly recommend you to use this:

try
{
$this->storeLegacyTeamData( 'my_variable', $my_data );
}
catch( feException $e )
{
if( $e->getCode() == FEX_legacy_size_exceeded )
{
// Do something here to free some space in Legacy data (ex: by removing some variables)
}
else
throw $e;
}

; function storeLegacyData( $player_id, $key, $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Store some data associated with $key for the given user / current game
: In the opposite of all other game data, this data will PERSIST after the end of this table, and can be re-used
: in a future table with the same game.
: IMPORTANT: The only possible place where you can use this method is when the game is over at your table (last game action). Otherwise, there is a risk of conflicts between ongoing games.
: TTL is a time-to-live: the maximum, and default, is 365 days.
: In any way, the total data (= all keys) you can store for a given user+game is 64k (note: data is store serialized as JSON data)

; function retrieveLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Get data associated with $key for the current game
: This data is common to ALL tables from the same game for this player, and persist from one table to another.
: Note: calling this function has an important cost => please call it few times (possibly: only ONCE) for each player for 1 game if possible
: Note: you can use '%' in $key to retrieve all keys matching the given patterns

; function removeLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Remove some legacy data with the given key
: (useful to free some data to avoid going over 64k)

; function storeLegacyTeamData( $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Same as storeLegacyData, except that it stores some data for the whole team within the current table
: Ie: if players A, B and C are at a table, the legacy data will be saved for future table with (exactly) A, B and C on the table.
: This is useful for games which are intended to be played several time by the same team.
: Note: the data total size is still limited, so you must implement catch the FEX_legacy_size_exceeded exception if it happens

; function retrieveLegacyTeamData()
: Same as retrieveLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

; function removeLegacyTeamData()
: Same as removeLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

== Debugging and Tracing ==

To debug php code you can use some tracing functions available from the parent class such as debug, trace, error, warn, dump.

self::debug("Ahh!");
self::dump('my_var',$my_var);

See [[Practical_debugging]] section for complete information about debugging interfaces and where to find logs.

Main game logic: yourgamename.game.php

2020-09-24T09:50:51Z

Een: /* Co-operative game */ improve description

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game logic. Here you initialize the game, persist data, implement the rules and notify the client interface of changes.

== File Structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described directly with comments in the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* Constructor: where you define global variables.
* setupNewGame: initial setup of the game.
* getAllDatas: where you retrieve all game data during a complete reload of the game.
* getGameProgression: where you compute the game progression indicator.
* Utility functions: your utility functions.
* Player actions: the entry points for players actions.
* Game state arguments: methods to return additional data on specific game states ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#args more info here]).
* Game state actions: the logic to run when entering a new game state ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#action more info here]).
* zombieTurn: what to do it's the turn of a zombie player.
* upgradeTableDb: function to migrate database if you change it after release on production.

== Accessing player information ==

'''Important''': In the following methods, be mindful of the difference between the "active" player and the "current" player. The '''active''' player is the player whose turn it is - not necessarily the player who sent a request! The '''current''' player is the player who sent the request and will see the results returned by your methods: not necessarily the player whose turn it is!

; getPlayersNumber()
: Returns the number of players playing at the table
: Note: doesn't work in setupNewGame (use count($players) instead).

; getActivePlayerId()
: Get the "active_player", whatever what is the current state type.
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multiplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; getActivePlayerName()
: Get the "active_player" name
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; loadPlayersBasicInfos()
: Get an associative array with generic data about players (ie: not game specific data).
: The key of the associative array is the player id. The returned table is cached, so ok to call multiple times without performance concerns.
: The content of each value is:
: * player_name - the name of the player
: * player_color (ex: ff0000) - the color code of the player
: * player_no - the position of the player at the start of the game in natural table order, i.e. 1,2,3

; getCurrentPlayerId()
: Get the "current_player". The current player is the one from which the action originated (the one who sent the request).
: '''Be careful''': This is not necessarily the active player!
: In general, you shouldn't use this method, unless you are in "multiplayer" state.
: '''Very important''': in your setupNewGame and zombieTurn function, you must never use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message (these actions are triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to these actions).

; getCurrentPlayerName()
: Get the "current_player" name
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; getCurrentPlayerColor()
: Get the "current_player" color
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; isCurrentPlayerZombie()
: Check the "current_player" zombie status. If true, player is zombie, i.e. left or was kicked out of the game.

; getActivePlayerColor()
: This function does not seems to exist in API, if you need it here is implementation
function getActivePlayerColor() {
$player_id = self::getActivePlayer();
$players = self::loadPlayersBasicInfos();
if( isset( $players[ $player_id ]) )
return $players[ $player_id ]['player_color'];
else
return null;
}

== Accessing the database ==

The main game logic should be the only point from which you should access the game database. You access your database using SQL queries with the methods below.

'''IMPORTANT'''

BGA uses [http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/sql-syntax-transactions.html database transactions]. This means that your database changes WON'T BE APPLIED to the database until your request ends normally. Using transactions is in fact very useful for you; at any time, if your game logic detects that something is wrong (example: a disallowed move), you just have to throw an exception and all changes to the game situation will be removed.

; DbQuery( $sql )
: This is the generic method to access the database.
: It can execute any type of SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT query on the database.
: You should use it for UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT queries. For SELECT queries, the specialized methods below are much better.

; getUniqueValueFromDB( $sql )
: Returns a unique value from DB or null if no value is found.
: $sql must be a SELECT query.
: Raise an exception if more than 1 row is returned.

; getCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Returns an associative array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: The key of the resulting associative array is the first field specified in the SELECT query.
: The value of the resulting associative array is an associative array with all the field specified in the SELECT query and associated values.
: First column must be a primary or alternate key.
: The resulting collection can be empty.
: If you specified $bSingleValue=true and if your SQL query request 2 fields A and B, the method returns an associative array "A=>B"

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
1234 => array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
1235 => array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
1234 => 'myuser0',
1235 => 'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getNonEmptyCollectionFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if the collection is empty

; getObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Returns one row for the sql SELECT query as an associative array or null if there is no result
: Raise an exception if the query return more than one row

Example:
<pre>
self::getObjectFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'" );

Result:
array(
'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1
)
</pre>

; getNonEmptyObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if no row is found

; getObjectListFromDB( $sql, $bUniqueValue=false )
: Return an array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: the result if the same than "getCollectionFromDB" except that the result is a simple array (and not an associative array).
: The result can be empty.
: If you specified $bUniqueValue=true and if your SQL query request 1 field, the method returns directly an array of values.

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
'myuser0',
'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getDoubleKeyCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Return an associative array of associative array, from a SQL SELECT query.
: First array level correspond to first column specified in SQL query.
: Second array level correspond to second column specified in SQL query.
: If bSingleValue = true, keep only third column on result

; DbGetLastId()
: Return the PRIMARY key of the last inserted row (see PHP mysql_insert_id function).

; DbAffectedRow()
: Return the number of row affected by the last operation

; escapeStringForDB( $string )
: You must use this function on every string type data in your database that contains unsafe data.
: (unsafe = can be modified by a player).
: This method makes sure that no SQL injection will be done through the string used.
: Note: if you using standard types in ajax actions, like AT_alphanum it is sanitized before arrival,
: this is only needed if you manage to get unchecked string, like in the games where user has to enter text as a response.

<pre>

</pre>

Note: see Editing [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]] to know how to define your database model.

== Use globals ==

Sometimes, you want a single global integer value for your game, and you don't want to create a DB table specifically for it.

You can do this with the BGA framework "global." Your value will be stored in the "global" table in the database, and you can access it with simple methods.

'''initGameStateLabels'''

This method should be located at the beginning of ''yourgamename.php.'' This is where you define the globals used in your game logic, by assigning them IDs.

You can define up to 79 globals, with IDs from 10 to 89 (inclusive). You must '''not''' use globals outside this range, as those values are used by other components of the framework.

<pre>
self::initGameStateLabels( array(
"my_first_global_variable" => 10,
"my_second_global_variable" => 11
) );
</pre>

'''setGameStateInitialValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Initialize your global value. Must be called before any use of your global, so you should call this method from your "setupNewGame" method.

'''getGameStateValue( $value_label )'''

Retrieve the current value of a global.

'''setGameStateValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Set the current value of a global.

'''incGameStateValue( $value_label, $increment )'''

Increment the current value of a global. If increment is negative, decrement the value of the global.

Return the final value of the global.

== Game states and active players ==

=== Activate player handling ===

; $this->activeNextPlayer()
: Make the next player active in the natural player order.
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->activePrevPlayer()
: Make the previous player active (in the natural player order).
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->gamestate->changeActivePlayer( $player_id )
: You can call this method to make any player active.
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->getActivePlayerId()
: Return the "active_player" id
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multipleactiveplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multipleactiveplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

=== Multiple activate player handling ===

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive()
: All playing players are made active. Update notification is sent to all players (triggers onUpdateActionButtons).
: Usually, you use this method at the beginning (ex: "st" action method) of a multiplayer game state when all players have to do some action. Do not use method if you going to do some more chages in active player list, i.e. if you want to take away multi-active right after, use setPlayersMultiactive instead.

Example of usage:
<pre>
function st_MultiPlayerInit() {
$this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive();
}
</pre>
And this is declaration of state:
<pre>
2 => array(
"name" => "playerTurnPlace",
"description" => clienttranslate('Other player must place ships'),
"descriptionmyturn" => clienttranslate('${you} must place ships (click on YOUR SHIPS board to place)'),
"type" => "multipleactiveplayer",
'action' => 'st_MultiPlayerInit',
'args' => 'arg_playerTurnPlace',
"possibleactions" => array( "actionBla" ),
"transitions" => array( "next" => 4, "last" => 99)
),
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersNonMultiactive( $next_state )
: All playing players are made inactive. Transition to next state

; $this->gamestate->setPlayersMultiactive( $players, $next_state, $bExclusive = false )
: Make a specific list of players active during a multiactive gamestate. Update notification is sent to all players who's state changed.
: "players" is the array of player id that should be made active.
: If "exclusive" parameter is not set or false it doesn't deactivate other previously active players. If its set to true, the players who will be multiactive at the end are only these in "$players" array

: In case "players" is empty, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise

; $this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $player_id, $next_state )
: During a multiactive game state, make the specified player inactive.
: Usually, you call this method during a multiactive game state after a player did his action. It is also possible to call it directly from multiplayer action handler.
: If this player was the last active player, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise
Example of usage (see state declaration of playerTurnPlace above):
<pre>
function actionBla($args) {
self::checkAction('actionBla');
// handle the action using $this->getCurrentPlayerId()
$this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $this->getCurrentPlayerId(), 'next');
}
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->getActivePlayerList()
: With this method you can retrieve the list of the active player at any time.
: During a "game" type gamestate, it will return a void array.
: During a "activeplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array with one value (the active player id).
: During a "multipleactiveplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array of the active players id.
: Note: you should only use this method in the latter case.

; $this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( $next_state_if_none )
: Sends update notification about multiplayer changes. All multiactive set* functions above do that, however if you want to change state manually using db queries for complex calculations, you have to call this yourself after. Do not call this if you calling one of the other setters above.
Example: you have player teams and you want to activate all players in one team
<pre>
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='0'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='1' WHERE player_id='$player_id' AND player_team='$team_no'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );

$this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( 'error' );
</pre>

; updating database manually
: Use this helper function to change multiactive state without sending notification
<pre>
/**
* Changes values of multiactivity in db, does not sent notifications.
* To send notifications after use updateMultiactiveOrNextState
* @param number $player_id, player id <=0 or null - means ALL
* @param number $value - 1 multiactive, 0 non multiactive
*/
function dbSetPlayerMultiactive($player_id = -1, $value = 1) {
if (! $value)
$value = 0;
else
$value = 1;
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive = '$value' WHERE player_zombie = 0 and player_eliminated = 0";
if ($player_id > 0) {
$sql .= " AND player_id = $player_id";
}
self::DbQuery($sql);
}
</pre>

=== States functions ===
; $this->gamestate->nextState( $transition )
: Change current state to a new state. Important: the $transition parameter is the name of the transition, and NOT the name of the target game state, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for more information about states.

; $this->checkAction( $actionName, $bThrowException=true )
: Check if an action is valid for the current game state, and optionally, throw an exception if it isn't.
: The action is valid if it is listed in the "possibleactions" array for the current game state (see game state description).
: This method MUST be the first one called in ALL your PHP methods that handle player actions, in order to make sure a player doesn't perform an action not allowed by the rules at the point in the game.
: If "bThrowException" is set to "false", the function returns '''false''' in case of failure instead of throwing an exception. This is useful when several actions are possible, in order to test each of them without throwing exceptions.

; $this->gamestate->checkPossibleAction( $action )
: (rarely used)
: This works exactly like "checkAction" (above), except that it does NOT check if the current player is active.
: This is used specifically in certain game states when you want to authorize additional actions for players that are not active at the moment.
: Example: in ''Libertalia'', you want to authorize players to change their mind about the card played. They are of course not active at the time they change their mind, so you cannot use "checkAction"; use "checkPossibleAction" instead.

; $this->gamestate->state()
: Get an associative array of current game state attributes, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for state attributes.
$state=$this->gamestate->state(); if( $state['name'] == 'myGameState' ) {...}

== Players turn order ==

'''getNextPlayerTable()'''

Return an associative array which associate each player with the next player around the table.

In addition, key 0 is associated to the first player to play.

Example: if three player with ID 1, 2 and 3 are around the table, in this order, the method returns:
<pre>
array(
1 => 2,
2 => 3,
3 => 1,
0 => 1
);
</pre>

'''getPrevPlayerTable()'''

Same as above, but the associative array associate the previous player around the table. Here seems also the "0" missing.

'''getPlayerAfter( $player_id )'''

Get player playing after given player in natural playing order.

'''getPlayerBefore( $player_id )'''

Get player playing before given player in natural playing order.

Note: There is no API to modify this order, if you have custom player order you have to maintain it in your database
and have custom function to access it.

== Notify players ==

To understand notifications, please read [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-bga-framework-at-a-glance The BGA Framework at a glance] first.

'''IMPORTANT'''

Notifications are sent at the very end of the request, when it ends normally. It means that if you throw an exception for any reason (ex: move not allowed), no notifications will be sent to players.
Notifications sent between the game start (setupNewGame) and the end of the "action" method of the first active state will never reach their destination.

'''notifyAllPlayers( $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Send a notification to all players of the game.

* notification_type:
A string that defines the type of your notification.

Your game interface Javascript logic will use this to know what is the type of the received notification (and to trigger the corresponding method).

* notification_log:
A string that defines what is to be displayed in the game log.

You can use an empty string here (""). In this case, nothing is displayed in the game log.

If you define a real string here, you should use "clienttranslate" method to make sure it can be translate.

You can use arguments in your notification_log strings, that refers to values defines in the "notification_args" argument (see below).
Note: Make sure you only use single quotes ('), otherwise PHP will try to interpolate the variable and will ignore the values in the args array.

* notification_args:
The arguments of your notifications, as an associative array.

This array will be transmitted to the game interface logic, in order the game interface can be updated.

Complete notifyAllPlayers example (from "Reversi"):

<pre>
self::notifyAllPlayers( "playDisc", clienttranslate( '${player_name} plays a disc and turns over ${returned_nbr} disc(s)' ),
array(
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getActivePlayerName(),
'returned_nbr' => count( $turnedOverDiscs ),
'x' => $x,
'y' => $y
) );
</pre>

You can see in the example above the use of the "clienttranslate" method, and the use of 2 arguments "player_name" and "returned_nbr" in the notification log.

'''Important''': NO private data must be sent with this method, as a cheater could see it even it is not used explicitly by the game interface logic. If you want to send private information to a player, please use notifyPlayer below.

'''Important''': this array is serialized to be sent to the browsers, and will be saved with the notification to be able to replay the game later. If it is too big, it can make notifications slower / less reliable, and replay archives very big (to the point of failing). So as a general rule, you should send only the minimum of information necessary to update the client interface with no overhead in order to keep the notifications as light as possible.

Note: you CAN use some HTML inside your notification log, however it not recommended for many reasons:
* Its bad architecture, ui elements leak into server now you have to manage ui in many places
* If you decided to change something in ui in future version, old games reply and tutorials may not work, since they use stored notifications
* When you read log preview for old games its unreadable (this is log before you enter the game reply, useful for troubleshooting or game analysis)
* Its more data to transfer and store in db
* Its nightmare for translators, at least don't put HTML tags inside the "clienttranslate" method. You can use a notification argument instead, and provide your HTML through this argument.

If you still want to have pretty pictures in the log check this [[BGA_Studio_Cookbook#Inject_images_and_styled_html_in_the_log]].

If your notification contains some phrases that build programmatically you may need to use recursive notifications. In this case the argument can be not only the string but
an array itself, which contains 'log' and 'args', i.e.

$this->notifyAllPlayers('playerLog',clienttranslate('Game moves ${token_name_rec}'),
['token_name_rec'=>['log'=>'${token_name} #${token_number}',
'args'=> ['token_name'=>clienttranslate('Boo'), 'token_number'=>$number, 'i18n'=>['token_name'] ]
]
]);

'''notifyPlayer( $player_id, $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Same as above, except that the notification is sent to one player only.

This method must be used each time some private information must be transmitted to a player.

Important: the variable for player name must be ${player_name} in order to be highlighted with the player color in the game log

== About random and randomness ==

A large number of board games rely on random, most often based on dice, cards shuffling, picking some item in a bag, and so on. This is very important to ensure a high level of randomness for each of these situations.

Here's are a list of techniques you should use in these situations, from the best to the worst.

=== Dice and bga_rand ===

'''bga_rand( min, max )'''
This is a BGA framework function that provides you a random number between "min" and "max" (inclusive), using the best available random method available on the system.

This is the preferred function you should use, because we are updating it when a better method is introduced.

As of now, bga_rand is based on the PHP function "random_int", which ensures a cryptographic level of randomness.

In particular, it is '''mandatory''' to use it for all '''dice throw''' (ie: games using other methods for dice throwing will be rejected by BGA during review).

Note: rand() and mt_rand() are deprecated on BGA and should not be used anymore, as their randomness is not as good as "bga_rand".

=== shuffle and cards shuffling ===

To shuffle items, like a pile of cards, the best way is to use the BGA PHP [[Deck]] component and to use "shuffle" method. This ensures that the best available shuffling method is used, and that if in the future we improve it your game will be up to date.

As of now, the Deck component shuffle method is based on PHP "shuffle" method, which has quite good randomness (even it is not as good as bga_rand). In consequence, we accept other shuffling methods during reviews, as long as they are based on PHP "shuffle" function (or similar, like "array_rand").

=== Other methods ===

Mysql "RAND()" function has not enough randomness to be a valid method to get a random element on BGA. This function has been used in some existing games and has given acceptable results, but now it should be avoided and you should use other methods instead.

== Game statistics ==

There are 2 types of statistics:
* a "player" statistic is a statistic associated to a player
* a "table" statistic is a statistic not associated to a player (global statistic for this game).

See [[Game statistics: stats.inc.php]] to see how you define statistics for your game.

'''initStat( $table_or_player, $name, $value, $player_id = null )'''

Create a statistic entry with a default value.

This method must be called for each statistic of your game, in your setupNewGame method.
If you neglect to call this for a statistic, and also do not update the value during the course of a certain game using setStat or incStat, the value of the stat will be undefined rather than 0. This will result in it being ignored at the end of the game, as if it didn't apply to that particular game, and excluded from cumulative statistics.

'$table_or_player' must be set to "table" if this is a table statistic, or "player" if this is a player statistic.

'$name' is the name of your statistic, as it has been defined in your stats.inc.php file.

'$value' is the initial value of the statistic. If this is a player statistic and if the player is not specified by "$player_id" argument, the value is set for ALL players.

'''setStat( $value, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Set a statistic $name to $value.

If "$player_id" is not specified, setStat consider it is a TABLE statistic.

If "$player_id" is specified, setStat consider it is a PLAYER statistic.

'''incStat( $delta, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Increment (or decrement) specified statistic value by $delta value. Same behavior as setStat function.

'''getStat( $name, $player_id = null )'''

Return the value of statistic specified by $name. Useful when creating derivative statistics such as average.

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Manage player scores and Tie breaker ==

=== Normal scoring ===

At the end of the game, players automatically get a rank depending on their score: the player with the biggest score is #1, the player with the second biggest score is #2, and so on...

During the game, you update player's score directly by updating "player_score" field of "player" table in database.

Examples:
<pre>

// +2 points to active player
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=player_score+2 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

// Set score of active player to 5
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=5 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

</pre>

Note: don't forget to notify the client side in order the score control can be updated accordingly.

=== Tie breaker ===

Tie breaker is used when two players get the same score at the end of a game.

Tie breaker is using "player_score_aux" field of "player" table. It is updated exactly like the "player_score" field.

Tie breaker score is displayed only for players who are tied at the end of the game. Most of the time, it is not supposed to be displayed explicitly during the game.

When you are using "player_score_aux" functionality, you must describe the formula to use in your gameinfos.inc.php file like this:

<pre>
'tie_breaker_description' => totranslate("Describe here your tie breaker formula"),
</pre>

This description will be used as a tooltip to explain to players how this auxiliary score has been calculated.

=== Co-operative game ===

To make everyone win/lose together in a full-coop game:

Add the following in gameinfos.inc.php :
'is_coop' => 1, // full cooperative

Assign a score of zero to everyone if it's a loss.
Assign the same score > 0 to everyone if it's a win.

=== Semi-coop ===

If the game is not full-coop, then everyone lose = everyone is tie. I.e. set score to 0 to everybody.

=== Only "winners" and "losers" ===

For some games, there is only a group (or a single) "winner", and everyone else is a "loser", with no "end of game rank" (1st, 2nd, 3rd...).

Examples:
* Coup
* Not Alone
* Werewolves
* Quantum

In this case:
* Set the scores so that the winner has the best score, and the other players have the same (lower) score.
* Add the following lines to gameinfos.php:

<pre>
// If in the game, all losers are equal (no score to rank them or explicit in the rules that losers are not ranked between them), set this to true
// The game end result will display "Winner" for the 1st player and "Loser" for all other players
'losers_not_ranked' => true,
</pre>

Werewolves and Coup are implemented like this, as you can see here:
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=werewolves&section=lastresults
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=coupcitystate&section=lastresults

Adding this has the following effects:
* On game results for this game, "Winner" or "Loser" is going to appear instead of the usual "1st, 2nd, 3rd, ...".
* When a game is over, the result of the game will be "End of game: Victory" or "End of game: Defeat" depending on the result of the CURRENT player (instead of the usual "Victory of XXX").
* When calculating ELO points, if there is at least one "Loser", no "victorious" player can lose ELO points, and no "losing" player can win ELO point. Usually it may happened because being tie with many players with a low rank is considered as a tie and may cost you points. If losers_not_ranked is set, we prevent this behavior and make sure you only gain/loss ELO when you get the corresponding results.

Important: this SHOULD NOT be used for cooperative games (see is_coop parameter), or for 2 players games (it makes no sense in this case).

=== Solo ===

If game supports solo variant, a negative or zero score means defeat, a positive score means victory.

=== Player elimination ===

In some games, this is useful to eliminate a player from the game in order he/she can start another game without waiting for the current game end.

This case should be rare. Please don't use player elimination feature if some player just has to wait the last 10% of the game for game end. This feature should be used only in games where players are eliminated all along the game (typical examples: "Perudo" or "The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow").

Usage:

* Player to eliminate should NOT be active anymore (preferably use the feature in a "game" type game state).
* In your PHP code:
self::eliminatePlayer( <player_to_eliminate_id> );
* the player is informed in a dialog box that he no longer have to played and can start another game if he/she wants too (whith buttons "stay at this table" "quit table and back to main site"). In any case, the player is free to start & join another table from now.
* When your game is over, all players who have been eliminated before receive a "notification" (the small "!" icon on the top right of the BGA interface) that indicate them that "the game has ended" and invite them to review the game results.

=== Scoring Helper functions ===

These functions should have been API but they are not, just add them to your php game and use for every game.

// get score
function dbGetScore($player_id) {
return $this->getUniqueValueFromDB("SELECT player_score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set score
function dbSetScore($player_id, $count) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score='$count' WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set aux score (tie breaker)
function dbSetAuxScore($player_id, $score) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score_aux=$score WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// increment score (can be negative too)
function dbIncScore($player_id, $inc) {
$count = $this->dbGetScore($player_id);
if ($inc != 0) {
$count += $inc;
$this->dbSetScore($player_id, $count);
}
return $count;
}

== Reflexion time ==

; function giveExtraTime( $player_id, $specific_time=null )
: Give standard extra time to this player.
: Standard extra time depends on the speed of the game (small with "slow" game option, bigger with other options).
: You can also specify an exact time to add, in seconds, with the "specified_time" argument (rarely used).

== Undo moves ==

Please read our [[BGA Undo policy]] before.

'''Important''': Before using these methods, you must also add the following to your "gameinfos.inc.php" file, otherwise these methods are ineffective:
'db_undo_support' => true

; function undoSavepoint( )
: Save the whole game situation inside an "Undo save point".
: There is only ONE undo save point available (see BGA Undo policy).

; function undoRestorePoint()
: Restore the situation previously saved as an "Undo save point".
: You must make sure that the active player is the same after and before the undoRestorePoint (ie: this is your responsibility to ensure that the player that is active when this method is called is exactly the same than the player that was active when the undoSavePoint method has been called).

== Managing errors and exceptions ==

Note: when you throw an exception, all database changes and all notifications are cancelled immediately. This way, the game situation that existed before the request is completely restored.

; throw new BgaUserException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a user error
: You must throw this exception when a player wants to do something that he is not allowed to do.
: The error message will be shown to the player as a "red message", so it must be translated.
: Throwing such an exception is NOT considered a bug, so it is not traced in BGA error logs.

Example from Gomoku:
<pre>
throw new BgaUserException( self::_("There is already a stone on this intersection, you can't play there") );
</pre>

; throw new BgaVisibleSystemException ( $error_message)
: You must throw this exception when you detect something that is not supposed to happened in your code.
: The error message is shown to the user as an "Unexpected error", in order that he can report it in the forum.
: The error message is logged in BGA error logs. If it happens regularly, we will report it to you.

; throw new BgaSystemException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a system exception. The message will be hidden from the user, but show in the logs. Use this if the message contains technical information.
: You shouldn't use this type of exception except if you think the information shown could be critical. Indeed: a generic error message will be shown to the user, so it's going to be difficult for you to see what happened.

== Zombie mode ==

When a player leaves a game for any reason (expelled, quit), he becomes a "zombie player". In this case, the results of the game won't count for statistics, but this is cool if the other players can finish the game anyway. That's why zombie mode exists: allow the other player to finish the game, even if the situation is not ideal.

While developing your zombie mode, keep in mind that:
* Do not refer to the rules, because this situation is not planned by the rules.
* Try to figure that you are playing with your friends and one of them has to leave: how can we finish the game without killing the spirit of the game?
* The idea is NOT to develop an artificial intelligence for the game.
* Do not try to end the game early, even in a two-player game. The zombie is there to allow the game to continue, not to end it. Trying to end the game is not supported by the framework and will likely cause unexpected errors.

Most of the time, the best thing to do when it is zombie player turn is to jump immediately to a state where he is not active anymore. For example, if he is in a game state where he has a choice between playing A and playing B, the best thing to do is NOT to choose A or B, but to pass. So, even if there's no "pass" action in the rules, add a "zombiepass" transitition in your game state and use it.

Each time a zombie player must play, your "zombieTurn" method is called.

Parameters:
* $state: the name of the current game state.
* $active_player: the id of the active player.

Most of the time, your zombieTurn method looks like this:

<pre>
function zombieTurn( $state, $active_player )
{
$statename = $state['name'];

if( $statename == 'myFirstGameState'
|| $statename == 'my2ndGameState'
|| $statename == 'my3rdGameState'
....
)
{
$this->gamestate->nextState( "zombiePass" );
}
else
throw new BgaVisibleSystemException( "Zombie mode not supported at this game state: ".$statename );
}
</pre>

Note that in the example above, all corresponding game state should implement "zombiePass" as a transition.

'''Very important''': your zombie code will be called when the player leaves the game. This action is triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to this action. In your zombieTurn function, you must '''never''' use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message.

== Player color preferences ==

BGA players (Club members) may now choose their preferred color for playing. For example, if they are used to play green for every board game, they can select "green" in their BGA preferences page.

Making your game compatible with colors preferences is very easy and requires only 1 line of PHP and 1 configuration change :

On your gameinfos.inc.php file, add the following lines :

// Favorite colors support : if set to "true", support attribution of favorite colors based on player's preferences (see reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method)
// NB: this parameter is used only to flag games supporting this feature; you must use (or not use) reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method to actually enable or disable the feature.
'favorite_colors_support' => true,

Then, on your main <your_game>.game.php file, find the "reloadPlayersBasicInfos" call in your "setupNewGame" method and replace :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

By :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences( $players, array( /* LIST HERE THE AVAILABLE COLORS OF YOUR GAME INSTEAD OF THESE ONES */"ff0000", "008000", "0000ff", "ffa500", "773300" ) );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

The "reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences" method reattributes all colors, taking into account players color preferences and available colors.

Note that you must update the colors to indicate the colors available for your game.

2 important remarks :
* for some games (ex : Chess), the color has an influence on a mechanism of the game, most of the time by giving a special advantage to a player (ex : Starting the game). Color preference mechanism must NOT be used in such a case.
* your logic should NEVER consider that the first player has the color X, that the second player has the color Y, and so on. If this is the case, your game will NOT be compatible with reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences as this method attribute colors to players based on their preferences and not based as their order at the table.

Colours currently listed as a choice in preferences:

* #ff0000 Red
* #008000 Green
* #0000ff Blue
* #ffa500 Yellow
* #000000 Black
* #ffffff White
* #e94190 Pink
* #982fff Purple
* #72c3b1 Cyan
* #f07f16 Orange
* #bdd002 Khaki green
* #7b7b7b Gray

== Legacy games API ==

For some very specific games ("legacy", "campaign"), you need to keep some informations from a game to another.

This should be an exceptional situation: the legacy API is costing resources on Board Game Arena databases, and is slowing down the game setup process + game end of game process. Please do not use it for things like:
* keeping a player preference/settings (=> player preferences and game options should be used instead)
* keeping a statistics, a score, or a ranking, while it is not planned in the physical board game, or while there is no added value compared to BGA statistics / rankings.

You should use it for:
* legacy games: when some components of the game has been altered in a previous game and should be kept as it is.
* "campaign style" games: when a player is getting a "reward" at the end of a game, and should be able to use it in further games.

Important: you cannot store more than 64k of data (serialized as JSON) per player per game. If you go over 64k, storeLegacyData function is going to FAIL, and there is a risk to create a major bug (= players blocked) in your game. You MUST make sure that no more than 64k of data is used for each player for your game. For example, if you are implementing a "campaign style" game and if you allow a player to start multiple campaign, you must LIMIT the number of different campaign so that the total data size to not go over the limit. We strongly recommend you to use this:

try
{
$this->storeLegacyTeamData( 'my_variable', $my_data );
}
catch( feException $e )
{
if( $e->getCode() == FEX_legacy_size_exceeded )
{
// Do something here to free some space in Legacy data (ex: by removing some variables)
}
else
throw $e;
}

; function storeLegacyData( $player_id, $key, $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Store some data associated with $key for the given user / current game
: In the opposite of all other game data, this data will PERSIST after the end of this table, and can be re-used
: in a future table with the same game.
: IMPORTANT: The only possible place where you can use this method is when the game is over at your table (last game action). Otherwise, there is a risk of conflicts between ongoing games.
: TTL is a time-to-live: the maximum, and default, is 365 days.
: In any way, the total data (= all keys) you can store for a given user+game is 64k (note: data is store serialized as JSON data)

; function retrieveLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Get data associated with $key for the current game
: This data is common to ALL tables from the same game for this player, and persist from one table to another.
: Note: calling this function has an important cost => please call it few times (possibly: only ONCE) for each player for 1 game if possible
: Note: you can use '%' in $key to retrieve all keys matching the given patterns

; function removeLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Remove some legacy data with the given key
: (useful to free some data to avoid going over 64k)

; function storeLegacyTeamData( $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Same as storeLegacyData, except that it stores some data for the whole team within the current table
: Ie: if players A, B and C are at a table, the legacy data will be saved for future table with (exactly) A, B and C on the table.
: This is useful for games which are intended to be played several time by the same team.
: Note: the data total size is still limited, so you must implement catch the FEX_legacy_size_exceeded exception if it happens

; function retrieveLegacyTeamData()
: Same as retrieveLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

; function removeLegacyTeamData()
: Same as removeLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

== Debugging and Tracing ==

To debug php code you can use some tracing functions available from the parent class such as debug, trace, error, warn, dump.

self::debug("Ahh!");
self::dump('my_var',$my_var);

See [[Practical_debugging]] section for complete information about debugging interfaces and where to find logs.

Main game logic: yourgamename.game.php

2020-09-24T09:45:50Z

Een: /* Solo */ zero

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game logic. Here you initialize the game, persist data, implement the rules and notify the client interface of changes.

== File Structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described directly with comments in the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* Constructor: where you define global variables.
* setupNewGame: initial setup of the game.
* getAllDatas: where you retrieve all game data during a complete reload of the game.
* getGameProgression: where you compute the game progression indicator.
* Utility functions: your utility functions.
* Player actions: the entry points for players actions.
* Game state arguments: methods to return additional data on specific game states ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#args more info here]).
* Game state actions: the logic to run when entering a new game state ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#action more info here]).
* zombieTurn: what to do it's the turn of a zombie player.
* upgradeTableDb: function to migrate database if you change it after release on production.

== Accessing player information ==

'''Important''': In the following methods, be mindful of the difference between the "active" player and the "current" player. The '''active''' player is the player whose turn it is - not necessarily the player who sent a request! The '''current''' player is the player who sent the request and will see the results returned by your methods: not necessarily the player whose turn it is!

; getPlayersNumber()
: Returns the number of players playing at the table
: Note: doesn't work in setupNewGame (use count($players) instead).

; getActivePlayerId()
: Get the "active_player", whatever what is the current state type.
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multiplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; getActivePlayerName()
: Get the "active_player" name
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; loadPlayersBasicInfos()
: Get an associative array with generic data about players (ie: not game specific data).
: The key of the associative array is the player id. The returned table is cached, so ok to call multiple times without performance concerns.
: The content of each value is:
: * player_name - the name of the player
: * player_color (ex: ff0000) - the color code of the player
: * player_no - the position of the player at the start of the game in natural table order, i.e. 1,2,3

; getCurrentPlayerId()
: Get the "current_player". The current player is the one from which the action originated (the one who sent the request).
: '''Be careful''': This is not necessarily the active player!
: In general, you shouldn't use this method, unless you are in "multiplayer" state.
: '''Very important''': in your setupNewGame and zombieTurn function, you must never use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message (these actions are triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to these actions).

; getCurrentPlayerName()
: Get the "current_player" name
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; getCurrentPlayerColor()
: Get the "current_player" color
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; isCurrentPlayerZombie()
: Check the "current_player" zombie status. If true, player is zombie, i.e. left or was kicked out of the game.

; getActivePlayerColor()
: This function does not seems to exist in API, if you need it here is implementation
function getActivePlayerColor() {
$player_id = self::getActivePlayer();
$players = self::loadPlayersBasicInfos();
if( isset( $players[ $player_id ]) )
return $players[ $player_id ]['player_color'];
else
return null;
}

== Accessing the database ==

The main game logic should be the only point from which you should access the game database. You access your database using SQL queries with the methods below.

'''IMPORTANT'''

BGA uses [http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/sql-syntax-transactions.html database transactions]. This means that your database changes WON'T BE APPLIED to the database until your request ends normally. Using transactions is in fact very useful for you; at any time, if your game logic detects that something is wrong (example: a disallowed move), you just have to throw an exception and all changes to the game situation will be removed.

; DbQuery( $sql )
: This is the generic method to access the database.
: It can execute any type of SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT query on the database.
: You should use it for UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT queries. For SELECT queries, the specialized methods below are much better.

; getUniqueValueFromDB( $sql )
: Returns a unique value from DB or null if no value is found.
: $sql must be a SELECT query.
: Raise an exception if more than 1 row is returned.

; getCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Returns an associative array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: The key of the resulting associative array is the first field specified in the SELECT query.
: The value of the resulting associative array is an associative array with all the field specified in the SELECT query and associated values.
: First column must be a primary or alternate key.
: The resulting collection can be empty.
: If you specified $bSingleValue=true and if your SQL query request 2 fields A and B, the method returns an associative array "A=>B"

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
1234 => array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
1235 => array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
1234 => 'myuser0',
1235 => 'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getNonEmptyCollectionFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if the collection is empty

; getObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Returns one row for the sql SELECT query as an associative array or null if there is no result
: Raise an exception if the query return more than one row

Example:
<pre>
self::getObjectFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'" );

Result:
array(
'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1
)
</pre>

; getNonEmptyObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if no row is found

; getObjectListFromDB( $sql, $bUniqueValue=false )
: Return an array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: the result if the same than "getCollectionFromDB" except that the result is a simple array (and not an associative array).
: The result can be empty.
: If you specified $bUniqueValue=true and if your SQL query request 1 field, the method returns directly an array of values.

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
'myuser0',
'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getDoubleKeyCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Return an associative array of associative array, from a SQL SELECT query.
: First array level correspond to first column specified in SQL query.
: Second array level correspond to second column specified in SQL query.
: If bSingleValue = true, keep only third column on result

; DbGetLastId()
: Return the PRIMARY key of the last inserted row (see PHP mysql_insert_id function).

; DbAffectedRow()
: Return the number of row affected by the last operation

; escapeStringForDB( $string )
: You must use this function on every string type data in your database that contains unsafe data.
: (unsafe = can be modified by a player).
: This method makes sure that no SQL injection will be done through the string used.
: Note: if you using standard types in ajax actions, like AT_alphanum it is sanitized before arrival,
: this is only needed if you manage to get unchecked string, like in the games where user has to enter text as a response.

<pre>

</pre>

Note: see Editing [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]] to know how to define your database model.

== Use globals ==

Sometimes, you want a single global integer value for your game, and you don't want to create a DB table specifically for it.

You can do this with the BGA framework "global." Your value will be stored in the "global" table in the database, and you can access it with simple methods.

'''initGameStateLabels'''

This method should be located at the beginning of ''yourgamename.php.'' This is where you define the globals used in your game logic, by assigning them IDs.

You can define up to 79 globals, with IDs from 10 to 89 (inclusive). You must '''not''' use globals outside this range, as those values are used by other components of the framework.

<pre>
self::initGameStateLabels( array(
"my_first_global_variable" => 10,
"my_second_global_variable" => 11
) );
</pre>

'''setGameStateInitialValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Initialize your global value. Must be called before any use of your global, so you should call this method from your "setupNewGame" method.

'''getGameStateValue( $value_label )'''

Retrieve the current value of a global.

'''setGameStateValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Set the current value of a global.

'''incGameStateValue( $value_label, $increment )'''

Increment the current value of a global. If increment is negative, decrement the value of the global.

Return the final value of the global.

== Game states and active players ==

=== Activate player handling ===

; $this->activeNextPlayer()
: Make the next player active in the natural player order.
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->activePrevPlayer()
: Make the previous player active (in the natural player order).
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->gamestate->changeActivePlayer( $player_id )
: You can call this method to make any player active.
: Note: you CANNOT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->getActivePlayerId()
: Return the "active_player" id
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multipleactiveplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multipleactiveplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

=== Multiple activate player handling ===

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive()
: All playing players are made active. Update notification is sent to all players (triggers onUpdateActionButtons).
: Usually, you use this method at the beginning (ex: "st" action method) of a multiplayer game state when all players have to do some action. Do not use method if you going to do some more chages in active player list, i.e. if you want to take away multi-active right after, use setPlayersMultiactive instead.

Example of usage:
<pre>
function st_MultiPlayerInit() {
$this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive();
}
</pre>
And this is declaration of state:
<pre>
2 => array(
"name" => "playerTurnPlace",
"description" => clienttranslate('Other player must place ships'),
"descriptionmyturn" => clienttranslate('${you} must place ships (click on YOUR SHIPS board to place)'),
"type" => "multipleactiveplayer",
'action' => 'st_MultiPlayerInit',
'args' => 'arg_playerTurnPlace',
"possibleactions" => array( "actionBla" ),
"transitions" => array( "next" => 4, "last" => 99)
),
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersNonMultiactive( $next_state )
: All playing players are made inactive. Transition to next state

; $this->gamestate->setPlayersMultiactive( $players, $next_state, $bExclusive = false )
: Make a specific list of players active during a multiactive gamestate. Update notification is sent to all players who's state changed.
: "players" is the array of player id that should be made active.
: If "exclusive" parameter is not set or false it doesn't deactivate other previously active players. If its set to true, the players who will be multiactive at the end are only these in "$players" array

: In case "players" is empty, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise

; $this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $player_id, $next_state )
: During a multiactive game state, make the specified player inactive.
: Usually, you call this method during a multiactive game state after a player did his action. It is also possible to call it directly from multiplayer action handler.
: If this player was the last active player, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise
Example of usage (see state declaration of playerTurnPlace above):
<pre>
function actionBla($args) {
self::checkAction('actionBla');
// handle the action using $this->getCurrentPlayerId()
$this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $this->getCurrentPlayerId(), 'next');
}
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->getActivePlayerList()
: With this method you can retrieve the list of the active player at any time.
: During a "game" type gamestate, it will return a void array.
: During a "activeplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array with one value (the active player id).
: During a "multipleactiveplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array of the active players id.
: Note: you should only use this method in the latter case.

; $this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( $next_state_if_none )
: Sends update notification about multiplayer changes. All multiactive set* functions above do that, however if you want to change state manually using db queries for complex calculations, you have to call this yourself after. Do not call this if you calling one of the other setters above.
Example: you have player teams and you want to activate all players in one team
<pre>
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='0'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='1' WHERE player_id='$player_id' AND player_team='$team_no'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );

$this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( 'error' );
</pre>

; updating database manually
: Use this helper function to change multiactive state without sending notification
<pre>
/**
* Changes values of multiactivity in db, does not sent notifications.
* To send notifications after use updateMultiactiveOrNextState
* @param number $player_id, player id <=0 or null - means ALL
* @param number $value - 1 multiactive, 0 non multiactive
*/
function dbSetPlayerMultiactive($player_id = -1, $value = 1) {
if (! $value)
$value = 0;
else
$value = 1;
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive = '$value' WHERE player_zombie = 0 and player_eliminated = 0";
if ($player_id > 0) {
$sql .= " AND player_id = $player_id";
}
self::DbQuery($sql);
}
</pre>

=== States functions ===
; $this->gamestate->nextState( $transition )
: Change current state to a new state. Important: the $transition parameter is the name of the transition, and NOT the name of the target game state, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for more information about states.

; $this->checkAction( $actionName, $bThrowException=true )
: Check if an action is valid for the current game state, and optionally, throw an exception if it isn't.
: The action is valid if it is listed in the "possibleactions" array for the current game state (see game state description).
: This method MUST be the first one called in ALL your PHP methods that handle player actions, in order to make sure a player doesn't perform an action not allowed by the rules at the point in the game.
: If "bThrowException" is set to "false", the function returns '''false''' in case of failure instead of throwing an exception. This is useful when several actions are possible, in order to test each of them without throwing exceptions.

; $this->gamestate->checkPossibleAction( $action )
: (rarely used)
: This works exactly like "checkAction" (above), except that it does NOT check if the current player is active.
: This is used specifically in certain game states when you want to authorize additional actions for players that are not active at the moment.
: Example: in ''Libertalia'', you want to authorize players to change their mind about the card played. They are of course not active at the time they change their mind, so you cannot use "checkAction"; use "checkPossibleAction" instead.

; $this->gamestate->state()
: Get an associative array of current game state attributes, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for state attributes.
$state=$this->gamestate->state(); if( $state['name'] == 'myGameState' ) {...}

== Players turn order ==

'''getNextPlayerTable()'''

Return an associative array which associate each player with the next player around the table.

In addition, key 0 is associated to the first player to play.

Example: if three player with ID 1, 2 and 3 are around the table, in this order, the method returns:
<pre>
array(
1 => 2,
2 => 3,
3 => 1,
0 => 1
);
</pre>

'''getPrevPlayerTable()'''

Same as above, but the associative array associate the previous player around the table. Here seems also the "0" missing.

'''getPlayerAfter( $player_id )'''

Get player playing after given player in natural playing order.

'''getPlayerBefore( $player_id )'''

Get player playing before given player in natural playing order.

Note: There is no API to modify this order, if you have custom player order you have to maintain it in your database
and have custom function to access it.

== Notify players ==

To understand notifications, please read [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-bga-framework-at-a-glance The BGA Framework at a glance] first.

'''IMPORTANT'''

Notifications are sent at the very end of the request, when it ends normally. It means that if you throw an exception for any reason (ex: move not allowed), no notifications will be sent to players.
Notifications sent between the game start (setupNewGame) and the end of the "action" method of the first active state will never reach their destination.

'''notifyAllPlayers( $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Send a notification to all players of the game.

* notification_type:
A string that defines the type of your notification.

Your game interface Javascript logic will use this to know what is the type of the received notification (and to trigger the corresponding method).

* notification_log:
A string that defines what is to be displayed in the game log.

You can use an empty string here (""). In this case, nothing is displayed in the game log.

If you define a real string here, you should use "clienttranslate" method to make sure it can be translate.

You can use arguments in your notification_log strings, that refers to values defines in the "notification_args" argument (see below).
Note: Make sure you only use single quotes ('), otherwise PHP will try to interpolate the variable and will ignore the values in the args array.

* notification_args:
The arguments of your notifications, as an associative array.

This array will be transmitted to the game interface logic, in order the game interface can be updated.

Complete notifyAllPlayers example (from "Reversi"):

<pre>
self::notifyAllPlayers( "playDisc", clienttranslate( '${player_name} plays a disc and turns over ${returned_nbr} disc(s)' ),
array(
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getActivePlayerName(),
'returned_nbr' => count( $turnedOverDiscs ),
'x' => $x,
'y' => $y
) );
</pre>

You can see in the example above the use of the "clienttranslate" method, and the use of 2 arguments "player_name" and "returned_nbr" in the notification log.

'''Important''': NO private data must be sent with this method, as a cheater could see it even it is not used explicitly by the game interface logic. If you want to send private information to a player, please use notifyPlayer below.

'''Important''': this array is serialized to be sent to the browsers, and will be saved with the notification to be able to replay the game later. If it is too big, it can make notifications slower / less reliable, and replay archives very big (to the point of failing). So as a general rule, you should send only the minimum of information necessary to update the client interface with no overhead in order to keep the notifications as light as possible.

Note: you CAN use some HTML inside your notification log, however it not recommended for many reasons:
* Its bad architecture, ui elements leak into server now you have to manage ui in many places
* If you decided to change something in ui in future version, old games reply and tutorials may not work, since they use stored notifications
* When you read log preview for old games its unreadable (this is log before you enter the game reply, useful for troubleshooting or game analysis)
* Its more data to transfer and store in db
* Its nightmare for translators, at least don't put HTML tags inside the "clienttranslate" method. You can use a notification argument instead, and provide your HTML through this argument.

If you still want to have pretty pictures in the log check this [[BGA_Studio_Cookbook#Inject_images_and_styled_html_in_the_log]].

If your notification contains some phrases that build programmatically you may need to use recursive notifications. In this case the argument can be not only the string but
an array itself, which contains 'log' and 'args', i.e.

$this->notifyAllPlayers('playerLog',clienttranslate('Game moves ${token_name_rec}'),
['token_name_rec'=>['log'=>'${token_name} #${token_number}',
'args'=> ['token_name'=>clienttranslate('Boo'), 'token_number'=>$number, 'i18n'=>['token_name'] ]
]
]);

'''notifyPlayer( $player_id, $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Same as above, except that the notification is sent to one player only.

This method must be used each time some private information must be transmitted to a player.

Important: the variable for player name must be ${player_name} in order to be highlighted with the player color in the game log

== About random and randomness ==

A large number of board games rely on random, most often based on dice, cards shuffling, picking some item in a bag, and so on. This is very important to ensure a high level of randomness for each of these situations.

Here's are a list of techniques you should use in these situations, from the best to the worst.

=== Dice and bga_rand ===

'''bga_rand( min, max )'''
This is a BGA framework function that provides you a random number between "min" and "max" (inclusive), using the best available random method available on the system.

This is the preferred function you should use, because we are updating it when a better method is introduced.

As of now, bga_rand is based on the PHP function "random_int", which ensures a cryptographic level of randomness.

In particular, it is '''mandatory''' to use it for all '''dice throw''' (ie: games using other methods for dice throwing will be rejected by BGA during review).

Note: rand() and mt_rand() are deprecated on BGA and should not be used anymore, as their randomness is not as good as "bga_rand".

=== shuffle and cards shuffling ===

To shuffle items, like a pile of cards, the best way is to use the BGA PHP [[Deck]] component and to use "shuffle" method. This ensures that the best available shuffling method is used, and that if in the future we improve it your game will be up to date.

As of now, the Deck component shuffle method is based on PHP "shuffle" method, which has quite good randomness (even it is not as good as bga_rand). In consequence, we accept other shuffling methods during reviews, as long as they are based on PHP "shuffle" function (or similar, like "array_rand").

=== Other methods ===

Mysql "RAND()" function has not enough randomness to be a valid method to get a random element on BGA. This function has been used in some existing games and has given acceptable results, but now it should be avoided and you should use other methods instead.

== Game statistics ==

There are 2 types of statistics:
* a "player" statistic is a statistic associated to a player
* a "table" statistic is a statistic not associated to a player (global statistic for this game).

See [[Game statistics: stats.inc.php]] to see how you define statistics for your game.

'''initStat( $table_or_player, $name, $value, $player_id = null )'''

Create a statistic entry with a default value.

This method must be called for each statistic of your game, in your setupNewGame method.
If you neglect to call this for a statistic, and also do not update the value during the course of a certain game using setStat or incStat, the value of the stat will be undefined rather than 0. This will result in it being ignored at the end of the game, as if it didn't apply to that particular game, and excluded from cumulative statistics.

'$table_or_player' must be set to "table" if this is a table statistic, or "player" if this is a player statistic.

'$name' is the name of your statistic, as it has been defined in your stats.inc.php file.

'$value' is the initial value of the statistic. If this is a player statistic and if the player is not specified by "$player_id" argument, the value is set for ALL players.

'''setStat( $value, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Set a statistic $name to $value.

If "$player_id" is not specified, setStat consider it is a TABLE statistic.

If "$player_id" is specified, setStat consider it is a PLAYER statistic.

'''incStat( $delta, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Increment (or decrement) specified statistic value by $delta value. Same behavior as setStat function.

'''getStat( $name, $player_id = null )'''

Return the value of statistic specified by $name. Useful when creating derivative statistics such as average.

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Manage player scores and Tie breaker ==

=== Normal scoring ===

At the end of the game, players automatically get a rank depending on their score: the player with the biggest score is #1, the player with the second biggest score is #2, and so on...

During the game, you update player's score directly by updating "player_score" field of "player" table in database.

Examples:
<pre>

// +2 points to active player
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=player_score+2 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

// Set score of active player to 5
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=5 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

</pre>

Note: don't forget to notify the client side in order the score control can be updated accordingly.

=== Tie breaker ===

Tie breaker is used when two players get the same score at the end of a game.

Tie breaker is using "player_score_aux" field of "player" table. It is updated exactly like the "player_score" field.

Tie breaker score is displayed only for players who are tied at the end of the game. Most of the time, it is not supposed to be displayed explicitly during the game.

When you are using "player_score_aux" functionality, you must describe the formula to use in your gameinfos.inc.php file like this:

<pre>
'tie_breaker_description' => totranslate("Describe here your tie breaker formula"),
</pre>

This description will be used as a tooltip to explain to players how this auxiliary score has been calculated.

=== Co-operative game ===

To make everyone lose in full-coop game:

Add the following in gameinfos.inc.php :
'is_coop' => 1, // full cooperative

And score zero to everyone.

=== Semi-coop ===

If the game is not full-coop, then everyone lose = everyone is tie. I.e. set score to 0 to everybody.

=== Only "winners" and "losers" ===

For some games, there is only a group (or a single) "winner", and everyone else is a "loser", with no "end of game rank" (1st, 2nd, 3rd...).

Examples:
* Coup
* Not Alone
* Werewolves
* Quantum

In this case:
* Set the scores so that the winner has the best score, and the other players have the same (lower) score.
* Add the following lines to gameinfos.php:

<pre>
// If in the game, all losers are equal (no score to rank them or explicit in the rules that losers are not ranked between them), set this to true
// The game end result will display "Winner" for the 1st player and "Loser" for all other players
'losers_not_ranked' => true,
</pre>

Werewolves and Coup are implemented like this, as you can see here:
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=werewolves&section=lastresults
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=coupcitystate&section=lastresults

Adding this has the following effects:
* On game results for this game, "Winner" or "Loser" is going to appear instead of the usual "1st, 2nd, 3rd, ...".
* When a game is over, the result of the game will be "End of game: Victory" or "End of game: Defeat" depending on the result of the CURRENT player (instead of the usual "Victory of XXX").
* When calculating ELO points, if there is at least one "Loser", no "victorious" player can lose ELO points, and no "losing" player can win ELO point. Usually it may happened because being tie with many players with a low rank is considered as a tie and may cost you points. If losers_not_ranked is set, we prevent this behavior and make sure you only gain/loss ELO when you get the corresponding results.

Important: this SHOULD NOT be used for cooperative games (see is_coop parameter), or for 2 players games (it makes no sense in this case).

=== Solo ===

If game supports solo variant, a negative or zero score means defeat, a positive score means victory.

=== Player elimination ===

In some games, this is useful to eliminate a player from the game in order he/she can start another game without waiting for the current game end.

This case should be rare. Please don't use player elimination feature if some player just has to wait the last 10% of the game for game end. This feature should be used only in games where players are eliminated all along the game (typical examples: "Perudo" or "The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow").

Usage:

* Player to eliminate should NOT be active anymore (preferably use the feature in a "game" type game state).
* In your PHP code:
self::eliminatePlayer( <player_to_eliminate_id> );
* the player is informed in a dialog box that he no longer have to played and can start another game if he/she wants too (whith buttons "stay at this table" "quit table and back to main site"). In any case, the player is free to start & join another table from now.
* When your game is over, all players who have been eliminated before receive a "notification" (the small "!" icon on the top right of the BGA interface) that indicate them that "the game has ended" and invite them to review the game results.

=== Scoring Helper functions ===

These functions should have been API but they are not, just add them to your php game and use for every game.

// get score
function dbGetScore($player_id) {
return $this->getUniqueValueFromDB("SELECT player_score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set score
function dbSetScore($player_id, $count) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score='$count' WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set aux score (tie breaker)
function dbSetAuxScore($player_id, $score) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score_aux=$score WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// increment score (can be negative too)
function dbIncScore($player_id, $inc) {
$count = $this->dbGetScore($player_id);
if ($inc != 0) {
$count += $inc;
$this->dbSetScore($player_id, $count);
}
return $count;
}

== Reflexion time ==

; function giveExtraTime( $player_id, $specific_time=null )
: Give standard extra time to this player.
: Standard extra time depends on the speed of the game (small with "slow" game option, bigger with other options).
: You can also specify an exact time to add, in seconds, with the "specified_time" argument (rarely used).

== Undo moves ==

Please read our [[BGA Undo policy]] before.

'''Important''': Before using these methods, you must also add the following to your "gameinfos.inc.php" file, otherwise these methods are ineffective:
'db_undo_support' => true

; function undoSavepoint( )
: Save the whole game situation inside an "Undo save point".
: There is only ONE undo save point available (see BGA Undo policy).

; function undoRestorePoint()
: Restore the situation previously saved as an "Undo save point".
: You must make sure that the active player is the same after and before the undoRestorePoint (ie: this is your responsibility to ensure that the player that is active when this method is called is exactly the same than the player that was active when the undoSavePoint method has been called).

== Managing errors and exceptions ==

Note: when you throw an exception, all database changes and all notifications are cancelled immediately. This way, the game situation that existed before the request is completely restored.

; throw new BgaUserException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a user error
: You must throw this exception when a player wants to do something that he is not allowed to do.
: The error message will be shown to the player as a "red message", so it must be translated.
: Throwing such an exception is NOT considered a bug, so it is not traced in BGA error logs.

Example from Gomoku:
<pre>
throw new BgaUserException( self::_("There is already a stone on this intersection, you can't play there") );
</pre>

; throw new BgaVisibleSystemException ( $error_message)
: You must throw this exception when you detect something that is not supposed to happened in your code.
: The error message is shown to the user as an "Unexpected error", in order that he can report it in the forum.
: The error message is logged in BGA error logs. If it happens regularly, we will report it to you.

; throw new BgaSystemException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a system exception. The message will be hidden from the user, but show in the logs. Use this if the message contains technical information.
: You shouldn't use this type of exception except if you think the information shown could be critical. Indeed: a generic error message will be shown to the user, so it's going to be difficult for you to see what happened.

== Zombie mode ==

When a player leaves a game for any reason (expelled, quit), he becomes a "zombie player". In this case, the results of the game won't count for statistics, but this is cool if the other players can finish the game anyway. That's why zombie mode exists: allow the other player to finish the game, even if the situation is not ideal.

While developing your zombie mode, keep in mind that:
* Do not refer to the rules, because this situation is not planned by the rules.
* Try to figure that you are playing with your friends and one of them has to leave: how can we finish the game without killing the spirit of the game?
* The idea is NOT to develop an artificial intelligence for the game.
* Do not try to end the game early, even in a two-player game. The zombie is there to allow the game to continue, not to end it. Trying to end the game is not supported by the framework and will likely cause unexpected errors.

Most of the time, the best thing to do when it is zombie player turn is to jump immediately to a state where he is not active anymore. For example, if he is in a game state where he has a choice between playing A and playing B, the best thing to do is NOT to choose A or B, but to pass. So, even if there's no "pass" action in the rules, add a "zombiepass" transitition in your game state and use it.

Each time a zombie player must play, your "zombieTurn" method is called.

Parameters:
* $state: the name of the current game state.
* $active_player: the id of the active player.

Most of the time, your zombieTurn method looks like this:

<pre>
function zombieTurn( $state, $active_player )
{
$statename = $state['name'];

if( $statename == 'myFirstGameState'
|| $statename == 'my2ndGameState'
|| $statename == 'my3rdGameState'
....
)
{
$this->gamestate->nextState( "zombiePass" );
}
else
throw new BgaVisibleSystemException( "Zombie mode not supported at this game state: ".$statename );
}
</pre>

Note that in the example above, all corresponding game state should implement "zombiePass" as a transition.

'''Very important''': your zombie code will be called when the player leaves the game. This action is triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to this action. In your zombieTurn function, you must '''never''' use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message.

== Player color preferences ==

BGA players (Club members) may now choose their preferred color for playing. For example, if they are used to play green for every board game, they can select "green" in their BGA preferences page.

Making your game compatible with colors preferences is very easy and requires only 1 line of PHP and 1 configuration change :

On your gameinfos.inc.php file, add the following lines :

// Favorite colors support : if set to "true", support attribution of favorite colors based on player's preferences (see reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method)
// NB: this parameter is used only to flag games supporting this feature; you must use (or not use) reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method to actually enable or disable the feature.
'favorite_colors_support' => true,

Then, on your main <your_game>.game.php file, find the "reloadPlayersBasicInfos" call in your "setupNewGame" method and replace :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

By :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences( $players, array( /* LIST HERE THE AVAILABLE COLORS OF YOUR GAME INSTEAD OF THESE ONES */"ff0000", "008000", "0000ff", "ffa500", "773300" ) );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

The "reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences" method reattributes all colors, taking into account players color preferences and available colors.

Note that you must update the colors to indicate the colors available for your game.

2 important remarks :
* for some games (ex : Chess), the color has an influence on a mechanism of the game, most of the time by giving a special advantage to a player (ex : Starting the game). Color preference mechanism must NOT be used in such a case.
* your logic should NEVER consider that the first player has the color X, that the second player has the color Y, and so on. If this is the case, your game will NOT be compatible with reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences as this method attribute colors to players based on their preferences and not based as their order at the table.

Colours currently listed as a choice in preferences:

* #ff0000 Red
* #008000 Green
* #0000ff Blue
* #ffa500 Yellow
* #000000 Black
* #ffffff White
* #e94190 Pink
* #982fff Purple
* #72c3b1 Cyan
* #f07f16 Orange
* #bdd002 Khaki green
* #7b7b7b Gray

== Legacy games API ==

For some very specific games ("legacy", "campaign"), you need to keep some informations from a game to another.

This should be an exceptional situation: the legacy API is costing resources on Board Game Arena databases, and is slowing down the game setup process + game end of game process. Please do not use it for things like:
* keeping a player preference/settings (=> player preferences and game options should be used instead)
* keeping a statistics, a score, or a ranking, while it is not planned in the physical board game, or while there is no added value compared to BGA statistics / rankings.

You should use it for:
* legacy games: when some components of the game has been altered in a previous game and should be kept as it is.
* "campaign style" games: when a player is getting a "reward" at the end of a game, and should be able to use it in further games.

Important: you cannot store more than 64k of data (serialized as JSON) per player per game. If you go over 64k, storeLegacyData function is going to FAIL, and there is a risk to create a major bug (= players blocked) in your game. You MUST make sure that no more than 64k of data is used for each player for your game. For example, if you are implementing a "campaign style" game and if you allow a player to start multiple campaign, you must LIMIT the number of different campaign so that the total data size to not go over the limit. We strongly recommend you to use this:

try
{
$this->storeLegacyTeamData( 'my_variable', $my_data );
}
catch( feException $e )
{
if( $e->getCode() == FEX_legacy_size_exceeded )
{
// Do something here to free some space in Legacy data (ex: by removing some variables)
}
else
throw $e;
}

; function storeLegacyData( $player_id, $key, $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Store some data associated with $key for the given user / current game
: In the opposite of all other game data, this data will PERSIST after the end of this table, and can be re-used
: in a future table with the same game.
: IMPORTANT: The only possible place where you can use this method is when the game is over at your table (last game action). Otherwise, there is a risk of conflicts between ongoing games.
: TTL is a time-to-live: the maximum, and default, is 365 days.
: In any way, the total data (= all keys) you can store for a given user+game is 64k (note: data is store serialized as JSON data)

; function retrieveLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Get data associated with $key for the current game
: This data is common to ALL tables from the same game for this player, and persist from one table to another.
: Note: calling this function has an important cost => please call it few times (possibly: only ONCE) for each player for 1 game if possible
: Note: you can use '%' in $key to retrieve all keys matching the given patterns

; function removeLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Remove some legacy data with the given key
: (useful to free some data to avoid going over 64k)

; function storeLegacyTeamData( $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Same as storeLegacyData, except that it stores some data for the whole team within the current table
: Ie: if players A, B and C are at a table, the legacy data will be saved for future table with (exactly) A, B and C on the table.
: This is useful for games which are intended to be played several time by the same team.
: Note: the data total size is still limited, so you must implement catch the FEX_legacy_size_exceeded exception if it happens

; function retrieveLegacyTeamData()
: Same as retrieveLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

; function removeLegacyTeamData()
: Same as removeLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

== Debugging and Tracing ==

To debug php code you can use some tracing functions available from the parent class such as debug, trace, error, warn, dump.

self::debug("Ahh!");
self::dump('my_var',$my_var);

See [[Practical_debugging]] section for complete information about debugging interfaces and where to find logs.

BGA Studio Guidelines

2020-09-22T13:43:15Z

Een: /* I-1 Don't hide game elements */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

= BGA Studio Guidelines =

Originally From: https://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines

== Why guidelines? ==
More and more game publishers are choosing Board Game Arena for their game adaptations because the quality of these adaptations is high.
If we want to continue to have nice games in the future, we have to make sure that every game published in the BGA platform is matching the quality standards of BGA.
These guidelines are here to help you to make your game easy to use by BGA players, and to make sure its going to be validated by the game publisher.

== General guidelines ==
The 3 main important guidelines
* If a player knows the real board game, he should be able to play your adaptation with no learning.
* Fidelity to the original game is an absolute requirement.
* Don't try to create a video game: make your game interface as close as possible to how the original board game looks like.

== Game layout ==
=== I-1 Don't hide game elements ===

Many board games have a lot of material to display, and computer screens are sometimes too small.
But you are lucky: your game will be on a webpage with a scrolling functionality.
Basically, you always have some more space available .
Don't hide game elements behind menus, submenus, dialogs, etc, but display them directly on the main page.

Tips: eventually, you can use HTML anchor link to jump between the different elements of the page if the page height is very big.

Examples:

In Amyitis, characters cards are elements you don't have to check all the time. Thus, we placed them at the bottom of the page and you have to scroll to see them.

In Madeira, additional game board are shown at the bottom, but when player needs to use it it moved up.

Rule:
* If real game has visible elements on the table it should be visible on the main screen or user mini boards on the right

Exceptions:
* Showing counts of same elements is sufficient
* For decks which can be inspected it permitted to show them on demand
* If some games you can cut off score track and replace with BGA scoring (stars), but keeping it will look nicer (but you have to keep track of score on it as well)
* Its not necessary to show helper cards such as turn overview or scoring overview. It is nice if you can incorporate that as well, but in most cases, '''such elements should not be displayed by default''' (as space should be given in priority to the game itself), and should be made available by '''a gray "Player aid" button (or help icon)''' displaying a popup when clicked, like for example in Marco Polo or Terra Mystica.

=== I-2 Make it fluid ===

BGA game interface is «fluid». It means the interface width can vary in order to use extra space on the screen when available.
HTML and CSS give us a lot of possibilities to adapt a web content to a given browser width.
You have to use HTML and CSS:
* To allow players owning a big screen to enjoy the game comfortably without scrolling the page.
* To allow players with a screen of just 1024px

Tips: for each element of the game, answer this question « how many times during a game do I need to check/use this element? ».Less frequently used elements can be placed below.
You can listen on display resize in JS to do more sophisticated layouts.

Examples:

Caylus: when we have a 1024px small width to play the game – even if they have to screen, available buildings are placed scroll on the the right and below the board.
On larger screen, these tiles are placed on the right of the board. This is a very basic usage of the others. « float:left » CSS property.

=== I-3 Use whiteblocks ===
White blocks are '''div''' HTML element with the '''whiteblock''' class (white and transparent background). This is the recommended way to gather game elements together in your game interface when they are not directly on a board. Whiteblocks helps you to organize the space in order it can be easily understood by players.

If game contains individual player boards with distinct colors or marking you don't need these boards inside the whiteblock.

''Tips: you can use a '''h3''' title inside the whiteblock to help players to understand what is inside or to who it belongs.''

In The Year of the Dragon game interface, with whiteblocks and h3 titles /picture here/

=== I-4 Use player panels ===

BGA players are used to look at player panels when they need an information about a player.
Using player panels can allow you to save a lot of space on the main game space. In general, the following information is placed in the player panel:
* Players resources (i.e. small game elements the player is keeping in front of him in the real game).
* Summary information about player (i.e. number of cards in hand, number of cards played...).
* « First player » token.
* Score.

Player panels in Seasons. /picture/ A lot of useful information can fit into these small spaces :)

Note: for all games, you must always use the standard BGA score counter (with the star). Players are used to check this counter to see who is winning the game.

=== I-5 Use status bar actions ===

When some game action is particular to a specific game state, the good practice is to use a status bar action (HTML link).
Don't try to place some icon in your main gameinterface that will be useless 95% of the time: it takes space and makes the interface more complex to understand.

Status bar actions in Tobago /picture/

== Game usability ==

=== II-1 Use tooltips ===

With BGA Studio its very easy to associate a tooltip on any element of the game. Each time this is possible: add a tooltip to explain to the players:
* What is this game element?
* What happens if I click on it?
However, tooltips should NOT be used to display dynamic information about the current game to save space on the game interface.
Typically, regular players should be able to card tooltip play with no tooltips.
However you can display some dynamic stuff if its available otherwise but just annoying to calculate. For example in Lewis and Clark author asked to put
tooltips of how many river space available ahead of explorer.
If you need to show user why they cannot interact with element show errors instead (when clicking on it).

Tips: you can place any HTML element in tooltips. So you can make them as rich and beautiful as you need :)

=== II-2 Use left click only ===
* The whole game should be playable with only simple left button mouse click.
* Context menus should not be used.
* Drag-n-drop should be avoided (if you want to use it anyway, you should make a click based alternative available).
* Mouse icon must change on clickable elements (« cursor:pointer » CSS property).

=== II-3 Make your interface intuitive ===
If your testers have different opinions about « how to trigger some game action », maybe
the best is to make several options possible for this game action. In the case there is a complex action to do by the player (ex: select some cards, then click on an action button), design your error messages in order they can guide the player(ex : « please select some cards first »).

''Tips: For complex games, it is simple and useful to highlight the area of the interface where player should focus his attention (using onEnteringState/onLeavingState and CSS class, i.e. 'active_slot').''

The Boss: when a player clicks on a card with no selected cubes, the interface tells us to select some cube first.

=== II-4 Use the gamelog ===
With BGA Studio it is very easy to place sometext (or HTML code) in the gamelog.
Don't hesitate to use the game log.
Players are not always in front of the game page when their opponents are making their moves.
In addition, the computer manipulates game elements faster than you usually do with the real board game and even regular players can get behind of what happened sometimes.
You should be able to understand the « game story » by reading the game log.

=== II-5 Tell players about automatic actions ===
Very often, during a game you are in a situation where:
* Only one action is possible for the activeplayer, or
* A series of action has to be done (according to the rules) without any players actions.
In these situation, you must or you may trigger these actions automatically.
In any case, you must make sure that players understand what is happening, otherwise they will probably report a bug.

Stone Age: people are fed automatically at the end of the turn, but players can always see what happened exactly in the gamelog.

* Use the game log to trace all actions performed automatically.
* Use synchronous notifications handlers to slow down the execution of automatic actions,so that players can understand what is happening.
=== II-6 Avoid move confirmations ===
As a rule of thumb, don't require move confirmation. Confirming a move slows down the user interface and thus, the game flow. You can allow a player to confirm a move if this is a very critical step in a game, and if it is possible to trigger an action by accident. If client interactions are very complex and allow cancellation, the final move can be confirmed with a "Done" button.

''Hawaii'': Ending a turn is a critical action that happens only 5 times per player in a game. In this case, it is acceptable (and a good idea) to have a confirmation dialog.

''Hive'': Each move has to be confirmed with click on the location because it is very easy to click by accident.

''Russian Railroads'': Each move involves multiple interactions and can contains dozens of subactions. When the player is done "planning" he presses a "Done" button to submit the move to the server.

''Race for the Galaxy'': There is a card that allows players to draw two cards and discard one card before the Development phase. This requires confirmation when the player selects a development card to discard, as he often means to build that development card instead.

=== II-7 Translatable interface ===
With BGA Studio its very easy to translate your game in any language, using BGA collaborative translation system. Check the FAQ and the example games to learn how to declare your strings so that every message in your code can be managed by the internationalization system.

Diams 100 % translated in Polish

=== II-8 Use interactive elements ===

Interactive elements are tiles, cubes or board areas user can click on to perform an action. The following guidance apply:
* If user click on interactive element either action happens or user get a error message. Try to process error message of client side and not send to server for simple errors, such as player is not active. Please be very specific why user cannot interact with element, i.e.
** This is not your turn
** You cannot build this building because you don't have enough resources
** To select this card you have to select resource first
If you cannot make errors for all elements at least tooltip should explaining when it interactive vs not

Rule: Every game element should give an explicit error message if clicked at the wrong moment rather than staying silent

* When user can click on element during this turn it should be highlighted if possible (i.e. tiles have blue border or dashed or glow)

* If state prompt replaces the interaction with element but elements are visible its better to do both (i.e. can select a button OR he can move element on the board)
** Example: In Lewis & Clark game offers gain resources via buttons on state prompt, but user can also click on cubes in supply to do the same action

=== II-9 Animate moving elements ===
If real game have some elements moving during the game it should also animate in your adaptation
* User gets a resource - move a resource from main board to user mini board
* User buys a card - move card from main display to user board
* User draw a card which is revealed on the display - move card from deck to display, maybe add flippy animation to turn it face up (that requires 3d transformations - that is bonus)

It is also nice to animation points or coin collection from specific region of the board (even points collection is not normally visible).

Don't need to overdo animation - its not first player shooter

=== II-10 Slow down the end of game scoring ===

This is the climax of the game, building up suspense before revealing the winner... Don't make it too quick! :)

It's also very helpful if some end of game scoring animations can show where the points are gained, to help players understand (and trust) the scoring.

To achieve this, you can use synchronous notifications for each step of the scoring to slow down the process, and use this.displayScoring ([[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_animated_display]]) to display a nice points animation in the color of the player over the element of the game granting points for this step of the scoring.

For a practical example of a game adaptation where scoring has been done with this idea in mind, you can check a game replay of Terra Mystica for the final scoring (this link will fast forward you right there: [https://boardgamearena.com/archive/replay/200901-1002/?table=112192856&player=84819187&comments=426;&goto=341 replay scoring])

== Original game representation ==
=== III-1 Use the original art===
The less you are modifying the original art of the game, the better.
Its important for publishers that a board game adaptation looks like the real board game. Sometimes it can be useful to modify some elements of the game to save some space on the screen – but try to avoid it.
Tips: if you have not enough space on the screen, reduce the size of the game elements.
Try to make sure they are recognizable for players who played regularly, and add a tooltip to help beginners to figure out what they are.
Gosu : the original cards are used, with tooltips.

=== III-2 Be careful about player assistance ===
As a rule of thumb, in order to respect the original board games, you should not introduce any player assistance feature.
An assistance must not be introduced if it directly helps the player to figure out if his move is good or bad.
An assistance may be introduced if it can help the payer to figure out what moves are available.

Gygès: the assistance shows you available moves, but is not alerting you about stupid moves (like the upper left one).

Note: you can however do a single choice move for a player, i.e passing on a turn if there is nothing user can do; it's quite annoying to wait on a player to pass, while it's the only action that he can do anyways.

=== III-3 Cancel a move ===
Most players want to have moved cancel or undo. User the following rules to implement it:
* If any information is revealed which was not known before you cannot cancel it
* If this is the end of active player action - you cannot cancel it
* If during player turn multiple actions are required allow cancel or undo, for example - user pick cubes and drops on a building. Selecting cube and building - are two actions, so user should be able to cancel taking cube.
This can be implement using client side states, so cancelling is easy as restoring last server state.

=== III-4 Available information ===
Every information visible by players in the real game should be accessible in the adaptation. Pay attention to some information like the number of cards in the opponents hand, or the number of remaining cards in the deck.
If it is explicitly forbidden to count cards in the discard pile, this information is not available.

== Game technical quality ==
=== IV-1 Don't use exotic stuff ===
BGA Studio provides a set of useful tools to build board games adaptations (i.e. card management, confirmation dialog, tooltips,…).
Use them, and don't use exotic libraries, plugins or tricks.
Why? Because BGA Framework will evolve in the future to provide new features to players, and it could make your game incompatible with the new version.
On the contrary, if you are using standard Haggis using BGA standard card stuff, you will enjoy these enhancements without any effort.
If you feel that you really need some exotic thing: don't hesitate to ask us.

=== IV-2 Write in (simple) English ===
Some other person may have to look on your code:
* We (BGA team) are here to help you if you need us
* Some other BGA developer wanting to help you
For all these reasons, your code must be written in English (variables, methods, comments...).
If English is not your mother tongue don't be afraid: the whole idea here is to be understood, not to write an essay :)

=== IV-3 Page refresh ===
A page refresh (F5) must allow players to reset the game interface to a stable state at any moment of the game.
BGA Studio framework allows you to do this with the « getAllDatas » PHP method and the « setup » Javascript method.
Note: this « refresh » feature is also quite useful during the development process:)

=== IV-4 Private information ===
A private game element must be visible only to the player owning it. It must not be visible by his opponents, by any means.
In particular:
* getAllDatas PHP method must not return any element that are hidden from current player, even if the Javascript « setup » method ignores them.
* you must not send via the « notifyAllPlayers » function some information that is hidden from one player (use « notifyPlayer » instead).

Hearts: each player is alerted about his new cards using notifyPlayer, and cards from the other players remains secret

=== IV-5 Game progression ===
Game progression should be as accurate as possible.
Of course, its not always easy (or even possible) to compute game progression, but a vague approximation is better than nothing.
Stone Age: there are 2 different end game conditions (building cards and civilization cards).
Both are taken into account to increase the accuracy of the game progression.

=== IV-6 Game statistics ===
Using BGA Studio you can define a set of statistics for your game. Statistics will be displayed at the end of the game, and help players to figure out why they win/loose a game,
and what they should improve. Try to choose interesting statistics that distinguish the different strategies for your game, in order it can help players to understand their game.

Seasons : statistics

=== IV-7 Namespace recommendations ===
Your game is not working in complete isolation, it's included in a page with a lot of elements around (header, footer, logs, chat, player panels, rankings...)

So you should pay attention to naming your DOM elements and CSS classes in a way specific to your game in order to avoid namespace collisions (for example you use a selector for a "selected" class in your .js, and there is also an element of the framework outside of your game with a selected class).

It's recommended to have:
* a wrapper div around your game zone with an id specific to your game ('yourgamename_playzone' for example) and to use it in any xpath selector of your .js
* a prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes of your game ('yrg_selected' for example).

Even if everything is working fine today, otherwise your game may break in the future when the framework is updated.

== Summary ==
These guidelines are here to help you to make sure that the players, the game publisher and the game author are going to enjoy your adaptation of the game. We created these guidelines based on our personal experience (which includes many mistakes along the way) implementing a lot of games on BGA platform. Don't hesitate to contact us if you feel uncomfortable with one of these guidelines in some particular context with your game: these guidelines are here to help and not to prevent you to do smart things, and have fun while programing your game ;)

BGA Studio Guidelines

2020-09-22T13:37:40Z

Een: /* I-1 Don't hide game elements */ player aid recommendation

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

= BGA Studio Guidelines =

Originally From: https://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines

== Why guidelines? ==
More and more game publishers are choosing Board Game Arena for their game adaptations because the quality of these adaptations is high.
If we want to continue to have nice games in the future, we have to make sure that every game published in the BGA platform is matching the quality standards of BGA.
These guidelines are here to help you to make your game easy to use by BGA players, and to make sure its going to be validated by the game publisher.

== General guidelines ==
The 3 main important guidelines
* If a player knows the real board game, he should be able to play your adaptation with no learning.
* Fidelity to the original game is an absolute requirement.
* Don't try to create a video game: make your game interface as close as possible to how the original board game looks like.

== Game layout ==
=== I-1 Don't hide game elements ===

Many board games have a lot of material to display, and computer screens are sometimes too small.
But you are lucky: your game will be on a webpage with a scrolling functionality.
Basically, you always have some more space available .
Don't hide game elements behind menus, submenus, dialogs, etc, but display them directly on the main page.

Tips: eventually, you can use HTML anchor link to jump between the different elements of the page if the page height is very big.

Examples:

In Amyitis, characters cards are elements you don't have to check all the time. Thus, we placed them at the bottom of the page and you have to scroll to see them.

In Madeira, additional game board are shown at the bottom, but when player needs to use it it moved up.

Rule:
* If real game has visible elements on the table it should be visible on the main screen or user mini boards on the right

Exceptions:
* Showing counts of same elements is sufficient
* For decks which can be inspected it permitted to show them on demand
* If some games you can cut off score track and replace with BGA scoring (stars), but keeping it will look nicer (but you have to keep track of score on it as well)
* Its not necessary to show helper cards such as turn overview or scoring overview. It is nice if you can incorporate that as well, but in most cases, '''such elements should not be displayed by default''' (as space should be given in priority to the game itself), and should be made available by '''a gray "Player aid" button displaying a popup''' when clicked, like for example in Marco Polo or Terra Mystica.

=== I-2 Make it fluid ===

BGA game interface is «fluid». It means the interface width can vary in order to use extra space on the screen when available.
HTML and CSS give us a lot of possibilities to adapt a web content to a given browser width.
You have to use HTML and CSS:
* To allow players owning a big screen to enjoy the game comfortably without scrolling the page.
* To allow players with a screen of just 1024px

Tips: for each element of the game, answer this question « how many times during a game do I need to check/use this element? ».Less frequently used elements can be placed below.
You can listen on display resize in JS to do more sophisticated layouts.

Examples:

Caylus: when we have a 1024px small width to play the game – even if they have to screen, available buildings are placed scroll on the the right and below the board.
On larger screen, these tiles are placed on the right of the board. This is a very basic usage of the others. « float:left » CSS property.

=== I-3 Use whiteblocks ===
White blocks are '''div''' HTML element with the '''whiteblock''' class (white and transparent background). This is the recommended way to gather game elements together in your game interface when they are not directly on a board. Whiteblocks helps you to organize the space in order it can be easily understood by players.

If game contains individual player boards with distinct colors or marking you don't need these boards inside the whiteblock.

''Tips: you can use a '''h3''' title inside the whiteblock to help players to understand what is inside or to who it belongs.''

In The Year of the Dragon game interface, with whiteblocks and h3 titles /picture here/

=== I-4 Use player panels ===

BGA players are used to look at player panels when they need an information about a player.
Using player panels can allow you to save a lot of space on the main game space. In general, the following information is placed in the player panel:
* Players resources (i.e. small game elements the player is keeping in front of him in the real game).
* Summary information about player (i.e. number of cards in hand, number of cards played...).
* « First player » token.
* Score.

Player panels in Seasons. /picture/ A lot of useful information can fit into these small spaces :)

Note: for all games, you must always use the standard BGA score counter (with the star). Players are used to check this counter to see who is winning the game.

=== I-5 Use status bar actions ===

When some game action is particular to a specific game state, the good practice is to use a status bar action (HTML link).
Don't try to place some icon in your main gameinterface that will be useless 95% of the time: it takes space and makes the interface more complex to understand.

Status bar actions in Tobago /picture/

== Game usability ==

=== II-1 Use tooltips ===

With BGA Studio its very easy to associate a tooltip on any element of the game. Each time this is possible: add a tooltip to explain to the players:
* What is this game element?
* What happens if I click on it?
However, tooltips should NOT be used to display dynamic information about the current game to save space on the game interface.
Typically, regular players should be able to card tooltip play with no tooltips.
However you can display some dynamic stuff if its available otherwise but just annoying to calculate. For example in Lewis and Clark author asked to put
tooltips of how many river space available ahead of explorer.
If you need to show user why they cannot interact with element show errors instead (when clicking on it).

Tips: you can place any HTML element in tooltips. So you can make them as rich and beautiful as you need :)

=== II-2 Use left click only ===
* The whole game should be playable with only simple left button mouse click.
* Context menus should not be used.
* Drag-n-drop should be avoided (if you want to use it anyway, you should make a click based alternative available).
* Mouse icon must change on clickable elements (« cursor:pointer » CSS property).

=== II-3 Make your interface intuitive ===
If your testers have different opinions about « how to trigger some game action », maybe
the best is to make several options possible for this game action. In the case there is a complex action to do by the player (ex: select some cards, then click on an action button), design your error messages in order they can guide the player(ex : « please select some cards first »).

''Tips: For complex games, it is simple and useful to highlight the area of the interface where player should focus his attention (using onEnteringState/onLeavingState and CSS class, i.e. 'active_slot').''

The Boss: when a player clicks on a card with no selected cubes, the interface tells us to select some cube first.

=== II-4 Use the gamelog ===
With BGA Studio it is very easy to place sometext (or HTML code) in the gamelog.
Don't hesitate to use the game log.
Players are not always in front of the game page when their opponents are making their moves.
In addition, the computer manipulates game elements faster than you usually do with the real board game and even regular players can get behind of what happened sometimes.
You should be able to understand the « game story » by reading the game log.

=== II-5 Tell players about automatic actions ===
Very often, during a game you are in a situation where:
* Only one action is possible for the activeplayer, or
* A series of action has to be done (according to the rules) without any players actions.
In these situation, you must or you may trigger these actions automatically.
In any case, you must make sure that players understand what is happening, otherwise they will probably report a bug.

Stone Age: people are fed automatically at the end of the turn, but players can always see what happened exactly in the gamelog.

* Use the game log to trace all actions performed automatically.
* Use synchronous notifications handlers to slow down the execution of automatic actions,so that players can understand what is happening.
=== II-6 Avoid move confirmations ===
As a rule of thumb, don't require move confirmation. Confirming a move slows down the user interface and thus, the game flow. You can allow a player to confirm a move if this is a very critical step in a game, and if it is possible to trigger an action by accident. If client interactions are very complex and allow cancellation, the final move can be confirmed with a "Done" button.

''Hawaii'': Ending a turn is a critical action that happens only 5 times per player in a game. In this case, it is acceptable (and a good idea) to have a confirmation dialog.

''Hive'': Each move has to be confirmed with click on the location because it is very easy to click by accident.

''Russian Railroads'': Each move involves multiple interactions and can contains dozens of subactions. When the player is done "planning" he presses a "Done" button to submit the move to the server.

''Race for the Galaxy'': There is a card that allows players to draw two cards and discard one card before the Development phase. This requires confirmation when the player selects a development card to discard, as he often means to build that development card instead.

=== II-7 Translatable interface ===
With BGA Studio its very easy to translate your game in any language, using BGA collaborative translation system. Check the FAQ and the example games to learn how to declare your strings so that every message in your code can be managed by the internationalization system.

Diams 100 % translated in Polish

=== II-8 Use interactive elements ===

Interactive elements are tiles, cubes or board areas user can click on to perform an action. The following guidance apply:
* If user click on interactive element either action happens or user get a error message. Try to process error message of client side and not send to server for simple errors, such as player is not active. Please be very specific why user cannot interact with element, i.e.
** This is not your turn
** You cannot build this building because you don't have enough resources
** To select this card you have to select resource first
If you cannot make errors for all elements at least tooltip should explaining when it interactive vs not

Rule: Every game element should give an explicit error message if clicked at the wrong moment rather than staying silent

* When user can click on element during this turn it should be highlighted if possible (i.e. tiles have blue border or dashed or glow)

* If state prompt replaces the interaction with element but elements are visible its better to do both (i.e. can select a button OR he can move element on the board)
** Example: In Lewis & Clark game offers gain resources via buttons on state prompt, but user can also click on cubes in supply to do the same action

=== II-9 Animate moving elements ===
If real game have some elements moving during the game it should also animate in your adaptation
* User gets a resource - move a resource from main board to user mini board
* User buys a card - move card from main display to user board
* User draw a card which is revealed on the display - move card from deck to display, maybe add flippy animation to turn it face up (that requires 3d transformations - that is bonus)

It is also nice to animation points or coin collection from specific region of the board (even points collection is not normally visible).

Don't need to overdo animation - its not first player shooter

=== II-10 Slow down the end of game scoring ===

This is the climax of the game, building up suspense before revealing the winner... Don't make it too quick! :)

It's also very helpful if some end of game scoring animations can show where the points are gained, to help players understand (and trust) the scoring.

To achieve this, you can use synchronous notifications for each step of the scoring to slow down the process, and use this.displayScoring ([[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_animated_display]]) to display a nice points animation in the color of the player over the element of the game granting points for this step of the scoring.

For a practical example of a game adaptation where scoring has been done with this idea in mind, you can check a game replay of Terra Mystica for the final scoring (this link will fast forward you right there: [https://boardgamearena.com/archive/replay/200901-1002/?table=112192856&player=84819187&comments=426;&goto=341 replay scoring])

== Original game representation ==
=== III-1 Use the original art===
The less you are modifying the original art of the game, the better.
Its important for publishers that a board game adaptation looks like the real board game. Sometimes it can be useful to modify some elements of the game to save some space on the screen – but try to avoid it.
Tips: if you have not enough space on the screen, reduce the size of the game elements.
Try to make sure they are recognizable for players who played regularly, and add a tooltip to help beginners to figure out what they are.
Gosu : the original cards are used, with tooltips.

=== III-2 Be careful about player assistance ===
As a rule of thumb, in order to respect the original board games, you should not introduce any player assistance feature.
An assistance must not be introduced if it directly helps the player to figure out if his move is good or bad.
An assistance may be introduced if it can help the payer to figure out what moves are available.

Gygès: the assistance shows you available moves, but is not alerting you about stupid moves (like the upper left one).

Note: you can however do a single choice move for a player, i.e passing on a turn if there is nothing user can do; it's quite annoying to wait on a player to pass, while it's the only action that he can do anyways.

=== III-3 Cancel a move ===
Most players want to have moved cancel or undo. User the following rules to implement it:
* If any information is revealed which was not known before you cannot cancel it
* If this is the end of active player action - you cannot cancel it
* If during player turn multiple actions are required allow cancel or undo, for example - user pick cubes and drops on a building. Selecting cube and building - are two actions, so user should be able to cancel taking cube.
This can be implement using client side states, so cancelling is easy as restoring last server state.

=== III-4 Available information ===
Every information visible by players in the real game should be accessible in the adaptation. Pay attention to some information like the number of cards in the opponents hand, or the number of remaining cards in the deck.
If it is explicitly forbidden to count cards in the discard pile, this information is not available.

== Game technical quality ==
=== IV-1 Don't use exotic stuff ===
BGA Studio provides a set of useful tools to build board games adaptations (i.e. card management, confirmation dialog, tooltips,…).
Use them, and don't use exotic libraries, plugins or tricks.
Why? Because BGA Framework will evolve in the future to provide new features to players, and it could make your game incompatible with the new version.
On the contrary, if you are using standard Haggis using BGA standard card stuff, you will enjoy these enhancements without any effort.
If you feel that you really need some exotic thing: don't hesitate to ask us.

=== IV-2 Write in (simple) English ===
Some other person may have to look on your code:
* We (BGA team) are here to help you if you need us
* Some other BGA developer wanting to help you
For all these reasons, your code must be written in English (variables, methods, comments...).
If English is not your mother tongue don't be afraid: the whole idea here is to be understood, not to write an essay :)

=== IV-3 Page refresh ===
A page refresh (F5) must allow players to reset the game interface to a stable state at any moment of the game.
BGA Studio framework allows you to do this with the « getAllDatas » PHP method and the « setup » Javascript method.
Note: this « refresh » feature is also quite useful during the development process:)

=== IV-4 Private information ===
A private game element must be visible only to the player owning it. It must not be visible by his opponents, by any means.
In particular:
* getAllDatas PHP method must not return any element that are hidden from current player, even if the Javascript « setup » method ignores them.
* you must not send via the « notifyAllPlayers » function some information that is hidden from one player (use « notifyPlayer » instead).

Hearts: each player is alerted about his new cards using notifyPlayer, and cards from the other players remains secret

=== IV-5 Game progression ===
Game progression should be as accurate as possible.
Of course, its not always easy (or even possible) to compute game progression, but a vague approximation is better than nothing.
Stone Age: there are 2 different end game conditions (building cards and civilization cards).
Both are taken into account to increase the accuracy of the game progression.

=== IV-6 Game statistics ===
Using BGA Studio you can define a set of statistics for your game. Statistics will be displayed at the end of the game, and help players to figure out why they win/loose a game,
and what they should improve. Try to choose interesting statistics that distinguish the different strategies for your game, in order it can help players to understand their game.

Seasons : statistics

=== IV-7 Namespace recommendations ===
Your game is not working in complete isolation, it's included in a page with a lot of elements around (header, footer, logs, chat, player panels, rankings...)

So you should pay attention to naming your DOM elements and CSS classes in a way specific to your game in order to avoid namespace collisions (for example you use a selector for a "selected" class in your .js, and there is also an element of the framework outside of your game with a selected class).

It's recommended to have:
* a wrapper div around your game zone with an id specific to your game ('yourgamename_playzone' for example) and to use it in any xpath selector of your .js
* a prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes of your game ('yrg_selected' for example).

Even if everything is working fine today, otherwise your game may break in the future when the framework is updated.

== Summary ==
These guidelines are here to help you to make sure that the players, the game publisher and the game author are going to enjoy your adaptation of the game. We created these guidelines based on our personal experience (which includes many mistakes along the way) implementing a lot of games on BGA platform. Don't hesitate to contact us if you feel uncomfortable with one of these guidelines in some particular context with your game: these guidelines are here to help and not to prevent you to do smart things, and have fun while programing your game ;)

BGA Studio Guidelines

2020-09-14T15:35:48Z

Een: /* Game usability */ End of game scoring guidelines

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

= BGA Studio Guidelines =

Originally From: https://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines

== Why guidelines? ==
More and more game publishers are choosing Board Game Arena for their game adaptations because the quality of these adaptations is high.
If we want to continue to have nice games in the future, we have to make sure that every game published in the BGA platform is matching the quality standards of BGA.
These guidelines are here to help you to make your game easy to use by BGA players, and to make sure its going to be validated by the game publisher.

== General guidelines ==
The 3 main important guidelines
* If a player knows the real board game, he should be able to play your adaptation with no learning.
* Fidelity to the original game is an absolute requirement.
* Don't try to create a video game: make your game interface as close as possible to how the original board game looks like.

== Game layout ==
=== I-1 Don't hide game elements ===

Many board games have a lot of material to display, and computer screens are sometimes too small.
But you are lucky: your game will be on a webpage with a scrolling functionality.
Basically, you always have some more space available .
Don't hide game elements behind menus, submenus, dialogs, etc, but display them directly on the main page.

Tips: eventually, you can use HTML anchor link to jump between the different elements of the page if the page height is very big.

Examples:

In Amyitis, characters cards are elements you don't have to check all the time. Thus, we placed them at the bottom of the page and you have to scroll to see them.

In Madeira, additional game board are shown at the bottom, but when player needs to use it it moved up.

Rule:
* If real game has visible elements on the table it should be visible on the main screen or user mini boards on the right

Exceptions:
* Showing counts of same elements is sufficient
* For decks which can be inspected it permitted to show them on demand
* If some games you can cut off score track and replace with BGA scoring (stars), but keeping it will look nicer (but you have to keep track of score on it as well)
* Its not necessary to show helper cards such as turn overview or scoring overview but it would be nice if you can incorporate that as well

=== I-2 Make it fluid ===

BGA game interface is «fluid». It means the interface width can vary in order to use extra space on the screen when available.
HTML and CSS give us a lot of possibilities to adapt a web content to a given browser width.
You have to use HTML and CSS:
* To allow players owning a big screen to enjoy the game comfortably without scrolling the page.
* To allow players with a screen of just 1024px

Tips: for each element of the game, answer this question « how many times during a game do I need to check/use this element? ».Less frequently used elements can be placed below.
You can listen on display resize in JS to do more sophisticated layouts.

Examples:

Caylus: when we have a 1024px small width to play the game – even if they have to screen, available buildings are placed scroll on the the right and below the board.
On larger screen, these tiles are placed on the right of the board. This is a very basic usage of the others. « float:left » CSS property.

=== I-3 Use whiteblocks ===
White blocks are '''div''' HTML element with the '''whiteblock''' class (white and transparent background). This is the recommended way to gather game elements together in your game interface when they are not directly on a board. Whiteblocks helps you to organize the space in order it can be easily understood by players.

If game contains individual player boards with distinct colors or marking you don't need these boards inside the whiteblock.

''Tips: you can use a '''h3''' title inside the whiteblock to help players to understand what is inside or to who it belongs.''

In The Year of the Dragon game interface, with whiteblocks and h3 titles /picture here/

=== I-4 Use player panels ===

BGA players are used to look at player panels when they need an information about a player.
Using player panels can allow you to save a lot of space on the main game space. In general, the following information is placed in the player panel:
* Players resources (i.e. small game elements the player is keeping in front of him in the real game).
* Summary information about player (i.e. number of cards in hand, number of cards played...).
* « First player » token.
* Score.

Player panels in Seasons. /picture/ A lot of useful information can fit into these small spaces :)

Note: for all games, you must always use the standard BGA score counter (with the star). Players are used to check this counter to see who is winning the game.

=== I-5 Use status bar actions ===

When some game action is particular to a specific game state, the good practice is to use a status bar action (HTML link).
Don't try to place some icon in your main gameinterface that will be useless 95% of the time: it takes space and makes the interface more complex to understand.

Status bar actions in Tobago /picture/

== Game usability ==

=== II-1 Use tooltips ===

With BGA Studio its very easy to associate a tooltip on any element of the game. Each time this is possible: add a tooltip to explain to the players:
* What is this game element?
* What happens if I click on it?
However, tooltips should NOT be used to display dynamic information about the current game to save space on the game interface.
Typically, regular players should be able to card tooltip play with no tooltips.
However you can display some dynamic stuff if its available otherwise but just annoying to calculate. For example in Lewis and Clark author asked to put
tooltips of how many river space available ahead of explorer.
If you need to show user why they cannot interact with element show errors instead (when clicking on it).

Tips: you can place any HTML element in tooltips. So you can make them as rich and beautiful as you need :)

=== II-2 Use left click only ===
* The whole game should be playable with only simple left button mouse click.
* Context menus should not be used.
* Drag-n-drop should be avoided (if you want to use it anyway, you should make a click based alternative available).
* Mouse icon must change on clickable elements (« cursor:pointer » CSS property).

=== II-3 Make your interface intuitive ===
If your testers have different opinions about « how to trigger some game action », maybe
the best is to make several options possible for this game action. In the case there is a complex action to do by the player (ex: select some cards, then click on an action button), design your error messages in order they can guide the player(ex : « please select some cards first »).

''Tips: For complex games, it is simple and useful to highlight the area of the interface where player should focus his attention (using onEnteringState/onLeavingState and CSS class, i.e. 'active_slot').''

The Boss: when a player clicks on a card with no selected cubes, the interface tells us to select some cube first.

=== II-4 Use the gamelog ===
With BGA Studio it is very easy to place sometext (or HTML code) in the gamelog.
Don't hesitate to use the game log.
Players are not always in front of the game page when their opponents are making their moves.
In addition, the computer manipulates game elements faster than you usually do with the real board game and even regular players can get behind of what happened sometimes.
You should be able to understand the « game story » by reading the game log.

=== II-5 Tell players about automatic actions ===
Very often, during a game you are in a situation where:
* Only one action is possible for the activeplayer, or
* A series of action has to be done (according to the rules) without any players actions.
In these situation, you must or you may trigger these actions automatically.
In any case, you must make sure that players understand what is happening, otherwise they will probably report a bug.

Stone Age: people are fed automatically at the end of the turn, but players can always see what happened exactly in the gamelog.

* Use the game log to trace all actions performed automatically.
* Use synchronous notifications handlers to slow down the execution of automatic actions,so that players can understand what is happening.
=== II-6 Avoid move confirmations ===
As a rule of thumb, don't require move confirmation. Confirming a move slows down the user interface and thus, the game flow. You can allow a player to confirm a move if this is a very critical step in a game, and if it is possible to trigger an action by accident. If client interactions are very complex and allow cancellation, the final move can be confirmed with a "Done" button.

''Hawaii'': Ending a turn is a critical action that happens only 5 times per player in a game. In this case, it is acceptable (and a good idea) to have a confirmation dialog.

''Hive'': Each move has to be confirmed with click on the location because it is very easy to click by accident.

''Russian Railroads'': Each move involves multiple interactions and can contains dozens of subactions. When the player is done "planning" he presses a "Done" button to submit the move to the server.

''Race for the Galaxy'': There is a card that allows players to draw two cards and discard one card before the Development phase. This requires confirmation when the player selects a development card to discard, as he often means to build that development card instead.

=== II-7 Translatable interface ===
With BGA Studio its very easy to translate your game in any language, using BGA collaborative translation system. Check the FAQ and the example games to learn how to declare your strings so that every message in your code can be managed by the internationalization system.

Diams 100 % translated in Polish

=== II-8 Use interactive elements ===

Interactive elements are tiles, cubes or board areas user can click on to perform an action. The following guidance apply:
* If user click on interactive element either action happens or user get a error message. Try to process error message of client side and not send to server for simple errors, such as player is not active. Please be very specific why user cannot interact with element, i.e.
** This is not your turn
** You cannot build this building because you don't have enough resources
** To select this card you have to select resource first
If you cannot make errors for all elements at least tooltip should explaining when it interactive vs not

Rule: Every game element should give an explicit error message if clicked at the wrong moment rather than staying silent

* When user can click on element during this turn it should be highlighted if possible (i.e. tiles have blue border or dashed or glow)

* If state prompt replaces the interaction with element but elements are visible its better to do both (i.e. can select a button OR he can move element on the board)
** Example: In Lewis & Clark game offers gain resources via buttons on state prompt, but user can also click on cubes in supply to do the same action

=== II-9 Animate moving elements ===
If real game have some elements moving during the game it should also animate in your adaptation
* User gets a resource - move a resource from main board to user mini board
* User buys a card - move card from main display to user board
* User draw a card which is revealed on the display - move card from deck to display, maybe add flippy animation to turn it face up (that requires 3d transformations - that is bonus)

It is also nice to animation points or coin collection from specific region of the board (even points collection is not normally visible).

Don't need to overdo animation - its not first player shooter

=== II-10 Slow down the end of game scoring ===

This is the climax of the game, building up suspense before revealing the winner... Don't make it too quick! :)

It's also very helpful if some end of game scoring animations can show where the points are gained, to help players understand (and trust) the scoring.

To achieve this, you can use synchronous notifications for each step of the scoring to slow down the process, and use this.displayScoring ([[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_animated_display]]) to display a nice points animation in the color of the player over the element of the game granting points for this step of the scoring.

For a practical example of a game adaptation where scoring has been done with this idea in mind, you can check a game replay of Terra Mystica for the final scoring (this link will fast forward you right there: [https://boardgamearena.com/archive/replay/200901-1002/?table=112192856&player=84819187&comments=426;&goto=341 replay scoring])

== Original game representation ==
=== III-1 Use the original art===
The less you are modifying the original art of the game, the better.
Its important for publishers that a board game adaptation looks like the real board game. Sometimes it can be useful to modify some elements of the game to save some space on the screen – but try to avoid it.
Tips: if you have not enough space on the screen, reduce the size of the game elements.
Try to make sure they are recognizable for players who played regularly, and add a tooltip to help beginners to figure out what they are.
Gosu : the original cards are used, with tooltips.

=== III-2 Be careful about player assistance ===
As a rule of thumb, in order to respect the original board games, you should not introduce any player assistance feature.
An assistance must not be introduced if it directly helps the player to figure out if his move is good or bad.
An assistance may be introduced if it can help the payer to figure out what moves are available.

Gygès: the assistance shows you available moves, but is not alerting you about stupid moves (like the upper left one).

Note: you can however do a single choice move for a player, i.e passing on a turn if there is nothing user can do; it's quite annoying to wait on a player to pass, while it's the only action that he can do anyways.

=== III-3 Cancel a move ===
Most players want to have moved cancel or undo. User the following rules to implement it:
* If any information is revealed which was not known before you cannot cancel it
* If this is the end of active player action - you cannot cancel it
* If during player turn multiple actions are required allow cancel or undo, for example - user pick cubes and drops on a building. Selecting cube and building - are two actions, so user should be able to cancel taking cube.
This can be implement using client side states, so cancelling is easy as restoring last server state.

=== III-4 Available information ===
Every information visible by players in the real game should be accessible in the adaptation. Pay attention to some information like the number of cards in the opponents hand, or the number of remaining cards in the deck.
If it is explicitly forbidden to count cards in the discard pile, this information is not available.

== Game technical quality ==
=== IV-1 Don't use exotic stuff ===
BGA Studio provides a set of useful tools to build board games adaptations (i.e. card management, confirmation dialog, tooltips,…).
Use them, and don't use exotic libraries, plugins or tricks.
Why? Because BGA Framework will evolve in the future to provide new features to players, and it could make your game incompatible with the new version.
On the contrary, if you are using standard Haggis using BGA standard card stuff, you will enjoy these enhancements without any effort.
If you feel that you really need some exotic thing: don't hesitate to ask us.

=== IV-2 Write in (simple) English ===
Some other person may have to look on your code:
* We (BGA team) are here to help you if you need us
* Some other BGA developer wanting to help you
For all these reasons, your code must be written in English (variables, methods, comments...).
If English is not your mother tongue don't be afraid: the whole idea here is to be understood, not to write an essay :)

=== IV-3 Page refresh ===
A page refresh (F5) must allow players to reset the game interface to a stable state at any moment of the game.
BGA Studio framework allows you to do this with the « getAllDatas » PHP method and the « setup » Javascript method.
Note: this « refresh » feature is also quite useful during the development process:)

=== IV-4 Private information ===
A private game element must be visible only to the player owning it. It must not be visible by his opponents, by any means.
In particular:
* getAllDatas PHP method must not return any element that are hidden from current player, even if the Javascript « setup » method ignores them.
* you must not send via the « notifyAllPlayers » function some information that is hidden from one player (use « notifyPlayer » instead).

Hearts: each player is alerted about his new cards using notifyPlayer, and cards from the other players remains secret

=== IV-5 Game progression ===
Game progression should be as accurate as possible.
Of course, its not always easy (or even possible) to compute game progression, but a vague approximation is better than nothing.
Stone Age: there are 2 different end game conditions (building cards and civilization cards).
Both are taken into account to increase the accuracy of the game progression.

=== IV-6 Game statistics ===
Using BGA Studio you can define a set of statistics for your game. Statistics will be displayed at the end of the game, and help players to figure out why they win/loose a game,
and what they should improve. Try to choose interesting statistics that distinguish the different strategies for your game, in order it can help players to understand their game.

Seasons : statistics

=== IV-7 Namespace recommendations ===
Your game is not working in complete isolation, it's included in a page with a lot of elements around (header, footer, logs, chat, player panels, rankings...)

So you should pay attention to naming your DOM elements and CSS classes in a way specific to your game in order to avoid namespace collisions (for example you use a selector for a "selected" class in your .js, and there is also an element of the framework outside of your game with a selected class).

It's recommended to have:
* a wrapper div around your game zone with an id specific to your game ('yourgamename_playzone' for example) and to use it in any xpath selector of your .js
* a prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes of your game ('yrg_selected' for example).

Even if everything is working fine today, otherwise your game may break in the future when the framework is updated.

== Summary ==
These guidelines are here to help you to make sure that the players, the game publisher and the game author are going to enjoy your adaptation of the game. We created these guidelines based on our personal experience (which includes many mistakes along the way) implementing a lot of games on BGA platform. Don't hesitate to contact us if you feel uncomfortable with one of these guidelines in some particular context with your game: these guidelines are here to help and not to prevent you to do smart things, and have fun while programing your game ;)

Файл:BGA TC Pub en.pdf

2020-09-10T10:05:31Z

Een: Een uploaded a new version of File:BGA TC Pub en.pdf

BGA Game licenses

2020-09-10T10:01:20Z

Een: /* 3: Check Publisher's Other Available Licenses */

== What is a "license" exactly? ==

Almost all games on the Board Game Arena platform are adaptations of existing commercial "real" board games. In order to host an adaptation of one of these board games on a website, the copyright owners must first grant a license/authorisation to this website.

== Are all games on BGA licensed by their respective copyright owners? ==

Yes, for all games that are not in the public domain, BGA has been granted an authorisation to create and host an online version.

== Where can I find a list of games for which a license has already been granted? ==

[http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!licensing Check the list of available licenses]

(NB: this page is restricted to developers registered in BGA studio. You'll need to enter your BGA studio credentials to access it)

== What if I start developing a game that is not on the "Available licences" list? ==

We allow developers to start any project in the Studio. But when you submit your project to go live on BGA, it will be rejected during the review process if BGA doesn't hold a proper license for the game.

Exception: games in the public domain are of course not concerned.

== Wow, I WANT to develop a game on this list! ==

Great! :)

But before creating a new project, please takes some seconds to check that someone is not already developing this game. If it is the case, maybe you can propose to join the project?

[http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!projects Check the list of current projects]

Also, first thing to do when starting a project of that list is to request the game image files. Sometimes we already have them, sometimes we'll have to ask the publisher. Since it can be a while between the time the publisher grants the license and when a developer starts a project, this contact also allows to check that everything is still ok on the licensing side.

== What needs to be done to add a game on this list? ==

The copyright owners have to give an license/authorisation to BGA.

Publishers do not have to pay anything to BGA for this, they just need to give their "go". Most of the time, publishers want to have a formal agreement and we sign a contract with them.

== Why aren't all the best-selling games that I love on that list? ==

As you can imagine, the more popular a game is, the most difficult it can be to get an agreement to host this game on BGA.

So if you are thinking about a very popular game that is not on this list, the reason is most likely "we asked but it was not possible" and not "we didn't think of it".

We are really happy to have been able to build a very nice platform that managed to convince some of the most prestigious publishers to host their games here, but of course we can't convince -everyone-.

== I want to make my prototype/unpublished game available on BGA ==

This is possible, BUT most of the time, we consider this is a bad idea for the following reasons:
* if your game has not been published yet, there is certainly a good reason - most of the time there is still some more work to do on the game itself. Publishing a game on BGA that is not 100% finalized won't help you to finalize it.
* as a rule of thumb, popular board games on BGA are games that are popular in the real world. As a consequence prototypes most likely won't get a big audience on BGA.
* we also advise you against developing your own game: games adaptation are better when there is a designer whose focus is on the gameplay and a developer whose focus is on the implementation.

So you definitely can develop your prototype/unpublished game on BGA, but we encourage you to think twice about it and do it only if you are in one/several of the situations below:
* the game is going to be published in the near future
* the game design process is really 100% done: the game is ready to be published in its current shape (ex: self-publishing game, game in a crowdfunding process...)
* you want to test your game with a big number of players to fine-tune some minor things ("balance" of the game).

== What if I really want to develop a particular game that is NOT on the list of "Available licences"? ==

This is the most frequently asked question, so for a detailed answer please follow the white rabbit down these numbered instructions:

=== 1: Determine the Publisher ===

First, you should determine who is the owner of the digital rights of the game. Most of the time, this is the original publisher of the game. The original publisher is not always easy to find, because very often board games are translated and published in different countries by a local publisher.

To find the original publisher:
* check in which country the game has been published first (ex: If it's in Poland, the original publisher is probably Polish).
* check the copyright notice at the end of the rules, where the original publisher is mentioned almost every time.
* very often, if two publishers are mentioned on a gamebox, the well-known publisher is the local publisher from your country and the other one is the original publisher.

Special case: if the game is themed with a prestigious licence (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, some TV show, some well known novel...), you can stop here immediately: contracts between game publishers and prestigious licenses owners are very restrictive, and there is 99% chance that an online adaptation on BGA would be impossible to manage.

Continue to 2.

=== 2: Check Publisher Relation with BGA ===

Read the list of publishers from the [http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!licensing Available licenses] page to check if BGA is already working with this publisher.

If YES, proceed to 3.
If NO, jump to 4.

However, if the publisher is listed as "not working with BGA", you can stop here immediately. It happens that some publishers are not convinced or interested by online boardgaming and it is their right to think so. The BGA team regularly meets new publishers during board games events to show them the platform, so we're working on this but -again- we cannot convince everyone.

=== 3: Check Publisher's Other Available Licenses ===

Is there already in the list a game licensed by this publisher that is available to be developed or under development?

If YES: as a rule of thumb, we do not ask more than one game to a publisher at a time. When we ask a license for a game, the publisher naturally expects that this game will be developed and published online. So we develop and publish a game before asking for another.
If you really want to develop another game from this particular publisher, the best option for you is to help develop the game that is currently licensed and then ask us to request the game you'd like to develop.

If NO: you can click on "template email" at the top of the licensing page to display a form that will help you generate an email to send to the publisher to request a new license.

And if you are unsure, please check with us by sending us an email at [mailto:studio@boardgamearena.com studio@boardgamearena.com] (it's always a good idea to ask if you are not sure ;) )

=== 4: Publisher is not in the list ===

We have never worked with this publisher before.

If you have already developed a game on BGA, you can click on "template email" at the top of the licensing page to display a form that will help you generate an email to send to the publisher to request a new license.

If this is your first game on BGA, we advise you to start with a game already on the list. Why? Because unfortunately, sometimes developers request a license, and then don't finish the development. When asking for a license, it's better if you have already shown your ability to realise an adaptation.

Special case: if you know the publisher PERSONALLY, or have some contact there, please suggest them to check our page for game publishers https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepublishers where they'll get information and find an email template to send to us if they are interested in granting BGA a license.

Special case #2: if you are the publisher, represent the publisher, or the license owner (i.e. author of unpublished game) please check out https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepublishers and if you are interested contact us by email! (you can use the email template available on this page).

BGA Game licenses

2020-09-10T09:59:20Z

Een: /* 3: Check Publisher's Other Available Licenses */

== What is a "license" exactly? ==

Almost all games on the Board Game Arena platform are adaptations of existing commercial "real" board games. In order to host an adaptation of one of these board games on a website, the copyright owners must first grant a license/authorisation to this website.

== Are all games on BGA licensed by their respective copyright owners? ==

Yes, for all games that are not in the public domain, BGA has been granted an authorisation to create and host an online version.

== Where can I find a list of games for which a license has already been granted? ==

[http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!licensing Check the list of available licenses]

(NB: this page is restricted to developers registered in BGA studio. You'll need to enter your BGA studio credentials to access it)

== What if I start developing a game that is not on the "Available licences" list? ==

We allow developers to start any project in the Studio. But when you submit your project to go live on BGA, it will be rejected during the review process if BGA doesn't hold a proper license for the game.

Exception: games in the public domain are of course not concerned.

== Wow, I WANT to develop a game on this list! ==

Great! :)

But before creating a new project, please takes some seconds to check that someone is not already developing this game. If it is the case, maybe you can propose to join the project?

[http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!projects Check the list of current projects]

Also, first thing to do when starting a project of that list is to request the game image files. Sometimes we already have them, sometimes we'll have to ask the publisher. Since it can be a while between the time the publisher grants the license and when a developer starts a project, this contact also allows to check that everything is still ok on the licensing side.

== What needs to be done to add a game on this list? ==

The copyright owners have to give an license/authorisation to BGA.

Publishers do not have to pay anything to BGA for this, they just need to give their "go". Most of the time, publishers want to have a formal agreement and we sign a contract with them.

== Why aren't all the best-selling games that I love on that list? ==

As you can imagine, the more popular a game is, the most difficult it can be to get an agreement to host this game on BGA.

So if you are thinking about a very popular game that is not on this list, the reason is most likely "we asked but it was not possible" and not "we didn't think of it".

We are really happy to have been able to build a very nice platform that managed to convince some of the most prestigious publishers to host their games here, but of course we can't convince -everyone-.

== I want to make my prototype/unpublished game available on BGA ==

This is possible, BUT most of the time, we consider this is a bad idea for the following reasons:
* if your game has not been published yet, there is certainly a good reason - most of the time there is still some more work to do on the game itself. Publishing a game on BGA that is not 100% finalized won't help you to finalize it.
* as a rule of thumb, popular board games on BGA are games that are popular in the real world. As a consequence prototypes most likely won't get a big audience on BGA.
* we also advise you against developing your own game: games adaptation are better when there is a designer whose focus is on the gameplay and a developer whose focus is on the implementation.

So you definitely can develop your prototype/unpublished game on BGA, but we encourage you to think twice about it and do it only if you are in one/several of the situations below:
* the game is going to be published in the near future
* the game design process is really 100% done: the game is ready to be published in its current shape (ex: self-publishing game, game in a crowdfunding process...)
* you want to test your game with a big number of players to fine-tune some minor things ("balance" of the game).

== What if I really want to develop a particular game that is NOT on the list of "Available licences"? ==

This is the most frequently asked question, so for a detailed answer please follow the white rabbit down these numbered instructions:

=== 1: Determine the Publisher ===

First, you should determine who is the owner of the digital rights of the game. Most of the time, this is the original publisher of the game. The original publisher is not always easy to find, because very often board games are translated and published in different countries by a local publisher.

To find the original publisher:
* check in which country the game has been published first (ex: If it's in Poland, the original publisher is probably Polish).
* check the copyright notice at the end of the rules, where the original publisher is mentioned almost every time.
* very often, if two publishers are mentioned on a gamebox, the well-known publisher is the local publisher from your country and the other one is the original publisher.

Special case: if the game is themed with a prestigious licence (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, some TV show, some well known novel...), you can stop here immediately: contracts between game publishers and prestigious licenses owners are very restrictive, and there is 99% chance that an online adaptation on BGA would be impossible to manage.

Continue to 2.

=== 2: Check Publisher Relation with BGA ===

Read the list of publishers from the [http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!licensing Available licenses] page to check if BGA is already working with this publisher.

If YES, proceed to 3.
If NO, jump to 4.

However, if the publisher is listed as "not working with BGA", you can stop here immediately. It happens that some publishers are not convinced or interested by online boardgaming and it is their right to think so. The BGA team regularly meets new publishers during board games events to show them the platform, so we're working on this but -again- we cannot convince everyone.

=== 3: Check Publisher's Other Available Licenses ===

Is there already in the list a game licensed by this publisher that is available to be developed or under development?

If YES: as a rule of thumb, we do not ask more than one game to a publisher at a time. When we ask a license for a game, the publisher naturally expects that this game will be developed and published online. So we develop and publish a game before asking for another.
If you really want to develop another game from this particular publisher, the best option for you is to help develop the game that is currently licensed and then ask us to request the game you'd like to develop.

If NO: you can click on "template email" at the top of the licensing page to display a form that will help you generate an email to send to the publisher to request a new license.

And if you are unsure, please check with us by sending us an email at studio@boardgamearena.com (always good to ask if unsure ;) )

=== 4: Publisher is not in the list ===

We have never worked with this publisher before.

If you have already developed a game on BGA, you can click on "template email" at the top of the licensing page to display a form that will help you generate an email to send to the publisher to request a new license.

If this is your first game on BGA, we advise you to start with a game already on the list. Why? Because unfortunately, sometimes developers request a license, and then don't finish the development. When asking for a license, it's better if you have already shown your ability to realise an adaptation.

Special case: if you know the publisher PERSONALLY, or have some contact there, please suggest them to check our page for game publishers https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepublishers where they'll get information and find an email template to send to us if they are interested in granting BGA a license.

Special case #2: if you are the publisher, represent the publisher, or the license owner (i.e. author of unpublished game) please check out https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepublishers and if you are interested contact us by email! (you can use the email template available on this page).

Pre-release checklist

2020-09-04T09:32:14Z

Een: Check translations

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

If you think your game is ready to be reviewed by by BGA admins and/or Publisher please consult this checklist first

* Metadata and graphics
** [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]] has correct and up to date information about the game
** Game box graphics is 3D version of the game box (if available) and publisher icon is correct (see [[Game art: img directory]]). Space around the box has to be transparent, not white.
** You have added a game_banner.jpg and some game_displayX.jpg images to make the game page pretty (NB: on the studio, you have to create a build for these images to appear on the studio game page)
** There is no images in img directory which are not needed anymore
** Multiple images (i.e. cards) are compressed in "Sprite" (see [[Game art: img directory]])
** Each image should not exceed 4M
** Total size should not exceed 10M, image compression should be used otherwise
* Server side
** When giving their turn to a player, you give them some extra time with the giveExtraTime() function
** Game progression is implemented (getGameProgression() in php)
** Zombie turn is implemented (zombieTurn() in php). Note: it can only be tested if you explicitly click on the quit button to create a zombie. If you are expelled it does not generated a Zombie.
** You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
** Game has meaningful notification messages (but don't overkill it, more user logs will slow down the loading)
** You implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Special testing
** Game is tested with spectator (non player observer): watch you own game with a different account, which is not in the game, and check that it works (and that no secret information is visible). For example, you start a game with express start and your dev0, dev1, dev2 accounts are playing. Then you connect with your dev4 account in a private browser window, and you go to the game.
** Game is tested with in-game replay from last move feature (by clicking on notification log items)
** Game works in Chrome and Firefox browsers at least. Also very recommended to test in IE 11 and Edge.
** Game works on mobile device (if you don't have mobile device to test at least test in Chrome with smaller screen, they have a mode for that)
** Test your game in realtime mode. Usually people will run out of time if you use default times unless you add call giveExtraTime($active_player_id) before each turn
** Test your game in 3D mode (if it makes sense; 3D mode can also be disabled through the 'enable_3d' parameter for gameinfos.inc.php, but if it "mostly works", it can be nice to keep it activated even if 2D is more appropriate for the game, just because it's fun to look at)
* Cleanup
** Remove all extra console.log from your js code
** Remove all unnecessary debug logging from your php code
** Copyright headers in all source files have your name
* User Interface
** Review BGA UI design Guidelines [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines]]
** If the elements in your game zone don't occupy all the available horizontal space, '''they should be centered'''.
** If your game elements become blurry or pixellated when using the browser zoom, you forgot to use [[Game_art:_img_directory#Use_background-size | higher resolution images with background-size]]
** Non-self explanatory graphic elements should have tooltips
** If graphic elements appear in notification log they should have titles (i.e. title attribute of div) so can be read in non rendered form (i.e. as text only)
** Strings in your source code are ready for translation. See [[Translations]]. You can generate dummy translations for checking that everything is ready for translation from your "Manage game" page.
** A prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes to avoid namespace conflicts, i.e. vla_selected vs selected
** If you are looking for advice on design and some 3rd party testing you can post a message on the developers forum, and ask other developers, there are a lot of people who will gladly do it.
* Finally
** If possible (meaning if there is not already a project with that name) copy your project to a new project '''matching exactly the name of the game''' (no prefix or suffix). If not possible move on to the next steps, admin will have to retrieve the other project and overwrite it.
** Create a build for your game from the "manage game" page (using the '''Build a new release version''' section) and check the log to make sure that everything builds fine (after a successful build, you should see a new version in "Versions available for production").
** Send an e-mail to studio@boardgamearena.com asking to move the project forward for review. You cannot deploy yourself from the "manage game" page until a first deploy has been done by the admins. Please note that '''everything must be OK on the licensing''' side for a project to be moved out of the studio.

Pre-release checklist

2020-08-20T13:10:58Z

Een: add background size

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

If you think your game is ready to be reviewed by by BGA admins and/or Publisher please consult this checklist first

* Metadata and graphics
** [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]] has correct and up to date information about the game
** Game box graphics is 3D version of the game box (if available) and publisher icon is correct (see [[Game art: img directory]]). Space around the box has to be transparent, not white.
** You have added a game_banner.jpg and some game_displayX.jpg images to make the game page pretty (NB: on the studio, you have to create a build for these images to appear on the studio game page)
** There is no images in img directory which are not needed anymore
** Multiple images (i.e. cards) are compressed in "Sprite" (see [[Game art: img directory]])
** Each image should not exceed 4M
** Total size should not exceed 10M, image compression should be used otherwise
* Server side
** When giving their turn to a player, you give them some extra time with the giveExtraTime() function
** Game progression is implemented (getGameProgression() in php)
** Zombie turn is implemented (zombieTurn() in php). Note: it can only be tested if you explicitly click on the quit button to create a zombie. If you are expelled it does not generated a Zombie.
** You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
** Game has meaningful notification messages (but don't overkill it, more user logs will slow down the loading)
** You implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Special testing
** Game is tested with spectator (non player observer): watch you own game with a different account, which is not in the game, and check that it works (and that no secret information is visible). For example, you start a game with express start and your dev0, dev1, dev2 accounts are playing. Then you connect with your dev4 account in a private browser window, and you go to the game.
** Game is tested with in-game replay from last move feature (by clicking on notification log items)
** Game works in Chrome and Firefox browsers at least. Also very recommended to test in IE 11 and Edge.
** Game works on mobile device (if you don't have mobile device to test at least test in Chrome with smaller screen, they have a mode for that)
** Test your game in realtime mode. Usually people will run out of time if you use default times unless you add call giveExtraTime($active_player_id) before each turn
** Test your game in 3D mode (if it makes sense; 3D mode can also be disabled through the 'enable_3d' parameter for gameinfos.inc.php, but if it "mostly works", it can be nice to keep it activated even if 2D is more appropriate for the game, just because it's fun to look at)
* Cleanup
** Remove all extra console.log from your js code
** Remove all unnecessary debug logging from your php code
** Copyright headers in all source files have your name
* User Interface
** Review BGA UI design Guidelines [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines]]
** If the elements in your game zone don't occupy all the available horizontal space, '''they should be centered'''.
** If your game elements become blurry or pixellated when using the browser zoom, you forgot to use [[Game_art:_img_directory#Use_background-size | higher resolution images with background-size]]
** Non-self explanatory graphic elements should have tooltips
** If graphic elements appear in notification log they should have titles (i.e. title attribute of div) so can be read in non rendered form (i.e. as text only)
** Strings in your source code are ready for translation. See [[Translations]]
** A prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes to avoid namespace conflicts, i.e. vla_selected vs selected
** If you are looking for advice on design and some 3rd party testing you can post a message on the developers forum, and ask other developers, there are a lot of people who will gladly do it.
* Finally
** If possible (meaning if there is not already a project with that name) copy your project to a new project '''matching exactly the name of the game''' (no prefix or suffix). If not possible move on to the next steps, admin will have to retrieve the other project and overwrite it.
** Create a build for your game from the "manage game" page (using the '''Build a new release version''' section) and check the log to make sure that everything builds fine (after a successful build, you should see a new version in "Versions available for production").
** Send an e-mail to studio@boardgamearena.com asking to move the project forward for review. You cannot deploy yourself from the "manage game" page until a first deploy has been done by the admins. Please note that '''everything must be OK on the licensing''' side for a project to be moved out of the studio.

Main game logic: yourgamename.game.php

2020-08-20T09:53:00Z

Een: /* Player color preferences */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game logic. Here you initialize the game, persist data, implement the rules and notify the client interface of changes.

== File Structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described directly with comments in the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* EmptyGame (constructor): where you define global variables.
* setupNewGame: initial setup of the game.
* getAllDatas: where you retrieve all game data during a complete reload of the game.
* getGameProgression: where you compute the game progression indicator.
* Utility functions: your utility functions.
* Player actions: the entry points for players actions.
* Game state arguments: methods to return additional data on specific game states ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#args more info here]).
* Game state actions: the logic to run when entering a new game state ([http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Your_game_state_machine:_states.inc.php#action more info here]).
* zombieTurn: what to do it's the turn of a zombie player.

== Accessing player information ==

'''Important''': In the following methods, be mindful of the difference between the "active" player and the "current" player. The '''active''' player is the player whose turn it is - not necessarily the player who sent a request! The '''current''' player is the player who sent the request and will see the results returned by your methods: not necessarily the player whose turn it is!

; getPlayersNumber()
: Returns the number of players playing at the table
: Note: doesn't work in setupNewGame (use count($players) instead).

; getActivePlayerId()
: Get the "active_player", whatever what is the current state type.
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multiplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; getActivePlayerName()
: Get the "active_player" name
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

; loadPlayersBasicInfos()
: Get an associative array with generic data about players (ie: not game specific data).
: The key of the associative array is the player id. The returned table is cached, so ok to call multiple times without performance concerns.
: The content of each value is:
: * player_name - the name of the player
: * player_color (ex: ff0000) - the color code of the player
: * player_no - the position of the player at the start of the game in natural table order, i.e. 1,2,3

; getCurrentPlayerId()
: Get the "current_player". The current player is the one from which the action originated (the one who sent the request).
: '''Be careful''': This is not necessarily the active player!
: In general, you shouldn't use this method, unless you are in "multiplayer" state.
: '''Very important''': in your setupNewGame and zombieTurn function, you must never use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message (these actions are triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to these actions).

; getCurrentPlayerName()
: Get the "current_player" name
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; getCurrentPlayerColor()
: Get the "current_player" color
: Be careful using this method (see above).

; isCurrentPlayerZombie()
: Check the "current_player" zombie status. If true, player is zombie, i.e. left or was kicked out of the game.

== Accessing the database ==

The main game logic should be the only point from which you should access the game database. You access your database using SQL queries with the methods below.

'''IMPORTANT'''

BGA uses [http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/sql-syntax-transactions.html database transactions]. This means that your database changes WON'T BE APPLIED to the database until your request ends normally. Using transactions is in fact very useful for you; at any time, if your game logic detects that something is wrong (example: a disallowed move), you just have to throw an exception and all changes to the game situation will be removed.

; DbQuery( $sql )
: This is the generic method to access the database.
: It can execute any type of SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT query on the database.
: You should use it for UPDATE/DELETE/REPLACE/INSERT queries. For SELECT queries, the specialized methods below are much better.

; getUniqueValueFromDB( $sql )
: Returns a unique value from DB or null if no value is found.
: $sql must be a SELECT query.
: Raise an exception if more than 1 row is returned.

; getCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Returns an associative array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: The key of the resulting associative array is the first field specified in the SELECT query.
: The value of the resulting associative array if an associative array with all the field specified in the SELECT query and associated values.
: First column must be a primary or alternate key.
: The resulting collection can be empty.
: If you specified $bSingleValue=true and if your SQL query request 2 fields A and B, the method returns an associative array "A=>B"

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
1234 => array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
1235 => array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getCollectionFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
1234 => 'myuser0',
1235 => 'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getNonEmptyCollectionFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if the collection is empty

; getObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Returns one row for the sql SELECT query as an associative array or null if there is no result
: Raise an exception if the query return more than one row

Example:
<pre>
self::getObjectFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'" );

Result:
array(
'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1
)
</pre>

; getNonEmptyObjectFromDB( $sql )
: Idem than previous one, but raise an exception if no row is found

; getObjectListFromDB( $sql, $bUniqueValue=false )
: Return an array of rows for a sql SELECT query.
: the result if the same than "getCollectionFromDB" except that the result is a simple array (and not an associative array).
: The result can be empty.
: If you specified $bUniqueValue=true and if your SQL query request 1 field, the method returns directly an array of values.

Example 1:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_id id, player_name name, player_score score FROM player" );

Result:
array(
array( 'id'=>1234, 'name'=>'myuser0', 'score'=>1 ),
array( 'id'=>1235, 'name'=>'myuser1', 'score'=>0 )
)
</pre>
Example 2:
<pre>
self::getObjectListFromDB( "SELECT player_name name FROM player", true );

Result:
array(
'myuser0',
'myuser1'
)

</pre>

; getDoubleKeyCollectionFromDB( $sql, $bSingleValue=false )
: Return an associative array of associative array, from a SQL SELECT query.
: First array level correspond to first column specified in SQL query.
: Second array level correspond to second column specified in SQL query.
: If bSingleValue = true, keep only third column on result

; DbGetLastId()
: Return the PRIMARY key of the last inserted row (see PHP mysql_insert_id function).

; DbAffectedRow()
: Return the number of row affected by the last operation

; escapeStringForDB( $string )
: You must use this function on every string type data in your database that contains unsafe data.
: (unsafe = can be modified by a player).
: This method makes sure that no SQL injection will be done through the string used.
: Note: if you using standard types in ajax actions, like AT_alphanum it is sanitized before arrival,
: this is only needed if you manage to get unchecked string, like in the games where user has to enter text as a response.

<pre>

</pre>

Note: see Editing [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]] to know how to define your database model.

== Use globals ==

Sometimes, you want a single global integer value for your game, and you don't want to create a DB table specifically for it.

You can do this with the BGA framework "global." Your value will be stored in the "global" table in the database, and you can access it with simple methods.

'''initGameStateLabels'''

This method should be located at the beginning of ''yourgamename.php.'' This is where you define the globals used in your game logic, by assigning them IDs.

You can define up to 79 globals, with IDs from 10 to 89 (inclusive). You must '''not''' use globals outside this range, as those values are used by other components of the framework.

<pre>
self::initGameStateLabels( array(
"my_first_global_variable" => 10,
"my_second_global_variable" => 11
) );
</pre>

'''setGameStateInitialValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Initialize your global value. Must be called before any use of your global, so you should call this method from your "setupNewGame" method.

'''getGameStateValue( $value_label )'''

Retrieve the current value of a global.

'''setGameStateValue( $value_label, $value_value )'''

Set the current value of a global.

'''incGameStateValue( $value_label, $increment )'''

Increment the current value of a global. If increment is negative, decrement the value of the global.

Return the final value of the global.

== Game states and active players ==

=== Activate player handling ===

; $this->activeNextPlayer()
: Make the next player active in the natural player order.
: Note: you CANT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->activePrevPlayer()
: Make the previous player active (in the natural player order).
: Note: you CANT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->gamestate->changeActivePlayer( $player_id )
: You can call this method to make any player active.
: Note: you CANT use this method in a "activeplayer" or "multipleactiveplayer" state. You must use a "game" type game state for this.

; $this->getActivePlayerId()
: Return the "active_player" id
: Note: it does NOT mean that this player is active right now, because state type could be "game" or "multiplayer"
: Note: avoid using this method in a "multiplayer" state because it does not mean anything.

=== Multiactivate player handling ===

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive()
: All playing players are made active. Update notification is sent to all players (triggers onUpdateActionButtons).
: Usually, you use this method at the beginning (ex: "st" action method) of a multiplayer game state when all players have to do some action. Do not use method if you going to do some more chages in active player list, i.e. if you want to take away multi-active right after, use setPlayersMultiactive instead.

Example of usage:
<pre>
function st_MultiPlayerInit() {
$this->gamestate->setAllPlayersMultiactive();
}
</pre>
And this is declaration of state:
<pre>
2 => array(
"name" => "playerTurnPlace",
"description" => clienttranslate('Other player must place ships'),
"descriptionmyturn" => clienttranslate('${you} must place ships (click on YOUR SHIPS board to place)'),
"type" => "multipleactiveplayer",
'action' => 'st_MultiPlayerInit',
'args' => 'arg_playerTurnPlace',
"possibleactions" => array( "actionBla" ),
"transitions" => array( "next" => 4, "last" => 99)
),
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->setAllPlayersNonMultiactive( $next_state )
: All playing players are made inactive. Transition to next state

; $this->gamestate->setPlayersMultiactive( $players, $next_state, $bExclusive = false )
: Make a specific list of players active during a multiactive gamestate. Update notification is sent to all players who's state changed.
: "players" is the array of player id that should be made active.
: If "exclusive" parameter is not set or false it doesn't deactivate other previously active players. If its set to true, the players who will be multiactive at the end are only these in "$players" array

: In case "players" is empty, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise

; $this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $player_id, $next_state )
: During a multiactive game state, make the specified player inactive.
: Usually, you call this method during a multiactive game state after a player did his action. It is also possible to call it directly from multiplayer action handler.
: If this player was the last active player, the method trigger the "next_state" transition to go to the next game state.
: returns true if state transition happened, false otherwise
Example of usage (see state declaration of playerTurnPlace above):
<pre>
function actionBla($args) {
self::checkAction('actionBla');
// handle the action using $this->getCurrentPlayerId()
$this->gamestate->setPlayerNonMultiactive( $this->getCurrentPlayerId(), 'next');
}
</pre>
; $this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( $next_state_if_none )
: Sends update notification about multiplayer changes. All multiactive set* functions above do that, however if you want to change state manually using db queries for complex calculations, you have to call this yourself after. Do not call this if you calling one of the other setters above.
Example: you have player teams and you want to activate all players in one team
<pre>
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='0'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );
$sql = "UPDATE player SET player_is_multiactive='1' WHERE player_id='$player_id' AND player_team='$team_no'";
self::DbQuery( $sql );

$this->gamestate->updateMultiactiveOrNextState( 'error' );
</pre>

; $this->gamestate->getActivePlayerList()
: With this method you can retrieve the list of the active player at any time.
: During a "game" type gamestate, it will return a void array.
: During a "activeplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array with one value (the active player id).
: During a "multipleactiveplayer" type gamestate, it will return an array of the active players id.
: Note: you should only use this method in the latter case.

=== States functions ===
; $this->gamestate->nextState( $transition )
: Change current state to a new state. Important: the $transition parameter is the name of the transition, and NOT the name of the target game state, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for more information about states.

; $this->checkAction( $actionName, $bThrowException=true )
: Check if an action is valid for the current game state, and optionally, throw an exception if it isn't.
: The action is valid if it is listed in the "possibleactions" array for the current game state (see game state description).
: This method MUST be the first one called in ALL your PHP methods that handle player actions, in order to make sure a player doesn't perform an action not allowed by the rules at the point in the game.
: If "bThrowException" is set to "false", the function returns '''false''' in case of failure instead of throwing an exception. This is useful when several actions are possible, in order to test each of them without throwing exceptions.

; $this->gamestate->checkPossibleAction( $action )
: (rarely used)
: This works exactly like "checkAction" (above), except that it does NOT check if the current player is active.
: This is used specifically in certain game states when you want to authorize additional actions for players that are not active at the moment.
: Example: in ''Libertalia'', you want to authorize players to change their mind about the card played. They are of course not active at the time they change their mind, so you cannot use "checkAction"; use "checkPossibleAction" instead.

; $this->gamestate->state()
: Get an associative array of current game state attributes, see [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]] for state attributes.
$state=$this->gamestate->state(); if( $state['name'] == 'myGameState' ) {...}

== Players turn order ==

'''getNextPlayerTable()'''

Return an associative array which associate each player with the next player around the table.

In addition, key 0 is associated to the first player to play.

Example: if three player with ID 1, 2 and 3 are around the table, in this order, the method returns:
<pre>
array(
1 => 2,
2 => 3,
3 => 1,
0 => 1
);
</pre>

'''getPrevPlayerTable()'''

Same as above, but the associative array associate the previous player around the table.

'''getPlayerAfter( $player_id )'''

Get player playing after given player in natural playing order.

'''getPlayerBefore( $player_id )'''

Get player playing before given player in natural playing order.

Note: There is no API to modify this order, if you have custom player order you have to maintain it in your database
and have custom function to access it.

== Notify players ==

To understand notifications, please read [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-bga-framework-at-a-glance The BGA Framework at a glance] first.

'''IMPORTANT'''

Notifications are sent at the very end of the request, when it ends normally. It means that if you throw an exception for any reason (ex: move not allowed), no notifications will be sent to players.
Notifications sent between the game start (setupNewGame) and the end of the "action" method of the first active state will never reach their destination.

'''notifyAllPlayers( $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Send a notification to all players of the game.

* notification_type:
A string that defines the type of your notification.

Your game interface Javascript logic will use this to know what is the type of the received notification (and to trigger the corresponding method).

* notification_log:
A string that defines what is to be displayed in the game log.

You can use an empty string here (""). In this case, nothing is displayed in the game log.

If you define a real string here, you should use "clienttranslate" method to make sure it can be translate.

You can use arguments in your notification_log strings, that refers to values defines in the "notification_args" argument (see below).
Note: Make sure you only use single quotes ('), otherwise PHP will try to interpolate the variable and will ignore the values in the args array.

* notification_args:
The arguments of your notifications, as an associative array.

This array will be transmitted to the game interface logic, in order the game interface can be updated.

Complete notifyAllPlayers example (from "Reversi"):

<pre>
self::notifyAllPlayers( "playDisc", clienttranslate( '${player_name} plays a disc and turns over ${returned_nbr} disc(s)' ),
array(
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getActivePlayerName(),
'returned_nbr' => count( $turnedOverDiscs ),
'x' => $x,
'y' => $y
) );
</pre>

You can see in the example above the use of the "clienttranslate" method, and the use of 2 arguments "player_name" and "returned_nbr" in the notification log.

'''Important''': NO private data must be sent with this method, as a cheater could see it even it is not used explicitly by the game interface logic. If you want to send private information to a player, please use notifyPlayer below.

'''Important''': this array is serialized to be sent to the browsers, and will be saved with the notification to be able to replay the game later. If it is too big, it can make notifications slower / less reliable, and replay archives very big (to the point of failing). So as a general rule, you should send only the minimum of information necessary to update the client interface with no overhead in order to keep the notifications as light as possible.

Note: you CAN use some HTML inside your notification log, however it not recommended for many reasons:
* Its bad architecture, ui elements leak into server now you have to manage ui in many places
* If you decided to change something in ui in future version, old games reply and tutorials may not work, since they use stored notifications
* When you read log preview for old games its unreadable (this is log before you enter the game reply, useful for troubleshooting or game analysis)
* Its more data to transfer and store in db
* Its nightmare for translators, at least don't put HTML tags inside the "clienttranslate" method. You can use a notification argument instead, and provide your HTML through this argument.

If you still want to have pretty pictures in the log check this [[BGA_Studio_Cookbook#Inject_images_and_styled_html_in_the_log]].

If your notification contains some phrases that build programmatically you may need to use recursive notifications. In this case the argument can be not only the string but
an array itself, which contains 'log' and 'args', i.e.

$this->notifyAllPlayers('playerLog',clienttranslate('Game moves ${token_name_rec}'),
['token_name_rec'=>['log'=>'${token_name} #${token_number}',
'args'=> ['token_name'=>clienttranslate('Boo'), 'token_number'=>$number, 'i18n'=>['token_name'] ]
]
]);

'''notifyPlayer( $player_id, $notification_type, $notification_log, $notification_args )'''

Same as above, except that the notification is sent to one player only.

This method must be used each time some private information must be transmitted to a player.

Important: the variable for player name must be ${player_name} in order to be highlighted with the player color in the game log

== About random and randomness ==

A large number of board games rely on random, most often based on dice, cards shuffling, picking some item in a bag, and so on. This is very important to ensure a high level of randomness for each of these situations.

Here's are a list of techniques you should use in these situations, from the best to the worst.

=== Dices and bga_rand ===

'''bga_rand( min, max )'''
This is a BGA framework function that provides you a random number between "min" and "max" (included), using the best available random method available on the system.

This is the preferred function you should use, because we are updating it when a better method is introduced.

At now, bga_rand is based on the PHP function "random_int", which ensure a cryptographic level of randomness.

In particular, it is '''mandatory''' to use it for all '''dice throw''' (ie: games using other methods for dice throwing will be rejected by BGA during review).

Note: rand() and mt_rand() are deprecated on BGA and should not be used anymore, as their randomness is not as good as "bga_rand".

=== shuffle and cards shuffling ===

To shuffle items, like a pile of cards, the best way is to use the BGA PHP [[Deck]] component and to use "shuffle" method. This ensure you that the best available shuffling method is used, and that if in the future we improve it your game will be up to date.

At now, the Deck component shuffle method is based on PHP "shuffle" method, which has a quite good randomness (even it is not as good as bga_rand). In consequence, we accept other shuffling methods during reviews, as long as their are based on PHP "shuffle" function (or similar, like "array_rand").

=== Other methods ===

Mysql "RAND()" function has not enough randomness to be a valid method to get a random element on BGA. This function has been used in some existing games and has given acceptable results, but now it should be avoided and you should use other methods instead.

== Game statistics ==

There are 2 types of statistics:
* a "player" statistic is a statistic associated to a player
* a "table" statistics is a statistic not associated to a player (global statistic for this game).

See [[Game statistics: stats.inc.php]] to see how you defines statistics for your game.

'''initStat( $table_or_player, $name, $value, $player_id = null )'''

Create a statistic entry with a default value.
This method must be called for each statistics of your game, in your setupNewGame method.

'$table_or_player' must be set to "table" if this is a table statistics, or "player" if this is a player statistics.

'$name' is the name of your statistics, as it has been defined in your stats.inc.php file.

'$value' is the initial value of the statistics. If this is a player statistics and if the player is not specified by "$player_id" argument, the value is set for ALL players.

'''setStat( $value, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Set a statistic $name to $value.

If "$player_id" is not specified, setStat consider it is a TABLE statistic.

If "$player_id" is specified, setStat consider it is a PLAYER statistic.

'''incStat( $delta, $name, $player_id = null )'''

Increment (or decrement) specified statistic value by $delta value. Same behavior as setStat function.

'''getStat( $name, $player_id = null )'''

Return the value of statistic specified by $name. Useful when creating derivative statistics such as average.

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Manage player scores and Tie breaker ==

=== Normal scoring ===

At the end of the game, players automatically get a rank depending on their score: the player with the biggest score is #1, the player with the second biggest score is #2, and so on...

During the game, you update player's score directly by updating "player_score" field of "player" table in database.

Examples:
<pre>

// +2 points to active player
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=player_score+2 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

// Set score of active player to 5
self::DbQuery( "UPDATE player SET player_score=5 WHERE player_id='".self::getActivePlayerId()."'" );

</pre>

Note: don't forget to notify the client side in order the score control can be updated accordingly.

=== Tie breaker ===

Tie breaker is used when two players get the same score at the end of a game.

Tie breaker is using "player_score_aux" field of "player" table. It is updated exactly like the "player_score" field.

Tie breaker score is displayed only for players who are tied at the end of the game. Most of the time, it is not supposed to be displayed explicitly during the game.

When you are using "player_score_aux" functionality, you must describe the formula to use in your gameinfos.inc.php file like this:

<pre>
'tie_breaker_description' => totranslate("Describe here your tie breaker formula"),
</pre>

This description will be used as a tooltip to explain to players how this auxiliary score has been calculated.

=== Co-operative game ===

To make everyone lose in full-coop game:

Add the following in gameinfos.inc.php :
'is_coop' => 1, // full cooperative

And score zero to everyone.

=== Semi-coop ===

If the game is not full-coop, then everyone lose = everyone is tie. I.e. set score to 0 to everybody.

=== Only "winners" and "losers" ===

For some games, there is only a group (or a single) "winner", and everyone else is a "loser", with no "end of game rank" (1st, 2nd, 3rd...).

Examples:
* Coup
* Not Alone
* Werewolves
* Quantum

In this case:
* Set the scores so that the winner has the best score, and the other players have the same (lower) score.
* Add the following lines to gameinfos.php:

<pre>
// If in the game, all losers are equal (no score to rank them or explicit in the rules that losers are not ranked between them), set this to true
// The game end result will display "Winner" for the 1st player and "Loser" for all other players
'losers_not_ranked' => true,
</pre>

Werewolves and Coup are implemented like this, as you can see here:
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=werewolves&section=lastresults
* https://boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=coupcitystate&section=lastresults

Adding this has the following effects:
* On game results for this game, "Winner" or "Loser" is going to appear instead of the usual "1st, 2nd, 3rd, ...".
* When a game is over, the result of the game will be "End of game: Victory" or "End of game: Defeat" depending on the result of the CURRENT player (instead of the usual "Victory of XXX").
* When calculating ELO points, if there is at least one "Loser", no "victorious" player can lose ELO points, and no "losing" player can win ELO point. Usually it may happened because being tie with many players with a low rank is considered as a tie and may cost you points. If losers_not_ranked is set, we prevent this behavior and make sure you only gain/loss ELO when you get the corresponding results.

Important: this SHOULD NOT be used for cooperative games (see is_coop parameter), or for 2 players games (it makes no sense in this case).

=== Solo ===

If game supports solo variant, a negative score means defeat, a positive score means victory.

=== Player elimination ===

In some games, this is useful to eliminate a player from the game in order he/she can start another game without waiting for the current game end.

This case should be rare. Please don't use player elimination feature if some player just has to wait the last 10% of the game for game end. This feature should be used only in games where players are eliminated all along the game (typical examples: "Perudo" or "The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow").

Usage:

* Player to eliminate should NOT be active anymore (preferably use the feature in a "game" type game state).
* In your PHP code:
self::eliminatePlayer( <player_to_eliminate_id> );
* the player is informed in a dialog box that he no longer have to played and can start another game if he/she wants too (whith buttons "stay at this table" "quit table and back to main site"). In any case, the player is free to start & join another table from now.
* When your game is over, all players who have been eliminated before receive a "notification" (the small "!" icon on the top right of the BGA interface) that indicate them that "the game has ended" and invite them to review the game results.

=== Scoring Helper functions ===

// get score
function dbGetScore($player_id) {
return $this->getUniqueValueFromDB("SELECT player_score FROM player WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set score
function dbSetScore($player_id, $count) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score='$count' WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// set aux score (tie breaker)
function dbSetAuxScore($player_id, $score) {
$this->DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score_aux=$score WHERE player_id='$player_id'");
}

// increment score (can be negative too)
function dbIncScore($player_id, $inc) {
$count = $this->dbGetScore($player_id);
if ($inc != 0) {
$count += $inc;
$this->dbSetScore($player_id, $count);
}
return $count;
}

== Reflexion time ==

; function giveExtraTime( $player_id, $specific_time=null )
: Give standard extra time to this player.
: Standard extra time depends on the speed of the game (small with "slow" game option, bigger with other options).
: You can also specify an exact time to add, in seconds, with the "specified_time" argument (rarely used).

== Undo moves ==

Please read our [[BGA Undo policy]] before.

'''Important''': Before using these methods, you must also add the following to your "gameinfos.inc.php" file, otherwise these methods are ineffective:
'db_undo_support' => true

; function undoSavepoint( )
: Save the whole game situation inside an "Undo save point".
: There is only ONE undo save point available (see BGA Undo policy).

; function undoRestorePoint()
: Restore the situation previously saved as an "Undo save point".
: You must make sure that the active player is the same after and before the undoRestorePoint (ie: this is your responsibility to ensure that the player that is active when this method is called is exactly the same than the player that was active when the undoSavePoint method has been called).

== Managing errors and exceptions ==

Note: when you throw an exception, all database changes and all notifications are cancelled immediately. This way, the game situation that existed before the request is completely restored.

; throw new BgaUserException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a user error
: You must throw this exception when a player wants to do something that he is not allowed to do.
: The error message will be shown to the player as a "red message", so it must be translated.
: Throwing such an exception is NOT considered a bug, so it is not traced in BGA error logs.

Example from Gomoku:
<pre>
throw new BgaUserException( self::_("There is already a stone on this intersection, you can't play there") );
</pre>

; throw new BgaVisibleSystemException ( $error_message)
: You must throw this exception when you detect something that is not supposed to happened in your code.
: The error message is shown to the user as an "Unexpected error", in order that he can report it in the forum.
: The error message is logged in BGA error logs. If it happens regularly, we will report it to you.

; throw new BgaSystemException ( $error_message)
: Base class to notify a system exception. The message will be hidden from the user, but show in the logs. Use this if the message contains technical information.
: You shouldn't use this type of exception except if you think the information shown could be critical. Indeed: a generic error message will be shown to the user, so it's going to be difficult for you to see what happened.

== Zombie mode ==

When a player leaves a game for any reason (expelled, quit), he becomes a "zombie player". In this case, the results of the game won't count for statistics, but this is cool if the other players can finish the game anyway. That's why zombie mode exists: allow the other player to finish the game, even if the situation is not ideal.

While developing your zombie mode, keep in mind that:
* Do not refer to the rules, because this situation is not planned by the rules.
* Try to figure that you are playing with your friends and one of them has to leave: how can we finish the game without killing the spirit of the game?
* The idea is NOT to develop an artificial intelligence for the game.
* Do not try to end the game early, even in a two-player game. The zombie is there to allow the game to continue, not to end it. Trying to end the game is not supported by the framework and will likely cause unexpected errors.

Most of the time, the best thing to do when it is zombie player turn is to jump immediately to a state where he is not active anymore. For example, if he is in a game state where he has a choice between playing A and playing B, the best thing to do is NOT to choose A or B, but to pass. So, even if there's no "pass" action in the rules, add a "zombiepass" transitition in your game state and use it.

Each time a zombie player must play, your "zombieTurn" method is called.

Parameters:
* $state: the name of the current game state.
* $active_player: the id of the active player.

Most of the time, your zombieTurn method looks like this:

<pre>
function zombieTurn( $state, $active_player )
{
$statename = $state['name'];

if( $statename == 'myFirstGameState'
|| $statename == 'my2ndGameState'
|| $statename == 'my3rdGameState'
....
)
{
$this->gamestate->nextState( "zombiePass" );
}
else
throw new BgaVisibleSystemException( "Zombie mode not supported at this game state: ".$statename );
}
</pre>

Note that in the example above, all corresponding game state should implement "zombiePass" as a transition.

'''Very important''': your zombie code will be called when the player leaves the game. This action is triggered from the main site and propagated to the gameserver from a server, not from a browser. As a consequence, there is no current player associated to this action. In your zombieTurn function, you must '''never''' use getCurrentPlayerId() or getCurrentPlayerName(), otherwise it will fail with a "Not logged" error message.

== Player color preferences ==

BGA players (Club members) may now choose their preferred color for playing. For example, if they are used to play green for every board game, they can select "green" in their BGA preferences page.

Making your game compatible with colors preferences is very easy and requires only 1 line of PHP and 1 configuration change :

On your gameinfos.inc.php file, add the following lines :

// Favorite colors support : if set to "true", support attribution of favorite colors based on player's preferences (see reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method)
// NB: this parameter is used only to flag games supporting this feature; you must use (or not use) reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences PHP method to actually enable or disable the feature.
'favorite_colors_support' => true,

Then, on your main <your_game>.game.php file, find the "reloadPlayersBasicInfos" call in your "setupNewGame" method and replace :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

By :

$sql .= implode( $values, ',' );
self::DbQuery( $sql );
self::reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences( $players, array( /* LIST HERE THE AVAILABLE COLORS OF YOUR GAME INSTEAD OF THESE ONES */"ff0000", "008000", "0000ff", "ffa500", "773300" ) );
self::reloadPlayersBasicInfos();

The "reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences" method reattributes all colors, taking into account players color preferences and available colors.

Note that you must update the colors to indicate the colors available for your game.

2 important remarks :
* for some games (ex : Chess), the color has an influence on a mechanism of the game, most of the time by giving a special advantage to a player (ex : Starting the game). Color preference mechanism must NOT be used in such a case.
* your logic should NEVER consider that the first player has the color X, that the second player has the color Y, and so on. If this is the case, your game will NOT be compatible with reattributeColorsBasedOnPreferences as this method attribute colors to players based on their preferences and not based as their order at the table.

Colours currently listed as a choice in preferences:

* #ff0000 Red
* #008000 Green
* #0000ff Blue
* #ffa500 Yellow
* #000000 Black
* #ffffff White
* #e94190 Pink
* #982fff Purple
* #72c3b1 Cyan
* #f07f16 Orange
* #bdd002 Khaki green
* #7b7b7b Gray

== Legacy games API ==

For some very specific games ("legacy", "campaign"), you need to keep some informations from a game to another.

This should be an exceptional situation: the legacy API is costing resources on Board Game Arena databases, and is slowing down the game setup process + game end of game process. Please do not use it for things like:
* keeping a player preference/settings (=> player preferences and game options should be used instead)
* keeping a statistics, a score, or a ranking, while it is not planned in the physical board game, or while there is no added value compared to BGA statistics / rankings.

You should use it for:
* legacy games: when some components of the game has been altered in a previous game and should be kept as it is.
* "campaign style" games: when a player is getting a "reward" at the end of a game, and should be able to use it in further games.

Important: you cannot store more than 64k of data (serialized as JSON) per player per game. If you go over 64k, storeLegacyData function is going to FAIL, and there is a risk to create a major bug (= players blocked) in your game. You MUST make sure that no more than 64k of data is used for each player for your game. For example, if you are implementing a "campaign style" game and if you allow a player to start multiple campaign, you must LIMIT the number of different campaign so that the total data size to not go over the limit. We strongly recommend you to use this:

try
{
$this->storeLegacyTeamData( 'my_variable', $my_data );
}
catch( feException $e )
{
if( $e->getCode() == FEX_legacy_size_exceeded )
{
// Do something here to free some space in Legacy data (ex: by removing some variables)
}
else
throw $e;
}

; function storeLegacyData( $player_id, $key, $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Store some data associated with $key for the given user / current game
: In the opposite of all other game data, this data will PERSIST after the end of this table, and can be re-used
: in a future table with the same game.
: IMPORTANT: The only possible place where you can use this method is when the game is over at your table (last game action). Otherwise, there is a risk of conflicts between ongoing games.
: TTL is a time-to-live: the maximum, and default, is 365 days.
: In any way, the total data (= all keys) you can store for a given user+game is 64k (note: data is store serialized as JSON data)

; function retrieveLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Get data associated with $key for the current game
: This data is common to ALL tables from the same game for this player, and persist from one table to another.
: Note: calling this function has an important cost => please call it few times (possibly: only ONCE) for each player for 1 game if possible
: Note: you can use '%' in $key to retrieve all keys matching the given patterns

; function removeLegacyData( $player_id, $key )
: Remove some legacy data with the given key
: (useful to free some data to avoid going over 64k)

; function storeLegacyTeamData( $data, $ttl = 365 )
: Same as storeLegacyData, except that it stores some data for the whole team within the current table
: Ie: if players A, B and C are at a table, the legacy data will be saved for future table with (exactly) A, B and C on the table.
: This is useful for games which are intended to be played several time by the same team.
: Note: the data total size is still limited, so you must implement catch the FEX_legacy_size_exceeded exception if it happens

; function retrieveLegacyTeamData()
: Same as retrieveLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

; function removeLegacyTeamData()
: Same as removeLegacyData, except that it retrieves some data for the whole team within the current table (set by storeLegacyTeamData)

== Debugging and Tracing ==

To debug php code you can use some tracing functions available from the parent class such as debug, trace, error, warn, dump.

self::debug("Ahh!");
self::dump('my_var',$my_var);

See [[Practical_debugging]] section for complete information about debugging interfaces and where to find logs.

Game art: img directory

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Een: /* Game art */ background-size info

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

== Requested images ==

The following images are requested by BGA:

;game_box.png
* It is displayed on the main site on the game description page and when creating a table (280x280 px).
* It should be a 3D image of a physical copy of the game box as it appears in an online shop.
* It is better to take the version of the game that is coherent with the game art used in the adaptation, and from the original publisher of the game.
* The background of the image must be transparent.
* If you don't have a 3D version of the game box, you can use the following website to create one: http://www.3d-pack.com/

;game_box180.png
;game_box75.png

* Don't modify these images, they are auto generated by "Reload game box image" action. If you have another copy of your source make sure you update you copy of these files after they have been generated and not override with old copied.

;game_icon.png

* It is the icon displayed in the lists of games and tables (50x50 px).
* The objective of this icon is to make the game recognizable among the other games. A good idea is to take a part of the game cover that is distinctive (ex: the game title).
* This one does not have to be transparent. This image should not have a border

;publisher.png
* It is the logo of the publisher of the game, displayed on the game description page.
* The width must be 150 px. The height can be anything (reasonable). The image could be transparent.

;publisher2.png (optional)
* If the game has been co-published by 2 publishers, you should upload a second image named "publisher2.png" (same characteristics as the first one).

;game_banner.jpg
* size 1386x400px
* should not contain any text; representative of the atmosphere of the game such as a cover element or communication image; the box image covering the banner on the left should stand out

;game_displayX.jpg (X an integer between 0 and 9)
* height between 400px and 760px, width maximum 1.5 x height;
* the idea is to make players want to play the game, so it could be a zoomed card, some detail of the board, an overview of an ongoing physical game... but NOT a screenshot of the BGA adaptation since there is already the "see game in action" replay for that

'''Important''': when you modify these images, you MUST click on "Reload game box image" from the Control Panel in order your update can be taken into account.

== Game art ==

You must upload in img directory all images of your game interface.

=== Images naming constraints ===

To be correctly deployed your images file names should not contain spaces or parenthesis.

=== Images loading ===

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

Note that you can tune the way images are loaded with Javascript method "dontPreloadImage" (see [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js|Game Interface Logic]]).

General recommendation it to have no more than dozen of image files, 2Mb max each. However if there is heavy game resources specific to a player (i.e. player board of specific color or set of cards) it is better to separate them and "don't pre-load" since in any given game only some of them will be used.

=== Images format ===

You can use these image formats while building your game interface:
;jpg images

should be used for non-transparent images. Jpg are usually lighter than Pngs, so please choose Jpg for big pictures (ex: game board, cards) when you don't need transparency to accelerate game load. You don't need transparency for rounded card corners, it can be done using css.

;png images

should be used for images with transparency, such as non-square tokens, meeples, etc (combined into sprite).

;gif images

can be used for animated images. This is not recommended to use gif animated images as they can upset players, but for some specific interface element this could be useful.

;svg images

svg images can be really efficient for icons or abstract images

=== Use background-size ===

In order to allow for players to use the browser zoom without your images becoming pixelated, it's recommended to use higher resolution images than needed for the normal display of your interface, and to use the css property '''background-size''' to fit the image to the size you need for your interface.

=== Use CSS Sprites ===

To limit the number of images load and make the game load faster, you must use CSS sprites, i.e. you must gather several images in a single one. However, there are limitations. Do not make any CSS image sprite with dimensions that exceed 4096x4096 pixels or it will not work on mobile devices (Android max texture size is 4096 pixels, test your own browser at [http://webglreport.com/ WebGL Report]).

To learn more on CSS Sprites:
* [http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_image_sprites.asp CSS sprites (W3C documentation)].
* [[Game interface stylesheet: yourgamename.css]]

Important: the maximum image size should be 4096x4096 (otherwise, some devices may not display parts of the image, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34682482/what-is-the-maximum-sprite-sheet-size-i-can-use-for-android-devices)

=== Shrink images ===

If you get high resolution images from publisher you need to shrink them since web display requires much lower resolution than printing.

* Shrink images without loss of quality https://tinypng.com/ or http://www.iloveimg.com/

== Image Manipulation Tools ==

You have no choice but to use one of the image manipulating tools to create a successful game adaptation, you would have to
deal with
* Converting to supported formats
* Adding transparency
* Stitching
* Shrinking with no quality loss
* Resizing

For that you need a good tools, recommended tools (if you know more add them here)
* Gimp (linux) - general GUI image editor
* Paint.net (Windows) - general GUI image editor
* ImageMagic (All platforms) - https://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php - command line image editor, great for mass manipulations and scripting

Pre-release checklist

2020-07-10T17:25:58Z

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{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

If you think your game is ready to be reviewed by by BGA admins and/or Publisher please consult this checklist first

* Metadata and graphics
** [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]] has correct and up to date information about the game
** Game box graphics is 3D version of the game box (if available) and publisher icon is correct (see [[Game art: img directory]]). Space around the box has to be transparent, not white.
** You have added a game_banner.jpg and some game_displayX.jpg images to make the game page pretty (NB: on the studio, you have to create a build for these images to appear on the studio game page)
** There is no images in img directory which are not needed anymore
** Multiple images (i.e. cards) are compressed in "Sprite" (see [[Game art: img directory]])
** Each image should not exceed 4M
** Total size should not exceed 10M, image compression should be used otherwise
* Server side
** When giving their turn to a player, you give them some extra time with the giveExtraTime() function
** Game progression is implemented (getGameProgression() in php)
** Zombie turn is implemented (zombieTurn() in php). Note: it can only be tested if you explicitly click on the quit button to create a zombie. If you are expelled it does not generated a Zombie.
** You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
** Game has meaningful notification messages (but don't overkill it, more user logs will slow down the loading)
** You implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Special testing
** Game is tested with spectator (non player observer): watch you own game with a different account, which is not in the game, and check that it works (and that no secret information is visible). For example, you start a game with express start and your dev0, dev1, dev2 accounts are playing. Then you connect with your dev4 account in a private browser window, and you go to the game.
** Game is tested with in-game replay from last move feature (by clicking on notification log items)
** Game works in Chrome and Firefox browsers at least. Also very recommended to test in IE 11 and Edge.
** Game works on mobile device (if you don't have mobile device to test at least test in Chrome with smaller screen, they have a mode for that)
** Test your game in realtime mode. Usually people will run out of time if you use default times unless you add call giveExtraTime($active_player_id) before each turn
** Test your game in 3D mode (if it makes sense; 3D mode can also be disabled through the 'enable_3d' parameter for gameinfos.inc.php, but if it "mostly works", it can be nice to keep it activated even if 2D is more appropriate for the game, just because it's fun to look at)
* Cleanup
** Remove all extra console.log from your js code
** Remove all unnecessary debug logging from your php code
** Copyright headers in all source files have your name
* User Interface
** Review BGA UI design Guidelines [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines]]
** If the elements in your game zone don't occupy all the available horizontal space, '''they should be centered'''.
** Non-self explanatory graphic elements should have tooltips
** If graphic elements appear in notification log they should have titles (i.e. title attribute of div) so can be read in non rendered form (i.e. as text only)
** Strings in your source code are ready for translation. See [[Translations]]
** A prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes to avoid namespace conflicts, i.e. vla_selected vs selected
** If you are looking for advice on design and some 3rd party testing you can post a message on the developers forum, and ask other developers, there are a lot of people who will gladly do it.
* Finally
** If possible (meaning if there is not already a project with that name) copy your project to a new project '''matching exactly the name of the game''' (no prefix or suffix). If not possible move on to the next steps, admin will have to retrieve the other project and overwrite it.
** Create a build for your game from the "manage game" page (using the '''Build a new release version''' section) and check the log to make sure that everything builds fine (after a successful build, you should see a new version in "Versions available for production").
** Send an e-mail to studio@boardgamearena.com asking to move the project forward for review. You cannot deploy yourself from the "manage game" page until a first deploy has been done by the admins. Please note that '''everything must be OK on the licensing''' side for a project to be moved out of the studio.

Game interface logic: yourgamename.js

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Een: /* ShrinkSafe minimization */ js minification with terser

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game interface. Here you will define:

* Which actions on the page will generate calls to the server.
* What happens when you get a notification for a change from the server and how it will show in the browser.

== File structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described below with comments on the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* '''constructor''': here you can define global variables for your whole interface.
* '''setup''': this method is called when the page is refreshed, and sets up the game interface.
* '''onEnteringState''': this method is called when entering a new game state. You can use it to customize the view for each game state.
* '''onLeavingState''': this method is called when leaving a game state.
* '''onUpdateActionButtons''': called when entering a new state, in order to add action buttons to the status bar.
* ''(utility methods)'': this is where you can define your utility methods.
* ''(player's actions)'': this is where you can write your handlers for player actions on the interface (example: click on an item).
* '''setupNotifications''': this method associates notifications with notification handlers. For each game notification, you can trigger a javascript method to handle it and update the game interface.
* ''(notification handlers)'': this is where you define the notifications handlers associated with notifications in '''setupNotifications''', above.

== General tips ==

; this.player_id
: ID of the player on whose browser the code is running.

; this.isSpectator
: Flag set to true if the user at the table is a spectator (not a player).
: Note: This is a variable, not a function.
: Note: If you want to hide an element from spectators, you should use [[Game_interface_stylesheet:_yourgamename.css#spectatorMode|CSS 'spectatorMode' class]].

; this.gamedatas
: Contains the initial set of data to init the game, created at game start or by game refresh (F5).
: You can update it as needed to keep an up-to-date reference of the game on the client side if you need it. (Most of the time this is unnecessary).

; this.isCurrentPlayerActive()
: Returns true if the player on whose browser the code is running is currently active (it's his turn to play).

; this.getActivePlayerId()
: Return the ID of the active player, or null if we are not in an "activeplayer" type state.

; this.getActivePlayers()
: Return an array with the IDs of players who are currently active (or an empty array if there are none).

; this.bRealtime
: Return true if the game is in realtime. Note that having a distinct behavior in realtime and turn-based should be exceptional.

; typeof g_replayFrom != 'undefined'
: Returns true if the game is in instant replay mode (replay during the game)

; g_archive_mode
: Returns true if the game is in archive mode (advanced replay after the game has ended)

== Dojo framework ==

BGA uses the [http://dojotoolkit.org/ Dojo Javascript framework].

The Dojo framework allows us to do complex things more easily. The BGA framework uses Dojo extensively.

To implement a game, you only need to use a few parts of the Dojo framework. All the Dojo methods you need are described on this page.

== Javascript minimization (before July 2020) ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the js code is minimized using ShrinkSafe (based on ECMASCRIPT version 3). Some advanced syntax may not be compatible with this process. In particular:
* You should not use reserved keywords from the javascript language as variables.
* You should not declare default argument values in function declarations. The following syntax is invalid for ShrinkSafe: '''function myFunc(requiredArg, optionalArg = 'defaultValue') {}'''
* You should not use '''let''' or '''const''' to declare variables.

'''Tip:''' a developer encountering some problems with this has successfully used [http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/58580/jshint JSHint] on NetBeans to evaluate code to make it compatible for ECMAScript 3. With the plugin installed, set the below options in '''.jshintrc''' file, and then open '''Action Items''' window (in NetBeans):<pre>{ "maxerr": 999, "esversion": 3 }</pre>

'''Tip:''' some online tools also allow to convert between different versions of javascript, such as https://www.typescriptlang.org/play or https://babeljs.io/ or https://extendsclass.com/javascript-fiddle.html

== Javascript minimization (after July 2020) ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the javascript code is minimized using '''terser''' (https://github.com/terser/terser). This minifier works with modern javascript syntax. From your project "Manage game" page, you can now test a minified version of jour javascript on the studio (and revert to the original).

== Accessing and manipulating the DOM ==

'''$('some_html_element_id')'''

The $() function is used to get an HTML element using its "id" attribute.

Example 1: modify the content of a "span" element:

<pre>
In your HTML code:
<span id="a_value_in_the_game_interface">1234</span>

In your Javascript code:
$('a_value_in_the_game_interface').innerHTML = "9999";
</pre>

Note: $() is the standard method to access some HTML element with the BGA Framework. You should not use the '''getElementById''' function.

'''dojo.style'''

With dojo.style you can modify the CSS property of any HTML element in your interface.

Examples:

<pre>
// Make an element disappear
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'display', 'none' );

// Give an element a 2px border
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'borderWidth', '2px' );

// Change the background position of an element
// (very practical when you are using CSS sprites to transform an element to another)
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'backgroundPosition', '-20px -50px' );
</pre>

Note: you must always use dojo.style to modify the CSS properties of HTML elements.

Note²: if you have to modify several CSS properties of an element, or if you have a complex CSS transformation to do, you should consider using dojo.addClass/dojo.removeClass (see below).

'''dojo CSS classes manipulation'''

In many situations, many small CSS property updates can be replaced by a CSS class change (i.e., you add a CSS class to your element instead of applying all modifications manually).

Advantages are:
* All your CSS stuff remains in your CSS file.
* You can add/remove a list of CSS modifications with a simple function and without error.
* You can test whether you applied the CSS to an element with the '''dojo.hasClass''' method.

Example from ''Reversi'':

<pre>
// We add "possibleMove" to an element
dojo.addClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' );

// In our CSS file, the class is defined as:
.possibleMove {
background-color: white;
opacity: 0.2;
filter:alpha(opacity=20); /* For IE8 and earlier */
cursor: pointer;
}

// So we've applied 4 CSS property changes in one line of code.

// ... and when we need to check if a square is a possible move on the client side:
if( dojo.hasClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' ) )
{ ... }

// ... and if we want to remove all possible moves in one line of code (see "dojo.query" method):
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );
</pre>

Conclusion: We encourage you to use '''dojo.addClass''', '''dojo.removeClass''' and '''dojo.hasClass''' to make your life easier :)

'''dojo.query'''

With dojo.query, you can query a bunch of HTML elements with a single function, with a "CSS selector" style.

Example:
<pre>
// All elements with class "possibleMove":
var elements = dojo.query( '.possibleMove' );

// Count number of tokens (i.e., elements of class "token") on the board (i.e., the element with id "board"):
dojo.query( '#board .token' ).length;
</pre>

But what is really cool with dojo.query is that you can combine it with almost all methods above.

Examples:
<pre>
// Trigger a method when the mouse enter in any element with class "meeple":
dojo.query( '.meeple' ).connect( 'onmouseenter', this, 'myMethodToTrigger' );

// Hide all meeples who are on the board
dojo.query( '#board .meeple' ).style( 'display', 'none' );
</pre>

'''dojo.place'''

dojo.place is the best function to insert HTML code somewhere in your game interface without breaking something. It is much better to use than the '''innerHTML=''' method if you must insert HTML tags and not only values.

<pre>
// Insert your HTML code as a child of a container element
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id" );

// Replace the container element with your new html
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id", "replace" );

</pre>

The third parameter of dojo.place can take various interesting values:

"replace" : (see description above).

"first" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the first child.

"last" (default) : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the last child.

"before" : places the node right before the reference node.

"after" : places the node right after the reference node.

"only" : replaces all children of the reference node with the node.

positif integer : This parameter can be a positif integer. In this case, the node will be placed as a child of the reference node with this number (counting from 0). If the number is more than number of children, the node will be appended to the reference node making it the last child.

See also full doc on dojo.place : [https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.7/dojo/place.html]

Usually, when you want to insert some piece of HTML in your game interface, you should use "[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]".

'''addStyleToClass: function( cssClassName, cssProperty, propertyValue )'''

Same as dojo.style(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

=== Animations ===

'''Dojo Animations'''

BGA animations is based on Dojo Animation ([http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.8/animation/ see tutorial here]).

However, most of the time, you can just use methods below, which are built on top of Dojo Animation.

Note: one interesting method from Dojo that could be useful from time to time is "Dojo.Animation". It allows you to make any CSS property "slide" from one value to another.

'''this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay )'''

You can use slideToObject to "slide" an element to a target position.

Sliding element on the game area is the recommended and the most used way to animate your game interface. Using slides allow players to figure out what is happening on the game, as if they were playing with the real boardgame.

The parameters are:
* mobile_obj: the ID of the object to move. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned.
* target_obj: the ID of the target object. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned. Note that it is not mandatory that mobile_obj and target_obj have the same size. If their size are different, the system slides the center of mobile_obj to the center of target_obj.
* duration: (optional) defines the duration in millisecond of the slide. The default is 500 milliseconds.
* delay: (optional). If you defines a delay, the slide will start only after this delay. This is particularly useful when you want to slide several object from the same position to the same position: you can give a 0ms delay to the first object, a 100ms delay to the second one, a 200ms delay to the third one, ... this way they won't be superposed during the slide.

BE CAREFUL: The method returns an dojo.fx animation, so you can combine it with other animation if you want to. It means that you have to call the "play()" method, otherwise the animation WON'T START.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObject( "some_token", "some_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y, duration, delay )'''

This method does exactly the same as "slideToObject", except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will slide to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

Example: slide a token to some place on the board, 10 pixels to the bottom:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectPos( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 0, 10 ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideTemporaryObject( mobile_obj_html, mobile_obj_parent, from, to, duration, delay )'''

This method is useful when you want to slide a temporary HTML object from one place to another. As this object does not exists before the animation and won't remain after, it could be complex to create this object (with dojo.place), to place it at its origin (with placeOnObject) to slide it (with slideToObject) and to make it disappear at the end.

slideTemporaryObject does all of this for you:
* mobile_obj_html is a piece of HTML code that represent the object to slide.
* mobile_obj_parent is the ID of an HTML element of your interface that will be the parent of this temporary HTML object.
* from is the ID of the origin of the slide.
* to is the ID of the target of the slide.
* duration/delay works exactly like in "slideToObject"

Example:
<pre>
this.slideTemporaryObject( '<div class="token_icon"></div>', 'tokens', 'my_origin_div', 'my_target_div' );
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectAndDestroy: function( node, to, time, delay )'''

This method is a handy shortcut to slide an existing HTML object to some place then destroy it upon arrival. It can be used for example to move a victory token or a card from the board to the player panel to show that the player earns it, then destroy it when we don't need to keep it visible on the player panel.

It works the same as this.slideToObject and takes the same arguments.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectAndDestroy( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 1000, 0 );
</pre>

'''this.fadeOutAndDestroy( node, duration, delay )'''

This function fade out the target HTML node, then destroy it.

Example:
<pre>
this.fadeOutAndDestroy( "a_card_that_must_disappear" );
</pre>

CAREFUL: the HTML node still exists until during few milliseconds, until the fadeOut has been completed.

'''Rotating elements'''

You can check here [http://jimfulton.info/demos/dojo-animated-rotate.html an example of use] of Dojo to make an element rotate.

This example combines "Dojo.Animation" method and a CSS3 property that allow you to rotate the element.

IMPORTANT: to asses browser compatibility, you must select the CSS property to use just like in the example (see sourcecode below):

<pre>
var transform;
dojo.forEach(
['transform', 'WebkitTransform', 'msTransform',
'MozTransform', 'OTransform'],
function (name) {
if (typeof dojo.body().style[name] != 'undefined') {
transform = name;
}
});
// ... and then use "transform" as the name of your CSS property for rotation
</pre>

'''Animation Callbacks'''

If you wish to run some code only after an animation has completed you can do this by linking a callback method.

<pre>
var animation_id = this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay );
dojo.connect(animation_id, 'onEnd', dojo.hitch(this, 'callback_function', parameters));
animation_id.play();

…

callback_function: function(params) {
// this will be called after the animation ends
},
</pre>

If you wish to call a second animation after the first (rather than general code) then you can use a dojo animation chain (see tutorial referenced above).

=== Moving elements ===

'''this.placeOnObject( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

placeOnObject works exactly like "slideToObject", except that the effect is immediate.

This is not really an animation, but placeOnObject is frequently used before starting an animation.

Example:
<pre>
// (We just created an object "my_new_token")

// Place the new token on current player board
this.placeOnObject( "my_new_token", "overall_player_board_"+this.player_id );

// Then slide it to its position on the board
this.slideToObject( "my_new_token", "a_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.placeOnObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y )'''

This method works exactly like placeOnObject, except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will be placed to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

'''this.attachToNewParent( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

With this method, you change the HTML parent of "mobile_obj" element. "target_obj" is the new parent of this element. The beauty of
attachToNewParent is that the mobile_obj element DOES NOT MOVE during this process.

Note: what happens is that the method calculate a relative position of mobile_obj to make sure it does not move after the HTML parent changes.

Why using this method?

Changing the HTML parent of an element can be useful for the following reasons:
* When the HTML parent moves, all its child are moving with them. If some game elements is no more linked with a parent HTML object, you may want to attach it to another place.
* The z_order (vertical order of display) depends on the position in the DOM, so you may need to change the parent of some game elements when they are moving in your game area.

CAREFUL: this function destroys original object and places a clone onto a new parent, this will break all references to this HTML element (ex: dojo.connect).

== Players input ==

'''dojo.connect'''

Used to associate a player event with one of your notification method.

Example: associate a click on an element ("my_element") with one of our method ("onClickOnMyElement"):
<pre>
dojo.connect( $('my_element'), 'onclick', this, 'onClickOnMyElement' );
</pre>

Note: this is the only possible correct way to associate a player input event to your code, and you must not use anything else.

'''this.checkAction( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkAction: function( action, nomessage )

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):

* "action"
* "module"
* "class"
return true if action is authorized (ie: the action is listed as a "possibleaction" in current game state).

return false and display an error message if not (display no message if nomessage parameter is true). The displayed error message could be either "This move is not allowed at this moment" or "An action is already in progress".

Example:
<pre>
function onClickOnGameElement( evt )
{
if( this.checkAction( "my_action" ) )
{
// Do the action
}
}
</pre>

'''this.checkPossibleActions( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkPossibleActions: function( action, nomessage )

* this is independent of the player being active, so can be used instead of this.checkAction(). This is particularly useful for multiplayer states when the player is not active in a 'player may like to change their mind' scenario.

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):
* "action"
* "module"
* "class"

'''this.ajaxcall( url, parameters, obj_callback, callback, callback_error )'''

This method must be used to send a player input to the game server.

* url: the url of the action to perform. For a game, it must be: "/<mygame>/<mygame>/myAction.html"
* parameters: an array of parameter to send to the game server. Note that "lock:true" must always be specified in this list of parameter in order the interface can be locked during the server call.
* obj_callback: must be set to "this".
* callback: a function to trigger when the server returns and everything went fine.
* callback_error: (optional and rarely used) a function to trigger when the server returns an error.

Usage:
<pre>
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/myaction.html', { lock: true,
arg1: myarg1,
arg2: myarg2,
...
}, this, function( result ) {
// Do some stuff after a successful call
} );
</pre>

'''this.confirmationDialog()'''

Display a confirmation dialog with a yes/no choice.

We advice you to NOT use this function unless the player action is really critical and could ruins the game, because it slows down the game and upset players.

Usage: this.confirmationDialog( "Question to displayed", callback_function_if_click_on_yes );

Example:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure to use this bonus (points penalty at the end of the game) ?'),
dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/seasons/seasons/useBonus.html',
{ id:bonus_id, lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

; addEventToClass: function( cssClassName, eventName, functionName )
: Same as dojo.connect(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

'''this.addActionButton( id, label, method, (opt)destination, (opt)blinking, (opt)color )'''

You can use this method to add an action button in the main action status bar.

Arguments:
* id: an element ID that should be unique in your HTML DOM document.
* label: the text of the button. Should be translatable (use _() function).
* method: the name of your method that must be triggered when the player clicks on this button.
* destination (optional): deprecated, do not use this. Use '''null''' as value if you need to specify other arguments.
* blinking (optional): if set to '''true''', the button is going blink to catch player's attention. Please don't abuse of blinking button.
* color: could be '''blue''' (default), '''red''' or '''gray'''.

You should only use this method in your "onUpdateActionButtons" method. Usually, you use it like this (from Hearts example):

<pre>
onUpdateActionButtons: function( stateName, args ) {

if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
switch( stateName ) {
case 'giveCards':
this.addActionButton( 'giveCards_button', _('Give selected cards'), 'onGiveCards' );
break;
}
}
},
</pre>

In the example above, we are adding a "Give selected cards" button in the case we are on game state "giveCards". When player clicks on this button, it triggers our "onGiveCards" method.

Example using blinking red button:
<pre>
this.addActionButton( 'commit_button', _('Confirm'), 'onConfirm', null, true, 'red');
</pre>

Note: at least in studio example above will make button huge, because it sets it display of blinking things to '''block''',
if you don't like it you have to change css display value
of the button to inline-block (the id of the button is the first argument, i.e 'commit_button' in example above)

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Notifications ==

When something happens on the server side, your game interface Javascript logic received a notification.

Here's how you can handle these notifications on the client side.

=== Subscribe to notifications ===

Your Javascript "setupNotifications" method is the place where you can subscribe to notifications from your PHP code.

Here's how you associate one of your Javascript method to a notification "playDisc" (from Reversi example):

<pre>
// In setupNotifications method:
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
</pre>

Note: the "playDisc" corresponds to the name of the notification you define it in your PHP code, in your "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer" method.

Then, you have to define your "notif_playDisc" method:

<pre>
notif_playDisc: function( notif )
{
// Remove current possible moves (makes the board more clear)
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );

this.addDiscOnBoard( notif.args.x, notif.args.y, notif.args.player_id );
},
</pre>

In a notification handler like our "notif_playDisc" method, you can access to all notifications arguments with "notif.args".

Example:
<pre>
// If you did this on PHP side:
self::notifyAllPlayers( "myNotification", '', array( "myArgument" => 3 ) );

// On Javascript side, you can access the "myArgument" like this:
notif_myNotification: function( notif )
{
alert( "myArgument = " + notif.args.myArgument );
}
</pre>

=== Synchronous notifications ===

When several notifications are received by your game interface, these notifications are processed immediately, one after the other, in the same exact order they have been generated in your PHP game logic.

However, sometimes, you need to give some time to the players to figure out what happened on the game before jumping to the next notification. Indeed, in many games, they are a lot of automatic actions, and the computer is going to resolve all these actions very fast if you don't tell it not to do so.

As an example, for Reversi, when someone is playing a disc, we want to wait 500 milliseconds before doing anything else in order the opponent player can figure out what move has been played.

Here's how we do this, right after our subscription:
<pre>
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
this.notifqueue.setSynchronous( 'playDisc', 500 ); // Wait 500 milliseconds after executing the playDisc handler
</pre>

=== Pre-defined notification types ===

'''tableWindow''' - This defines notification to display [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_dialogs|Scoring Dialogs]], see below.

'''message''' - This defines notification that shows on players log and have no other effect

// You can call this on php side without doing anything on client side
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'message', 'hello', array( ) );

== Tooltips ==

'''this.addTooltip( nodeId, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to the DOM node.

Specify 'helpString' to display some information about "what is this game element?".
Specify 'actionString' to display some information about "what happens when I click on this element?".

You must specify both helpString and actionString. Most of the time, you should use only one and specify a void string ("") for the other one.

Usually, _() must be used for the text to be marked for translation.

"Delay" is an optional parameter. Usually, it is primarily used to specify a zero delay for some game element when the tooltip gives really important information for the game - but remember: no essential information must be placed in tooltips as they won't be displayed in some browsers (see [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines|Guidelines]]).

Example:
<pre>
this.addTooltip( 'cardcount', _('Number of cards in hand'), '' );
</pre>

'''this.addTooltipHtml( nodeId, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to the DOM node (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

'''this.addTooltipToClass( cssClass, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass.

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips.

'''this.addTooltipHtmlToClass( cssClass, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips

'''this.removeTooltip( nodeId )'''

Remove a tooltip from the DOM node.

== Dialogs, warning messages, confirmation dialogs, ... ==

=== Warning messages ===

Sometimes, there is something important that is happening on the game and you have to make sure all players get the message. Most of the time, the evolution of the game situation or the game log is enough, but sometimes you need something more visible.

Ex: someone fulfill one of the end of the game condition, so this is the last turn.

'''this.showMessage( msg, type )'''

showMessage shows a message in a big rectangular area on the top of the screen of current player.

* "msg" is the string to display. It should be translated.
* "type" can be set to "info" or "error". If set to "info", the message will be an informative message on a white background. If set to "error", the message will be an error message on a red background.

Important: the normal way to inform players about the progression of the game is the game log. "showMessage" is intrusive and should not be used often.

=== Confirmation dialog ===

'''confirmationDialog( message, yesHandler, noHandler )'''

When an important action with a lot of consequences is triggered by the player, you may want to propose a confirmation dialog.

CAREFUL: the general guidelines of BGA is to AVOID the use of confirmation dialog. Confirmation dialogs slow down the game and bother players. The players knows that they have to pay attention about each move when they are playing online.

The situation where you should use a confirmation dialog are the following:
* It must not happen very often during a game.
* It must be linked to an action that can really "kill a game" if the player do not pay attention.
* It must be something that can be done by mistake (ex: a link on the action status bar).

How to display a confirmation dialog:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to bake the pie?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.bakeThePie();
} ) );
return; // nothing should be called or done after calling this, all action must be done in the handler
</pre>

=== Multiple choice dialog ===
You can use this dialog to give user a choice with small amount of options:
<pre>
var keys = [1,5,10];
this.multipleChoiceDialog(
_('How many bugs to fix?"), keys,
dojo.hitch(this, function(choice) {
var bugchoice = keys[choice];
console.log('dialog callback with '+bugchoice);
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/fixBugs.html', { bugs: bugchoice}, this, function( result ) {} ); }));
</pre>

=== Dialogs ===

As a general rule, you shouldn't use dialogs windows.

BGA guidelines specify that all game elements should be displayed on the main screen. Players can eventually scroll down to see game elements they don't need to see anytime, and you may eventually create anchors to move between game area section. Of course dialogs windows are very practical, but the thing is: all players know how to scroll down, and not all players know how to show up your dialog window. In addition, when the dialog shows up, players can't access the other game components.

Sometimes although, you need to display a dialog window. Here is how you do this:

// Create the new dialog over the play zone. You should store the handler in a member variable to access it later
this.myDlg = new ebg.popindialog();
this.myDlg.create( 'myDialogUniqueId' );
this.myDlg.setTitle( _("my dialog title to translate") );
this.myDlg.setMaxWidth( 500 ); // Optional

// Create the HTML of my dialog.
// The best practice here is to use [[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]
var html = this.format_block( 'jstpl_myDialogTemplate', {
arg1: myArg1,
arg2: myArg2,
...
} );

// Show the dialog
this.myDlg.setContent( html ); // Must be set before calling show() so that the size of the content is defined before positioning the dialog
this.myDlg.show();

// Now that the dialog has been displayed, you can connect your method to some dialog elements
// Example, if you have an "OK" button in the HTML of your dialog:
dojo.connect( $('my_ok_button'), 'onclick', this, function(evt){
evt.preventDefault();
this.myDlg.destroy();
} );

If necessary, you can remove the default top right corner 'close' icon, or replace the function called when it is clicked:
// Removes the default close icon
this.myDlg.hideCloseIcon();

// Replace the function call when it's clicked
this.myDlg.replaceQuitCallback( function() { ... } );

=== Scoring dialogs ===

Sometimes at the end of a round you want to display a big table that details the points wins in each section of the game.

Example: in Hearts game, we display at the end of each round the number of "heart" cards collected by each player, the player who collected the Queen of Spades, and the total number of points loose by each player.

Scoring dialogs are managed entirely on '''PHP side''', but they are described here as their effects are visible only on client side.

Displaying a scoring dialog is quite simple and is using a special notification type: "tableWindow":
<pre>
// on PHP side:
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table
) );
</pre>

The "table" argument is a 2 dimensional PHP array that describe the table you want to display, line by line and column by column.

Example: display an 3x3 array of strings
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", "three" ), // This is my first line
array( "four", "five", "six" ), // This is my second line
array( "seven", "height", "nine" ) // This is my third line
);
</pre>

As you can see above, in each "cell" of your array you can display a simple string value. But you can also display a complex value with a template and associated arguments like this:
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", array( "str" => clienttranslate("a string with an ${argument}"), "args" => array( 'argument' => 'argument_value' ) ) ),
array( "four", "five", "six" ),
array( "seven", "height", "nine" )
);
</pre>

This is especially useful when you want to display player names with colors. Example from "Hearts":
<pre>
$firstRow = array( '' );
foreach( $players as $player_id => $player )
{
$firstRow[] = array( 'str' => '${player_name}',
'args' => array( 'player_name' => $player['player_name'] ),
'type' => 'header'
);
}
$table[] = $firstRow;
</pre>

You can also use three extra attributes in the parameter array for the notification:

<pre>
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table,
"header" => array('str' => clienttranslate('Table header with parameter ${number}'),
'args' => array( 'number' => 3 ),
),
"footer" => '<div>Some footer</div>',
"closing" => clienttranslate( "Closing button label" )
) );
</pre>

*'''header''': the content for this parameter will display before the table (also, the html will be parsed and player names will be colored according to the current game colors).
*'''footer''': the content for this parameter will display after the table (no parsing for coloring the player names)
*'''closing''': if this parameter is used, a button will be displayed with this label at the bottom of the popup and will allow players to close it (more easily than by clicking the top right 'cross' icon).

=== Scoring animated display ===

Sometimes (Terra Mystica final scoring for example), you may want to display a score value over an element to make the scoring easier to follow for the players.
You can do it with:

<pre>
this.displayScoring( anchor_id, color, score, duration );
</pre>

'''anchor_id''': ID of the element to place the animated score onto (without the '#')

'''color''': hexadecimal RGB representation of the color (should be the color of the scoring player), but without a leading '#'. For instance, 'ff0000' for red.

'''score''': numeric score to display, prefixed by a '+'

'''duration''': animation duration in milliseconds

=== Speech bubble ===

For better interactivity in some games (Love Letter for example), you may use comic book style speech bubbles to express the players voices.
This is done with:

<pre>
this.showBubble( anchor_id, text, delay, duration, custom_class )
</pre>

delay in milliseconds is optional (default 0)

duration in milliseconds is optional (default 3000)

custom_class is optional, if you need to override the default bubble style

'''Warning''': if your bubble could overlap other active elements of the interface (buttons in particular), as it stays in place even after disappearing, you should use a custom class to give it the style "pointer-events: none;" in order to intercept click events.

== Update players score ==

Increase a player score (with a positive or negative number):

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].incValue( score_delta );
</pre>

Set a player score to a specific value:

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].setValue( new_score );
</pre>

== Players panels ==

=== Adding stuff to player's panel ===

At first, create a new "JS template" string in your template (tpl) file:

(from Gomoku example)
<pre>
var jstpl_player_board = '\<div class="cp_board">\
<div id="stoneicon_p${id}" class="gmk_stoneicon gmk_stoneicon_${color}"></div><span id="stonecount_p${id}">0</span>\
</div>';
</pre>

Then, you add this piece of code in your JS file to add this template to each player panel:

<pre>
// Setting up player boards
for( var player_id in gamedatas.players )
{
var player = gamedatas.players[player_id];

// Setting up players boards if needed
var player_board_div = $('player_board_'+player_id);
dojo.place( this.format_block('jstpl_player_board', player ), player_board_div );
}
</pre>

(Note: the code above is of course from your "setup" function in your Javascript).

Very often, you have to distinguish current player and others players. In this case, you just have to create another JS template (ex: jstpl_otherplayer_board) and use it when "player_id" is different than "this.player_id".

=== Player's panel disabling/enabling ===

'''this.disablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Disable given player panel (the panel background become gray).

Usually, this is used to signal that this played passes, or will be inactive during a while.

Note that the only effect of this is visual. There are no consequences on the behaviour of the panel itself.

'''this.enablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Enable a player panel that has been disabled before.

'''this.enableAllPlayerPanels()'''

Enable all player panels that has been disabled before.

== Image loading ==

See also [[Game_art:_img_directory]].

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

'''dontPreloadImage( image_file_name )'''

Using dontPreloadImage, you tell the interface to not preload a specific image in your img directory.

Example of use:
<pre>
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
</pre>

This is particularly useful if for example you have 2 different themes for a game. To accelerate the loading of the game, you can specify to not preload images corresponding to the other theme.

Another example of use: in "Gosu" game with Kamakor extension, you play with 5 sets of cards among 10 available. Cards images are organized by sets, and we only preload the images corresponding to the 5 current sets with '''ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( image_file_names_array )'''.
<pre>
// By default, do not preload anything
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan1.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan2.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan3.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan4.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan5.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan6.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan7.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan8.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan9.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan10.png' );
var to_preload = [];
for( i in this.gamedatas.clans )
{
var clan_id = this.gamedatas.clans[i];
to_preload.push( 'clan'+clan_id+'.png' );
}
if( to_preload.length == 5 )
{
this.ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( to_preload );
}
</pre>

'''Note:''' You don't need to specify to not preload game box images (game_box.png, game_box75.png...) since they are not preloaded by default.

== Other useful stuff ==

'''dojo.hitch'''

With dojo.hitch, you can create a callback function that will run with your game object context whatever happen.

Typical example: display a BGA confirmation dialog with a callback function created with dojo.hitch:

<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to make this?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/makeThis.html', { lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

In the example above, using dojo.hitch, we ensure that the "this" object will be set when the callback is called.

; updateCounters(counters)
: Useful for updating game counters in the player panel (such as resources).
: 'counters' arg is an associative array [counter_name_value => [ 'counter_name' => counter_name_value, 'counter_value' => counter_value_value], ... ]
: All counters must be referenced in this.gamedatas.counters and will be updated.
: DOM objects referenced by 'counter_name' will have their innerHTML updated with 'counter_value'.

'''onScreenWidthChange()'''
This function can be overridden in your game to manage some resizing on the client side when the browser window is resized. This function is also triggered at load time, so it can be used to adapt to the viewport size at the start of the game too.

'''updatePageTitle()'''
This function allows to update the current page title and turn description according to the game state. If the current game state description this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn is modified before calling the function, it allows to update the turn description without changing state.

Example from Terra Mystica:
<pre>
onClickFavorTile: function( evt )
{
[...]

if ( ... ) {

this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn = _('Special action: ') + _('Advance 1 space on a Cult track');
this.updatePageTitle();
this.removeActionButtons();

this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm1', _("Fire"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm2', _("Water"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm3', _("Earth"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm4', _("Air"),
function() { ... }
);

this.addActionButton( 'action_cancel', _("Cancel"), function() { ... }, false, false, 'gray'
);

return;
}

[...]

}
</pre>

== BGA GUI components ==

BGA framework provides some useful ready-to-use components for the game interface:

[[Studio#BGA_Studio_game_components_reference]]

Note that each time you are using an additional component, you must declare it at the top of your Javascript file in the list of modules used.

Example if you are using "ebg.stock":
<pre>
define([
"dojo","dojo/_base/declare",
"ebg/core/gamegui",
"ebg/counter",
"ebg/stock" /// <=== we are using ebg.stock module
],
</pre>

Game meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php

2020-07-07T11:38:13Z

Een: /* Losers not ranked between themselves */ score details

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

From this file, you can edit the various meta-information of your game.

Once you modified the file, don't forget to click on "Reload game informations" from the Control Panel in order in can be taken into account.

Most information provided in this file are self-explainable. Some information, though:

* You are not allowed to set the "'''is_beta'''" to 0 before the game has been released on BGA and stabilized.

* "'''fast/medium/slow_additional_time'''": please set high values here: after the game has been released, we will lower these value to match the real game duration.

* "'''players'''":
** during the first step of development of a game, you'd better allow the "1 player" configuration: much easy to start/stop a game this way.
** if you change the minimum number of players from for example 1 to 2, make sure the new tables you create are not restricted from 1 to 1 player otherwise when you create a new table and this account setting is used, there will be a conflict with the new minimum number of players allowed.

* '''suggest_player_number''' / '''not_recommend_player_number''': don't specify anything here if there is no configuration that is REALLY better/worst than another one. You can check player's poll on BoardGameGeek game page if you have any doubt.

== Losers not ranked between themselves ==

By default, all player are ranked, but in some games, the rules says that there is only one winner and that all the other players are losers and not ranked between themselves. You can set this option to true so that for your game, there is only one winner and losers, without a full ranking of all players.

The score in this case should be 1 for the winner and 0 for the losers.

// If in the game, all losers are equal (no score to rank them or explicit in the rules that losers are not ranked between them), set this to true
// The game end result will display "Winner" for the 1st player and "Loser" for all other players
'losers_not_ranked' => false,

== Disable player rotation in case of rematch ==

By default, in case of a rematch players are rotated so that the first player changes. If for your game it's better to always have a random player order you can change this option.

// When doing a rematch, the player order is swapped using a "rotation" so the starting player is not the same
// If you want to disable this, set this to false
'disable_player_order_swap_on_rematch' => false,

== Custom "buy this game" button ==

By default, the "buy this game" button is a link to an Amazon search with the name of the game.

You can replace it by a different URL / game button label with :

'custom_buy_button' => array(
'url' => 'http://yoururl.com',
'label' => 'Name of the website'
),

Note : button label will be "Buy on <Name of the website>"

== Tags ==

Any number of '''Tags''' can be attribute to your game. Tags are useful to place your game in the correct place and to give a good quick overview of what the game is about to players.

Main game category (you MUST specify one tag AND ONLY ONE from this category):
* 1: Abstract game
* 2: Casual games
* 3: For regular players
* 4: For core gamers

Other tags (you can specify any numbers of tags):
* 10: Short game (<10 minutes)
* 11: Medium length game (10 minutes to 30 minutes)
* 12: Long game (>30mn)
* 20: Awarded game (Win a prestigious award) (the game must have been at the '''first''' place of one the [http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Gaming_Industry_Awards# following major awards list]).
* 22: Prototype (This game has not been published yet)
* 23: Classic (This game is a classic from Public Domain)
* 30: 2 players (2p game / best with 2 players)
* 100: Fantasy theme
* 101: Science Fiction them
* 102: Historical theme
* 103: Adventure
* 104: Exploration
* 105: Conquest
* 106: Building
* 200: Card game (Cards plays a central role in this game)
* 201: Dice
* 202: Solo game
* 203: Worker placement
* 204: Hand management
* 205: Bluff
* 206: Tile placement
* 207: Combinations
* 208: Majority
* 209: Race
* 210: Collection

== Game Presentation ==

Short game presentation text that will appear on the game description page, structured as an array of paragraphs.

Each paragraph must be wrapped with totranslate() for translation and should not contain html (plain text without formatting). A good length for this text is between 100 and 150 words (about 6 to 9 lines on a standard display)

Example:
'presentation' => array(
totranslate("This wonderful game is about geometric shapes!"),
totranslate("It was awarded best triangle game of the year in 2005 and nominated for the Spiel des Jahres."),
...
),

Pre-release checklist

2020-07-06T18:15:09Z

Een:

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

If you think your game is ready to be reviewed by by BGA admins and/or Publisher please consult this checklist first

* Metadata and graphics
** [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]] has correct and up to date information about the game
** Game box graphics is 3D version of the game box (if available) and publisher icon is correct (see [[Game art: img directory]]). Space around the box has to be transparent, not white.
** You have added a game_banner.jpg and some game_displayX.jpg images to make the game page pretty (NB: on the studio, you have to create a build for these images to appear on the studio game page)
** There is no images in img directory which are not needed anymore
** Multiple images (i.e. cards) are compressed in "Sprite" (see [[Game art: img directory]])
** Each image should not exceed 4M
** Total size should not exceed 10M, image compression should be used otherwise
* Server side
** When giving their turn to a player, you give them some extra time with the giveExtraTime() function
** Game progression is implemented (getGameProgression() in php)
** Zombie turn is implemented (zombieTurn() in php). Note: it can only be tested if you explicitly click on the quit button to create a zombie. If you are expelled it does not generated a Zombie.
** You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
** Game has meaningful notification messages (but don't overkill it, more user logs will slow down the loading)
** You implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Special testing
** Game is tested with spectator (non player observer): watch you own game with a different account, which is not in the game, and check that it works (and that no secret information is visible). For example, you start a game with express start and your dev0, dev1, dev2 accounts are playing. Then you connect with your dev4 account in a private browser window, and you go to the game.
** Game is tested with in-game replay from last move feature (by clicking on notification log items)
** Game works in Chrome and Firefox browsers at least. Also very recommended to test in IE 11 and Edge.
** Game works on mobile device (if you don't have mobile device to test at least test in Chrome with smaller screen, they have a mode for that)
** Test your game in realtime mode. Usually people will run out of time if you use default times unless you add call giveExtraTime($active_player_id) before each turn
** Test your game in 3D mode (if it makes sense; 3D mode can also be disabled through the 'enable_3d' parameter for gameinfos.inc.php, but if it "mostly works", it can be nice to keep it activated even if 2D is more appropriate for the game, just because it's fun to look at)
* Cleanup
** Remove all extra console.log from your js code
** Remove all unnecessary debug logging from your php code
** Copyright headers in all source files have your name
* User Interface
** Review BGA UI design Guidelines [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines]]
** If the elements in your game zone don't occupy all the available horizontal space, '''they should be centered'''.
** Non-self explanatory graphic elements should have tooltips
** If graphic elements appear in notification log they should have titles (i.e. title attribute of div) so can be read in non rendered form (i.e. as text only)
** Strings in your source code are ready for translation. See [[Translations]]
** A prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes to avoid namespace conflicts, i.e. vla_selected vs selected
** If you are looking for advice on design and some 3rd party testing you can post a message on the developers forum, and ask other developers, there are a lot of people who will gladly do it.
* Finally
** If possible (meaning if there is not already a project with that name) copy your project to a new project '''matching exactly the name of the game''' (no prefix or suffix). If not possible move on to the next steps, admin will have to retrieve the other project and overwrite it.
** Create a build for your game from the "manage game" page (using the '''Build a new release version''' section) and check the log to make sure that everything builds fine (very often the js build fails because of [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Shrinksafe_minimization | this constraint]]).
** Send an e-mail to studio@boardgamearena.com asking to move the project forward for review. You cannot deploy yourself from the "manage game" page until a first deploy has been done by the admins. Please note that '''everything must be OK on the licensing''' side for a project to be moved out of the studio.

Game interface logic: yourgamename.js

2020-07-05T07:41:30Z

Een: /* ShrinkSafe minimization */ const let

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game interface. Here you will define:

* Which actions on the page will generate calls to the server.
* What happens when you get a notification for a change from the server and how it will show in the browser.

== File structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described below with comments on the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* '''constructor''': here you can define global variables for your whole interface.
* '''setup''': this method is called when the page is refreshed, and sets up the game interface.
* '''onEnteringState''': this method is called when entering a new game state. You can use it to customize the view for each game state.
* '''onLeavingState''': this method is called when leaving a game state.
* '''onUpdateActionButtons''': called when entering a new state, in order to add action buttons to the status bar.
* ''(utility methods)'': this is where you can define your utility methods.
* ''(player's actions)'': this is where you can write your handlers for player actions on the interface (example: click on an item).
* '''setupNotifications''': this method associates notifications with notification handlers. For each game notification, you can trigger a javascript method to handle it and update the game interface.
* ''(notification handlers)'': this is where you define the notifications handlers associated with notifications in '''setupNotifications''', above.

== General tips ==

; this.player_id
: ID of the player on whose browser the code is running.

; this.isSpectator
: Flag set to true if the user at the table is a spectator (not a player).
: Note: This is a variable, not a function.
: Note: If you want to hide an element from spectators, you should use [[Game_interface_stylesheet:_yourgamename.css#spectatorMode|CSS 'spectatorMode' class]].

; this.gamedatas
: Contains the initial set of data to init the game, created at game start or by game refresh (F5).
: You can update it as needed to keep an up-to-date reference of the game on the client side if you need it. (Most of the time this is unnecessary).

; this.isCurrentPlayerActive()
: Returns true if the player on whose browser the code is running is currently active (it's his turn to play).

; this.getActivePlayerId()
: Return the ID of the active player, or null if we are not in an "activeplayer" type state.

; this.getActivePlayers()
: Return an array with the IDs of players who are currently active (or an empty array if there are none).

; this.bRealtime
: Return true if the game is in realtime. Note that having a distinct behavior in realtime and turn-based should be exceptional.

== Dojo framework ==

BGA uses the [http://dojotoolkit.org/ Dojo Javascript framework].

The Dojo framework allows us to do complex things more easily. The BGA framework uses Dojo extensively.

To implement a game, you only need to use a few parts of the Dojo framework. All the Dojo methods you need are described on this page.

== ShrinkSafe minimization ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the js code is minimized using ShrinkSafe (based on ECMASCRIPT version 3). Some advanced syntax may not be compatible with this process. In particular:
* You should not use reserved keywords from the javascript language as variables.
* You should not declare default argument values in function declarations. The following syntax is invalid for ShrinkSafe: '''function myFunc(requiredArg, optionalArg = 'defaultValue') {}'''
* You should not use '''let''' or '''const''' to declare variables.

'''Tip:''' a developer encountering some problems with this has successfully used [http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/58580/jshint JSHint] on NetBeans to evaluate code to make it compatible for ECMAScript 3. With the plugin installed, set the below options in '''.jshintrc''' file, and then open '''Action Items''' window (in NetBeans):<pre>{ "maxerr": 999, "esversion": 3 }</pre>

'''Tip:''' some online tools also allow to convert between different versions of javascript, such as https://www.typescriptlang.org/play or https://babeljs.io/

== Accessing and manipulating the DOM ==

'''$('some_html_element_id')'''

The $() function is used to get an HTML element using its "id" attribute.

Example 1: modify the content of a "span" element:

<pre>
In your HTML code:
<span id="a_value_in_the_game_interface">1234</span>

In your Javascript code:
$('a_value_in_the_game_interface').innerHTML = "9999";
</pre>

Note: $() is the standard method to access some HTML element with the BGA Framework. You should not use the '''getElementById''' function.

'''dojo.style'''

With dojo.style you can modify the CSS property of any HTML element in your interface.

Examples:

<pre>
// Make an element disappear
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'display', 'none' );

// Give an element a 2px border
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'borderWidth', '2px' );

// Change the background position of an element
// (very practical when you are using CSS sprites to transform an element to another)
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'backgroundPosition', '-20px -50px' );
</pre>

Note: you must always use dojo.style to modify the CSS properties of HTML elements.

Note²: if you have to modify several CSS properties of an element, or if you have a complex CSS transformation to do, you should consider using dojo.addClass/dojo.removeClass (see below).

'''dojo CSS classes manipulation'''

In many situations, many small CSS property updates can be replaced by a CSS class change (i.e., you add a CSS class to your element instead of applying all modifications manually).

Advantages are:
* All your CSS stuff remains in your CSS file.
* You can add/remove a list of CSS modifications with a simple function and without error.
* You can test whether you applied the CSS to an element with the '''dojo.hasClass''' method.

Example from ''Reversi'':

<pre>
// We add "possibleMove" to an element
dojo.addClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' );

// In our CSS file, the class is defined as:
.possibleMove {
background-color: white;
opacity: 0.2;
filter:alpha(opacity=20); /* For IE8 and earlier */
cursor: pointer;
}

// So we've applied 4 CSS property changes in one line of code.

// ... and when we need to check if a square is a possible move on the client side:
if( dojo.hasClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' ) )
{ ... }

// ... and if we want to remove all possible moves in one line of code (see "dojo.query" method):
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );
</pre>

Conclusion: We encourage you to use '''dojo.addClass''', '''dojo.removeClass''' and '''dojo.hasClass''' to make your life easier :)

'''dojo.query'''

With dojo.query, you can query a bunch of HTML elements with a single function, with a "CSS selector" style.

Example:
<pre>
// All elements with class "possibleMove":
var elements = dojo.query( '.possibleMove' );

// Count number of tokens (i.e., elements of class "token") on the board (i.e., the element with id "board"):
dojo.query( '#board .token' ).length;
</pre>

But what is really cool with dojo.query is that you can combine it with almost all methods above.

Examples:
<pre>
// Trigger a method when the mouse enter in any element with class "meeple":
dojo.query( '.meeple' ).connect( 'onmouseenter', this, 'myMethodToTrigger' );

// Hide all meeples who are on the board
dojo.query( '#board .meeple' ).style( 'display', 'none' );
</pre>

'''dojo.place'''

dojo.place is the best function to insert HTML code somewhere in your game interface without breaking something. It is much better to use than the '''innerHTML=''' method if you must insert HTML tags and not only values.

<pre>
// Insert your HTML code as a child of a container element
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id" );

// Replace the container element with your new html
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id", "replace" );

</pre>

The third parameter of dojo.place can take various interesting value.

values possibles :

"replace" : (see description above).

"first" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the first child.

"last" (default) : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the last child.

"before" : places the node right before the reference node.

"after" : places the node right after the reference node.

"only" : replaces all children of the reference node with the node.

positif integer : This parameter can be a positif integer. In this case, the node will be placed as a child of the reference node with this number (counting from 0). If the number is more than number of children, the node will be appended to the reference node making it the last child.

See also full doc on dojo.place : [https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.7/dojo/place.html]

Usually, when you want to insert some piece of HTML in your game interface, you should use "[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]".

'''addStyleToClass: function( cssClassName, cssProperty, propertyValue )'''

Same as dojo.style(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

=== Animations ===

'''Dojo Animations'''

BGA animations is based on Dojo Animation ([http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.8/animation/ see tutorial here]).

However, most of the time, you can just use methods below, which are built on top of Dojo Animation.

Note: one interesting method from Dojo that could be useful from time to time is "Dojo.Animation". It allows you to make any CSS property "slide" from one value to another.

'''this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay )'''

You can use slideToObject to "slide" an element to a target position.

Sliding element on the game area is the recommended and the most used way to animate your game interface. Using slides allow players to figure out what is happening on the game, as if they were playing with the real boardgame.

The parameters are:
* mobile_obj: the ID of the object to move. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned.
* target_obj: the ID of the target object. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned. Note that it is not mandatory that mobile_obj and target_obj have the same size. If their size are different, the system slides the center of mobile_obj to the center of target_obj.
* duration: (optional) defines the duration in millisecond of the slide. The default is 500 milliseconds.
* delay: (optional). If you defines a delay, the slide will start only after this delay. This is particularly useful when you want to slide several object from the same position to the same position: you can give a 0ms delay to the first object, a 100ms delay to the second one, a 200ms delay to the third one, ... this way they won't be superposed during the slide.

BE CAREFUL: The method returns an dojo.fx animation, so you can combine it with other animation if you want to. It means that you have to call the "play()" method, otherwise the animation WON'T START.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObject( "some_token", "some_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y, duration, delay )'''

This method does exactly the same as "slideToObject", except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will slide to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

Example: slide a token to some place on the board, 10 pixels to the bottom:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectPos( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 0, 10 ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideTemporaryObject( mobile_obj_html, mobile_obj_parent, from, to, duration, delay )'''

This method is useful when you want to slide a temporary HTML object from one place to another. As this object does not exists before the animation and won't remain after, it could be complex to create this object (with dojo.place), to place it at its origin (with placeOnObject) to slide it (with slideToObject) and to make it disappear at the end.

slideTemporaryObject does all of this for you:
* mobile_obj_html is a piece of HTML code that represent the object to slide.
* mobile_obj_parent is the ID of an HTML element of your interface that will be the parent of this temporary HTML object.
* from is the ID of the origin of the slide.
* to is the ID of the target of the slide.
* duration/delay works exactly like in "slideToObject"

Example:
<pre>
this.slideTemporaryObject( '<div class="token_icon"></div>', 'tokens', 'my_origin_div', 'my_target_div' );
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectAndDestroy: function( node, to, time, delay )'''

This method is a handy shortcut to slide an existing HTML object to some place then destroy it upon arrival. It can be used for example to move a victory token or a card from the board to the player panel to show that the player earns it, then destroy it when we don't need to keep it visible on the player panel.

It works the same as this.slideToObject and takes the same arguments.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectAndDestroy( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 1000, 0 );
</pre>

'''this.fadeOutAndDestroy( node, duration, delay )'''

This function fade out the target HTML node, then destroy it.

Example:
<pre>
this.fadeOutAndDestroy( "a_card_that_must_disappear" );
</pre>

CAREFUL: the HTML node still exists until during few milliseconds, until the fadeOut has been completed.

'''Rotating elements'''

You can check here [http://jimfulton.info/demos/dojo-animated-rotate.html an example of use] of Dojo to make an element rotate.

This example combines "Dojo.Animation" method and a CSS3 property that allow you to rotate the element.

IMPORTANT: to asses browser compatibility, you must select the CSS property to use just like in the example (see sourcecode below):

<pre>
var transform;
dojo.forEach(
['transform', 'WebkitTransform', 'msTransform',
'MozTransform', 'OTransform'],
function (name) {
if (typeof dojo.body().style[name] != 'undefined') {
transform = name;
}
});
// ... and then use "transform" as the name of your CSS property for rotation
</pre>

'''Animation Callbacks'''

If you wish to run some code only after an animation has completed you can do this by linking a callback method.

<pre>
var animation_id = this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay );
dojo.connect(animation_id, 'onEnd', dojo.hitch(this, 'callback_function', parameters));
animation_id.play();

…

callback_function: function(params) {
// this will be called after the animation ends
},
</pre>

If you wish to call a second animation after the first (rather than general code) then you can use a dojo animation chain (see tutorial referenced above).

=== Moving elements ===

'''this.placeOnObject( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

placeOnObject works exactly like "slideToObject", except that the effect is immediate.

This is not really an animation, but placeOnObject is frequently used before starting an animation.

Example:
<pre>
// (We just created an object "my_new_token")

// Place the new token on current player board
this.placeOnObject( "my_new_token", "overall_player_board_"+this.player_id );

// Then slide it to its position on the board
this.slideToObject( "my_new_token", "a_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.placeOnObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y )'''

This method works exactly like placeOnObject, except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will be placed to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

'''this.attachToNewParent( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

With this method, you change the HTML parent of "mobile_obj" element. "target_obj" is the new parent of this element. The beauty of
attachToNewParent is that the mobile_obj element DOES NOT MOVE during this process.

Note: what happens is that the method calculate a relative position of mobile_obj to make sure it does not move after the HTML parent changes.

Why using this method?

Changing the HTML parent of an element can be useful for the following reasons:
* When the HTML parent moves, all its child are moving with them. If some game elements is no more linked with a parent HTML object, you may want to attach it to another place.
* The z_order (vertical order of display) depends on the position in the DOM, so you may need to change the parent of some game elements when they are moving in your game area.

CAREFUL: this function destroys original object and places a clone onto a new parent, this will break all references to this HTML element (ex: dojo.connect).

== Players input ==

'''dojo.connect'''

Used to associate a player event with one of your notification method.

Example: associate a click on an element ("my_element") with one of our method ("onClickOnMyElement"):
<pre>
dojo.connect( $('my_element'), 'onclick', this, 'onClickOnMyElement' );
</pre>

Note: this is the only possible correct way to associate a player input event to your code, and you must not use anything else.

'''this.checkAction( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkAction: function( action, nomessage )

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):

* "action"
* "module"
* "class"
return true if action is authorized (ie: the action is listed as a "possibleaction" in current game state).

return false and display an error message if not (display no message if nomessage parameter is true). The displayed error message could be either "This move is not allowed at this moment" or "An action is already in progress".

Example:
<pre>
function onClickOnGameElement( evt )
{
if( this.checkAction( "my_action" ) )
{
// Do the action
}
}
</pre>

'''this.checkPossibleActions( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkPossibleActions: function( action, nomessage )

* this is independent of the player being active, so can be used instead of this.checkAction(). This is particularly useful for multiplayer states when the player is not active in a 'player may like to change their mind' scenario.

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):
* "action"
* "module"
* "class"

'''this.ajaxcall( url, parameters, obj_callback, callback, callback_error )'''

This method must be used to send a player input to the game server.

* url: the url of the action to perform. For a game, it must be: "/<mygame>/<mygame>/myAction.html"
* parameters: an array of parameter to send to the game server. Note that "lock:true" must always be specified in this list of parameter in order the interface can be locked during the server call.
* obj_callback: must be set to "this".
* callback: a function to trigger when the server returns and everything went fine.
* callback_error: (optional and rarely used) a function to trigger when the server returns an error.

Usage:
<pre>
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/myaction.html', { lock: true,
arg1: myarg1,
arg2: myarg2,
...
}, this, function( result ) {
// Do some stuff after a successful call
} );
</pre>

'''this.confirmationDialog()'''

Display a confirmation dialog with a yes/no choice.

We advice you to NOT use this function unless the player action is really critical and could ruins the game, because it slows down the game and upset players.

Usage: this.confirmationDialog( "Question to displayed", callback_function_if_click_on_yes );

Example:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure to use this bonus (points penalty at the end of the game) ?'),
dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/seasons/seasons/useBonus.html',
{ id:bonus_id, lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

; addEventToClass: function( cssClassName, eventName, functionName )
: Same as dojo.connect(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

'''this.addActionButton( id, label, method, (opt)destination, (opt)blinking, (opt)color )'''

You can use this method to add an action button in the main action status bar.

Arguments:
* id: an element ID that should be unique in your HTML DOM document.
* label: the text of the button. Should be translatable (use _() function).
* method: the name of your method that must be triggered when the player clicks on this button.
* destination (optional): deprecated, do not use this. Use '''null''' as value if you need to specify other arguments.
* blinking (optional): if set to '''true''', the button is going blink to catch player's attention. Please don't abuse of blinking button.
* color: could be '''blue''' (default), '''red''' or '''gray'''.

You should only use this method in your "onUpdateActionButtons" method. Usually, you use it like this (from Hearts example):

<pre>
onUpdateActionButtons: function( stateName, args ) {

if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
switch( stateName ) {
case 'giveCards':
this.addActionButton( 'giveCards_button', _('Give selected cards'), 'onGiveCards' );
break;
}
}
},
</pre>

In the example above, we are adding a "Give selected cards" button in the case we are on game state "giveCards". When player clicks on this button, it triggers our "onGiveCards" method.

Example using blinking red button:
<pre>
this.addActionButton( 'commit_button', _('Confirm'), 'onConfirm', null, true, 'red');
</pre>

Note: at least in studio example above will make button huge, because it sets it display of blinking things to '''block''',
if you don't like it you have to change css display value
of the button to inline-block (the id of the button is the first argument, i.e 'commit_button' in example above)

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Notifications ==

When something happens on the server side, your game interface Javascript logic received a notification.

Here's how you can handle these notifications on the client side.

=== Subscribe to notifications ===

Your Javascript "setupNotifications" method is the place where you can subscribe to notifications from your PHP code.

Here's how you associate one of your Javascript method to a notification "playDisc" (from Reversi example):

<pre>
// In setupNotifications method:
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
</pre>

Note: the "playDisc" corresponds to the name of the notification you define it in your PHP code, in your "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer" method.

Then, you have to define your "notif_playDisc" method:

<pre>
notif_playDisc: function( notif )
{
// Remove current possible moves (makes the board more clear)
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );

this.addDiscOnBoard( notif.args.x, notif.args.y, notif.args.player_id );
},
</pre>

In a notification handler like our "notif_playDisc" method, you can access to all notifications arguments with "notif.args".

Example:
<pre>
// If you did this on PHP side:
self::notifyAllPlayers( "myNotification", '', array( "myArgument" => 3 ) );

// On Javascript side, you can access the "myArgument" like this:
notif_myNotification: function( notif )
{
alert( "myArgument = " + notif.args.myArgument );
}
</pre>

=== Synchronous notifications ===

When several notifications are received by your game interface, these notifications are processed immediately, one after the other, in the same exact order they have been generated in your PHP game logic.

However, sometimes, you need to give some time to the players to figure out what happened on the game before jumping to the next notification. Indeed, in many games, they are a lot of automatic actions, and the computer is going to resolve all these actions very fast if you don't tell it not to do so.

As an example, for Reversi, when someone is playing a disc, we want to wait 500 milliseconds before doing anything else in order the opponent player can figure out what move has been played.

Here's how we do this, right after our subscription:
<pre>
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
this.notifqueue.setSynchronous( 'playDisc', 500 ); // Wait 500 milliseconds after executing the playDisc handler
</pre>

=== Pre-defined notification types ===

'''tableWindow''' - This defines notification to display [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_dialogs|Scoring Dialogs]], see below.

'''message''' - This defines notification that shows on players log and have no other effect

// You can call this on php side without doing anything on client side
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'message', 'hello', array( ) );

== Tooltips ==

'''this.addTooltip( nodeId, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to the DOM node.

Specify 'helpString' to display some information about "what is this game element?".
Specify 'actionString' to display some information about "what happens when I click on this element?".

You must specify both helpString and actionString. Most of the time, you should use only one and specify a void string ("") for the other one.

Usually, _() must be used for the text to be marked for translation.

"Delay" is an optional parameter. Usually, it is primarily used to specify a zero delay for some game element when the tooltip gives really important information for the game - but remember: no essential information must be placed in tooltips as they won't be displayed in some browsers (see [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines|Guidelines]]).

Example:
<pre>
this.addTooltip( 'cardcount', _('Number of cards in hand'), '' );
</pre>

'''this.addTooltipHtml( nodeId, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to the DOM node (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

'''this.addTooltipToClass( cssClass, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass.

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips.

'''this.addTooltipHtmlToClass( cssClass, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips

'''this.removeTooltip( nodeId )'''

Remove a tooltip from the DOM node.

== Dialogs, warning messages, confirmation dialogs, ... ==

=== Warning messages ===

Sometimes, there is something important that is happening on the game and you have to make sure all players get the message. Most of the time, the evolution of the game situation or the game log is enough, but sometimes you need something more visible.

Ex: someone fulfill one of the end of the game condition, so this is the last turn.

'''this.showMessage( msg, type )'''

showMessage shows a message in a big rectangular area on the top of the screen of current player.

* "msg" is the string to display. It should be translated.
* "type" can be set to "info" or "error". If set to "info", the message will be an informative message on a white background. If set to "error", the message will be an error message on a red background.

Important: the normal way to inform players about the progression of the game is the game log. "showMessage" is intrusive and should not be used often.

=== Confirmation dialog ===

'''confirmationDialog( message, yesHandler, noHandler )'''

When an important action with a lot of consequences is triggered by the player, you may want to propose a confirmation dialog.

CAREFUL: the general guidelines of BGA is to AVOID the use of confirmation dialog. Confirmation dialogs slow down the game and bother players. The players knows that they have to pay attention about each move when they are playing online.

The situation where you should use a confirmation dialog are the following:
* It must not happen very often during a game.
* It must be linked to an action that can really "kill a game" if the player do not pay attention.
* It must be something that can be done by mistake (ex: a link on the action status bar).

How to display a confirmation dialog:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to bake the pie?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.bakeThePie();
} ) );
return; // nothing should be called or done after calling this, all action must be done in the handler
</pre>

=== Multiple choice dialog ===
You can use this dialog to give user a choice with small amount of options:
<pre>
var keys = [1,5,10];
this.multipleChoiceDialog(
_('How many bugs to fix?"), keys,
dojo.hitch(this, function(choice) {
var bugchoice = keys[choice];
console.log('dialog callback with '+bugchoice);
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/fixBugs.html', { bugs: bugchoice}, this, function( result ) {} ); }));
</pre>

=== Dialogs ===

As a general rule, you shouldn't use dialogs windows.

BGA guidelines specify that all game elements should be displayed on the main screen. Players can eventually scroll down to see game elements they don't need to see anytime, and you may eventually create anchors to move between game area section. Of course dialogs windows are very practical, but the thing is: all players know how to scroll down, and not all players know how to show up your dialog window. In addition, when the dialog shows up, players can't access the other game components.

Sometimes although, you need to display a dialog window. Here is how you do this:

// Create the new dialog over the play zone. You should store the handler in a member variable to access it later
this.myDlg = new ebg.popindialog();
this.myDlg.create( 'myDialogUniqueId' );
this.myDlg.setTitle( _("my dialog title to translate") );
this.myDlg.setMaxWidth( 500 ); // Optional

// Create the HTML of my dialog.
// The best practice here is to use [[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]
var html = this.format_block( 'jstpl_myDialogTemplate', {
arg1: myArg1,
arg2: myArg2,
...
} );

// Show the dialog
this.myDlg.setContent( html ); // Must be set before calling show() so that the size of the content is defined before positioning the dialog
this.myDlg.show();

// Now that the dialog has been displayed, you can connect your method to some dialog elements
// Example, if you have an "OK" button in the HTML of your dialog:
dojo.connect( $('my_ok_button'), 'onclick', this, function(evt){
evt.preventDefault();
this.myDlg.destroy();
} );

If necessary, you can remove the default top right corner 'close' icon, or replace the function called when it is clicked:
// Removes the default close icon
this.myDlg.hideCloseIcon();

// Replace the function call when it's clicked
this.myDlg.replaceQuitCallback( function() { ... } );

=== Scoring dialogs ===

Sometimes at the end of a round you want to display a big table that details the points wins in each section of the game.

Example: in Hearts game, we display at the end of each round the number of "heart" cards collected by each player, the player who collected the Queen of Spades, and the total number of points loose by each player.

Scoring dialogs are managed entirely on '''PHP side''', but they are described here as their effects are visible only on client side.

Displaying a scoring dialog is quite simple and is using a special notification type: "tableWindow":
<pre>
// on PHP side:
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table
) );
</pre>

The "table" argument is a 2 dimensional PHP array that describe the table you want to display, line by line and column by column.

Example: display an 3x3 array of strings
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", "three" ), // This is my first line
array( "four", "five", "six" ), // This is my second line
array( "seven", "height", "nine" ) // This is my third line
);
</pre>

As you can see above, in each "cell" of your array you can display a simple string value. But you can also display a complex value with a template and associated arguments like this:
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", array( "str" => clienttranslate("a string with an ${argument}"), "args" => array( 'argument' => 'argument_value' ) ) ),
array( "four", "five", "six" ),
array( "seven", "height", "nine" )
);
</pre>

This is especially useful when you want to display player names with colors. Example from "Hearts":
<pre>
$firstRow = array( '' );
foreach( $players as $player_id => $player )
{
$firstRow[] = array( 'str' => '${player_name}',
'args' => array( 'player_name' => $player['player_name'] ),
'type' => 'header'
);
}
$table[] = $firstRow;
</pre>

You can also use three extra attributes in the parameter array for the notification:

<pre>
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table,
"header" => array('str' => clienttranslate('Table header with parameter ${number}'),
'args' => array( 'number' => 3 ),
),
"footer" => '<div>Some footer</div>',
"closing" => clienttranslate( "Closing button label" )
) );
</pre>

*'''header''': the content for this parameter will display before the table (also, the html will be parsed and player names will be colored according to the current game colors).
*'''footer''': the content for this parameter will display after the table (no parsing for coloring the player names)
*'''closing''': if this parameter is used, a button will be displayed with this label at the bottom of the popup and will allow players to close it (more easily than by clicking the top right 'cross' icon).

=== Scoring animated display ===

Sometimes (Terra Mystica final scoring for example), you may want to display a score value over an element to make the scoring easier to follow for the players.
You can do it with:

<pre>
this.displayScoring( anchor_id, color, score, duration );
</pre>

'''anchor_id''': ID of the element to place the animated score onto (without the '#')

'''color''': hexadecimal RGB representation of the color (should be the color of the scoring player), but without a leading '#'. For instance, 'ff0000' for red.

'''score''': numeric score to display, prefixed by a '+'

'''duration''': animation duration in milliseconds

=== Speech bubble ===

For better interactivity in some games (Love Letter for example), you may use comic book style speech bubbles to express the players voices.
This is done with:

<pre>
this.showBubble( anchor_id, text, delay, duration, custom_class )
</pre>

delay in milliseconds is optional (default 0)

duration in milliseconds is optional (default 3000)

custom_class is optional, if you need to override the default bubble style

'''Warning''': if your bubble could overlap other active elements of the interface (buttons in particular), as it stays in place even after disappearing, you should use a custom class to give it the style "pointer-events: none;" in order to intercept click events.

== Update players score ==

Increase a player score (with a positive or negative number):

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].incValue( score_delta );
</pre>

Set a player score to a specific value:

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].setValue( new_score );
</pre>

== Players panels ==

=== Adding stuff to player's panel ===

At first, create a new "JS template" string in your template (tpl) file:

(from Gomoku example)
<pre>
var jstpl_player_board = '\<div class="cp_board">\
<div id="stoneicon_p${id}" class="gmk_stoneicon gmk_stoneicon_${color}"></div><span id="stonecount_p${id}">0</span>\
</div>';
</pre>

Then, you add this piece of code in your JS file to add this template to each player panel:

<pre>
// Setting up player boards
for( var player_id in gamedatas.players )
{
var player = gamedatas.players[player_id];

// Setting up players boards if needed
var player_board_div = $('player_board_'+player_id);
dojo.place( this.format_block('jstpl_player_board', player ), player_board_div );
}
</pre>

(Note: the code above is of course from your "setup" function in your Javascript).

Very often, you have to distinguish current player and others players. In this case, you just have to create another JS template (ex: jstpl_otherplayer_board) and use it when "player_id" is different than "this.player_id".

=== Player's panel disabling/enabling ===

'''this.disablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Disable given player panel (the panel background become gray).

Usually, this is used to signal that this played passes, or will be inactive during a while.

Note that the only effect of this is visual. There are no consequences on the behaviour of the panel itself.

'''this.enablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Enable a player panel that has been disabled before.

'''this.enableAllPlayerPanels()'''

Enable all player panels that has been disabled before.

== Image loading ==

See also [[Game_art:_img_directory]].

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

'''dontPreloadImage( image_file_name )'''

Using dontPreloadImage, you tell the interface to not preload a specific image in your img directory.

Example of use:
<pre>
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
</pre>

This is particularly useful if for example you have 2 different themes for a game. To accelerate the loading of the game, you can specify to not preload images corresponding to the other theme.

Another example of use: in "Gosu" game with Kamakor extension, you play with 5 sets of cards among 10 available. Cards images are organized by sets, and we only preload the images corresponding to the 5 current sets with '''ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( image_file_names_array )'''.
<pre>
// By default, do not preload anything
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan1.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan2.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan3.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan4.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan5.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan6.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan7.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan8.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan9.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan10.png' );
var to_preload = [];
for( i in this.gamedatas.clans )
{
var clan_id = this.gamedatas.clans[i];
to_preload.push( 'clan'+clan_id+'.png' );
}
if( to_preload.length == 5 )
{
this.ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( to_preload );
}
</pre>

'''Note:''' You don't need to specify to not preload game box images (game_box.png, game_box75.png...) since they are not preloaded by default.

== Other useful stuff ==

'''dojo.hitch'''

With dojo.hitch, you can create a callback function that will run with your game object context whatever happen.

Typical example: display a BGA confirmation dialog with a callback function created with dojo.hitch:

<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to make this?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/makeThis.html', { lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

In the example above, using dojo.hitch, we ensure that the "this" object will be set when the callback is called.

; updateCounters(counters)
: Useful for updating game counters in the player panel (such as resources).
: 'counters' arg is an associative array [counter_name_value => [ 'counter_name' => counter_name_value, 'counter_value' => counter_value_value], ... ]
: All counters must be referenced in this.gamedatas.counters and will be updated.
: DOM objects referenced by 'counter_name' will have their innerHTML updated with 'counter_value'.

'''onScreenWidthChange()'''
This function can be overridden in your game to manage some resizing on the client side when the browser window is resized. This function is also triggered at load time, so it can be used to adapt to the viewport size at the start of the game too.

'''updatePageTitle()'''
This function allows to update the current page title and turn description according to the game state. If the current game state description this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn is modified before calling the function, it allows to update the turn description without changing state.

Example from Terra Mystica:
<pre>
onClickFavorTile: function( evt )
{
[...]

if ( ... ) {

this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn = _('Special action: ') + _('Advance 1 space on a Cult track');
this.updatePageTitle();
this.removeActionButtons();

this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm1', _("Fire"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm2', _("Water"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm3', _("Earth"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm4', _("Air"),
function() { ... }
);

this.addActionButton( 'action_cancel', _("Cancel"), function() { ... }, false, false, 'gray'
);

return;
}

[...]

}
</pre>

== BGA GUI components ==

BGA framework provides some useful ready-to-use components for the game interface:

[[Studio#BGA_Studio_game_components_reference]]

Note that each time you are using an additional component, you must declare it at the top of your Javascript file in the list of modules used.

Example if you are using "ebg.stock":
<pre>
define([
"dojo","dojo/_base/declare",
"ebg/core/gamegui",
"ebg/counter",
"ebg/stock" /// <=== we are using ebg.stock module
],
</pre>

Post-release phase

2020-07-01T16:42:44Z

Een: /* Updating the database schema */ update procedure to test upgradeTableDb

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Your game is now on BGA: congrats!

But what happened when there are some bugs to fix or when you want to optimize something?

Don't be afraid: you're still allowed to modify your game. You just have to pay attention to the points below.

== Bugs reporting ==

Bugs are reported in the [http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=4 BGA bugs forum].

During days after your game has been published and from time to time, please have a look at it to check if everything is fine.

== How to submit changes? ==

There is 3 (short) steps to make your changes visible on BGA (from your Control Panel):

* Commit your changes.
* Build a new version (don't forget to do a successful commit BEFORE your build).
* Deploy your new version in production.

== What can be modified after release? ==

Everything can be modified. BUT, some items requires a special attention, and you must inform us in some cases:

===Changes that breaks the games in progress===

Some changes will break the games in progress at the moment the release/the hotfix will be performed. Each time you make a change, you should ask you the question "it is safe to make this change in a game in progress", and if the answer is "no" you have to inform us.

Example of changes that break the games in progress:
* Changes in the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql).
* New global variable or game option accessed during the game (if it's only used during setup, it should be safe).
* Change ID of existing game states (adding new game states is fine).

Of course, as a rule of thumb, you should avoid to introduce changes that break a game in progress. Sometimes however, you do not have any other choice. In this case:
* Try to group all your updates in one version, thus we won't have to block your game several times.
* Tell us explicitly that you introduce some update that can break games in progress so we can block the game during a short time.

Note: in the near future, we will introduce the possibility for you to block/unblock a game directly from your Control Panel in order to perform all the process by yourself.

=== Updating game options ===

* If you add options, you should let us know which value should be used for the arena mode, so that we can update the arena configuration.
* If you remove an option or change a version ID, it will break the arena configuration and prevent creating new arena games, so you should let us know so that we can synchronize to update the configuration at the same time as you deploy the new version.

=== Updating Statistics ===

You should be careful when updating a statistics:

* If you want to add a new statistic, please be aware that for ongoing games this statistic won't always be correct since it has not been counted from the start of that game.
* If you want to update a statistic, please update it and do not remove/create another one. Otherwise, the statistic won't keep the same ID and players will lose all the historical statistics data.
* If your game is published on BGA, please don't remove any statistics (historical data will be lost).

=== Updating the database schema ===

If you want to update the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql) and your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), you should inform us before releasing the new version (see "[[#Changes that breaks the games in progress|changes that breaks the games in progress]]").

Any modification in dbmodel.sql should also appear in your nameofyourgame.game.php, in a function

function upgradeTableDb( $from_version ){

if( $from_version <= YYMMDDHHMM ){ // where your CURRENT version in production has number YYMMDD-HHMM

// You DB schema update request.
// Note: all tables names should be prefixed by "DBPREFIX_" to be compatible with the applyDbUpgradeToAllDB method you should use below
$sql = "CREATE TABLE DBPREFIX_xxxxxxx ....";

// The method below is applying your DB schema update request to all tables, including the BGA framework utility tables like "zz_replayXXXX" or "zz_savepointXXXX".
// You should really use this request, in conjunction with "DBPREFIX_" in your $sql, so ALL tables are updated. All utility tables MUST have the same schema than the main table, otherwise the game may be blocked.
self::applyDbUpgradeToAllDB( $sql );

}}

Note1: of course you need to change your dbmodel.sql accordingly, so that new games get your updated scheme.

Note2: this is always risky to modify the DB scheme, so:
* if your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), it may be worth contacting us before, so we can stop the realtime games during the update (this way, only turn based games are concerned by the DB live upgrade).
* if you can avoid it... try to avoid it :)

Note3: testing on the studio is possible by following the following procedure:
* make sure the current state of your project is correctly committed
* revert to the revision currently in production using the version control tools ("Display commit log" -> find the revision matching the current version in production, then "Overwrite working copy with this revision" to get back the matching code)
* launch a game with this code
* revert to your code latest version using the version control tools (use "Overwrite working copy with this revision" with "head" for the revision)
* access the game database
* in the "global" table, find the row with id 300. Its value is 999999999 by default on the studio. Change it to the current production version number
* hit refresh to reload your game page. Your upgradeTableDb() function will be run and the global value will be updated again to the studio value
* check the database to see if your changes have been correctly applied.

=== Updating string to be translated ===

When you update a string that has been marked to be translatable, please keep in mind that all current translations done by the BGA community will be lost.

Consequently, when you are about to modify a string to be translated (after release), please ask you the following questions:
* Is it just an English misspelling? In this case, it is better to fix the English translation of the string than the original string to be translated.
* Has the meaning of the string changed? If yes, you HAVE to change the original string in order to invalidate all translations that has been done already.
* Is there a similar string already used elsewhere in my game? In this case, you'd better use it again to enjoy immediately all translations already available.

===Tell the community about your changes :)===

The player's community is always happy to know that someone is taking care of their preferred game :)

If your are the developer of game XXXX, you are also the administrator of player's group "XXXX's players", and you can publish some news in this group newsfeed.

When you fix a bug or add something, do not hesitate to tell the players about this in this group: you'll get the "thank you" you deserved :)

See for example Werewolves group:
https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=2465913

===Major changes===

If you do some major changes to your game like:
* Introducing a new expansion.
* Major code rewriting/refactoring.

... please tell us. In this case, we can:
* Make your game back from "gold" to "public beta", to incite player to report bugs.
* And eventually, publish a news about it :)

Post-release phase

2020-06-26T12:37:18Z

Een: /* Updating the database schema */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Your game is now on BGA: congrats!

But what happened when there are some bugs to fix or when you want to optimize something?

Don't be afraid: you're still allowed to modify your game. You just have to pay attention to the points below.

== Bugs reporting ==

Bugs are reported in the [http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=4 BGA bugs forum].

During days after your game has been published and from time to time, please have a look at it to check if everything is fine.

== How to submit changes? ==

There is 3 (short) steps to make your changes visible on BGA (from your Control Panel):

* Commit your changes.
* Build a new version (don't forget to do a successful commit BEFORE your build).
* Deploy your new version in production.

== What can be modified after release? ==

Everything can be modified. BUT, some items requires a special attention, and you must inform us in some cases:

===Changes that breaks the games in progress===

Some changes will break the games in progress at the moment the release/the hotfix will be performed. Each time you make a change, you should ask you the question "it is safe to make this change in a game in progress", and if the answer is "no" you have to inform us.

Example of changes that break the games in progress:
* Changes in the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql).
* New global variable or game option accessed during the game (if it's only used during setup, it should be safe).
* Change ID of existing game states (adding new game states is fine).

Of course, as a rule of thumb, you should avoid to introduce changes that break a game in progress. Sometimes however, you do not have any other choice. In this case:
* Try to group all your updates in one version, thus we won't have to block your game several times.
* Tell us explicitly that you introduce some update that can break games in progress so we can block the game during a short time.

Note: in the near future, we will introduce the possibility for you to block/unblock a game directly from your Control Panel in order to perform all the process by yourself.

=== Updating game options ===

* If you add options, you should let us know which value should be used for the arena mode, so that we can update the arena configuration.
* If you remove an option or change a version ID, it will break the arena configuration and prevent creating new arena games, so you should let us know so that we can synchronize to update the configuration at the same time as you deploy the new version.

=== Updating Statistics ===

You should be careful when updating a statistics:

* If you want to add a new statistic, please be aware that for ongoing games this statistic won't always be correct since it has not been counted from the start of that game.
* If you want to update a statistic, please update it and do not remove/create another one. Otherwise, the statistic won't keep the same ID and players will lose all the historical statistics data.
* If your game is published on BGA, please don't remove any statistics (historical data will be lost).

=== Updating the database schema ===

If you want to update the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql) and your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), you should inform us before releasing the new version (see "[[#Changes that breaks the games in progress|changes that breaks the games in progress]]").

Any modification in dbmodel.sql should also appear in your nameofyourgame.game.php, in a function

function upgradeTableDb( $from_version ){

if( $from_version <= YYMMDDHHMM ){ // where your CURRENT version in production has number YYMMDD-HHMM

// You DB schema update request.
// Note: all tables names should be prefixed by "DBPREFIX_" to be compatible with the applyDbUpgradeToAllDB method you should use below
$sql = "CREATE TABLE DBPREFIX_xxxxxxx ....";

// The method below is applying your DB schema update request to all tables, including the BGA framework utility tables like "zz_replayXXXX" or "zz_savepointXXXX".
// You should really use this request, in conjunction with "DBPREFIX_" in your $sql, so ALL tables are updated. All utility tables MUST have the same schema than the main table, otherwise the game may be blocked.
self::applyDbUpgradeToAllDB( $sql );

}}

Note1: of course you need to change your dbmodel.sql accordingly, so that new games get your updated scheme.

Note2: this is always risky to modify the DB scheme, so:
* if your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), it may be worth contacting us before, so we can stop the realtime games during the update (this way, only turn based games are concerned by the DB live upgrade).
* if you can avoid it... try to avoid it :)

Note3: testing on the studio is possible by following the following procedure:
* launch a game with the dbmodel.sql matching the current production version (you can go back in time with the version control buttons if needed to retrieve it)
* access this game database
* in the "global" table, find the row with id 300. Its value is 9999999999 by default on the studio. Change it to the current production version number
* hit refresh to reload your game page. Your upgradeTableDb() function will be run and the global value will be updated again to the studio value
* check the database to see if your changes have been correctly applied.

=== Updating string to be translated ===

When you update a string that has been marked to be translatable, please keep in mind that all current translations done by the BGA community will be lost.

Consequently, when you are about to modify a string to be translated (after release), please ask you the following questions:
* Is it just an English misspelling? In this case, it is better to fix the English translation of the string than the original string to be translated.
* Has the meaning of the string changed? If yes, you HAVE to change the original string in order to invalidate all translations that has been done already.
* Is there a similar string already used elsewhere in my game? In this case, you'd better use it again to enjoy immediately all translations already available.

===Tell the community about your changes :)===

The player's community is always happy to know that someone is taking care of their preferred game :)

If your are the developer of game XXXX, you are also the administrator of player's group "XXXX's players", and you can publish some news in this group newsfeed.

When you fix a bug or add something, do not hesitate to tell the players about this in this group: you'll get the "thank you" you deserved :)

See for example Werewolves group:
https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=2465913

===Major changes===

If you do some major changes to your game like:
* Introducing a new expansion.
* Major code rewriting/refactoring.

... please tell us. In this case, we can:
* Make your game back from "gold" to "public beta", to incite player to report bugs.
* And eventually, publish a news about it :)

Post-release phase

2020-06-26T12:35:44Z

Een: /* Updating the database schema */ testing updateTableDb on the studio

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Your game is now on BGA: congrats!

But what happened when there are some bugs to fix or when you want to optimize something?

Don't be afraid: you're still allowed to modify your game. You just have to pay attention to the points below.

== Bugs reporting ==

Bugs are reported in the [http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=4 BGA bugs forum].

During days after your game has been published and from time to time, please have a look at it to check if everything is fine.

== How to submit changes? ==

There is 3 (short) steps to make your changes visible on BGA (from your Control Panel):

* Commit your changes.
* Build a new version (don't forget to do a successful commit BEFORE your build).
* Deploy your new version in production.

== What can be modified after release? ==

Everything can be modified. BUT, some items requires a special attention, and you must inform us in some cases:

===Changes that breaks the games in progress===

Some changes will break the games in progress at the moment the release/the hotfix will be performed. Each time you make a change, you should ask you the question "it is safe to make this change in a game in progress", and if the answer is "no" you have to inform us.

Example of changes that break the games in progress:
* Changes in the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql).
* New global variable or game option accessed during the game (if it's only used during setup, it should be safe).
* Change ID of existing game states (adding new game states is fine).

Of course, as a rule of thumb, you should avoid to introduce changes that break a game in progress. Sometimes however, you do not have any other choice. In this case:
* Try to group all your updates in one version, thus we won't have to block your game several times.
* Tell us explicitly that you introduce some update that can break games in progress so we can block the game during a short time.

Note: in the near future, we will introduce the possibility for you to block/unblock a game directly from your Control Panel in order to perform all the process by yourself.

=== Updating game options ===

* If you add options, you should let us know which value should be used for the arena mode, so that we can update the arena configuration.
* If you remove an option or change a version ID, it will break the arena configuration and prevent creating new arena games, so you should let us know so that we can synchronize to update the configuration at the same time as you deploy the new version.

=== Updating Statistics ===

You should be careful when updating a statistics:

* If you want to add a new statistic, please be aware that for ongoing games this statistic won't always be correct since it has not been counted from the start of that game.
* If you want to update a statistic, please update it and do not remove/create another one. Otherwise, the statistic won't keep the same ID and players will lose all the historical statistics data.
* If your game is published on BGA, please don't remove any statistics (historical data will be lost).

=== Updating the database schema ===

If you want to update the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql) and your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), you should inform us before releasing the new version (see "[[#Changes that breaks the games in progress|changes that breaks the games in progress]]").

Any modification in dbmodel.sql should also appear in your nameofyourgame.game.php, in a function

function upgradeTableDb( $from_version ){

if( $from_version <= YYMMDDHHMM ){ // where your CURRENT version in production has number YYMMDD-HHMM

// You DB schema update request.
// Note: all tables names should be prefixed by "DBPREFIX_" to be compatible with the applyDbUpgradeToAllDB method you should use below
$sql = "CREATE TABLE DBPREFIX_xxxxxxx ....";

// The method below is applying your DB schema update request to all tables, including the BGA framework utility tables like "zz_replayXXXX" or "zz_savepointXXXX".
// You should really use this request, in conjunction with "DBPREFIX_" in your $sql, so ALL tables are updated. All utility tables MUST have the same schema than the main table, otherwise the game may be blocked.
self::applyDbUpgradeToAllDB( $sql );

}}

Note1: of course you need to change your dbmodel.sql accordingly, so that new games get your updated scheme.

Note2: this is always risky to modify the DB scheme, so:
_ if your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), it may be worth contacting us before, so we can stop the realtime games during the update (this way, only turn based games are concerned by the DB live upgrade).
_ if you can avoid it... try to avoid it :)

Note3: testing on the studio is possible by following the following procedure:
_ launch a game with the dbmodel.sql matching the current production version (you can go back in time with the version control buttons if needed to retrieve it)
_ access this game database
_ in the "global" table, find the row with id 300. Its value is 9999999999 by default on the studio. Change it to the current production version number
_ hit refresh to reload your game page. Your upgradeTableDb() function will be run and the global value will be updated again to the studio value
_ check the database to see if your changes have been correctly applied.

=== Updating string to be translated ===

When you update a string that has been marked to be translatable, please keep in mind that all current translations done by the BGA community will be lost.

Consequently, when you are about to modify a string to be translated (after release), please ask you the following questions:
* Is it just an English misspelling? In this case, it is better to fix the English translation of the string than the original string to be translated.
* Has the meaning of the string changed? If yes, you HAVE to change the original string in order to invalidate all translations that has been done already.
* Is there a similar string already used elsewhere in my game? In this case, you'd better use it again to enjoy immediately all translations already available.

===Tell the community about your changes :)===

The player's community is always happy to know that someone is taking care of their preferred game :)

If your are the developer of game XXXX, you are also the administrator of player's group "XXXX's players", and you can publish some news in this group newsfeed.

When you fix a bug or add something, do not hesitate to tell the players about this in this group: you'll get the "thank you" you deserved :)

See for example Werewolves group:
https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=2465913

===Major changes===

If you do some major changes to your game like:
* Introducing a new expansion.
* Major code rewriting/refactoring.

... please tell us. In this case, we can:
* Make your game back from "gold" to "public beta", to incite player to report bugs.
* And eventually, publish a news about it :)

Tools and tips of BGA Studio

2020-06-24T08:56:38Z

Een: Github warning

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

== Server Tools and Tips ==
=== Starting a game in one click ===

To start a game:
* Create a new table with your game.
* If you want to play a game with 3 players, specify that you want a maximum of 3 players at this table.
* Click on "Express Start".

=== Stopping a game in one click ===

* Click on the "quit" icon on the top right of the screen.
* Click on "Express Stop".

=== Switching between users ===

When running a game on Studio, you can use the little red arrow near each player's name to open a new tab with this player's perspective.

=== Access to game database and Logs ===

At the bottom of the game area, there is section without a title containing 3 useful links:

Go to game database • BGA request&SQL logs • BGA unexpected exceptions logs

* "Go to game database" link is an immediate access to the PhpMyAdmin tool to view/edit the tables of the current game
* BGA request&SQL logs - link to your studio PHP log - all tables, all severities. Anything you print using debugging and tracing functions from PHP and some framework logs
* BGA unexpected exceptions logs - same log as above but only severity warning and higher

See [[Practical debugging]] for more info about it.

=== Save & restore state ===

Using links of this section, you can save the complete current (database) state of your game, then restore it later.

This is particularly useful when you want to develop a part of the game that is difficult to reproduce: you just have to save the situation just before, and then restore it until this part works fine.

We provide you 3 "slots": 1, 2 and 3. This way, you can save 3 different game situations.

Limits:
* the "restore" function does not work anymore when the game is over.
* a saved situation from a given table cannot be restored in another table.
* when you "restore" a situation, the current browser page is refreshed to reflect the updated game situation, but you have to refresh you other tabs/pages manually.

=== Input/Output debugging section ===

This section shows you:
* The AJAX calls made by your game interface to the game server. AJAX calls (outputs) begins with ">"
* The notifications received by your game interface. Notifications (inputs) begins with "<".

Note: if you click on some notification title, you can resend it immediately to the user interface.

=== Run PHP functions from the chat ===

On BGA Studio, you can directly run a PHP method from the table chat.

For example, if on your PHP you have this method:

function giveMoneyToPlayer($player_id, $amount) { ... }

You can call this method directly from the chat like this:

giveMoneyToPlayer(2564,2)

Note: this is not a real php statement, you cannot use self::, you cannot use ";" at the end and you cannot use quotes,
if you need to pass a string skip the quotes, like this

giveToActivePlayer(money,2)

=== Stopping Hanging Game ===

If game is hanging and you cannot enter it to stop you can type this URL (replace 12345 with your table number),
which should bring you to a place where you can stop it without entering:

<nowiki>http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!table?table=12345</nowiki>

== Desktop and Web Tools ==
=== Code Editors and IDEs ===
==== Eclipse For PHP Developers ====

Eclipse PHP package can be starting point for development you need. You may also want to
install Tern JS plugins to understand dojo style JS. All desktops.
https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/tools.pdt

==== Visual Studio Code ====

Microsoft Visual Studio Code is light weight IDE/Editor. All desktops.
https://code.visualstudio.com

==== Gedit (Ubuntu) ====
'''Edit TPL'''
To edit TPL with HTML code highlightings in Gedit under Ubuntu:

find gtksourceview directory in /usr/share, depending on your version (2.0, 3.0,...).
<br>
Here it's 3.0, then type in a terminal window:
<pre>
sudo gedit /usr/share/gtksourceview-3.0/language-specs/html.lang
</pre>

then find 'globs' section, and change:

<pre>
<property name="globs">*.html;*.htm;*.tpl</property>
</pre>

=== File Sync ===

==== File Sync on Windows ====

Install [http://winscp.net/ WinSCP]. Map a remote directory to a local one and enable continuous sync (one way). You need SFTP password you get when you registered dev account.

==== File Sync on Linux ====

* Option 1 - Nautilus (file manager)
You can just use Nautilus "connect to a server" function with URL sftp://1.studio.boardgamearena.com
Then you'll get a mounted local folder mapping your studio folder and you can use any editor you like without further need for sync. Downside - if connection goes down you cannot work on source code, no local copy.

* Option 2 - sftp and rsync

<pre>

#!/bin/bash
BASEDIR=`dirname $0`
REMOTE=$BASEDIR/remote
LOCAL=$BASEDIR/workspace
GAME=mygamenamehere

#mount remote
fusermount -u $REMOTE #this unmounts dir
echo LongDevPassword | sshfs -o password_stdin myusernamehere@1.studio.boardgamearena.com: $REMOTE

#this starts auto-sync from local to remote mount
killall lsyncd
lsyncd -delay 1 -rsync $LOCAL/$GAME/ $REMOTE/$GAME

</pre>

This can be able run on startup, so you don't have to do anything manually. However sshfs is not very stable you
have to kill and restart it sometimes. And remote goes away sometimes due to connection issues with studio.
In this case its handy to have a local copy, which is what lsyncd for.

You can also sync on demand (from a build script or editor command) using
rsync -vlrt $LOCAL/$GAME/ $REMOTE/$GAME

==== File Sync using VSCode ====
You might rely on your IDE to sync the files with the SFTP server. Each time you "save" a file with your modifications, the IDE will also submit it to the sFTP server. These are instructions for VS Code

* '''Install this extension''' https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=liximomo.sftp (File->Preferences->Extensions ... type SFTP and Install)

* '''Open VSCode on an empty folder''' that will be the local root of your project.

* Execute Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux or Cmd+Shift+P on Mac to open the command palette, and the type/run : '''"SFTP: config"''' - the edit will open with json config

* '''Update the json''' as below:

<pre>
{
"name": "BGA",
"host": "1.studio.boardgamearena.com",
"protocol": "sftp",
"port": 22,
"username": "<your SFTP username>",
"password": "<your SFTP password>",
"remotePath": "/<your project name>/",
"uploadOnSave": true,
"ignore": [
".vscode",
".git",
".DS_Store"
]
}
</pre>

- Execute Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux or Cmd+Shift+P on Mac to open the command palette, and the type/run : '''"SFTP: Download Project"'''.

This will download all the files locally, and each time you modify/save a file in VSCode, it will upload it to the SFTP Server.

=== Debuggers ===

Browser is the best tool for JS/HTML5 debugging, see [[Practical debugging]] for details.

=== Version Control ===
Studio providers svn for you code on server, there are some limited abilities there to see history and restore. I recommend to keep your code in another repository. I suggest to use git with local repo, which you can sync to cloud or backup.
Other option is to host source code on github, if you do use this convention github.com/<yourname>/bga-<yourgame>. In such case make sure you '''don't post high-res publisher graphics''' only web resources, and post a separate license for graphics files. Also, '''don't include a file with your sftp password''' (github is automatically crawled for passwords by hackers; a hacking attempt occurred on BGA studio for this reason in June 2020).

=== PHP CLI ===
Its handy to have php cli (command line) tools install to run php locally, so you can test some stuff without deployment cycle, or create some scripts that generate code or markup.

=== Image Manipulation ===
==== ImageMagick ====
Handy set of image manipulation '''command line''' tools, useful to for example to stitch together bunch of images and re-size, to use as sprite (in Stock component for example). I.e. you got a graphics file from publisher where every tile is 600x600 PNG file in separate file. You want .jpg instead of .png to make it not like 20Mb, and combine all images in one column and re-size to 128x128:

(Linux example)
/usr/bin/montage `ls Tiles*.png` -tile 1 -geometry 128x128+0+0 out/tiles128.jpg

https://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php

==== Gimp ====

GUI tool, very complex but will do ALL what you possibly need to do with game graphics

https://www.gimp.org/

==== Shrinking ====

Shrink images without loss of quality https://tinypng.com/ or http://www.iloveimg.com/

==== PDF Scrapper ====
extract images from PDF file (i.e. game rulebook) :

https://www.ilovepdf.com/

http://www.extractpdf.com/

==== Rename/Copy project ====

There is a script available in sharedcode project to do the renaming which can be called in command line if you have php command line installed.
You need to have php clt (command line interface) installed, then you can download script and run it.

https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/tools/bgaprojectrename.php

Usage:
php bgaprojectrename.php <originalProjectPath> <copyOfProjectRenamedPath>

Example on how to call it in command line if you project name is "heartsmyproject"

php7.0 git/bga-sharedcode/tools/bgaprojectrename.php remote/hearts/ remote/heartsmyproject/

==== BGA Workbench ====

PHP library providing tools to help manage BGA Studio projects including deployment and test utilities. https://github.com/danielholmes/bga-workbench

== Client Tips ==

=== Speed up game re-loading by disabling Input/Output debug section ===

Development UI have few sections for debugging only, such as 'Input/Output debugging section'. Loading this data will significantly slow down
your reload. I did some profiling and my reloading (i.e. F5) took 14 seconds, 12 of which it was dealing with loading this section.
If you not using it you can disable it. In your JavaScript code, in the begging of 'setup' method add this code

dojo.destroy('debug_output');

That should get rid of this section and overhead associated with loading it (it may have some other side-effects, I have not explored all of them)

=== Speed up CSS development and layout ===

Syncing files to server and refreshing is relative fast but still can take up to 20 seconds which is annoying.
If you working
a lot on css/images/layout you can speed it up by coping html in some state of the game to your local folder.
I.e. in your project folder create directory misc/ and save your html as misc/test.html and changing path to css to load from local disk (and it will load your images to from local disk as well).
I.e. find something like

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://1.studio.boardgamearena.com:8081/data/themereleases/151226-1240/games/mygame/999999-9999/mygame.css"/>

and replace with
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../mygame.css"/>

You project structure will look like this

mygame
img/ <-- your images
mygame.css <-- your original css
...
misc/
test.html <-- your test html

It is a bit tricky to save html exact state, if you do save as it also pulls all resources sometimes.

Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough

2020-06-24T08:55:22Z

Een: /* Hook version control system */ Github warning

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

== Introduction ==

This document is not a tutorial, but step by step instructions on how to build your own first game adaptation using BGA Studio framework.

Before you read this material, you must:
* Read the overall presentations of the BGA [[Studio]].
* Some-what know the languages used by BGA Studio: PHP, SQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript
* Setup your development environment [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/First_steps_with_BGA_Studio First Steps with BGA Studio]
* Create a game using one of the available tutorials. Don't bother with a new game if you have not completed at least one of the tutorials.

If you are stuck or have questions about this page post on [https://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 BGA Developers forum].
If you're uncomfortable posting on the public forum you can send messages directly to developers who post answers on that forum but NOT the BGA admins.
If you find typos in this wiki - fix it.

== Select a First Game ==

For your first '''real''' game you must either
* Select a game from [https://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/licensing Available Licenses]
* Or from the Public Domain

But what if the game you want is not there? If you are able to successfully publish your first game, you would gain the trust of the BGA admins and they will be happy to assist you in obtaining a license for game you really want to do or you can request a license yourself. You can read more about game licenses on [[BGA Game licences]] page.

Once you selected the game but before creating a new project, please takes few seconds to check that someone is not already developing this game. If it is the case, maybe you can propose to join the project?

[http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!projects Check the list of current projects]

Even if you see few projects with name of the game they may not be active. There are a lot abandoned game projects. If its not clear by the status, post to Developers forum as ask if anybody actively working on the project, and at the same time ask admins on the same forum post to send you graphics for that game if they have them.

If you goal was to fix bugs in existing project, you have to ask on forum to get access to it, projects developed by bga admins are not in the studio.

If you want to take over existing project first ask on forum to see if project is abandoned, then get read only access (via project list) and see if this worth using it, if it has no code or graphics just start from the scratch, don't worry about project name it can be renamed later

== Create a project ==

If you have not already, you have to create a project in BGA Studio for this game. If the original game name is taken use gamenameYOURINITIALS
template, i.e."heartsla". Don't worry too much about the name, if game would be good enough to be publish it will be renamed to original name.

Find and start the game in turn based mode, make sure it works.

Second, modify the text in .tpl file, reload the page in the browser and make sure your ftp sync works as expected.
Note: if you have not setup [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Tools_and_tips_of_BGA_Studio#File_Sync FTP auto-sync] yet, do it now, manually copying files is a no-starter.

Update your project status in [http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!studio Control Panel > Manage games] page, you can say "development started" or "waiting for license" or "waiting for graphics" or combination of those.

== Development Tools ==

At some point you need to setup your development environment which consist of multiple tools, such as
* Editor or IDE
* Browser with dev tools
* File sync tools
* BGA Web tools
* Image manipulation tools
* Version control tools

Please scan though articles from [[Studio#BGA_Studio_user_guide]] especially related to debugging and tools, there is a lot of useful info there.

== Hook version control system ==

If its a real game I would commit the code to version control right at start. You going to find yourself in the situation
when game does not even start anymore and no way of debugging it unless you have a way to revert. That is where version control becomes very handy.
If you don't know what I am talking about then at least back-up your files after each of major steps. Starting now.
You can also create a project on github, but make sure '''you don't commit original publisher graphics files''' and '''you don't include a file with your sftp password''' (github is automatically crawled for passwords by hackers; a hacking attempt occurred on BGA studio for this reason in June 2020)
You can (and should) also commit your modification periodically via studio's control panel.

== Obtain game graphics ==

If you developing a game from Available Licenses games, ask the admins to send you graphics by contacting studio@boardgamearena.com. While that request is being processed (it can take time, as it often requires some back and forth between the admins and the publishers) you can proceed to next step - project creation.

If you don't get original graphics you go to '''Scavenger Hunt'''

* If you developing a public domain card game you can borrow standard cards graphics from hearts project (see [[Tutorial hearts]]).
* Standard game pieces - meeples, cubes, dice can be found here https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/tree/master/img
* Go to boardgamegeek.com find your game and obtain 3D game box image, 2D box image, and if you lucky they also sometime have boards and token scans in "Game Pieces" section of Images
* If that fail google "boardgame <name>" and check Images section
* Get the rules PDF as well, there tools that allows you to extract graphics from PDF, which usually good for meeples, cubes and such

Once you get the graphics one way or another you have to massage it to fit in the BGA criteria, which usually involves
* If publisher sends graphics in one token/card per file mode, you have to stitch them in sprite and scale down
* For non square tiles and game pieces you need transparency
* Usually you chop off scoring "ring" around the board of the game since scoring track not needed for online adaptation

More details about graphics requirements can be found here [[Game art: img directory]].

[[File:Rrr_search.png]]

== Obtain game documentation ==

Also at this time obtain a electronic copy of rules, such as PDF (English version).

Also grab any other documents you may find on boardgamegeek such as FAQ, additional Reference books, and user created assistant documents, such
as cheat-sheets (may be easier to get a data from these then trying to scrub pdf). You create and place them in the doc/ folder of the project then
exclude them from version control. There is also a misc/ folder now but it will hold up to 1 Mb of data files which would be checked in, so rules pdf's may not fit there.

== Update game infos and box graphics ==

Even it does not nothing yet start with making sure game looks descent in the game selector, meaning it has nice box graphics and information is correct.

For that we need to edit [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php|gameinfos.inc.php]].
What you would do for real game you would go to http://boardgamegeek.com find the game and use the information from web-site to fill the gameinfos.

The next step is to replace game_box.png with proper images, usually you can find all images including publisher logo on boardgamegeek website.

Details about images can be found here: [[Game art: img directory]].

Now important step. You have to LOAD these files in studio website through control panel. So go to Control Panel -> Manager Games -> YOURPROJECT
and press Reload for 'Reload game informations' and 'Reload game box image'

[[File:Gamepanel_sharedcode.png]]

Now try to start the game again. If you some-how introduced a syntax error in gameinfos file it may not actually work (game won't start).
Always use "Express Start" button to start the game. You should see a standard state prompt from template. You should see X players on the right, testdude0 .. testdudeX-1.
To switch between them press the red arrow button near their names, it will open another tab. This way you don't need to login and logout from multiple accounts!

== Fix source copyright ==

Now since you have your own project, you want put your name in the copyright header, so replace

© <Your name here> <Your email address here>
with
© John Snow <jsnow@gameofthrones.com>

Well not exactly this but whatever your real name is. For all files in project directory, its about 10 files. Make sure project still starts after that :)

== Create Initial Layout and Game Graphics ==

Mentally it is easier to start with game layout and graphics pieces. Even when nothing is working its give you moral satisfaction!

There are a few ways how the html could have been generated. You could have started with nothing and generate
it all by java script, or you could have started with complete game markup in html and make java script just hide and move pieces around. BGA framework also provides a third way, which is mix of both, plus a template engine to generate HTML using php. The only thing that is really annoying about the template engine is
that you cannot put any translatable strings in the template (which means any visible text at all). If you are using the template approach all stings have to extracted as variables and injected through php (.view.php). This page explains the template engine in great detail:[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl|Template Engine]].

The other disadvantage of the template engine is you cannot run and debug it locally, in the beginning of development it's a lot faster run off local pages,
you can do it with some trickery described here [[Tools_and_tips_of_BGA_Studio#Speed_up_CSS_development_and_layout|Tools and Tips for BGA Studio]]

During this step you have to decide what technical solutions you will be using, such as
* Use inline positioning of all moving pieces, controlled by JS. There are a few classes that already exist in Studio to help with that (see [[Studio#Game_interface_.28Client_side.29|Game Interface - Client Side]]). OR use html/css layout engine to position pieces (my personal choice).
* Use BGA template engine OR create all ui elements by JS OR manually write or generate complete html markup. The game usually contain 200-300 pieces, it seems wrong but actually its faster to type all of this up in html/css when trying write than debug code for page generator.
Static HTML markup also means you have to use players color or abstracted player number (such as red is 1, blue is 2) not player id's anywhere in JS, since player id is dynamic by nature.

So at this stage you should complete the following:
* Create a layout of the game, with positioning of main board, player areas, zones, other supporting areas, etc
* Create css and html snippets for all game pieces: boards, tokens, meeples, etc. Place them all in initial template (even if they're not supposed to be visible at start). I.e. create fake player's hand with cards, put meeples on the board
* Hook layout to number of players and colors picked by the game and test with multiple players
* Figure out what you want to display in mini-player boards and hook it up

If at this time you don't have graphics yet create pieces with just css, you can use shape, background color and object text using css ::after construct to fake the pieces.

One of the greatest part about the web is all client side code can be viewed in your browser, so if you wondering how something is done in another BGA game just load the page and spy on it! In Chrome that would be right click and "Inspect Element". That would immediately show html of the given element alongside with css used for it (on the right). Another great way to learn was introduced recently is you can add yourself to any BGA project as read only from the project page!

[[File:Injected_text.png]]

== Hook Input and Animation ==

This step can be done before or after some of the server steps, or you go in iterations switching back and forward until you get it done, up to you.

At this time you want to hook clicking on pieces and buttons and provide some reaction, such of moving a piece. The handler code will be replaced later by the server hook, but at the begging you want you game to be alive as early as possible.

Usually all pieces will be hooked to onclick during JS "setup" method, in addition if you create elements during server notification they have to be hooked up at that time.

You can play with animation effects you want put in place, in general all the pieces that move in real game should be moving, such as meeples, resources tokens/cubes, cards, vp tokens.
Regular piece animation is provided by BGA framework, but if you use html layout positioning not inline positioning you have to remove absolute positions (inline position styling) after each move. The set of functions for relative position token animation can found in https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/sharedcode.js

Also its a good idea to give player a visual cues on what game elements are clickable now, usually it will be a style, such as "active_slot", with visual effect of white dashed outline (outline is better then border, because border changes will make piece slightly move since it changes the size) or box-shadow (i.e. neon glow)

If you read [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines BGA developers guidelines] you know that you should not get carried away with animation, you creating a board game not a video game... That also applies to sound effects (in general, you should not use any sounds effects beside already provided by framework).

See [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Players_input|Player's Input]] and [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Access_and_manipulate_the_DOM|Animation and DOM Manipulation]] for JS reference.

== Create Database Schema ==

At some point you have to design your game database. Do it sooner then later since it would be harder to change it later, since some
code decisions would be based on that.

If you have grid-based abstract game use template from reversi, if you have a card game use template from hearts (the cards one also commented out in generated template for your project). The cards database goes with php class called [[Deck]].

In general make it as simple as possible.
Think about it, your game has 300 pieces (likely less). Using database to store this amount of data is like shooting a mosquito with a tank.
Anything more complex then one table with 5 columns or two tables will only going to make it harder to develop and not improve performance.
You can forget about normalising and any fancy stuff you learn about databases in school. String field for a primary key would be as fast as integer when we talking about this size of data. So don't over-optimize with trying to have integers field that have state based on bitmask!

Also remember that static (non dynamic) information about the game does not need to be stored in the database, that all include everything that does not change, i.e
all token/card properties such as name, tooltips, "strength", color, etc. This is stored in material.inc.php and server has access to it from anywhere, as well as client
if you send it with getAllDatas(). The only reason store some of it in database if it can affect your queries (i.e. type of token).

Usually design process will contain the following steps:
* Design game model - model that represent your game in progress, such as at any given step you can restore the game from that model
* Mapping - now map real game to that model
* Encoding - now represent this model in database and material file with reasonable amount of fields

Example: '''The card game'''

* In real word to "save" the game we take a picture a play area, save cards from it, then put away draw deck, discard and hand of each player separately and mark it, also we will record current scoring (if any) and who's turn was it
* Framework handles state machine transition, so you don't have to worry about database design for that (i.e. who's turn it is, what phase of the game we are at, you still have to design it but as part of state machine step)
* Also framework supports basic player information, color, order around the table, basic scoring, etc, so you don't have to worry about it either
* The only thing you need in your database is state of the "board", which is "where each pieces is, and in what state", or (position,rotation) pair.
* The card state is very simple, its usually "face up/face down", "tapped/untapped", "right side up/up side down"
* As position go we never need real x,y,z. We need to know what "zone" card was, and depending on the zone it may sometimes need an extra "z" or "x" as card order. The zone position itself usually static or irrelevant.
* So our model is: we have cards, which have some attributes, at any given point in time they belong to a "zone", and can also have order and state
* Now for mapping we should consider what info changes and what info is static, static info is always candidate for material file or html
* For dynamic stuff we should try to reduce amount of fields we need, i.e. we need a field for card, so its one, we need to know what zone cards belong to, its 2, and we have possible few other fields, but if you look closely at you game you may find out that most of the zone only need one attribute at a time, i.e. draw pile always have cards face down, hand always face up, also for hand and discard order does not matter at all (but for draw it does matter). So in majority of cases we can get away with one single extra integer field representing state or order
* In real database both card and zone will be integers as primary keys referring to additional tables, but in our case its total overkill, so they can be strings as easily

You can also use cards database schema and [[Deck]] implementation for most purposes (even you not dealing with cards).
<pre>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `card` (
`card_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`card_type` varchar(16) NOT NULL,
`card_type_arg` int(11) NOT NULL,
`card_location` varchar(16) NOT NULL,
`card_location_arg` int(11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`card_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
</pre>

Another Example: '''The euro game'''

See details on database design for euro game at [[BGA_Studio_Cookbook#Database_for_The_euro_game]]

So the piece mapping for non-grid based
games can be in most case represented by (string: token_key, string: location, int: state), example of such database schema can be found here:
[https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/dbmodel.sql dbmodel.sql] and class implementing access to it here [https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/modules/tokens.php tokens.php].

<pre>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `token` (
`token_key` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`token_location` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`token_state` int(10),
PRIMARY KEY (`token_key`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
</pre>

See [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]] for details about editing the file.

== Implement Game Setup ==

Once you have your database schema you can do a proper game setup. Usually you open rulebook on the "Game Setup" page
and implement these step by step populating the database (using db access API).
Game initialization is performed in php method setupNewGame, this method is called once when game table is created.
Game notifications cannot be sent during this time.

== Implement One time game model synchronisation ==

Now at any point in the game we need to make sure that database information can be reflected back in UI, so we fix getAllDatas function
to return all possible data we need to reconstruct the game. The template for getAllDatas already taking care of player info, but you
have to alter it to return all other data from database visible to the "current" player.

After that on the client side we should display this data, so in your .js file in setup function (which is the receiver of getAllDatas) you add calls that handle data send by server, usually by calling animation function such as "placeToken" or "placeCard".

== Create State Machine ==

Now you need to create a game state machine.

The state handling spread across 4 files, so you have to make sure all pieces are connected together.
The state machine states.php defines all the states, and function handlers on php side in a form of string,
and if any of these functions are not implemented it would be very hard to debug because it will break in random places.

Please fist watch this again [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-focus-on-bga-game-state-machine BGA game state machine]
and then please read [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]]

Now the state machine should be relatively simple, if you find yourself with machine with more than 10 states its probably not the way to go.
Not all the player interactions need separate states, a lot of things can be implemented directly on client, i.e. if your player need to select
a reward token, which offers choice of resource, instead of two states on server just have one state on server and possible few states on client (client side states)
to collect this info.

== Implement Notification handling ==

Now to implement things for real we have hook UI actions to ajax calls, and process notifications send by server.
So previously we hooked onclick js handler right to client animation, in real game its a two
step operation. When user clicks on something, client sends an ajax call to server, server processes it and updates database, server sends
notification in response, client hooks animations to server notification. See [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Notifications|JS Notifications]].

Exception to this is client states, if you need to process two step user interaction such as select meeple, place meeple, you may want
to avoid sending data to server until step is complete (which may involve direct client side animation).

Part of the sending notifications would be to update player's scoring, BGA uses standard control for score (on JS side), see [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Update_players_score|Update Player's Score]].

== Wrap Up ==

* Implement game progression (getGameProgression() in php)
* Implement Zombie turn (zombieTurn() in php)
* Define and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
* The games logs should explain what happened if player was not looking
* You need to implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Make sure all UI strings are marked for translation
* UI elements which are images (i.e. tokens, cards) should have tooltips

When you think you game is completely working there is still bunch of stuff you have to do/check before telling admin that game is ready, please go though this [[Pre-release checklist]].

Translations

2020-06-20T12:44:06Z

Een: /* How to not make translators crazy ;) */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Using BGA Studio, the game you create is ready to be translated to each language by the BGA community. To make this possible, you only need to specify which string must be translated and how to combine them.

== How translation works? ==

When developing your game, all strings must be in English. Strings must be coherent with the English version of the game.

Before the release of the game, BGA team will do the French translation of the game.

After the release of the game, the BGA players community will translate the game in every language.

== What should be translated? ==

Every text that can be visible by the player when the game is running normally. This includes tooltips, texts on cards, error messages, ...

This does NOT include error messages that are not supposed to happen (unexpected errors).

== What rules should I follow for the original English strings? ==

For a coherent and homogeneous interface, here are some rules about ending a sentence with a final dot '.'

* As a general rule:
** If a sentence is displayed isolated in the interface => no final dot
** If a sentence is followed or could be followed by another sentence in the same interface space => final dot.

* In detail:
** No final dot:
*** button labels
*** section titles
*** menu elements
*** links triggering an isolated action
*** anything that is not a full sentence
*** current action in the status bar
** Final dot:
*** complete explanation sentence, that can be chained with another sentence
** We can tolerate a dot or no dot (but it should be consistent inside the game) for:
*** isolated tooltip / isolated small sentence
*** game log (no dot is usually preferable)
*** error messages (except if more than one sentence in the error message => final dot mandatory in this case)

Otherwise, you should try to follow as closely as possible the general style and format (including capitalization) used in the English rulebook and game material of the game.

== Focus on translating notifications ==

Usually, translating a website is simple: you just call a function on every string you have to translate, and the string is translated in the player's language. On Board Game Arena, this is exactly the same with the "_( string )" function.

However, there is one difference on BGA: notifications. The server is sending notifications to players, and most of the time the notifications are the same for every players, no matter what language each player is using. This is why notifications are translated on client side in the proper language, even if the strings are defined on server side.

== WARNING: how to make sure your strings will be translated ==

For each game, our translation tool is doing a full scan of the code, looking for translator markers like "_()" or "clientranslate()"... (see below the list of translation markers).

If your original string is not "physically" inside one of this marker, it won't be translated.

<pre>
// Examples: the following strings will be translated:
var mystring_translated = _("my string"); // JS
$mystring_translated = self::_("my string"); // PHP
$mystring_translated = sprintf( self::_("my string with an %s argument"), $argument ); // PHP

// Examples: the following strings WILL NOT be translated:
$my_string = "my string";
$not_translated = self::_( $my_string ); // The original string is not bordered by a translator marker => no translation
$not_translated = self::_( sprintf( "my string with a %s argument", $argument ) ); // Same thing
</pre>

== How to not make translators crazy ;) ==

* When you need the same string twice, try to reuse exactly the same string (with the same case) to minimize the number of strings.
* Do not mark as translatable a game element that does not have to be translated (ex: if the name of a monster on a card is "Zzzzz", maybe there's no need to translate it).
* Words does not come in the same order in each language. Thus, when you have to translate a string with an argument, do not write something like:
<pre>self::_("First part of the string, ").$argument.' '.self::_("second part of the string")</pre>
Write instead:
<pre>sprintf( self::_("First part of the string, %s second part of the string"), $argument )</pre>
(or the equivalent "dojo.string.substitute" in Javascript)
* When translators are going to translate your game, the most difficult task for them is to get the context of the string to be translated. The more the string is a short insignificant string, the more difficult is the task for them. As a rule of thumb, try to avoid insignificant short strings. You can also leave a comment on what is the context of the string in the translation program (English to English) if you are the developer of the game.
* The BGA translation policy is to be flexible on grammar... We prefer to write "player gets 1 coin(s)" than write two versions of the same string for plural and singular - it reduces the number of strings to translate.
* Instead of writing nice strings like "With the effect of ZZZ, player XXX gets a new YYY", which is very difficult to translate, write strings like "ZZZ: XXX gets YYY".
* Use present tense instead of past, i.e. "player gets wood" instead of "player got wood"
* Avoid using gender specific pronouns, i.e. "player returns card to their hand" instead of "player returns card to his hand"

== On client side (Javascript) ==

On client side, things are quite simple: you just have to use the "_()" function for all strings you want to translate.

Examples:
<pre>
// Get a string in player's language:
var translated = _("original english string");

// Get a string in player's language with parameter:
var translated = dojo.string.substitute( _("You can pick ${p} cards and discard ${d}"), {
p: 2,
d: 4
} );
</pre>

'''WARNING:''' in Javascript strings to translate, you should never use '\n', '\t' or such, as it will break the translation bundle and result in all the Javascript translation to fail. In any case, the strings will result in HTML code, and such character codes won't have any impact on the HTML rendering. You should use HTML markup instead.

== On server side (PHP) ==

On PHP side, you can use 3 different functions to specify that a string must be translated.

'''clienttranslate( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function is '''transparent''': it will return the original English string without any change. It's only purpose is to mark this string as "must be translated", and to make sure the translated version of the string will be available on client side.

In general, you use clienttranslate:
* On your states.inc.php, for field "description" and "descriptionmyturn".

<pre>
"description" => clienttranslate('${card_name}: ${actplayer} must discard 4 identical energies'),
</pre>

* On "material.inc.php", when defining texts for game material that must be displayed on client side.
<pre>
$this->card_types = array(

1 => array(
'name' => clienttranslate("Amulet of Air"), // Thus, we can use "_( card_name )" on Javascript side.
</pre>

* When sending a notification with "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer", for the game log string and all game log arguments that need a translation.

<pre>
// A game log string with no argument:
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'pickLibraryCards', clienttranslate("Everyone draw cards from his library"), array() );
</pre>

Translating arguments is a little bit more complex. It is using the "i18n" special argument as below:

<pre>
// In the following example, we translate the game log itself, but also the "card_name" argument:

self::notifyAllPlayers( 'winPoints', clienttranslate('${card_name}: ${player_name} gains ${points} point(s)'), array(
'i18n' => array( 'card_name' ), // <===== We specify here that "card_name" argument must be translated
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getActivePlayerName(),
'points' => $points,
'card_name' => $this->card_types[8]['name'] // <==== Here, we provide original English string.
) );
</pre>

Pay attention when using 'i18n' argument when translating argument for client : do NOT use same argument for both translation AND key code for client side action (like using 'card_name' to move it on player board as described in the example). It's pretty obvious in the example, but it can be very tricky when translation is made at the end of the development (which is often the case). Use explicit argument name like 'card_name_translated' by example.

'''self::_( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function returns a string translated in the language of CURRENT user (ie: player who send the request to the server) (be careful, this is NOT the active player).

Most of the time, you don't need to translate strings on server side, except on the following 3 situations:
* When throwing an exception because the player did a forbidden move.

<pre>
// This will display a translatable red message to the player that just do some wrong action:
throw new BgaUserException( self::_('You must choose 3 cards') );

// ... notice the use of BgaUserException that signals that this exception is "expected". In theory, all exception that are expected should be translated.
</pre>

* In "yourgame.view.php", when creating the labels for the game interface used in your template (.tpl) file.

<pre>
$this->tpl['CARDS_FOR_YEAR_2'] = self::_("Your cards for year II");
</pre>

* Eventually, in your material.inc.php, if for example you need to use some string elements in your exceptions.

<pre>
// In material.inc.php, $this->energies[n]['nametr'] has been created with the self::_() method. This we can do this:
throw new BgaUserException( self::_("To execute this action you need more: ").' '.$this->energies[$resource_id]['nametr'] );
</pre>

* Eventually, in your "getAllDatas" PHP method, as the data return by this method is used only by current user.

'''totranslate( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function works exactly like 'clienttranslate', except it tells BGA that the string is not needed on client side.

You should not use this function, except on the following cases:
* Statistics name in stats.inc.php
* Option names and option values name in gameoptions.inc.php

Translations

2020-06-20T12:43:12Z

Een: /* WARNING: how to make sure your strings will be translated */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Using BGA Studio, the game you create is ready to be translated to each language by the BGA community. To make this possible, you only need to specify which string must be translated and how to combine them.

== How translation works? ==

When developing your game, all strings must be in English. Strings must be coherent with the English version of the game.

Before the release of the game, BGA team will do the French translation of the game.

After the release of the game, the BGA players community will translate the game in every language.

== What should be translated? ==

Every text that can be visible by the player when the game is running normally. This includes tooltips, texts on cards, error messages, ...

This does NOT include error messages that are not supposed to happen (unexpected errors).

== What rules should I follow for the original English strings? ==

For a coherent and homogeneous interface, here are some rules about ending a sentence with a final dot '.'

* As a general rule:
** If a sentence is displayed isolated in the interface => no final dot
** If a sentence is followed or could be followed by another sentence in the same interface space => final dot.

* In detail:
** No final dot:
*** button labels
*** section titles
*** menu elements
*** links triggering an isolated action
*** anything that is not a full sentence
*** current action in the status bar
** Final dot:
*** complete explanation sentence, that can be chained with another sentence
** We can tolerate a dot or no dot (but it should be consistent inside the game) for:
*** isolated tooltip / isolated small sentence
*** game log (no dot is usually preferable)
*** error messages (except if more than one sentence in the error message => final dot mandatory in this case)

Otherwise, you should try to follow as closely as possible the general style and format (including capitalization) used in the English rulebook and game material of the game.

== Focus on translating notifications ==

Usually, translating a website is simple: you just call a function on every string you have to translate, and the string is translated in the player's language. On Board Game Arena, this is exactly the same with the "_( string )" function.

However, there is one difference on BGA: notifications. The server is sending notifications to players, and most of the time the notifications are the same for every players, no matter what language each player is using. This is why notifications are translated on client side in the proper language, even if the strings are defined on server side.

== WARNING: how to make sure your strings will be translated ==

For each game, our translation tool is doing a full scan of the code, looking for translator markers like "_()" or "clientranslate()"... (see below the list of translation markers).

If your original string is not "physically" inside one of this marker, it won't be translated.

<pre>
// Examples: the following strings will be translated:
var mystring_translated = _("my string"); // JS
$mystring_translated = self::_("my string"); // PHP
$mystring_translated = sprintf( self::_("my string with an %s argument"), $argument ); // PHP

// Examples: the following strings WILL NOT be translated:
$my_string = "my string";
$not_translated = self::_( $my_string ); // The original string is not bordered by a translator marker => no translation
$not_translated = self::_( sprintf( "my string with a %s argument", $argument ) ); // Same thing
</pre>

== How to not make translators crazy ;) ==

* When you need the same string twice, try to reuse exactly the same string (with the same case) to minimize the number of strings.
* Do not mark as translatable a game element that does not have to be translated (ex: if the name of a monster on a card is "Zzzzz", maybe there's no need to translate it).
* Words does not come in the same order in each language. Thus, when you have to translate a string with an argument, do not write something like:
<pre>_("First part of the string, ").$argument.' '._("second part of the string")</pre>
Write instead:
<pre>sprintf( _("First part of the string, %s second part of the string"), $argument )</pre>
(or the equivalent "dojo.string.substitute" in Javascript)
* When translators are going to translate your game, the most difficult task for them is to get the context of the string to be translated. The more the string is a short insignificant string, the more difficult is the task for them. As a rule of thumb, try to avoid insignificant short strings. You can also leave a comment on what is the context of the string in the translation program (English to English) if you are the developer of the game.
* The BGA translation policy is to be flexible on grammar... We prefer to write "player gets 1 coin(s)" than write two versions of the same string for plural and singular - it reduces the number of strings to translate.
* Instead of writing nice strings like "With the effect of ZZZ, player XXX gets a new YYY", which is very difficult to translate, write strings like "ZZZ: XXX gets YYY".
* Use present tense instead of past, i.e. "player gets wood" instead of "player got wood"
* Avoid using gender specific pronouns, i.e. "player returns card to their hand" instead of "player returns card to his hand"

== On client side (Javascript) ==

On client side, things are quite simple: you just have to use the "_()" function for all strings you want to translate.

Examples:
<pre>
// Get a string in player's language:
var translated = _("original english string");

// Get a string in player's language with parameter:
var translated = dojo.string.substitute( _("You can pick ${p} cards and discard ${d}"), {
p: 2,
d: 4
} );
</pre>

'''WARNING:''' in Javascript strings to translate, you should never use '\n', '\t' or such, as it will break the translation bundle and result in all the Javascript translation to fail. In any case, the strings will result in HTML code, and such character codes won't have any impact on the HTML rendering. You should use HTML markup instead.

== On server side (PHP) ==

On PHP side, you can use 3 different functions to specify that a string must be translated.

'''clienttranslate( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function is '''transparent''': it will return the original English string without any change. It's only purpose is to mark this string as "must be translated", and to make sure the translated version of the string will be available on client side.

In general, you use clienttranslate:
* On your states.inc.php, for field "description" and "descriptionmyturn".

<pre>
"description" => clienttranslate('${card_name}: ${actplayer} must discard 4 identical energies'),
</pre>

* On "material.inc.php", when defining texts for game material that must be displayed on client side.
<pre>
$this->card_types = array(

1 => array(
'name' => clienttranslate("Amulet of Air"), // Thus, we can use "_( card_name )" on Javascript side.
</pre>

* When sending a notification with "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer", for the game log string and all game log arguments that need a translation.

<pre>
// A game log string with no argument:
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'pickLibraryCards', clienttranslate("Everyone draw cards from his library"), array() );
</pre>

Translating arguments is a little bit more complex. It is using the "i18n" special argument as below:

<pre>
// In the following example, we translate the game log itself, but also the "card_name" argument:

self::notifyAllPlayers( 'winPoints', clienttranslate('${card_name}: ${player_name} gains ${points} point(s)'), array(
'i18n' => array( 'card_name' ), // <===== We specify here that "card_name" argument must be translated
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getActivePlayerName(),
'points' => $points,
'card_name' => $this->card_types[8]['name'] // <==== Here, we provide original English string.
) );
</pre>

Pay attention when using 'i18n' argument when translating argument for client : do NOT use same argument for both translation AND key code for client side action (like using 'card_name' to move it on player board as described in the example). It's pretty obvious in the example, but it can be very tricky when translation is made at the end of the development (which is often the case). Use explicit argument name like 'card_name_translated' by example.

'''self::_( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function returns a string translated in the language of CURRENT user (ie: player who send the request to the server) (be careful, this is NOT the active player).

Most of the time, you don't need to translate strings on server side, except on the following 3 situations:
* When throwing an exception because the player did a forbidden move.

<pre>
// This will display a translatable red message to the player that just do some wrong action:
throw new BgaUserException( self::_('You must choose 3 cards') );

// ... notice the use of BgaUserException that signals that this exception is "expected". In theory, all exception that are expected should be translated.
</pre>

* In "yourgame.view.php", when creating the labels for the game interface used in your template (.tpl) file.

<pre>
$this->tpl['CARDS_FOR_YEAR_2'] = self::_("Your cards for year II");
</pre>

* Eventually, in your material.inc.php, if for example you need to use some string elements in your exceptions.

<pre>
// In material.inc.php, $this->energies[n]['nametr'] has been created with the self::_() method. This we can do this:
throw new BgaUserException( self::_("To execute this action you need more: ").' '.$this->energies[$resource_id]['nametr'] );
</pre>

* Eventually, in your "getAllDatas" PHP method, as the data return by this method is used only by current user.

'''totranslate( "my string to translate" ):'''

This function works exactly like 'clienttranslate', except it tells BGA that the string is not needed on client side.

You should not use this function, except on the following cases:
* Statistics name in stats.inc.php
* Option names and option values name in gameoptions.inc.php

Pre-release checklist

2020-06-19T16:13:00Z

Een: giveExtraTime

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

If you think your game is ready to be reviewed by by BGA admins and/or Publisher please consult this checklist first

* Metadata and graphics
** [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]] has correct and up to date information about the game
** Game box graphics is 3D version of the game box (if available) and publisher icon is correct (see [[Game art: img directory]]). Space around the box has to be transparent, not white.
** You have added a game_banner.jpg and some game_displayX.jpg images to make the game page pretty (NB: on the studio, you have to create a build for these images to appear on the studio game page)
** There is no images in img directory which are not needed anymore
** Multiple images (i.e. cards) are compressed in "Sprite" (see [[Game art: img directory]])
** Each image should not exceed 4M
** Total size should not exceed 10M, image compression should be used otherwise
* Server side
** When giving their turn to a player, you give them some extra time with the giveExtraTime() function
** Game progression is implemented (getGameProgression() in php)
** Zombie turn is implemented (zombieTurn() in php). Note: it can only be tested if you explicitly click on the quit button to create a zombie. If you are expelled it does not generated a Zombie.
** You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
** Game has meaningful notification messages (but don't overkill it, more user logs will slow down the loading)
** You implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Special testing
** Game is tested with spectator (non player observer): watch you own game with a different account, which is not in the game, and check that it works (and that no secret information is visible). For example, you start a game with express start and your dev0, dev1, dev2 accounts are playing. Then you connect with your dev4 account in a private browser window, and you go to the game.
** Game is tested with in-game replay feature (by clicking on notification log items)
** Game works in Chrome and Firefox browsers at least. Also very recommended to test in IE 11 and Edge.
** Game works on mobile device (if you don't have mobile device to test at least test in Chrome with smaller screen, they have a mode for that)
** Test your game in realtime mode. Usually people will run out of time if you use default times unless you add call giveExtraTime($active_player_id) before each turn
** Test your game in 3D mode (if it makes sense; 3D mode can also be disabled through the 'enable_3d' parameter for gameinfos.inc.php, but if it "mostly works", it can be nice to keep it activated even if 2D is more appropriate for the game, just because it's fun to look at)
* Cleanup
** Remove all extra console.log from your js code
** Remove all unnecessary debug logging from your php code
** Copyright headers in all source files have your name
* User Interface
** Review BGA UI design Guidelines [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines]]
** If the elements in your game zone don't occupy all the available horizontal space, '''they should be centered'''.
** Non-self explanatory graphic elements should have tooltips
** If graphic elements appear in notification log they should have titles (i.e. title attribute of div) so can be read in non rendered form (i.e. as text only)
** Strings in your source code are ready for translation. See [[Translations]]
** A prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes to avoid namespace conflicts, i.e. vla_selected vs selected
** If you are looking for advice on design and some 3rd party testing you can post a message on the developers forum, and ask other developers, there are a lot of people who will gladly do it.
* Finally
** If possible (meaning if there is not already a project with that name) copy your project to a new project '''matching exactly the name of the game''' (no prefix or suffix). If not possible move on to the next steps, admin will have to retrieve the other project and overwrite it.
** Create a build for your game from the "manage game" page (using the '''Build a new release version''' section) and check the log to make sure that everything builds fine (very often the js build fails because of [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Shrinksafe_minimization | this constraint]]).
** Send an e-mail to studio@boardgamearena.com asking to move the project forward for review. You cannot deploy yourself from the "manage game" page until a first deploy has been done by the admins. Please note that '''everything must be OK on the licensing''' side for a project to be moved out of the studio.

Game interface logic: yourgamename.js

2020-06-17T18:31:15Z

Een: /* Other useful stuff */ onScreenWidthChange

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game interface. Here you will define:

* Which actions on the page will generate calls to the server.
* What happens when you get a notification for a change from the server and how it will show in the browser.

== File structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described below with comments on the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* '''constructor''': here you can define global variables for your whole interface.
* '''setup''': this method is called when the page is refreshed, and sets up the game interface.
* '''onEnteringState''': this method is called when entering a new game state. You can use it to customize the view for each game state.
* '''onLeavingState''': this method is called when leaving a game state.
* '''onUpdateActionButtons''': called when entering a new state, in order to add action buttons to the status bar.
* ''(utility methods)'': this is where you can define your utility methods.
* ''(player's actions)'': this is where you can write your handlers for player actions on the interface (example: click on an item).
* '''setupNotifications''': this method associates notifications with notification handlers. For each game notification, you can trigger a javascript method to handle it and update the game interface.
* ''(notification handlers)'': this is where you define the notifications handlers associated with notifications in '''setupNotifications''', above.

== General tips ==

; this.player_id
: ID of the player on whose browser the code is running.

; this.isSpectator
: Flag set to true if the user at the table is a spectator (not a player).
: Note: This is a variable, not a function.
: Note: If you want to hide an element from spectators, you should use [[Game_interface_stylesheet:_yourgamename.css#spectatorMode|CSS 'spectatorMode' class]].

; this.gamedatas
: Contains the initial set of data to init the game, created at game start or by game refresh (F5).
: You can update it as needed to keep an up-to-date reference of the game on the client side if you need it. (Most of the time this is unnecessary).

; this.isCurrentPlayerActive()
: Returns true if the player on whose browser the code is running is currently active (it's his turn to play).

; this.getActivePlayerId()
: Return the ID of the active player, or null if we are not in an "activeplayer" type state.

; this.getActivePlayers()
: Return an array with the IDs of players who are currently active (or an empty array if there are none).

; this.bRealtime
: Return true if the game is in realtime. Note that having a distinct behavior in realtime and turn-based should be exceptional.

== Dojo framework ==

BGA uses the [http://dojotoolkit.org/ Dojo Javascript framework].

The Dojo framework allows us to do complex things more easily. The BGA framework uses Dojo extensively.

To implement a game, you only need to use a few parts of the Dojo framework. All the Dojo methods you need are described on this page.

== ShrinkSafe minimization ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the js code is minimized using ShrinkSafe (based on ECMASCRIPT version 3). Some advanced syntax may not be compatible with this process. In particular:
* You should not use reserved keywords from the javascript language as variables.
* You should not declare default argument values in function declarations. The following syntax is invalid for ShrinkSafe: '''function myFunc(requiredArg, optionalArg = 'defaultValue') {}'''

'''Tip:''' a developer encountering some problems with this has successfully used [http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/58580/jshint JSHint] on NetBeans to evaluate code to make it compatible for ECMAScript 3. With the plugin installed, set the below options in '''.jshintrc''' file, and then open '''Action Items''' window (in NetBeans):<pre>{ "maxerr": 999, "esversion": 3 }</pre>

'''Tip:''' some online tools also allow to convert between different versions of javascript, such as https://www.typescriptlang.org/play

== Accessing and manipulating the DOM ==

'''$('some_html_element_id')'''

The $() function is used to get an HTML element using its "id" attribute.

Example 1: modify the content of a "span" element:

<pre>
In your HTML code:
<span id="a_value_in_the_game_interface">1234</span>

In your Javascript code:
$('a_value_in_the_game_interface').innerHTML = "9999";
</pre>

Note: $() is the standard method to access some HTML element with the BGA Framework. You should not use the '''getElementById''' function.

'''dojo.style'''

With dojo.style you can modify the CSS property of any HTML element in your interface.

Examples:

<pre>
// Make an element disappear
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'display', 'none' );

// Give an element a 2px border
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'borderWidth', '2px' );

// Change the background position of an element
// (very practical when you are using CSS sprites to transform an element to another)
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'backgroundPosition', '-20px -50px' );
</pre>

Note: you must always use dojo.style to modify the CSS properties of HTML elements.

Note²: if you have to modify several CSS properties of an element, or if you have a complex CSS transformation to do, you should consider using dojo.addClass/dojo.removeClass (see below).

'''dojo CSS classes manipulation'''

In many situations, many small CSS property updates can be replaced by a CSS class change (i.e., you add a CSS class to your element instead of applying all modifications manually).

Advantages are:
* All your CSS stuff remains in your CSS file.
* You can add/remove a list of CSS modifications with a simple function and without error.
* You can test whether you applied the CSS to an element with the '''dojo.hasClass''' method.

Example from ''Reversi'':

<pre>
// We add "possibleMove" to an element
dojo.addClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' );

// In our CSS file, the class is defined as:
.possibleMove {
background-color: white;
opacity: 0.2;
filter:alpha(opacity=20); /* For IE8 and earlier */
cursor: pointer;
}

// So we've applied 4 CSS property changes in one line of code.

// ... and when we need to check if a square is a possible move on the client side:
if( dojo.hasClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' ) )
{ ... }

// ... and if we want to remove all possible moves in one line of code (see "dojo.query" method):
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );
</pre>

Conclusion: We encourage you to use '''dojo.addClass''', '''dojo.removeClass''' and '''dojo.hasClass''' to make your life easier :)

'''dojo.query'''

With dojo.query, you can query a bunch of HTML elements with a single function, with a "CSS selector" style.

Example:
<pre>
// All elements with class "possibleMove":
var elements = dojo.query( '.possibleMove' );

// Count number of tokens (i.e., elements of class "token") on the board (i.e., the element with id "board"):
dojo.query( '#board .token' ).length;
</pre>

But what is really cool with dojo.query is that you can combine it with almost all methods above.

Examples:
<pre>
// Trigger a method when the mouse enter in any element with class "meeple":
dojo.query( '.meeple' ).connect( 'onmouseenter', this, 'myMethodToTrigger' );

// Hide all meeples who are on the board
dojo.query( '#board .meeple' ).style( 'display', 'none' );
</pre>

'''dojo.place'''

dojo.place is the best function to insert HTML code somewhere in your game interface without breaking something. It is much better to use than the '''innerHTML=''' method if you must insert HTML tags and not only values.

<pre>
// Insert your HTML code as a child of a container element
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id" );

// Replace the container element with your new html
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id", "replace" );

</pre>

The third parameter of dojo.place can take various interesting value.

values possibles :

"replace" : (see description above).

"first" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the first child.

"last" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the last child.

"before" : places the node right before the reference node.

"last (value by default) " : places the node right after the reference node.

"only" : replaces all children of the reference node with the node.

positif integer : This parameter can be a positif integer. In this case, the node will be placed as a child of the reference node with this number (counting from 0). If the number is more than number of children, the node will be appended to the reference node making it the last child.

See also full doc on dojo.place : [https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.7/dojo/place.html]

Usually, when you want to insert some piece of HTML in your game interface, you should use "[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]".

'''addStyleToClass: function( cssClassName, cssProperty, propertyValue )'''

Same as dojo.style(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

=== Animations ===

'''Dojo Animations'''

BGA animations is based on Dojo Animation ([http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.8/animation/ see tutorial here]).

However, most of the time, you can just use methods below, which are built on top of Dojo Animation.

Note: one interesting method from Dojo that could be useful from time to time is "Dojo.Animation". It allows you to make any CSS property "slide" from one value to another.

'''this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay )'''

You can use slideToObject to "slide" an element to a target position.

Sliding element on the game area is the recommended and the most used way to animate your game interface. Using slides allow players to figure out what is happening on the game, as if they were playing with the real boardgame.

The parameters are:
* mobile_obj: the ID of the object to move. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned.
* target_obj: the ID of the target object. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned. Note that it is not mandatory that mobile_obj and target_obj have the same size. If their size are different, the system slides the center of mobile_obj to the center of target_obj.
* duration: (optional) defines the duration in millisecond of the slide. The default is 500 milliseconds.
* delay: (optional). If you defines a delay, the slide will start only after this delay. This is particularly useful when you want to slide several object from the same position to the same position: you can give a 0ms delay to the first object, a 100ms delay to the second one, a 200ms delay to the third one, ... this way they won't be superposed during the slide.

BE CAREFUL: The method returns an dojo.fx animation, so you can combine it with other animation if you want to. It means that you have to call the "play()" method, otherwise the animation WON'T START.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObject( "some_token", "some_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y, duration, delay )'''

This method does exactly the same as "slideToObject", except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will slide to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

Example: slide a token to some place on the board, 10 pixels to the bottom:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectPos( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 0, 10 ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideTemporaryObject( mobile_obj_html, mobile_obj_parent, from, to, duration, delay )'''

This method is useful when you want to slide a temporary HTML object from one place to another. As this object does not exists before the animation and won't remain after, it could be complex to create this object (with dojo.place), to place it at its origin (with placeOnObject) to slide it (with slideToObject) and to make it disappear at the end.

slideTemporaryObject does all of this for you:
* mobile_obj_html is a piece of HTML code that represent the object to slide.
* mobile_obj_parent is the ID of an HTML element of your interface that will be the parent of this temporary HTML object.
* from is the ID of the origin of the slide.
* to is the ID of the target of the slide.
* duration/delay works exactly like in "slideToObject"

Example:
<pre>
this.slideTemporaryObject( '<div class="token_icon"></div>', 'tokens', 'my_origin_div', 'my_target_div' );
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectAndDestroy: function( node, to, time, delay )'''

This method is a handy shortcut to slide an existing HTML object to some place then destroy it upon arrival. It can be used for example to move a victory token or a card from the board to the player panel to show that the player earns it, then destroy it when we don't need to keep it visible on the player panel.

It works the same as this.slideToObject and takes the same arguments.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectAndDestroy( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 1000, 0 );
</pre>

'''this.fadeOutAndDestroy( node, duration, delay )'''

This function fade out the target HTML node, then destroy it.

Example:
<pre>
this.fadeOutAndDestroy( "a_card_that_must_disappear" );
</pre>

CAREFUL: the HTML node still exists until during few milliseconds, until the fadeOut has been completed.

'''Rotating elements'''

You can check here [http://jimfulton.info/demos/dojo-animated-rotate.html an example of use] of Dojo to make an element rotate.

This example combines "Dojo.Animation" method and a CSS3 property that allow you to rotate the element.

IMPORTANT: to asses browser compatibility, you must select the CSS property to use just like in the example (see sourcecode below):

<pre>
var transform;
dojo.forEach(
['transform', 'WebkitTransform', 'msTransform',
'MozTransform', 'OTransform'],
function (name) {
if (typeof dojo.body().style[name] != 'undefined') {
transform = name;
}
});
// ... and then use "transform" as the name of your CSS property for rotation
</pre>

'''Animation Callbacks'''

If you wish to run some code only after an animation has completed you can do this by linking a callback method.

<pre>
var animation_id = this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay );
dojo.connect(animation_id, 'onEnd', dojo.hitch(this, 'callback_function', parameters));
animation_id.play();

…

callback_function: function(params) {
// this will be called after the animation ends
},
</pre>

If you wish to call a second animation after the first (rather than general code) then you can use a dojo animation chain (see tutorial referenced above).

=== Moving elements ===

'''this.placeOnObject( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

placeOnObject works exactly like "slideToObject", except that the effect is immediate.

This is not really an animation, but placeOnObject is frequently used before starting an animation.

Example:
<pre>
// (We just created an object "my_new_token")

// Place the new token on current player board
this.placeOnObject( "my_new_token", "overall_player_board_"+this.player_id );

// Then slide it to its position on the board
this.slideToObject( "my_new_token", "a_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.placeOnObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y )'''

This method works exactly like placeOnObject, except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will be placed to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

'''this.attachToNewParent( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

With this method, you change the HTML parent of "mobile_obj" element. "target_obj" is the new parent of this element. The beauty of
attachToNewParent is that the mobile_obj element DOES NOT MOVE during this process.

Note: what happens is that the method calculate a relative position of mobile_obj to make sure it does not move after the HTML parent changes.

Why using this method?

Changing the HTML parent of an element can be useful for the following reasons:
* When the HTML parent moves, all its child are moving with them. If some game elements is no more linked with a parent HTML object, you may want to attach it to another place.
* The z_order (vertical order of display) depends on the position in the DOM, so you may need to change the parent of some game elements when they are moving in your game area.

CAREFUL: this function destroys original object and places a clone onto a new parent, this will break all references to this HTML element (ex: dojo.connect).

== Players input ==

'''dojo.connect'''

Used to associate a player event with one of your notification method.

Example: associate a click on an element ("my_element") with one of our method ("onClickOnMyElement"):
<pre>
dojo.connect( $('my_element'), 'onclick', this, 'onClickOnMyElement' );
</pre>

Note: this is the only possible correct way to associate a player input event to your code, and you must not use anything else.

'''this.checkAction( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkAction: function( action, nomessage )

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):

* "action"
* "module"
* "class"
return true if action is authorized (ie: the action is listed as a "possibleaction" in current game state).

return false and display an error message if not (display no message if nomessage parameter is true). The displayed error message could be either "This move is not allowed at this moment" or "An action is already in progress".

Example:
<pre>
function onClickOnGameElement( evt )
{
if( this.checkAction( "my_action" ) )
{
// Do the action
}
}
</pre>

'''this.checkPossibleActions( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkPossibleActions: function( action, nomessage )

* this is independent of the player being active, so can be used instead of this.checkAction(). This is particularly useful for multiplayer states when the player is not active in a 'player may like to change their mind' scenario.

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):
* "action"
* "module"
* "class"

'''this.ajaxcall( url, parameters, obj_callback, callback, callback_error )'''

This method must be used to send a player input to the game server.

* url: the url of the action to perform. For a game, it must be: "/<mygame>/<mygame>/myAction.html"
* parameters: an array of parameter to send to the game server. Note that "lock:true" must always be specified in this list of parameter in order the interface can be locked during the server call.
* obj_callback: must be set to "this".
* callback: a function to trigger when the server returns and everything went fine.
* callback_error: (optional and rarely used) a function to trigger when the server returns an error.

Usage:
<pre>
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/myaction.html', { lock: true,
arg1: myarg1,
arg2: myarg2,
...
}, this, function( result ) {
// Do some stuff after a successful call
} );
</pre>

'''this.confirmationDialog()'''

Display a confirmation dialog with a yes/no choice.

We advice you to NOT use this function unless the player action is really critical and could ruins the game, because it slows down the game and upset players.

Usage: this.confirmationDialog( "Question to displayed", callback_function_if_click_on_yes );

Example:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure to use this bonus (points penalty at the end of the game) ?'),
dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/seasons/seasons/useBonus.html',
{ id:bonus_id, lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

; addEventToClass: function( cssClassName, eventName, functionName )
: Same as dojo.connect(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

'''this.addActionButton( id, label, method, (opt)destination, (opt)blinking, (opt)color )'''

You can use this method to add an action button in the main action status bar.

Arguments:
* id: an element ID that should be unique in your HTML DOM document.
* label: the text of the button. Should be translatable (use _() function).
* method: the name of your method that must be triggered when the player clicks on this button.
* destination (optional): deprecated, do not use this. Use '''null''' as value if you need to specify other arguments.
* blinking (optional): if set to '''true''', the button is going blink to catch player's attention. Please don't abuse of blinking button.
* color: could be '''blue''' (default), '''red''' or '''gray'''.

You should only use this method in your "onUpdateActionButtons" method. Usually, you use it like this (from Hearts example):

<pre>
onUpdateActionButtons: function( stateName, args ) {

if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
switch( stateName ) {
case 'giveCards':
this.addActionButton( 'giveCards_button', _('Give selected cards'), 'onGiveCards' );
break;
}
}
},
</pre>

In the example above, we are adding a "Give selected cards" button in the case we are on game state "giveCards". When player clicks on this button, it triggers our "onGiveCards" method.

Example using blinking red button:
<pre>
this.addActionButton( 'commit_button', _('Confirm'), 'onConfirm', null, true, 'red');
</pre>

Note: at least in studio example above will make button huge, because it sets it display of blinking things to '''block''',
if you don't like it you have to change css display value
of the button to inline-block (the id of the button is the first argument, i.e 'commit_button' in example above)

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Notifications ==

When something happens on the server side, your game interface Javascript logic received a notification.

Here's how you can handle these notifications on the client side.

=== Subscribe to notifications ===

Your Javascript "setupNotifications" method is the place where you can subscribe to notifications from your PHP code.

Here's how you associate one of your Javascript method to a notification "playDisc" (from Reversi example):

<pre>
// In setupNotifications method:
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
</pre>

Note: the "playDisc" corresponds to the name of the notification you define it in your PHP code, in your "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer" method.

Then, you have to define your "notif_playDisc" method:

<pre>
notif_playDisc: function( notif )
{
// Remove current possible moves (makes the board more clear)
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );

this.addDiscOnBoard( notif.args.x, notif.args.y, notif.args.player_id );
},
</pre>

In a notification handler like our "notif_playDisc" method, you can access to all notifications arguments with "notif.args".

Example:
<pre>
// If you did this on PHP side:
self::notifyAllPlayers( "myNotification", '', array( "myArgument" => 3 ) );

// On Javascript side, you can access the "myArgument" like this:
notif_myNotification: function( notif )
{
alert( "myArgument = " + notif.args.myArgument );
}
</pre>

=== Synchronous notifications ===

When several notifications are received by your game interface, these notifications are processed immediately, one after the other, in the same exact order they have been generated in your PHP game logic.

However, sometimes, you need to give some time to the players to figure out what happened on the game before jumping to the next notification. Indeed, in many games, they are a lot of automatic actions, and the computer is going to resolve all these actions very fast if you don't tell it not to do so.

As an example, for Reversi, when someone is playing a disc, we want to wait 500 milliseconds before doing anything else in order the opponent player can figure out what move has been played.

Here's how we do this, right after our subscription:
<pre>
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
this.notifqueue.setSynchronous( 'playDisc', 500 ); // Wait 500 milliseconds after executing the playDisc handler
</pre>

=== Pre-defined notification types ===

'''tableWindow''' - This defines notification to display [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_dialogs|Scoring Dialogs]], see below.

'''message''' - This defines notification that shows on players log and have no other effect

// You can call this on php side without doing anything on client side
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'message', 'hello', array( ) );

== Tooltips ==

'''this.addTooltip( nodeId, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to the DOM node.

Specify 'helpString' to display some information about "what is this game element?".
Specify 'actionString' to display some information about "what happens when I click on this element?".

You must specify both helpString and actionString. Most of the time, you should use only one and specify a void string ("") for the other one.

Usually, _() must be used for the text to be marked for translation.

"Delay" is an optional parameter. Usually, it is primarily used to specify a zero delay for some game element when the tooltip gives really important information for the game - but remember: no essential information must be placed in tooltips as they won't be displayed in some browsers (see [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines|Guidelines]]).

Example:
<pre>
this.addTooltip( 'cardcount', _('Number of cards in hand'), '' );
</pre>

'''this.addTooltipHtml( nodeId, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to the DOM node (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

'''this.addTooltipToClass( cssClass, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass.

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips.

'''this.addTooltipHtmlToClass( cssClass, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips

'''this.removeTooltip( nodeId )'''

Remove a tooltip from the DOM node.

== Dialogs, warning messages, confirmation dialogs, ... ==

=== Warning messages ===

Sometimes, there is something important that is happening on the game and you have to make sure all players get the message. Most of the time, the evolution of the game situation or the game log is enough, but sometimes you need something more visible.

Ex: someone fulfill one of the end of the game condition, so this is the last turn.

'''this.showMessage( msg, type )'''

showMessage shows a message in a big rectangular area on the top of the screen of current player.

* "msg" is the string to display. It should be translated.
* "type" can be set to "info" or "error". If set to "info", the message will be an informative message on a white background. If set to "error", the message will be an error message on a red background.

Important: the normal way to inform players about the progression of the game is the game log. "showMessage" is intrusive and should not be used often.

=== Confirmation dialog ===

'''confirmationDialog( message, yesHandler, noHandler )'''

When an important action with a lot of consequences is triggered by the player, you may want to propose a confirmation dialog.

CAREFUL: the general guidelines of BGA is to AVOID the use of confirmation dialog. Confirmation dialogs slow down the game and bother players. The players knows that they have to pay attention about each move when they are playing online.

The situation where you should use a confirmation dialog are the following:
* It must not happen very often during a game.
* It must be linked to an action that can really "kill a game" if the player do not pay attention.
* It must be something that can be done by mistake (ex: a link on the action status bar).

How to display a confirmation dialog:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to bake the pie?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.bakeThePie();
} ) );
return; // nothing should be called or done after calling this, all action must be done in the handler
</pre>

=== Multiple choice dialog ===
You can use this dialog to give user a choice with small amount of options:
<pre>
var keys = [1,5,10];
this.multipleChoiceDialog(
_('How many bugs to fix?"), keys,
dojo.hitch(this, function(choice) {
var bugchoice = keys[choice];
console.log('dialog callback with '+bugchoice);
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/fixBugs.html', { bugs: bugchoice}, this, function( result ) {} ); }));
</pre>

=== Dialogs ===

As a general rule, you shouldn't use dialogs windows.

BGA guidelines specify that all game elements should be displayed on the main screen. Players can eventually scroll down to see game elements they don't need to see anytime, and you may eventually create anchors to move between game area section. Of course dialogs windows are very practical, but the thing is: all players know how to scroll down, and not all players know how to show up your dialog window. In addition, when the dialog shows up, players can't access the other game components.

Sometimes although, you need to display a dialog window. Here is how you do this:

// Create the new dialog over the play zone. You should store the handler in a member variable to access it later
this.myDlg = new ebg.popindialog();
this.myDlg.create( 'myDialogUniqueId' );
this.myDlg.setTitle( _("my dialog title to translate") );
this.myDlg.setMaxWidth( 500 ); // Optional

// Create the HTML of my dialog.
// The best practice here is to use [[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]
var html = this.format_block( 'jstpl_myDialogTemplate', {
arg1: myArg1,
arg2: myArg2,
...
} );

// Show the dialog
this.myDlg.setContent( html ); // Must be set before calling show() so that the size of the content is defined before positioning the dialog
this.myDlg.show();

// Now that the dialog has been displayed, you can connect your method to some dialog elements
// Example, if you have an "OK" button in the HTML of your dialog:
dojo.connect( $('my_ok_button'), 'onclick', this, function(evt){
evt.preventDefault();
this.myDlg.destroy();
} );

If necessary, you can remove the default top right corner 'close' icon, or replace the function called when it is clicked:
// Removes the default close icon
this.myDlg.hideCloseIcon();

// Replace the function call when it's clicked
this.myDlg.replaceQuitCallback( function() { ... } );

=== Scoring dialogs ===

Sometimes at the end of a round you want to display a big table that details the points wins in each section of the game.

Example: in Hearts game, we display at the end of each round the number of "heart" cards collected by each player, the player who collected the Queen of Spades, and the total number of points loose by each player.

Scoring dialogs are managed entirely on '''PHP side''', but they are described here as their effects are visible only on client side.

Displaying a scoring dialog is quite simple and is using a special notification type: "tableWindow":
<pre>
// on PHP side:
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table
) );
</pre>

The "table" argument is a 2 dimensional PHP array that describe the table you want to display, line by line and column by column.

Example: display an 3x3 array of strings
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", "three" ), // This is my first line
array( "four", "five", "six" ), // This is my second line
array( "seven", "height", "nine" ) // This is my third line
);
</pre>

As you can see above, in each "cell" of your array you can display a simple string value. But you can also display a complex value with a template and associated arguments like this:
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", array( "str" => clienttranslate("a string with an ${argument}"), "args" => array( 'argument' => 'argument_value' ) ) ),
array( "four", "five", "six" ),
array( "seven", "height", "nine" )
);
</pre>

This is especially useful when you want to display player names with colors. Example from "Hearts":
<pre>
$firstRow = array( '' );
foreach( $players as $player_id => $player )
{
$firstRow[] = array( 'str' => '${player_name}',
'args' => array( 'player_name' => $player['player_name'] ),
'type' => 'header'
);
}
$table[] = $firstRow;
</pre>

You can also use three extra attributes in the parameter array for the notification:

<pre>
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table,
"header" => array('str' => clienttranslate('Table header with parameter ${number}'),
'args' => array( 'number' => 3 ),
),
"footer" => '<div>Some footer</div>',
"closing" => clienttranslate( "Closing button label" )
) );
</pre>

*'''header''': the content for this parameter will display before the table (also, the html will be parsed and player names will be colored according to the current game colors).
*'''footer''': the content for this parameter will display after the table (no parsing for coloring the player names)
*'''closing''': if this parameter is used, a button will be displayed with this label at the bottom of the popup and will allow players to close it (more easily than by clicking the top right 'cross' icon).

=== Scoring animated display ===

Sometimes (Terra Mystica final scoring for example), you may want to display a score value over an element to make the scoring easier to follow for the players.
You can do it with:

<pre>
this.displayScoring( anchor_id, color, score, duration );
</pre>

'''anchor_id''': ID of the element to place the animated score onto (without the '#')

'''color''': hexadecimal RGB representation of the color (should be the color of the scoring player), but without a leading '#'. For instance, 'ff0000' for red.

'''score''': numeric score to display, prefixed by a '+'

'''duration''': animation duration in milliseconds

=== Speech bubble ===

For better interactivity in some games (Love Letter for example), you may use comic book style speech bubbles to express the players voices.
This is done with:

<pre>
this.showBubble( anchor_id, text, delay, duration, custom_class )
</pre>

delay in milliseconds is optional (default 0)

duration in milliseconds is optional (default 3000)

custom_class is optional, if you need to override the default bubble style

'''Warning''': if your bubble could overlap other active elements of the interface (buttons in particular), as it stays in place even after disappearing, you should use a custom class to give it the style "pointer-events: none;" in order to intercept click events.

== Update players score ==

Increase a player score (with a positive or negative number):

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].incValue( score_delta );
</pre>

Set a player score to a specific value:

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].setValue( new_score );
</pre>

== Players panels ==

=== Adding stuff to player's panel ===

At first, create a new "JS template" string in your template (tpl) file:

(from Gomoku example)
<pre>
var jstpl_player_board = '\<div class="cp_board">\
<div id="stoneicon_p${id}" class="gmk_stoneicon gmk_stoneicon_${color}"></div><span id="stonecount_p${id}">0</span>\
</div>';
</pre>

Then, you add this piece of code in your JS file to add this template to each player panel:

<pre>
// Setting up player boards
for( var player_id in gamedatas.players )
{
var player = gamedatas.players[player_id];

// Setting up players boards if needed
var player_board_div = $('player_board_'+player_id);
dojo.place( this.format_block('jstpl_player_board', player ), player_board_div );
}
</pre>

(Note: the code above is of course from your "setup" function in your Javascript).

Very often, you have to distinguish current player and others players. In this case, you just have to create another JS template (ex: jstpl_otherplayer_board) and use it when "player_id" is different than "this.player_id".

=== Player's panel disabling/enabling ===

'''this.disablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Disable given player panel (the panel background become gray).

Usually, this is used to signal that this played passes, or will be inactive during a while.

Note that the only effect of this is visual. There are no consequences on the behaviour of the panel itself.

'''this.enablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Enable a player panel that has been disabled before.

'''this.enableAllPlayerPanels()'''

Enable all player panels that has been disabled before.

== Image loading ==

See also [[Game_art:_img_directory]].

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

'''dontPreloadImage( image_file_name )'''

Using dontPreloadImage, you tell the interface to not preload a specific image in your img directory.

Example of use:
<pre>
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
</pre>

This is particularly useful if for example you have 2 different themes for a game. To accelerate the loading of the game, you can specify to not preload images corresponding to the other theme.

Another example of use: in "Gosu" game with Kamakor extension, you play with 5 sets of cards among 10 available. Cards images are organized by sets, and we only preload the images corresponding to the 5 current sets with '''ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( image_file_names_array )'''.
<pre>
// By default, do not preload anything
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan1.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan2.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan3.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan4.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan5.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan6.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan7.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan8.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan9.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan10.png' );
var to_preload = [];
for( i in this.gamedatas.clans )
{
var clan_id = this.gamedatas.clans[i];
to_preload.push( 'clan'+clan_id+'.png' );
}
if( to_preload.length == 5 )
{
this.ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( to_preload );
}
</pre>

'''Note:''' You don't need to specify to not preload game box images (game_box.png, game_box75.png...) since they are not preloaded by default.

== Other useful stuff ==

'''dojo.hitch'''

With dojo.hitch, you can create a callback function that will run with your game object context whatever happen.

Typical example: display a BGA confirmation dialog with a callback function created with dojo.hitch:

<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to make this?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/makeThis.html', { lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

In the example above, using dojo.hitch, we ensure that the "this" object will be set when the callback is called.

; updateCounters(counters)
: Useful for updating game counters in the player panel (such as resources).
: 'counters' arg is an associative array [counter_name_value => [ 'counter_name' => counter_name_value, 'counter_value' => counter_value_value], ... ]
: All counters must be referenced in this.gamedatas.counters and will be updated.
: DOM objects referenced by 'counter_name' will have their innerHTML updated with 'counter_value'.

'''onScreenWidthChange()'''
This function can be overridden in your game to manage some resizing on the client side when the browser window is resized. This function is also triggered at load time, so it can be used to adapt to the viewport size at the start of the game too.

'''updatePageTitle()'''
This function allows to update the current page title and turn description according to the game state. If the current game state description this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn is modified before calling the function, it allows to update the turn description without changing state.

Example from Terra Mystica:
<pre>
onClickFavorTile: function( evt )
{
[...]

if ( ... ) {

this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn = _('Special action: ') + _('Advance 1 space on a Cult track');
this.updatePageTitle();
this.removeActionButtons();

this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm1', _("Fire"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm2', _("Water"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm3', _("Earth"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm4', _("Air"),
function() { ... }
);

this.addActionButton( 'action_cancel', _("Cancel"), function() { ... }, false, false, 'gray'
);

return;
}

[...]

}
</pre>

== BGA GUI components ==

BGA framework provides some useful ready-to-use components for the game interface:

[[Studio#BGA_Studio_game_components_reference]]

Note that each time you are using an additional component, you must declare it at the top of your Javascript file in the list of modules used.

Example if you are using "ebg.stock":
<pre>
define([
"dojo","dojo/_base/declare",
"ebg/core/gamegui",
"ebg/counter",
"ebg/stock" /// <=== we are using ebg.stock module
],
</pre>

Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough

2020-06-17T11:31:20Z

Een: /* Hook Input and Animation */ attenuate a little about sound, as it's still possible and useful for some games

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

== Introduction ==

This document is not a tutorial, but step by step instructions on how to build your own first game adaptation using BGA Studio framework.

Before you read this material, you must:
* Read the overall presentations of the BGA [[Studio]].
* Some-what know the languages used by BGA Studio: PHP, SQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript
* Setup you development environment [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/First_steps_with_BGA_Studio First Steps with BGA Studio]
* Create a game using one of the available tutorials. Don't bother with a new game if you have not completed at least one of the tutorials.

If you are stuck or have questions about this page post on [https://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 BGA Developers forum].
If you uncomfortable posting on public forum you can send message directly to developers who post answers on that forum but NOT the BGA admins.
If you find typos in this wiki - fix it.

== Select a First Game ==

For your first '''real''' game you must either
* Select a game from [https://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/licensing Available Licenses]
* Or from the Public Domain

But what if the game you want is not there? If you are able to successfully publish your first game, you would gain the trust of the BGA admins and they will be happy to assist you in obtaining a license for game you really want to do or you can request a license yourself. You can read more about game licenses on [[BGA Game licences]] page.

Once you selected the game but before creating a new project, please takes few seconds to check that someone is not already developing this game. If it is the case, maybe you can propose to join the project?

[http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!projects Check the list of current projects]

Even if you see few projects with name of the game they may not be active. There are a lot abandoned game projects. If its not clear by the status, post to Developers forum as ask if anybody actively working on the project, and at the same time ask admins on the same forum post to send you graphics for that game if they have them.

If you goal was to fix bugs in existing project, you have to ask on forum to get access to it, projects developed by bga admins are not in the studio.

If you want to take over existing project first ask on forum to see if project is abandoned, then get read only access (via project list) and see if this worth using it, if it has no code or graphics just start from the scratch, don't worry about project name it can be renamed later

== Create a project ==

If you have not already, you have to create a project in BGA Studio for this game. If the original game name is taken use gamenameYOURINITIALS
template, i.e."heartsla". Don't worry too much about the name, if game would be good enough to be publish it will be renamed to original name.

Find and start the game in turn based mode, make sure it works.

Second, modify the text in .tpl file, reload the page in the browser and make sure your ftp sync works as expected.
Note: if you have not setup [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Tools_and_tips_of_BGA_Studio#File_Sync FTP auto-sync] yet, do it now, manually copying files is a no-starter.

Update your project status in [http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!studio Control Panel > Manage games] page, you can say "development started" or "waiting for license" or "waiting for graphics" or combination of those.

== Development Tools ==

At some point you need to setup your development environment which consist of multiple tools, such as
* Editor or IDE
* Browser with dev tools
* File sync tools
* BGA Web tools
* Image manipulation tools
* Version control tools

Please scan though articles from [[Studio#BGA_Studio_user_guide]] especially related to debugging and tools, there is a lot of useful info there.

== Hook version control system ==

If its a real game I would commit the code to version control right at start. You going to find yourself in the situation
when game does not even start anymore and no way of debugging it unless you have a way to revert. That is where version control becomes very handy.
If you don't know what I am talking about then at least back-up your files after each of major steps. Starting now.
You can also create a project on github, but make sure you don't commit original publisher graphics files.
You can (and should) also commit your modification periodically via studio's control panel.

== Obtain game graphics ==

If you developing a game from Available Licenses games, ask the admins to send you graphics by contacting studio@boardgamearena.com. While that request is being processed (it can take time, as it often requires some back and forth between the admins and the publishers) you can proceed to next step - project creation.

If you don't get original graphics you go to '''Scavenger Hunt'''

* If you developing a public domain card game you can borrow standard cards graphics from hearts project (see [[Tutorial hearts]]).
* Standard game pieces - meeples, cubes, dice can be found here https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/tree/master/img
* Go to boardgamegeek.com find your game and obtain 3D game box image, 2D box image, and if you lucky they also sometime have boards and token scans in "Game Pieces" section of Images
* If that fail google "boardgame <name>" and check Images section
* Get the rules PDF as well, there tools that allows you to extract graphics from PDF, which usually good for meeples, cubes and such

Once you get the graphics one way or another you have to massage it to fit in the BGA criteria, which usually involves
* If publisher sends graphics in one token/card per file mode, you have to stitch them in sprite and scale down
* For non square tiles and game pieces you need transparency
* Usually you chop off scoring "ring" around the board of the game since scoring track not needed for online adaptation

More details about graphics requirements can be found here [[Game art: img directory]].

[[File:Rrr_search.png]]

== Obtain game documentation ==

Also at this time obtain a electronic copy of rules, such as PDF (English version).

Also grab any other documents you may find on boardgamegeek such as FAQ, additional Reference books, and user created assistant documents, such
as cheat-sheets (may be easier to get a data from these then trying to scrub pdf). You create and place them in the doc/ folder of the project then
exclude them from version control. There is also a misc/ folder now but it will hold up to 1 Mb of data files which would be checked in, so rules pdf's may not fit there.

== Update game infos and box graphics ==

Even it does not nothing yet start with making sure game looks descent in the game selector, meaning it has nice box graphics and information is correct.

For that we need to edit [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php|gameinfos.inc.php]].
What you would do for real game you would go to http://boardgamegeek.com find the game and use the information from web-site to fill the gameinfos.

The next step is to replace game_box.png with proper images, usually you can find all images including publisher logo on boardgamegeek website.

Details about images can be found here: [[Game art: img directory]].

Now important step. You have to LOAD these files in studio website through control panel. So go to Control Panel -> Manager Games -> YOURPROJECT
and press Reload for 'Reload game informations' and 'Reload game box image'

[[File:Gamepanel_sharedcode.png]]

Now try to start the game again. If you some-how introduced a syntax error in gameinfos file it may not actually work (game won't start).
Always use "Express Start" button to start the game. You should see a standard state prompt from template. You should see X players on the right, testdude0 .. testdudeX-1.
To switch between them press the red arrow button near their names, it will open another tab. This way you don't need to login and logout from multiple accounts!

== Fix source copyright ==

Now since you have your own project, you want put your name in the copyright header, so replace

© <Your name here> <Your email address here>
with
© John Snow <jsnow@gameofthrones.com>

Well not exactly this but whatever your real name is. For all files in project directory, its about 10 files. Make sure project still starts after that :)

== Create Initial Layout and Game Graphics ==

Mentally it is easier to start with game layout and graphics pieces. Even when nothing is working its give you moral satisfaction!

There are a few ways how the html could have been generated. You could have started with nothing and generate
it all by java script, or you could have started with complete game markup in html and make java script just hide and move pieces around. BGA framework also provides a third way, which is mix of both, plus a template engine to generate HTML using php. The only thing that is really annoying about the template engine is
that you cannot put any translatable strings in the template (which means any visible text at all). If you are using the template approach all stings have to extracted as variables and injected through php (.view.php). This page explains the template engine in great detail:[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl|Template Engine]].

The other disadvantage of the template engine is you cannot run and debug it locally, in the beginning of development it's a lot faster run off local pages,
you can do it with some trickery described here [[Tools_and_tips_of_BGA_Studio#Speed_up_CSS_development_and_layout|Tools and Tips for BGA Studio]]

During this step you have to decide what technical solutions you will be using, such as
* Use inline positioning of all moving pieces, controlled by JS. There are a few classes that already exist in Studio to help with that (see [[Studio#Game_interface_.28Client_side.29|Game Interface - Client Side]]). OR use html/css layout engine to position pieces (my personal choice).
* Use BGA template engine OR create all ui elements by JS OR manually write or generate complete html markup. The game usually contain 200-300 pieces, it seems wrong but actually its faster to type all of this up in html/css when trying write than debug code for page generator.
Static HTML markup also means you have to use players color or abstracted player number (such as red is 1, blue is 2) not player id's anywhere in JS, since player id is dynamic by nature.

So at this stage you should complete the following:
* Create a layout of the game, with positioning of main board, player areas, zones, other supporting areas, etc
* Create css and html snippets for all game pieces: boards, tokens, meeples, etc. Place them all in initial template (even if they're not supposed to be visible at start). I.e. create fake player's hand with cards, put meeples on the board
* Hook layout to number of players and colors picked by the game and test with multiple players
* Figure out what you want to display in mini-player boards and hook it up

If at this time you don't have graphics yet create pieces with just css, you can use shape, background color and object text using css ::after construct to fake the pieces.

One of the greatest part about the web is all client side code can be viewed in your browser, so if you wondering how something is done in another BGA game just load the page and spy on it! In Chrome that would be right click and "Inspect Element". That would immediately show html of the given element alongside with css used for it (on the right). Another great way to learn was introduced recently is you can add yourself to any BGA project as read only from the project page!

[[File:Injected_text.png]]

== Hook Input and Animation ==

This step can be done before or after some of the server steps, or you go in iterations switching back and forward until you get it done, up to you.

At this time you want to hook clicking on pieces and buttons and provide some reaction, such of moving a piece. The handler code will be replaced later by the server hook, but at the begging you want you game to be alive as early as possible.

Usually all pieces will be hooked to onclick during JS "setup" method, in addition if you create elements during server notification they have to be hooked up at that time.

You can play with animation effects you want put in place, in general all the pieces that move in real game should be moving, such as meeples, resources tokens/cubes, cards, vp tokens.
Regular piece animation is provided by BGA framework, but if you use html layout positioning not inline positioning you have to remove absolute positions (inline position styling) after each move. The set of functions for relative position token animation can found in https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/sharedcode.js

Also its a good idea to give player a visual cues on what game elements are clickable now, usually it will be a style, such as "active_slot", with visual effect of white dashed outline (outline is better then border, because border changes will make piece slightly move since it changes the size) or box-shadow (i.e. neon glow)

If you read [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines BGA developers guidelines] you know that you should not get carried away with animation, you creating a board game not a video game... That also applies to sound effects (in general, you should not use any sounds effects beside already provided by framework).

See [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Players_input|Player's Input]] and [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Access_and_manipulate_the_DOM|Animation and DOM Manipulation]] for JS reference.

== Create Database Schema ==

At some point you have to design your game database. Do it sooner then later since it would be harder to change it later, since some
code decisions would be based on that.

If you have grid-based abstract game use template from reversi, if you have a card game use template from hearts (the cards one also commented out in generated template for your project). The cards database goes with php class called [[Deck]].

In general make it as simple as possible.
Think about it, your game has 300 pieces (likely less). Using database to store this amount of data is like shooting a mosquito with a tank.
Anything more complex then one table with 5 columns or two tables will only going to make it harder to develop and not improve performance.
You can forget about normalising and any fancy stuff you learn about databases in school. String field for a primary key would be as fast as integer when we talking about this size of data. So don't over-optimize with trying to have integers field that have state based on bitmask!

Also remember that static (non dynamic) information about the game does not need to be stored in the database, that all include everything that does not change, i.e
all token/card properties such as name, tooltips, "strength", color, etc. This is stored in material.inc.php and server has access to it from anywhere, as well as client
if you send it with getAllDatas(). The only reason store some of it in database if it can affect your queries (i.e. type of token).

Usually design process will contain the following steps:
* Design game model - model that represent your game in progress, such as at any given step you can restore the game from that model
* Mapping - now map real game to that model
* Encoding - now represent this model in database and material file with reasonable amount of fields

Example: '''The card game'''

* In real word to "save" the game we take a picture a play area, save cards from it, then put away draw deck, discard and hand of each player separately and mark it, also we will record current scoring (if any) and who's turn was it
* Framework handles state machine transition, so you don't have to worry about database design for that (i.e. who's turn it is, what phase of the game we are at, you still have to design it but as part of state machine step)
* Also framework supports basic player information, color, order around the table, basic scoring, etc, so you don't have to worry about it either
* The only thing you need in your database is state of the "board", which is "where each pieces is, and in what state", or (position,rotation) pair.
* The card state is very simple, its usually "face up/face down", "tapped/untapped", "right side up/up side down"
* As position go we never need real x,y,z. We need to know what "zone" card was, and depending on the zone it may sometimes need an extra "z" or "x" as card order. The zone position itself usually static or irrelevant.
* So our model is: we have cards, which have some attributes, at any given point in time they belong to a "zone", and can also have order and state
* Now for mapping we should consider what info changes and what info is static, static info is always candidate for material file or html
* For dynamic stuff we should try to reduce amount of fields we need, i.e. we need a field for card, so its one, we need to know what zone cards belong to, its 2, and we have possible few other fields, but if you look closely at you game you may find out that most of the zone only need one attribute at a time, i.e. draw pile always have cards face down, hand always face up, also for hand and discard order does not matter at all (but for draw it does matter). So in majority of cases we can get away with one single extra integer field representing state or order
* In real database both card and zone will be integers as primary keys referring to additional tables, but in our case its total overkill, so they can be strings as easily

You can also use cards database schema and [[Deck]] implementation for most purposes (even you not dealing with cards).
<pre>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `card` (
`card_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`card_type` varchar(16) NOT NULL,
`card_type_arg` int(11) NOT NULL,
`card_location` varchar(16) NOT NULL,
`card_location_arg` int(11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`card_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
</pre>

Another Example: '''The euro game'''

See details on database design for euro game at [[BGA_Studio_Cookbook#Database_for_The_euro_game]]

So the piece mapping for non-grid based
games can be in most case represented by (string: token_key, string: location, int: state), example of such database schema can be found here:
[https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/dbmodel.sql dbmodel.sql] and class implementing access to it here [https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/modules/tokens.php tokens.php].

<pre>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `token` (
`token_key` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`token_location` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`token_state` int(10),
PRIMARY KEY (`token_key`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
</pre>

See [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]] for details about editing the file.

== Implement Game Setup ==

Once you have your database schema you can do a proper game setup. Usually you open rulebook on the "Game Setup" page
and implement these step by step populating the database (using db access API).
Game initialization is performed in php method setupNewGame, this method is called once when game table is created.
Game notifications cannot be sent during this time.

== Implement One time game model synchronisation ==

Now at any point in the game we need to make sure that database information can be reflected back in UI, so we fix getAllDatas function
to return all possible data we need to reconstruct the game. The template for getAllDatas already taking care of player info, but you
have to alter it to return all other data from database visible to the "current" player.

After that on the client side we should display this data, so in your .js file in setup function (which is the receiver of getAllDatas) you add calls that handle data send by server, usually by calling animation function such as "placeToken" or "placeCard".

== Create State Machine ==

Now you need to create a game state machine.

The state handling spread across 4 files, so you have to make sure all pieces are connected together.
The state machine states.php defines all the states, and function handlers on php side in a form of string,
and if any of these functions are not implemented it would be very hard to debug because it will break in random places.

Please fist watch this again [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-focus-on-bga-game-state-machine BGA game state machine]
and then please read [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]]

Now the state machine should be relatively simple, if you find yourself with machine with more than 10 states its probably not the way to go.
Not all the player interactions need separate states, a lot of things can be implemented directly on client, i.e. if your player need to select
a reward token, which offers choice of resource, instead of two states on server just have one state on server and possible few states on client (client side states)
to collect this info.

== Implement Notification handling ==

Now to implement things for real we have hook UI actions to ajax calls, and process notifications send by server.
So previously we hooked onclick js handler right to client animation, in real game its a two
step operation. When user clicks on something, client sends an ajax call to server, server processes it and updates database, server sends
notification in response, client hooks animations to server notification. See [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Notifications|JS Notifications]].

Exception to this is client states, if you need to process two step user interaction such as select meeple, place meeple, you may want
to avoid sending data to server until step is complete (which may involve direct client side animation).

Part of the sending notifications would be to update player's scoring, BGA uses standard control for score (on JS side), see [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Update_players_score|Update Player's Score]].

== Wrap Up ==

* Implement game progression (getGameProgression() in php)
* Implement Zombie turn (zombieTurn() in php)
* Define and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
* The games logs should explain what happened if player was not looking
* You need to implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Make sure all UI strings are marked for translation
* UI elements which are images (i.e. tokens, cards) should have tooltips

When you think you game is completely working there is still bunch of stuff you have to do/check before telling admin that game is ready, please go though this [[Pre-release checklist]].

Game art: img directory

2020-06-16T09:50:00Z

Een: /* Images format */ svg

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

== Requested images ==

The following images are requested by BGA:

;game_box.png
* It is displayed on the main site on the game description page and when creating a table (280x280 px).
* It should be a 3D image of a physical copy of the game box as it appears in an online shop.
* It is better to take the version of the game that is coherent with the game art used in the adaptation, and from the original publisher of the game.
* The background of the image must be transparent.
* If you don't have a 3D version of the game box, you can use the following website to create one: http://www.3d-pack.com/

;game_box180.png
;game_box75.png

* Don't modify these images, they are auto generated by "Reload game box image" action. If you have another copy of your source make sure you update you copy of these files after they have been generated and not override with old copied.

;game_icon.png

* It is the icon displayed in the lists of games and tables (50x50 px).
* The objective of this icon is to make the game recognizable among the other games. A good idea is to take a part of the game cover that is distinctive (ex: the game title).
* This one does not have to be transparent. This image should not have a border

;publisher.png
* It is the logo of the publisher of the game, displayed on the game description page.
* The width must be 150 px. The height can be anything (reasonable). The image could be transparent.

;publisher2.png (optional)
* If the game has been co-published by 2 publishers, you should upload a second image named "publisher2.png" (same characteristics as the first one).

;game_banner.jpg
* size 1386x400px
* should not contain any text; representative of the atmosphere of the game such as a cover element or communication image; the box image covering the banner on the left should stand out

;game_displayX.jpg (X an integer between 0 and 9)
* height between 400px and 760px, width maximum 1.5 x height;
* the idea is to make players want to play the game, so it could be a zoomed card, some detail of the board, an overview of an ongoing physical game... but NOT a screenshot of the BGA adaptation since there is already the "see game in action" replay for that

'''Important''': when you modify these images, you MUST click on "Reload game box image" from the Control Panel in order your update can be taken into account.

== Game art ==

You must upload in img directory all images of your game interface.

=== Images naming constraints ===

To be correctly deployed your images file names should not contain spaces or parenthesis.

=== Images loading ===

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

Note that you can tune the way images are loaded with Javascript method "dontPreloadImage" (see [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js|Game Interface Logic]]).

General recommendation it to have no more than dozen of image files, 2Mb max each. However if there is heavy game resources specific to a player (i.e. player board of specific color or set of cards) it is better to separate them and "don't pre-load" since in any given game only some of them will be used.

=== Images format ===

You can use these image formats while building your game interface:
;jpg images

should be used for non-transparent images. Jpg are usually lighter than Pngs, so please choose Jpg for big pictures (ex: game board, cards) when you don't need transparency to accelerate game load. You don't need transparency for rounded card corners, it can be done using css.

;png images

should be used for images with transparency, such as non-square tokens, meeples, etc (combined into sprite).

;gif images

can be used for animated images. This is not recommended to use gif animated images as they can upset players, but for some specific interface element this could be useful.

;svg images

svg images can be really efficient for icons or abstract images

=== Use CSS Sprites ===

To limit the number of images load and make the game load faster, you must use CSS sprites, i.e. you must gather several images in a single one. However, there are limitations. Do not make any CSS image sprite with dimensions that exceed 4096x4096 pixels or it will not work on mobile devices (Android max texture size is 4096 pixels, test your own browser at [http://webglreport.com/ WebGL Report]).

To learn more on CSS Sprites:
* [http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_image_sprites.asp CSS sprites (W3C documentation)].
* [[Game interface stylesheet: yourgamename.css]]

Important: the maximum image size should be 4096x4096 (otherwise, some devices may not display parts of the image, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34682482/what-is-the-maximum-sprite-sheet-size-i-can-use-for-android-devices)

=== Shrink images ===

If you get high resolution images from publisher you need to shrink them since web display requires much lower resolution than printing.

* Shrink images without loss of quality https://tinypng.com/ or http://www.iloveimg.com/

== Image Manipulation Tools ==

You have no choice but to use one of the image manipulating tools to create a successful game adaptation, you would have to
deal with
* Converting to supported formats
* Adding transparency
* Stitching
* Shrinking with no quality loss
* Resizing

For that you need a good tools, recommended tools (if you know more add them here)
* Gimp (linux) - general GUI image editor
* Paint.net (Windows) - general GUI image editor
* ImageMagic (All platforms) - https://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php - command line image editor, great for mass manipulations and scripting

Post-release phase

2020-06-16T09:40:59Z

Een: /* What can be modified after release? */ options change and arena

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Your game is now on BGA: congrats!

But what happened when there are some bugs to fix or when you want to optimize something?

Don't be afraid: you're still allowed to modify your game. You just have to pay attention to the points below.

== Bugs reporting ==

Bugs are reported in the [http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=4 BGA bugs forum].

During days after your game has been published and from time to time, please have a look at it to check if everything is fine.

== How to submit changes? ==

There is 3 (short) steps to make your changes visible on BGA (from your Control Panel):

* Commit your changes.
* Build a new version (don't forget to do a successful commit BEFORE your build).
* Deploy your new version in production.

== What can be modified after release? ==

Everything can be modified. BUT, some items requires a special attention, and you must inform us in some cases:

===Changes that breaks the games in progress===

Some changes will break the games in progress at the moment the release/the hotfix will be performed. Each time you make a change, you should ask you the question "it is safe to make this change in a game in progress", and if the answer is "no" you have to inform us.

Example of changes that break the games in progress:
* Changes in the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql).
* New global variable or game option accessed during the game (if it's only used during setup, it should be safe).
* Change ID of existing game states (adding new game states is fine).

Of course, as a rule of thumb, you should avoid to introduce changes that break a game in progress. Sometimes however, you do not have any other choice. In this case:
* Try to group all your updates in one version, thus we won't have to block your game several times.
* Tell us explicitly that you introduce some update that can break games in progress so we can block the game during a short time.

Note: in the near future, we will introduce the possibility for you to block/unblock a game directly from your Control Panel in order to perform all the process by yourself.

=== Updating game options ===

* If you add options, you should let us know which value should be used for the arena mode, so that we can update the arena configuration.
* If you remove an option or change a version ID, it will break the arena configuration and prevent creating new arena games, so you should let us know so that we can synchronize to update the configuration at the same time as you deploy the new version.

=== Updating Statistics ===

You should be careful when updating a statistics:

* If you want to add a new statistic, please be aware that for ongoing games this statistic won't always be correct since it has not been counted from the start of that game.
* If you want to update a statistic, please update it and do not remove/create another one. Otherwise, the statistic won't keep the same ID and players will lose all the historical statistics data.
* If your game is published on BGA, please don't remove any statistics (historical data will be lost).

=== Updating the database schema ===

If you want to update the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql) and your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), you should inform us before releasing the new version (see "[[#Changes that breaks the games in progress|changes that breaks the games in progress]]").

Any modification in dbmodel.sql should also appear in your nameofyourgame.game.php, in a function

function upgradeTableDb( $from_version ){

if( $from_version <= YYMMDDHHMM ){ // where your CURRENT version in production has number YYMMDD-HHMM

// You DB schema update request.
// Note: all tables names should be prefixed by "DBPREFIX_" to be compatible with the applyDbUpgradeToAllDB method you should use below
$sql = "CREATE TABLE DBPREFIX_xxxxxxx ....";

// The method below is applying your DB schema update request to all tables, including the BGA framework utility tables like "zz_replayXXXX" or "zz_savepointXXXX".
// You should really use this request, in conjunction with "DBPREFIX_" in your $sql, so ALL tables are updated. All utility tables MUST have the same schema than the main table, otherwise the game may be blocked.
self::applyDbUpgradeToAllDB( $sql );

}}

Note1: of course you need to change your dbmodel.sql accordingly, so that new games get your updated scheme.

Note2: this is always risky to modify the DB scheme, so:
_ if your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), it may be worth contacting us before, so we can stop the realtime games during the update (this way, only turn based games are concerned by the DB live upgrade).
_ if you can avoid it... try to avoid it :)

=== Updating string to be translated ===

When you update a string that has been marked to be translatable, please keep in mind that all current translations done by the BGA community will be lost.

Consequently, when you are about to modify a string to be translated (after release), please ask you the following questions:
* Is it just an English misspelling? In this case, it is better to fix the English translation of the string than the original string to be translated.
* Has the meaning of the string changed? If yes, you HAVE to change the original string in order to invalidate all translations that has been done already.
* Is there a similar string already used elsewhere in my game? In this case, you'd better use it again to enjoy immediately all translations already available.

===Tell the community about your changes :)===

The player's community is always happy to know that someone is taking care of their preferred game :)

If your are the developer of game XXXX, you are also the administrator of player's group "XXXX's players", and you can publish some news in this group newsfeed.

When you fix a bug or add something, do not hesitate to tell the players about this in this group: you'll get the "thank you" you deserved :)

See for example Werewolves group:
https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=2465913

===Major changes===

If you do some major changes to your game like:
* Introducing a new expansion.
* Major code rewriting/refactoring.

... please tell us. In this case, we can:
* Make your game back from "gold" to "public beta", to incite player to report bugs.
* And eventually, publish a news about it :)

Файл:BGA TC Dev en.pdf

2020-06-11T16:38:59Z

Een: Een uploaded a new version of File:BGA TC Dev en.pdf

BGA Studio Cookbook

2020-06-11T14:32:18Z

Een: /* Use thematic fonts */ Font not online details

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This page is collection of design and implementation recipes for BGA Studio framework.
For tooling and usage recipes see [[Tools and tips of BGA Studio]].
If you have your own recipes feel free to edit this page.

== Visual Effects, Layout and Animation ==

=== Create pieces dynamically (using template) ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg_ggg.tpl, ggg.js

Note: this method is recommended by BGA guildlines

Declared js template with variables in .tpl file, like this
<pre>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Javascript HTML templates
var jstpl_ipiece = '<div class="${type} ${type}_${color} inlineblock" aria-label="${name}" title="${name}"></div>';
</script>
</pre>

Use it like this in .js file
div = this.format_block('jstpl_ipiece', {
type : 'meeple',
color : 'ff0000',
name : 'Bob',
});

Then you do whatever you need to do with that div, this one specifically design to go to log entries, because it has embedded title (otherwise its a picture only) and no id.

Note: you could have place this variable in js itself, but keeping it in .tpl allows you to have your js code be free of HTML. Normally it never happens but
it is good to strive for it.
Note: you can also use string concatenation, its less readable. You can also use dojo dom object creation api's but its brutally verbose and its more unreadable.

=== Create pieces dynamically (using string concatenation) ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg.js

Note: Not recommended

<pre>
div = "<div class='meeple "+color+"'></div>";
</pre>
=== Create all pieces statically ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg_ggg.tpl, ggg.css, ggg.view.php (optional)

* Create ALL game pieces in html template (.tpl)
* ALL pieces should have unique id, and it should be meaningful, i.e. meeple_red_1d
* Do not use inline styling
* Id of player's specific pieces should use some sort of 'color' identification, since player id cannot be used in static layout, you can use english color name, hex 6 char value, or color "number" (1,2,3...)
* Pieces should have separated class for its color, type, etc, so it can be easily styled in groups. In example below you now can style all meeples, all red meeples or all red tokens, or all "first" meeples

in .tpl file:
<pre>
<div id="home_red" class="home red">
<div id="meeple_red_1" class="meeple red n1"></div>
<div id="meeple_red_2" class="meeple red n2"></div>
</div>
</pre>

in .css file:

<pre>
.meeple {
width: 32px;
height: 39px;
background-image: url(img/78_64_stand_meeples.png);
background-size: 352px;
}

.meeple.red {
background-position: 30% 0%;
}
</pre>

* There should be straight forward mapping between server id and js id (or 1:1)
* You place objects in different zones of the layout, and setup css to take care of layout

<pre>
.home .meeple{
display: inline-block;
}
</pre>
* If you need to have a temporary object that look like original you can use dojo.clone (and change id to some temp id)
* If there is lots of repetition or zone grid you can use template generator, but inject style declaration in css instead of inline style for flexibility

Note:
* If you use this model you cannot use premade js components such as Stock and Zone
* You have to use alternative methods of animation (slightly altered) since default method will leave object with inline style attributes which you don't need

=== Use thematic fonts ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg.css

Sometime game elements use specific fonts of text, if you want to match it up you can load some specific font (from some free font source).

[[File:Dragonline_font.png]]

.css
<pre>
/* latin-ext */
@font-face {
font-family: 'Qwigley';
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 400;
src: local('Qwigley'), local('Qwigley-Regular'), url(https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/qwigley/v6/2Dy1Unur1HJoklbsg4iPJ_Y6323mHUZFJMgTvxaG2iE.woff2) format('woff2');
unicode-range: U+0100-024F, U+1E00-1EFF, U+20A0-20AB, U+20AD-20CF, U+2C60-2C7F, U+A720-A7FF;
}
/* latin */
@font-face {
font-family: 'Qwigley';
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
src: local('Qwigley'), local('Qwigley-Regular'), url(https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/qwigley/v6/gThgNuQB0o5ITpgpLi4Zpw.woff2) format('woff2');
unicode-range: U+0000-00FF, U+0131, U+0152-0153, U+02C6, U+02DA, U+02DC, U+2000-206F, U+2074, U+20AC, U+2212, U+2215, U+E0FF, U+EFFD, U+F000;
}
@font-face {
font-family: 'Qwigley';
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
src: local('Qwigley'), local('Qwigley-Regular'), url(http://ff.static.1001fonts.net/q/w/qwigley.regular.ttf) format('ttf');
}

.zone_title {
display: inline-block;
position: absolute;
font: italic 32px/32px "Qwigley", cursive;
height: 32px;
width: auto;
}
</pre>

'''NB:''' if you need to include a font that's not available online, an extra action will be needed from an admin. Please include the font file(s) in your img directory, and mention it to admins when requesting your game to be moved to alpha.

=== Use player color in template ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg_ggg.tpl, ggg.view.php

.view.php:
<pre>
function build_page($viewArgs) {
// Get players & players number
$players = $this->game->loadPlayersBasicInfos();
$players_nbr = count($players);
/**
* ********* Place your code below: ***********
*/

// Set PCOLOR to the current player color hex
global $g_user;
$cplayer = $g_user->get_id();
if (array_key_exists($cplayer, $players)) { // may be not set if spectator
$player_color = $players [$cplayer] ['player_color'];
} else {
$player_color = 'ffffff'; // spectator
}
$this->tpl ['PCOLOR'] = $player_color;
</pre>

=== Scale to fit for big boards ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg_ggg.tpl, ggg.js

Lets say you have huge game board, and lets say you want it to be 1400px wide. Besides the board there will be side bar which is 240 and trim.
My display is 1920 wide so it fits, but there is big chance other people won't have that width. What do you do?
Easiest thing I came up with is to scale whole content to fit (everything you declare in .tpl file). Tested or firefox and chrome.

ggg_ggg.tpl:
<pre>
<div id="thething" class="thething" style="width: 1400px;">
... everything else you declare ...
</div>
</pre>

ggg.js:
<pre>
setup : function(gamedatas) {
console.log("Starting game setup");
...
this.interface_min_width = 740;
this.interface_max_width = 1400;
dojo.connect(window, "onresize", this, dojo.hitch(this, "adaptViewportSize"));
},

adaptViewportSize : function() {
var pageid = "page-content";
var nodeid = "thething";

var bodycoords = dojo.marginBox(pageid);
var contentWidth = bodycoords.w;

var browserZoomLevel = window.devicePixelRatio;
//console.log("zoom",browserZoomLevel);
if (contentWidth >= this.interface_max_width || browserZoomLevel >1 || this.control3dmode3d) {
dojo.style(nodeid,'transform','');
return;
}

var percentageOn1 = contentWidth / this.interface_max_width;
dojo.style(nodeid, "transform", "scale(" + percentageOn1 + ")");
},
</pre>

=== Dynamic tooltips ===

If you really need a dynamic tooltip you can use this technique. (Only use it if the static tooltips provided by the BGA framework are not sufficient.)

new dijit.Tooltip({
connectId: ["divItemId"],
getContent: function(matchedNode){
return "... calculated ...";
}
});

This is an out-of-the-box djit.Tooltip. It has a ''getContent'' method which is called dynamically.

The string function return becomes the innerHTML of the tooltip, so it can be anything (matchedNode in this case) dojo node representing dom object with id of "divItemId" but there are more parameters which I am not posting here which allows more sophisticated subnode queries.

[https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.10/dijit/Tooltip.html dijit.Tooltip]

It's not part of the BGA API so use at your own risk.

=== Accessing images from js ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg.js
ggg.js

<pre>
// your game resources

var my_img = '<img src="'+g_gamethemeurl+'img/cards.jpg"/>';

// shared resources
var my_help_img = "<img class='imgtext' src='" + g_themeurl + "img/layout/help_click.png' alt='action' /> <span class='tooltiptext'>" +
text + "</span>";
</pre>

=== Inject images and styled html in the log ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg.js, ggg.game.php

So you want nice pictures in the game log, what do you do? First idea that come to mind is to send html from php in notifications.
This is bad idea for many reasons
* Its bad architecture, ui elements leak into server now you have to manage ui in many places
* If you decided to change something in ui in future version, old games reply and tutorials may not work, since they use stored notifications
* When you read log preview for old games its unreadable (this is log before you enter the game reply, useful for troubleshooting or game analysis)
* Its more data to transfer and store in db
* Its nightmare for translators

So what else can you do? I use this recipe which I is client side log injection. I intercept log arguments and replace them by html on my client side.

[[File:clientloginjection.png|left]]

ggg.js

<pre>

/** Override this function to inject html for log items */

/* @Override */
format_string_recursive : function(log, args) {
try {
if (log && args && !args.processed) {
args.processed = true;

if (!this.isSpectator)
args.You = this.divYou(); // will replace ${You} with colored version

// list of other known variables
var keys = ['place_name','token_name'];

for ( var i in keys) {
var key = keys[i];
if (typeof args[key] == 'string') {
args[key] = this.getTokenDiv(key, args);
}
}
}
} catch (e) {
console.error(log,args,"Exception thrown", e.stack);
}
return this.inherited(arguments);
},

/* Implementation of proper colored You with background in case of white or light colors */

divYou : function() {
var color = this.gamedatas.players[this.player_id].color;
var color_bg = "";
if (this.gamedatas.players[this.player_id] && this.gamedatas.players[this.player_id].color_back) {
color_bg = "background-color:#" + this.gamedatas.players[this.player_id].color_back + ";";
}
var you = "<span style=\"font-weight:bold;color:#" + color + ";" + color_bg + "\">" + __("lang_mainsite", "You") + "</span>";
return you;
},

</pre>

<pre>
getTokenDiv : function(key, args) {
// ... implement whatever html you want here, example from sharedcode.js
var token_id = args[key];
var item_type = getPart(token_id,0);
var logid = "log" + (this.globalid++) + "_" + token_id;
switch (item_type) {
case 'wcube':
var tokenDiv = this.format_block('jstpl_resource_log', {
"id" : logid,
"type" : "wcube",
"color" : getPart(token_id,1),
});
return tokenDiv;
break;
case 'meeple':
if ($(token_id)) {
var clone = dojo.clone($(token_id));

dojo.attr(clone, "id", logid);
this.stripPosition(clone);
dojo.addClass(clone, "logitem");
return clone.outerHTML;
}
break;

default:
break;
}

return "'" + this.clienttranslate_string(this.getTokenName(token_id)) + "'";
},
getTokenName : function(key) {
return this.gamedatas.token_types[key].name; // get name for the key, from static table for example
},
</pre>

Note in this case server simply injects token_id as name, and client substitutes it for the real translated name or the picture

ggg.game.php:

$this->notifyPlayer($player_id,'playerLog',clienttranslate('${You} moved cube'),['You'=>'You']);

ggg.game.php:

$this->notifyAllPlayers('playerLog',clienttranslate('Game moves ${token_name}'),['token_name'=>$token_id]);

Now if you don't like raw log containing id instead of name but want name, and want substitution, you can use another parameter as id. The problem with that,
it will work at first, but if you reload game using F5 you will loose your additional parameters, why? Because when game reloads it does not actually send same
notifications, it sends special "hitstorical_log" notification where all parameters not listed in the "log" are removed. There is a hack (feature) to circumvent that,
called recursive parameters. I.e. you can send stuff like this:

$this->notifyAllPlayers('playerLog',clienttranslate('Game moves ${token_name_rec}'),
['token_name_rec'=>['log'=>'${token_name}',
'args'=> ['token_name'=>clienttranslate('Boo'), 'token_id'=>$token_id, 'i18n'=>['token_name'] ]
]
]);

and in format_log_recursive
var key = 'token_name';
if (typeof args[key] == 'string' && typeof args['token_id'] == 'string') {
args[key] = this.getTokenDiv('token_id', args);
}

==== Alternative way ====

Here is an example of what was done for Terra Mystica which is maybe not as good, but is more simple and straightforward:

<pre>
//Define the proper message
$message = clienttranslate('${player_name} gets ${power_income} via Structures');
if ($price > 0) {
self::DbQuery("UPDATE player SET player_score = player_score - $price WHERE player_id = $player_id");
$message = clienttranslate('${player_name} pays ${vp_price} and gets ${power_income} via Structures');
}

// Notify
self::notifyAllPlayers( "powerViaStructures", $message, array(
'i18n' => array( ),
'player_id' => $player_id,
'player_name' => self::getUniqueValueFromDb( "SELECT player_name FROM player WHERE player_id = $player_id" ),
'power_tokens' => $power_tokens,
'vp_price' => self::getLogsVPAmount($price),
'power_income' => self::getLogsPowerAmount($power_income),
'newScore' => self::getUniqueValueFromDb( "SELECT player_score FROM player WHERE player_id = $player_id" ),
'counters' => $this->getGameCounters(null),
) );
</pre>

With some functions to have the needed html added inside the substitution variable, such as:

<pre>
function getLogsPowerAmount( $amount )
{
return "<div class='tmlogs_icon' title='Power'><div class='power_amount'>$amount</div></div>";
}
</pre>

=== High-Definition Graphics ===

Some users will have screens which can display text and images at a greater resolution than the usual 72 dpi, e.g. the "Retina" screens on the 5k iMac, all iPads, and high-DPI screens on laptops from many manufacturers. If you can get art assets at this size, they will make your game look extra beautiful. You ''could'' just use large graphics and scale them down, but that would increase the download time and bandwidth for users who can't display them. Instead, a good way is to prepare a separate graphics file at exactly twice the size you would use otherwise, and add "@2x" at the end of the filename, e.g. if pieces.png is 240x320, then pieces@2x.png is 480x640.

There are two changes required in order to use the separate graphics files. First in your css, where you use a file, add a media query which overrides the original definition and uses the bigger version on devices which can display them. Ensuring that the "background-size" attribute is set means that the size of the displayed object doesn't change, but only is drawn at the improved dot pitch.
<pre>
.piece {
position: absolute;
background-image: url('img/pieces.png');
background-size:240px 320px;
z-index: 10;
}
@media (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), (min-resolution: 192dpi)
{
.piece {
background-image: url('img/pieces@2x.png');
}
}
</pre>

Secondly, in your setup function in javascript, you must ensure than only the appropriate one version of the file gets pre-loaded (otherwise you more than waste the bandwidth saved by maintaining the standard-resolution file). Note that the media query is the same in both cases:
<pre>
var isRetina = "(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), (min-resolution: 192dpi)";
if (window.matchMedia(isRetina).matches)
{
this.dontPreloadImage( 'pieces.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'board.jpg' );
}
else
{
this.dontPreloadImage( 'pieces@2x.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'board@2x.jpg' );
}
</pre>

=== Cool realistic shadow effect with CSS ===

If you wish to make a shadow effect for game pieces that are not rectangle, do not use box-shadow but use filter, which is supported by recent major browsers. This way, you can use the alpha channel of your element to drop a shadow. This even work for transparent backgrounds, so that if you are using the "CSS-sprite" method, it will work!

For instance:

<pre>
.xxx-token {
filter: drop-shadow(0px 0px 1px #000000);
}
</pre>

=== Using the CSS classes from the state machine ===

If you need to hide or show stuff depending on the state of your game, you can of course use javascript, but CSS is hand enought for that. The #overall element does change class depending on the game state. For instance, if you are in state ''playerTurn'', it will have the class ''gamestate_playerTurn''.

So now, if you want to show the discard pile only during player turns, you may use:

<pre>
#discard_pile { display: none }
.gamestate_playerTurn #discard_pile { display: block }
</pre>

This can be used if you want to change sizing of elements, position, layout or visual appearance.

== Game Model and Database design ==

=== Database for The euro game ===
Lets say we have a game with workers, dice, tokens, board, resources, money and vp. Workers and dice can be placed in various zones on the board, and you can get resources, money, tokens and vp in your home zone. Also tokens can be flipped or not flipped.

[[File:Madeira board.png]]

Now lets try to map it, we have
* (meeple,zone)
* (die, zone, sideup)
* (resource cube/money token/vp token,player home zone)
* (token, player home zone, flip state)
We can notice that resource and money are uncountable, and don't need to be track individually so we can replace our mapping to
* (resource type/money,player home zone, count)
And vp stored already for us in player table, so we can remove it from that list.

Now when we get to encode it we can see that everything can be encoded as (object,zone,state) form, where object and zone is string and state is integer. The resource mapping is slightly different semantically so you can go with two table, or counting using same table with state been used as count for resources.

So the piece mapping for non-grid based games can be in most case represented by (string: token_key, string: location, int: state), example of such database schema can be found here: [https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/dbmodel.sql dbmodel.sql] and class implementing access to it here [https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/modules/tokens.php table.game.php].

Variant 1: Minimalistic

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `token` (
`token_key` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`token_location` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`token_state` int(10),
PRIMARY KEY (`token_key`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

{| class="wikitable"
|+token
! token_key
! token_location
! token_state
|-
|meeple_red_1
|home_red
|0
|-
|dice_black_2
|board_guard
|1
|-
|dice_green_1
|board_action_mayor
|3
|-
|bread
|home_red
|5
|}

Now how we represent resource counters such as bread?
Using same table from we simply add special counter token for bread and use state to indicate the count. Note to keep first column unique we have to add player identification for that counter, i.e. ff0000 is red player.

{| class="wikitable"
|+token
! token_key
! token_location
! token_state
|-
|bread_ff0000
|tableau_ff0000
|5
|}

Variant 2: Additional resource table, resource count for each player id

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `resource` (
`player_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`resource_key` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`resource_count` int(10) signed NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`player_id`,`resource_key`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

ALTER TABLE resource ADD CONSTRAINT fk_player_id FOREIGN KEY (player_id) REFERENCES player(player_id);

{| class="wikitable"
|+resource
! player_id
! resource_key
! resource_count
|-
|123456
|bread
|5
|}

Variant 3: More normalised

This version is similar to "card" table from hearts tutorial, you can also use exact cards database schema and Deck implementation for most purposes (even you not dealing with cards).

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `token` (
`token_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`token_type` varchar(16) NOT NULL,
`token_arg` int(11) NOT NULL,
`token_location` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`token_state` int(10),
PRIMARY KEY (`token_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

{| class="wikitable"
|+token
! token_id
! token_type
! token_arg
! token_location
! token_state
|-
|22
|meeple
|123456
|home_123456
|0
|-
|23
|dice
|2
|board_guard
|1
|-
|26
|dice
|1
|board_action_mayor
|3
|-
|49
|bread
|0
|home_123456
|5
|}

Advantages of this would be is a bit more straightforward to do some queries in db, disadvantage its hard to read (as you can compare with previous example, you
cannot just look at say, ah I know what it means). Another questionable advantage is it allows you to do id randomisation, so it hard to do crafted queries to
cheat, the down side of that you cannot understand it either, and handcraft db states for debugging or testing.

=== Database for The card game ===

Lets say you have a standard card game, player have hidden cards in hand, you can draw card from draw deck, play card on tableau and discard to discard pile.
We have to design database for such game.

In real word to "save" the game we take a picture a play area, save cards from it, then put away draw deck, discard and hand of each player separately and mark it, also we will record current scoring (if any) and who's turn was it.

* Framework handles state machine transition, so you don't have to worry about database design for that (i.e. who's turn it is, what phase of the game we are at, you still have to design it but part of state machine step)
* Also framework supports basic player information, color, order around the table, basic scoring, etc, so you don't have to worry about it either
* The only thing you need in our database is state of the "board", which is "where each pieces is, and in what state", or (position,rotation) pair.

Lets see what we have for that:
* The card state is very simple, its usually "face up/face down", "tapped/untapped", "right side up/up side down"
* As position go we never need real coordinates x,y,z. We need to know what "zone" card was, and depending on the zone it may sometimes need an extra "z" or "x" as card order. The zone position usually static or irrelevant.
* So our model is: we have cards, which have some attributes, at any given point in time they belong to a "zone", and can also have order and state
* Now for mapping we should consider what information changes and what information is static, later is always candidate for material file
* For dynamic information we should try to reduce amount of fields we need
** we need at least a field for card, so its one
** we need to know what zone cards belong to, its 2
** and we have possibly few other fields, if you look closely at you game you may find out that most of the zone only need one attribute at a time, i.e. draw pile always have cards face down, hand always face up, also for hand and discard order does not matter at all (but for draw it does matter). So in majority of cases we can get away with one single extra integer field representing state or order
* In real database both card and zone will be integers as primary keys referring to additional tables, but in our case its total overkill, so they can be strings as easily

Variant 1: Minimalistic

<pre>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `card` (
`card_key` varchar(32) unsigned NOT NULL,
`card_location` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`card_state` int(11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`card_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
</pre>

Variant 2: More normalised

This version supported by Deck php class, so unless you want to rewrite db access layer go with this one

<pre>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `card` (
`card_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`card_type` varchar(16) NOT NULL,
`card_type_arg` int(11) NOT NULL,
`card_location` varchar(16) NOT NULL,
`card_location_arg` int(11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`card_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
</pre>

Note: if you using this schema, some zones/locations have special semantic. The 'hand' location is actually multiple locations - one per player, but player id is encoded as card_location_arg. If 'hand' in your game is ordered, visible or can have some other card states, you cannot use hand location (replacement is hand_<player_id> or hand_<color_id>)

== Game Modules ==

=== Including your own JavaScript module ===
'''Ingredients:''' ggg.js, modules/ggg_other.js

* Create ggg_other.js in modules/ folder and sync
* Modify ggg.js to include it

define([ "dojo", "dojo/_base/declare", "ebg/core/gamegui", "ebg/counter",
// load my own module!!!
g_gamethemeurl + "modules/ggg_other.js" ], function(dojo,
declare) {

=== Including your own PHP module ===
'''Ingredients:''' ggg.game.php, modules/ggg_other.php

* Create ggg_other.php in modules/ folder and sync
* Modify ggg.game.php to include it

require_once ('modules/ggg_other.php');

== Assorted Stuff ==

=== Multi Step Interactions: Select Worker/Place Worker - Using Client States ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg.js

I don't think its documented feature but there is a way to do client-only states, which is absolutely wonderful for few reasons
* When player iteration is two step process, such as select worker, place worker, or place worker, pick one of two resources of your choice
* When multi-step process can result of impossible situation and has to be undone (by rules)
* When multi-step process is triggered from multiple states (such as you can do same thing as activated card action, pass action or main action)

So lets do Select Worker/Place Worker

Define your server state as usual, i.e. playerMainTurn -> "You must pick up a worker".
Now define a client state, we only need "name" and "descriptionmyturn", lets say "client_playerPicksLocation". Always prefix names of client state with "client_" to avoid confusion. Now we have to do the following:
* Have a handler for onUpdateActionButtons for playerMainTurn to activate all possible workers he can pick
* When player clicks workers, remember the worker in one of the members of the main class, I usually use one called this.clientStateArgs.
* Transition to new client state
onWorker: function(e) {
var id = event.currentTarget.id;
dojo.stopEvent(event);
... // do validity checks
this.clientStateArgs.worker_id = id;
this.setClientState("client_playerPicksLocation", {
descriptionmyturn : "${you} must select location",
});
}
* Have a handler for onUpdateActionButtons for client_playerPicksLocation to activate all possible locations this worker can go AND add Cancel button (see below)
* Have a location handler which will eventually send a server request, using stored this.clientStateArgs.worker_id as worker id
* The cancel button should call a method to restore server state, also if you doing it for more than one state you can add this universally using this.on_client_state check

if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
if (this.on_client_state && !$('button_cancel')) {
this.addActionButton('button_cancel', _('Cancel'), dojo.hitch(this, function() {
this.restoreServerGameState();
}));
}
}
Note: usually I call my own function call this.cancelLocalStateEffects() which will do more stuff first then call restoreServerGameState(), same function is usually needs to be called when server request has failed (i.e. invalid move)

Note: If you need more than 2 steps, you may have to do client side animation to reflect the new state, which gets trickier because you have to undo that also on cancellation.

Code is available here [https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/sharedcode.js sharedcode.js] (its using playerTurnPlayCubes and client_selectCubeLocation).

=== Multi Step Interactions: Action Stack - Using Client States ===

'''Ingredients:''' ggg.js, ggg.game.php, material.inc.php

* We have euro game where game actions consist of series of mini-actions, which can be triggered by multiple sources
* Example: Russian RailRoads have multiple source of actions, such as worker slots, triggered advantages, triggered factory rewards, etc. Each of the consist of series of small action, such as "advance black rail + advance marker", once you start executing it, more mini-actions are triggered and added to the stack (in case of RRR its not a stack but a random access list but whatever)
* Implementing such game with server states is rather difficult because
** it require lots of states
** require stack on the state machine to support return to the state we originated substate from
** series can result in invalid game state (i.e. not allowed by rules), which it hard to roll back over multiple states
** without undo it would be rather frustrating for the player, and undo is hard to implement

So this is how to implemented it using action stack and client states

Encode all mini-actions as identifier or a letter, I use letters personally

For each action, trigger, etc, define a "rules" of that game element using mini-action encoding and store in material.inc.php so both server and client have access to it, no need to store it in database, rules are not going to change
during the game.

'''material.inc.php:'''

$this->token_types = array(
...
'slot_action_14' => array(
'name' => clienttranslate("Industry Advancement"),
'rules'=>"i",
),
'slot_action_15' => array(
'name' => clienttranslate("2 Industry Advancements"),
'rules'=>"ii",
),
'slot_action_16' => array(
'name' => clienttranslate("Industry and Black Track Advancement"),
'rules'=>"ib",
),
);

In game.php you send this to client
'''ggg.game.php:'''
protected function getAllDatas() {
...
// this is material fields
$result ['token_types'] = $this->token_types;
...
}

In .js when client selects original action, you read this field and push actions into stack, something like

this.pushOperations(this.gamedatas.token_types[action_id].rules);
this.processAction();

And processAction() will allow user to deal with possible actions. If this is truly a stack you could have done something like
processAction: function() {
var op = this.popOperation();
switch (op) {
case 'i':
this.setClientState("client_playerTurnSelectAdvantageToken", {
descriptionmyturn : "${you} must select industry marker to move",
});
break;
...
}
}
In Russian Railroads its unordered list, so it has to offer user all possible choices driven by current unprocessed operations, then determine what operation was that from the list based on what they clicked, i.e.

onMoveable : function(event) {
...
else if (id.startsWith('ind')) {
if (!this.commitOperation('i', id, place_id)) return;
}
this.gamedatas_local.tokens[id] = place_id; // alter local model
this.placeToken(id, place_id); // client side animation
if (this.checkAchievementMoveable(new_state, old_state, id)) { // that will check if something is triggered, so we can push more stuff on the stack
this.processAction();
}
}
During client states data is collected and pushed into client array of performed operations, we also do client side animation and alter model, since we don't send intermediate steps to server.

In example above we check if we client on industry marker, we will "commit" "i" operation with selected id of the marker and place_id. The commit is just pushing this data into an array.

All this operations later are send to server, usually when user clicks Done.
The data will be encoded for server to read into a string, i.e. i__ind2__indslot15, means move industry marker number 2 into slot 15 of industry track. And multiple operations
can be separated by a space for example.

At anytime during client states user can click Cancel which will restore last server state and undo all client animation back to last stored state.

The only disadvantage of this method is you have to implement a lot of functionality two times - on server and client.

Pre-release checklist

2020-06-11T12:46:57Z

Een: bold on centered

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

If you think your game is ready to be reviewed by by BGA admins and/or Publisher please consult this checklist first

* Metadata and graphics
** [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]] has correct and up to date information about the game
** Game box graphics is 3D version of the game box (if available) and publisher icon is correct (see [[Game art: img directory]]). Space around the box has to be transparent, not white.
** You have added a game_banner.jpg and some game_displayX.jpg images to make the game page pretty (NB: on the studio, you have to create a build for these images to appear on the studio game page)
** There is no images in img directory which are not needed anymore
** Multiple images (i.e. cards) are compressed in "Sprite" (see [[Game art: img directory]])
** Each image should not exceed 4M
** Total size should not exceed 10M, image compression should be used otherwise
* Server side
** Game progression is implemented (getGameProgression() in php)
** Zombie turn is implemented (zombieTurn() in php). Note: it can only be tested if you explicitly click on the quit button to create a zombie. If you are expelled it does not generated a Zombie.
** You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
** Game has meaningful notification messages (but don't overkill it, more user logs will slow down the loading)
** You implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Special testing
** Game is tested with spectator (non player observer): watch you own game with a different account, which is not in the game, and check that it works (and that no secret information is visible). For example, you start a game with express start and your dev0, dev1, dev2 accounts are playing. Then you connect with your dev4 account in a private browser window, and you go to the game.
** Game is tested with in-game replay feature (by clicking on notification log items)
** Game works in Chrome and Firefox browsers at least. Also very recommended to test in IE 11 and Edge.
** Game works on mobile device (if you don't have mobile device to test at least test in Chrome with smaller screen, they have a mode for that)
** Test your game in realtime mode. Usually people will run out of time if you use default times unless you add call giveExtraTime($active_player_id) before each turn
** Test your game in 3D mode (if it makes sense; 3D mode can also be disabled through the 'enable_3d' parameter for gameinfos.inc.php, but if it "mostly works", it can be nice to keep it activated even if 2D is more appropriate for the game, just because it's fun to look at)
* Cleanup
** Remove all extra console.log from your js code
** Remove all unnecessary debug logging from your php code
** Copyright headers in all source files have your name
* User Interface
** Review BGA UI design Guidelines [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines]]
** If the elements in your game zone don't occupy all the available horizontal space, '''they should be centered'''.
** Non-self explanatory graphic elements should have tooltips
** If graphic elements appear in notification log they should have titles (i.e. title attribute of div) so can be read in non rendered form (i.e. as text only)
** Strings in your source code are ready for translation. See [[Translations]]
** A prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes to avoid namespace conflicts, i.e. vla_selected vs selected
** If you are looking for advice on design and some 3rd party testing you can post a message on the developers forum, and ask other developers, there are a lot of people who will gladly do it.
* Finally
** If possible (meaning if there is not already a project with that name) copy your project to a new project '''matching exactly the name of the game''' (no prefix or suffix). If not possible move on to the next steps, admin will have to retrieve the other project and overwrite it.
** Create a build for your game from the "manage game" page (using the '''Build a new release version''' section) and check the log to make sure that everything builds fine (very often the js build fails because of [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Shrinksafe_minimization | this constraint]]).
** Send an e-mail to studio@boardgamearena.com asking to move the project forward for review. You cannot deploy yourself from the "manage game" page until a first deploy has been done by the admins. Please note that '''everything must be OK on the licensing''' side for a project to be moved out of the studio.

Game interface logic: yourgamename.js

2020-06-11T09:50:27Z

Een: /* Other useful stuff */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game interface. Here you will define:

* Which actions on the page will generate calls to the server.
* What happens when you get a notification for a change from the server and how it will show in the browser.

== File structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described below with comments on the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* '''constructor''': here you can define global variables for your whole interface.
* '''setup''': this method is called when the page is refreshed, and sets up the game interface.
* '''onEnteringState''': this method is called when entering a new game state. You can use it to customize the view for each game state.
* '''onLeavingState''': this method is called when leaving a game state.
* '''onUpdateActionButtons''': called when entering a new state, in order to add action buttons to the status bar.
* ''(utility methods)'': this is where you can define your utility methods.
* ''(player's actions)'': this is where you can write your handlers for player actions on the interface (example: click on an item).
* '''setupNotifications''': this method associates notifications with notification handlers. For each game notification, you can trigger a javascript method to handle it and update the game interface.
* ''(notification handlers)'': this is where you define the notifications handlers associated with notifications in '''setupNotifications''', above.

== General tips ==

; this.player_id
: ID of the player on whose browser the code is running.

; this.isSpectator
: Flag set to true if the user at the table is a spectator (not a player).
: Note: This is a variable, not a function.
: Note: If you want to hide an element from spectators, you should use [[Game_interface_stylesheet:_yourgamename.css#spectatorMode|CSS 'spectatorMode' class]].

; this.gamedatas
: Contains the initial set of data to init the game, created at game start or by game refresh (F5).
: You can update it as needed to keep an up-to-date reference of the game on the client side if you need it. (Most of the time this is unnecessary).

; this.isCurrentPlayerActive()
: Returns true if the player on whose browser the code is running is currently active (it's his turn to play).

; this.getActivePlayerId()
: Return the ID of the active player, or null if we are not in an "activeplayer" type state.

; this.getActivePlayers()
: Return an array with the IDs of players who are currently active (or an empty array if there are none).

; this.bRealtime
: Return true if the game is in realtime. Note that having a distinct behavior in realtime and turn-based should be exceptional.

== Dojo framework ==

BGA uses the [http://dojotoolkit.org/ Dojo Javascript framework].

The Dojo framework allows us to do complex things more easily. The BGA framework uses Dojo extensively.

To implement a game, you only need to use a few parts of the Dojo framework. All the Dojo methods you need are described on this page.

== ShrinkSafe minimization ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the js code is minimized using ShrinkSafe (based on ECMASCRIPT version 3). Some advanced syntax may not be compatible with this process. In particular:
* You should not use reserved keywords from the javascript language as variables.
* You should not declare default argument values in function declarations. The following syntax is invalid for ShrinkSafe: '''function myFunc(requiredArg, optionalArg = 'defaultValue') {}'''

'''Tip:''' a developer encountering some problems with this has successfully used [http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/58580/jshint JSHint] on NetBeans to evaluate code to make it compatible for ECMAScript 3. With the plugin installed, set the below options in '''.jshintrc''' file, and then open '''Action Items''' window (in NetBeans):<pre>{ "maxerr": 999, "esversion": 3 }</pre>

'''Tip:''' some online tools also allow to convert between different versions of javascript, such as https://www.typescriptlang.org/play

== Accessing and manipulating the DOM ==

'''$('some_html_element_id')'''

The $() function is used to get an HTML element using its "id" attribute.

Example 1: modify the content of a "span" element:

<pre>
In your HTML code:
<span id="a_value_in_the_game_interface">1234</span>

In your Javascript code:
$('a_value_in_the_game_interface').innerHTML = "9999";
</pre>

Note: $() is the standard method to access some HTML element with the BGA Framework. You should not use the '''getElementById''' function.

'''dojo.style'''

With dojo.style you can modify the CSS property of any HTML element in your interface.

Examples:

<pre>
// Make an element disappear
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'display', 'none' );

// Give an element a 2px border
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'borderWidth', '2px' );

// Change the background position of an element
// (very practical when you are using CSS sprites to transform an element to another)
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'backgroundPosition', '-20px -50px' );
</pre>

Note: you must always use dojo.style to modify the CSS properties of HTML elements.

Note²: if you have to modify several CSS properties of an element, or if you have a complex CSS transformation to do, you should consider using dojo.addClass/dojo.removeClass (see below).

'''dojo CSS classes manipulation'''

In many situations, many small CSS property updates can be replaced by a CSS class change (i.e., you add a CSS class to your element instead of applying all modifications manually).

Advantages are:
* All your CSS stuff remains in your CSS file.
* You can add/remove a list of CSS modifications with a simple function and without error.
* You can test whether you applied the CSS to an element with the '''dojo.hasClass''' method.

Example from ''Reversi'':

<pre>
// We add "possibleMove" to an element
dojo.addClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' );

// In our CSS file, the class is defined as:
.possibleMove {
background-color: white;
opacity: 0.2;
filter:alpha(opacity=20); /* For IE8 and earlier */
cursor: pointer;
}

// So we've applied 4 CSS property changes in one line of code.

// ... and when we need to check if a square is a possible move on the client side:
if( dojo.hasClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' ) )
{ ... }

// ... and if we want to remove all possible moves in one line of code (see "dojo.query" method):
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );
</pre>

Conclusion: We encourage you to use '''dojo.addClass''', '''dojo.removeClass''' and '''dojo.hasClass''' to make your life easier :)

'''dojo.query'''

With dojo.query, you can query a bunch of HTML elements with a single function, with a "CSS selector" style.

Example:
<pre>
// All elements with class "possibleMove":
var elements = dojo.query( '.possibleMove' );

// Count number of tokens (i.e., elements of class "token") on the board (i.e., the element with id "board"):
dojo.query( '#board .token' ).length;
</pre>

But what is really cool with dojo.query is that you can combine it with almost all methods above.

Examples:
<pre>
// Trigger a method when the mouse enter in any element with class "meeple":
dojo.query( '.meeple' ).connect( 'onmouseenter', this, 'myMethodToTrigger' );

// Hide all meeples who are on the board
dojo.query( '#board .meeple' ).style( 'display', 'none' );
</pre>

'''dojo.place'''

dojo.place is the best function to insert HTML code somewhere in your game interface without breaking something. It is much better to use than the '''innerHTML=''' method if you must insert HTML tags and not only values.

<pre>
// Insert your HTML code as a child of a container element
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id" );

// Replace the container element with your new html
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id", "replace" );

</pre>

The third parameter of dojo.place can take various interesting value.

values possibles :

"replace" : (see description above).

"first" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the first child.

"last" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the last child.

"before" : places the node right before the reference node.

"last (value by default) " : places the node right after the reference node.

"only" : replaces all children of the reference node with the node.

positif integer : This parameter can be a positif integer. In this case, the node will be placed as a child of the reference node with this number (counting from 0). If the number is more than number of children, the node will be appended to the reference node making it the last child.

See also full doc on dojo.place : [https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.7/dojo/place.html]

Usually, when you want to insert some piece of HTML in your game interface, you should use "[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]".

'''addStyleToClass: function( cssClassName, cssProperty, propertyValue )'''

Same as dojo.style(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

=== Animations ===

'''Dojo Animations'''

BGA animations is based on Dojo Animation ([http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.8/animation/ see tutorial here]).

However, most of the time, you can just use methods below, which are built on top of Dojo Animation.

Note: one interesting method from Dojo that could be useful from time to time is "Dojo.Animation". It allows you to make any CSS property "slide" from one value to another.

'''this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay )'''

You can use slideToObject to "slide" an element to a target position.

Sliding element on the game area is the recommended and the most used way to animate your game interface. Using slides allow players to figure out what is happening on the game, as if they were playing with the real boardgame.

The parameters are:
* mobile_obj: the ID of the object to move. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned.
* target_obj: the ID of the target object. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned. Note that it is not mandatory that mobile_obj and target_obj have the same size. If their size are different, the system slides the center of mobile_obj to the center of target_obj.
* duration: (optional) defines the duration in millisecond of the slide. The default is 500 milliseconds.
* delay: (optional). If you defines a delay, the slide will start only after this delay. This is particularly useful when you want to slide several object from the same position to the same position: you can give a 0ms delay to the first object, a 100ms delay to the second one, a 200ms delay to the third one, ... this way they won't be superposed during the slide.

BE CAREFUL: The method returns an dojo.fx animation, so you can combine it with other animation if you want to. It means that you have to call the "play()" method, otherwise the animation WON'T START.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObject( "some_token", "some_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y, duration, delay )'''

This method does exactly the same as "slideToObject", except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will slide to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

Example: slide a token to some place on the board, 10 pixels to the bottom:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectPos( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 0, 10 ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideTemporaryObject( mobile_obj_html, mobile_obj_parent, from, to, duration, delay )'''

This method is useful when you want to slide a temporary HTML object from one place to another. As this object does not exists before the animation and won't remain after, it could be complex to create this object (with dojo.place), to place it at its origin (with placeOnObject) to slide it (with slideToObject) and to make it disappear at the end.

slideTemporaryObject does all of this for you:
* mobile_obj_html is a piece of HTML code that represent the object to slide.
* mobile_obj_parent is the ID of an HTML element of your interface that will be the parent of this temporary HTML object.
* from is the ID of the origin of the slide.
* to is the ID of the target of the slide.
* duration/delay works exactly like in "slideToObject"

Example:
<pre>
this.slideTemporaryObject( '<div class="token_icon"></div>', 'tokens', 'my_origin_div', 'my_target_div' );
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectAndDestroy: function( node, to, time, delay )'''

This method is a handy shortcut to slide an existing HTML object to some place then destroy it upon arrival. It can be used for example to move a victory token or a card from the board to the player panel to show that the player earns it, then destroy it when we don't need to keep it visible on the player panel.

It works the same as this.slideToObject and takes the same arguments.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectAndDestroy( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 1000, 0 );
</pre>

'''this.fadeOutAndDestroy( node, duration, delay )'''

This function fade out the target HTML node, then destroy it.

Example:
<pre>
this.fadeOutAndDestroy( "a_card_that_must_disappear" );
</pre>

CAREFUL: the HTML node still exists until during few milliseconds, until the fadeOut has been completed.

'''Rotating elements'''

You can check here [http://jimfulton.info/demos/dojo-animated-rotate.html an example of use] of Dojo to make an element rotate.

This example combines "Dojo.Animation" method and a CSS3 property that allow you to rotate the element.

IMPORTANT: to asses browser compatibility, you must select the CSS property to use just like in the example (see sourcecode below):

<pre>
var transform;
dojo.forEach(
['transform', 'WebkitTransform', 'msTransform',
'MozTransform', 'OTransform'],
function (name) {
if (typeof dojo.body().style[name] != 'undefined') {
transform = name;
}
});
// ... and then use "transform" as the name of your CSS property for rotation
</pre>

'''Animation Callbacks'''

If you wish to run some code only after an animation has completed you can do this by linking a callback method.

<pre>
var animation_id = this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay );
dojo.connect(animation_id, 'onEnd', dojo.hitch(this, 'callback_function', parameters));
animation_id.play();

…

callback_function: function(params) {
// this will be called after the animation ends
},
</pre>

If you wish to call a second animation after the first (rather than general code) then you can use a dojo animation chain (see tutorial referenced above).

=== Moving elements ===

'''this.placeOnObject( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

placeOnObject works exactly like "slideToObject", except that the effect is immediate.

This is not really an animation, but placeOnObject is frequently used before starting an animation.

Example:
<pre>
// (We just created an object "my_new_token")

// Place the new token on current player board
this.placeOnObject( "my_new_token", "overall_player_board_"+this.player_id );

// Then slide it to its position on the board
this.slideToObject( "my_new_token", "a_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.placeOnObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y )'''

This method works exactly like placeOnObject, except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will be placed to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

'''this.attachToNewParent( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

With this method, you change the HTML parent of "mobile_obj" element. "target_obj" is the new parent of this element. The beauty of
attachToNewParent is that the mobile_obj element DOES NOT MOVE during this process.

Note: what happens is that the method calculate a relative position of mobile_obj to make sure it does not move after the HTML parent changes.

Why using this method?

Changing the HTML parent of an element can be useful for the following reasons:
* When the HTML parent moves, all its child are moving with them. If some game elements is no more linked with a parent HTML object, you may want to attach it to another place.
* The z_order (vertical order of display) depends on the position in the DOM, so you may need to change the parent of some game elements when they are moving in your game area.

CAREFUL: this function destroys original object and places a clone onto a new parent, this will break all references to this HTML element (ex: dojo.connect).

== Players input ==

'''dojo.connect'''

Used to associate a player event with one of your notification method.

Example: associate a click on an element ("my_element") with one of our method ("onClickOnMyElement"):
<pre>
dojo.connect( $('my_element'), 'onclick', this, 'onClickOnMyElement' );
</pre>

Note: this is the only possible correct way to associate a player input event to your code, and you must not use anything else.

'''this.checkAction( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkAction: function( action, nomessage )

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):

* "action"
* "module"
* "class"
return true if action is authorized (ie: the action is listed as a "possibleaction" in current game state).

return false and display an error message if not (display no message if nomessage parameter is true). The displayed error message could be either "This move is not allowed at this moment" or "An action is already in progress".

Example:
<pre>
function onClickOnGameElement( evt )
{
if( this.checkAction( "my_action" ) )
{
// Do the action
}
}
</pre>

'''this.checkPossibleActions( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkPossibleActions: function( action, nomessage )

* this is independent of the player being active, so can be used instead of this.checkAction(). This is particularly useful for multiplayer states when the player is not active in a 'player may like to change their mind' scenario.

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):
* "action"
* "module"
* "class"

'''this.ajaxcall( url, parameters, obj_callback, callback, callback_error )'''

This method must be used to send a player input to the game server.

* url: the url of the action to perform. For a game, it must be: "/<mygame>/<mygame>/myAction.html"
* parameters: an array of parameter to send to the game server. Note that "lock:true" must always be specified in this list of parameter in order the interface can be locked during the server call.
* obj_callback: must be set to "this".
* callback: a function to trigger when the server returns and everything went fine.
* callback_error: (optional and rarely used) a function to trigger when the server returns an error.

Usage:
<pre>
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/myaction.html', { lock: true,
arg1: myarg1,
arg2: myarg2,
...
}, this, function( result ) {
// Do some stuff after a successful call
} );
</pre>

'''this.confirmationDialog()'''

Display a confirmation dialog with a yes/no choice.

We advice you to NOT use this function unless the player action is really critical and could ruins the game, because it slows down the game and upset players.

Usage: this.confirmationDialog( "Question to displayed", callback_function_if_click_on_yes );

Example:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure to use this bonus (points penalty at the end of the game) ?'),
dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/seasons/seasons/useBonus.html',
{ id:bonus_id, lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

; addEventToClass: function( cssClassName, eventName, functionName )
: Same as dojo.connect(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

'''this.addActionButton( id, label, method, (opt)destination, (opt)blinking, (opt)color )'''

You can use this method to add an action button in the main action status bar.

Arguments:
* id: an element ID that should be unique in your HTML DOM document.
* label: the text of the button. Should be translatable (use _() function).
* method: the name of your method that must be triggered when the player clicks on this button.
* destination (optional): deprecated, do not use this. Use '''null''' as value if you need to specify other arguments.
* blinking (optional): if set to '''true''', the button is going blink to catch player's attention. Please don't abuse of blinking button.
* color: could be '''blue''' (default), '''red''' or '''gray'''.

You should only use this method in your "onUpdateActionButtons" method. Usually, you use it like this (from Hears example):

<pre>
onUpdateActionButtons: function( stateName, args ) {

if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
switch( stateName ) {
case 'giveCards':
this.addActionButton( 'giveCards_button', _('Give selected cards'), 'onGiveCards' );
break;
}
}
},
</pre>

In the example above, we are adding a "Give selected cards" button in the case we are on game state "giveCards". When player clicks on this button, it triggers our "onGiveCards" method.

Example using blinking red button:
<pre>
this.addActionButton( 'commit_button', _('Confirm'), 'onConfirm', null, true, 'red');
</pre>

Note: at least in studio example above will make button huge, because it sets it display of blinking things to '''block''',
if you don't like it you have to change css display value
of the button to inline-block (the id of the button is the first argument, i.e 'commit_button' in example above)

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Notifications ==

When something happens on the server side, your game interface Javascript logic received a notification.

Here's how you can handle these notifications on the client side.

=== Subscribe to notifications ===

Your Javascript "setupNotifications" method is the place where you can subscribe to notifications from your PHP code.

Here's how you associate one of your Javascript method to a notification "playDisc" (from Reversi example):

<pre>
// In setupNotifications method:
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
</pre>

Note: the "playDisc" corresponds to the name of the notification you define it in your PHP code, in your "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer" method.

Then, you have to define your "notif_playDisc" method:

<pre>
notif_playDisc: function( notif )
{
// Remove current possible moves (makes the board more clear)
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );

this.addDiscOnBoard( notif.args.x, notif.args.y, notif.args.player_id );
},
</pre>

In a notification handler like our "notif_playDisc" method, you can access to all notifications arguments with "notif.args".

Example:
<pre>
// If you did this on PHP side:
self::notifyAllPlayers( "myNotification", '', array( "myArgument" => 3 ) );

// On Javascript side, you can access the "myArgument" like this:
notif_myNotification: function( notif )
{
alert( "myArgument = " + notif.args.myArgument );
}
</pre>

=== Synchronous notifications ===

When several notifications are received by your game interface, these notifications are processed immediately, one after the other, in the same exact order they have been generated in your PHP game logic.

However, sometimes, you need to give some time to the players to figure out what happened on the game before jumping to the next notification. Indeed, in many games, they are a lot of automatic actions, and the computer is going to resolve all these actions very fast if you don't tell it not to do so.

As an example, for Reversi, when someone is playing a disc, we want to wait 500 milliseconds before doing anything else in order the opponent player can figure out what move has been played.

Here's how we do this, right after our subscription:
<pre>
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
this.notifqueue.setSynchronous( 'playDisc', 500 ); // Wait 500 milliseconds after executing the playDisc handler
</pre>

=== Pre-defined notification types ===

'''tableWindow''' - This defines notification to display [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_dialogs|Scoring Dialogs]], see below.

'''message''' - This defines notification that shows on players log and have no other effect

// You can call this on php side without doing anything on client side
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'message', 'hello', array( ) );

== Tooltips ==

'''this.addTooltip( nodeId, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to the DOM node.

Specify 'helpString' to display some information about "what is this game element?".
Specify 'actionString' to display some information about "what happens when I click on this element?".

You must specify both helpString and actionString. Most of the time, you should use only one and specify a void string ("") for the other one.

Usually, _() must be used for the text to be marked for translation.

"Delay" is an optional parameter. Usually, it is primarily used to specify a zero delay for some game element when the tooltip gives really important information for the game - but remember: no essential information must be placed in tooltips as they won't be displayed in some browsers (see [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines|Guidelines]]).

Example:
<pre>
this.addTooltip( 'cardcount', _('Number of cards in hand'), '' );
</pre>

'''this.addTooltipHtml( nodeId, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to the DOM node (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

'''this.addTooltipToClass( cssClass, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass.

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips.

'''this.addTooltipHtmlToClass( cssClass, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips

'''this.removeTooltip( nodeId )'''

Remove a tooltip from the DOM node.

== Dialogs, warning messages, confirmation dialogs, ... ==

=== Warning messages ===

Sometimes, there is something important that is happening on the game and you have to make sure all players get the message. Most of the time, the evolution of the game situation or the game log is enough, but sometimes you need something more visible.

Ex: someone fulfill one of the end of the game condition, so this is the last turn.

'''this.showMessage( msg, type )'''

showMessage shows a message in a big rectangular area on the top of the screen of current player.

* "msg" is the string to display. It should be translated.
* "type" can be set to "info" or "error". If set to "info", the message will be an informative message on a white background. If set to "error", the message will be an error message on a red background.

Important: the normal way to inform players about the progression of the game is the game log. "showMessage" is intrusive and should not be used often.

=== Confirmation dialog ===

'''confirmationDialog( message, yesHandler, noHandler )'''

When an important action with a lot of consequences is triggered by the player, you may want to propose a confirmation dialog.

CAREFUL: the general guidelines of BGA is to AVOID the use of confirmation dialog. Confirmation dialogs slow down the game and bother players. The players knows that they have to pay attention about each move when they are playing online.

The situation where you should use a confirmation dialog are the following:
* It must not happen very often during a game.
* It must be linked to an action that can really "kill a game" if the player do not pay attention.
* It must be something that can be done by mistake (ex: a link on the action status bar).

How to display a confirmation dialog:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to bake the pie?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.bakeThePie();
} ) );
return; // nothing should be called or done after calling this, all action must be done in the handler
</pre>

=== Multiple choice dialog ===
You can use this dialog to give user a choice with small amount of options:
<pre>
var keys = [1,5,10];
this.multipleChoiceDialog(
_('How many bugs to fix?"), keys,
dojo.hitch(this, function(choice) {
var bugchoice = keys[choice];
console.log('dialog callback with '+bugchoice);
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/fixBugs.html', { bugs: bugchoice}, this, function( result ) {} ); }));
</pre>

=== Dialogs ===

As a general rule, you shouldn't use dialogs windows.

BGA guidelines specify that all game elements should be displayed on the main screen. Players can eventually scroll down to see game elements they don't need to see anytime, and you may eventually create anchors to move between game area section. Of course dialogs windows are very practical, but the thing is: all players know how to scroll down, and not all players know how to show up your dialog window. In addition, when the dialog shows up, players can't access the other game components.

Sometimes although, you need to display a dialog window. Here is how you do this:

// Create the new dialog over the play zone. You should store the handler in a member variable to access it later
this.myDlg = new ebg.popindialog();
this.myDlg.create( 'myDialogUniqueId' );
this.myDlg.setTitle( _("my dialog title to translate") );
this.myDlg.setMaxWidth( 500 ); // Optional

// Create the HTML of my dialog.
// The best practice here is to use [[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]
var html = this.format_block( 'jstpl_myDialogTemplate', {
arg1: myArg1,
arg2: myArg2,
...
} );

// Show the dialog
this.myDlg.setContent( html ); // Must be set before calling show() so that the size of the content is defined before positioning the dialog
this.myDlg.show();

// Now that the dialog has been displayed, you can connect your method to some dialog elements
// Example, if you have an "OK" button in the HTML of your dialog:
dojo.connect( $('my_ok_button'), 'onclick', this, function(evt){
evt.preventDefault();
this.myDlg.destroy();
} );

If necessary, you can remove the default top right corner 'close' icon, or replace the function called when it is clicked:
// Removes the default close icon
this.myDlg.hideCloseIcon();

// Replace the function call when it's clicked
this.myDlg.replaceQuitCallback( function() { ... } );

=== Scoring dialogs ===

Sometimes at the end of a round you want to display a big table that details the points wins in each section of the game.

Example: in Hearts game, we display at the end of each round the number of "heart" cards collected by each player, the player who collected the Queen of Spades, and the total number of points loose by each player.

Scoring dialogs are managed entirely on '''PHP side''', but they are described here as their effects are visible only on client side.

Displaying a scoring dialog is quite simple and is using a special notification type: "tableWindow":
<pre>
// on PHP side:
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table
) );
</pre>

The "table" argument is a 2 dimensional PHP array that describe the table you want to display, line by line and column by column.

Example: display an 3x3 array of strings
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", "three" ), // This is my first line
array( "four", "five", "six" ), // This is my second line
array( "seven", "height", "nine" ) // This is my third line
);
</pre>

As you can see above, in each "cell" of your array you can display a simple string value. But you can also display a complex value with a template and associated arguments like this:
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", array( "str" => clienttranslate("a string with an ${argument}"), "args" => array( 'argument' => 'argument_value' ) ) ),
array( "four", "five", "six" ),
array( "seven", "height", "nine" )
);
</pre>

This is especially useful when you want to display player names with colors. Example from "Hearts":
<pre>
$firstRow = array( '' );
foreach( $players as $player_id => $player )
{
$firstRow[] = array( 'str' => '${player_name}',
'args' => array( 'player_name' => $player['player_name'] ),
'type' => 'header'
);
}
$table[] = $firstRow;
</pre>

You can also use three extra attributes in the parameter array for the notification:

<pre>
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table,
"header" => array('str' => clienttranslate('Table header with parameter ${number}'),
'args' => array( 'number' => 3 ),
),
"footer" => '<div>Some footer</div>',
"closing" => clienttranslate( "Closing button label" )
) );
</pre>

*'''header''': the content for this parameter will display before the table (also, the html will be parsed and player names will be colored according to the current game colors).
*'''footer''': the content for this parameter will display after the table (no parsing for coloring the player names)
*'''closing''': if this parameter is used, a button will be displayed with this label at the bottom of the popup and will allow players to close it (more easily than by clicking the top right 'cross' icon).

=== Scoring animated display ===

Sometimes (Terra Mystica final scoring for example), you may want to display a score value over an element to make the scoring easier to follow for the players.
You can do it with:

<pre>
this.displayScoring( anchor_id, color, score, duration );
</pre>

'''anchor_id''': ID of the element to place the animated score onto (without the '#')

'''color''': hexadecimal RGB representation of the color (should be the color of the scoring player), but without a leading '#'. For instance, 'ff0000' for red.

'''score''': numeric score to display, prefixed by a '+'

'''duration''': animation duration in milliseconds

=== Speech bubble ===

For better interactivity in some games (Love Letter for example), you may use comic book style speech bubbles to express the players voices.
This is done with:

<pre>
this.showBubble( anchor_id, text, delay, duration, custom_class )
</pre>

delay in milliseconds is optional (default 0)

duration in milliseconds is optional (default 3000)

custom_class is optional, if you need to override the default bubble style

'''Warning''': if your bubble could overlap other active elements of the interface (buttons in particular), as it stays in place even after disappearing, you should use a custom class to give it the style "pointer-events: none;" in order to intercept click events.

== Update players score ==

Increase a player score (with a positive or negative number):

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].incValue( score_delta );
</pre>

Set a player score to a specific value:

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].setValue( new_score );
</pre>

== Players panels ==

=== Adding stuff to player's panel ===

At first, create a new "JS template" string in your template (tpl) file:

(from Gomoku example)
<pre>
var jstpl_player_board = '\<div class="cp_board">\
<div id="stoneicon_p${id}" class="gmk_stoneicon gmk_stoneicon_${color}"></div><span id="stonecount_p${id}">0</span>\
</div>';
</pre>

Then, you add this piece of code in your JS file to add this template to each player panel:

<pre>
// Setting up player boards
for( var player_id in gamedatas.players )
{
var player = gamedatas.players[player_id];

// Setting up players boards if needed
var player_board_div = $('player_board_'+player_id);
dojo.place( this.format_block('jstpl_player_board', player ), player_board_div );
}
</pre>

(Note: the code above is of course from your "setup" function in your Javascript).

Very often, you have to distinguish current player and others players. In this case, you just have to create another JS template (ex: jstpl_otherplayer_board) and use it when "player_id" is different than "this.player_id".

=== Player's panel disabling/enabling ===

'''this.disablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Disable given player panel (the panel background become gray).

Usually, this is used to signal that this played passes, or will be inactive during a while.

Note that the only effect of this is visual. There are no consequences on the behaviour of the panel itself.

'''this.enablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Enable a player panel that has been disabled before.

'''this.enableAllPlayerPanels()'''

Enable all player panels that has been disabled before.

== Image loading ==

See also [[Game_art:_img_directory]].

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

'''dontPreloadImage( image_file_name )'''

Using dontPreloadImage, you tell the interface to not preload a specific image in your img directory.

Example of use:
<pre>
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
</pre>

This is particularly useful if for example you have 2 different themes for a game. To accelerate the loading of the game, you can specify to not preload images corresponding to the other theme.

Another example of use: in "Gosu" game with Kamakor extension, you play with 5 sets of cards among 10 available. Cards images are organized by sets, and we only preload the images corresponding to the 5 current sets with '''ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( image_file_names_array )'''.
<pre>
// By default, do not preload anything
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan1.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan2.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan3.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan4.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan5.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan6.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan7.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan8.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan9.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan10.png' );
var to_preload = [];
for( i in this.gamedatas.clans )
{
var clan_id = this.gamedatas.clans[i];
to_preload.push( 'clan'+clan_id+'.png' );
}
if( to_preload.length == 5 )
{
this.ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( to_preload );
}
</pre>

'''Note:''' You don't need to specify to not preload game box images (game_box.png, game_box75.png...) since they are not preloaded by default.

== Other useful stuff ==

'''dojo.hitch'''

With dojo.hitch, you can create a callback function that will run with your game object context whatever happen.

Typical example: display a BGA confirmation dialog with a callback function created with dojo.hitch:

<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to make this?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/makeThis.html', { lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

In the example above, using dojo.hitch, we ensure that the "this" object will be set when the callback is called.

; updateCounters(counters)
: Useful for updating game counters in the player panel (such as resources).
: 'counters' arg is an associative array [counter_name_value => [ 'counter_name' => counter_name_value, 'counter_value' => counter_value_value], ... ]
: All counters must be referenced in this.gamedatas.counters and will be updated.
: DOM objects referenced by 'counter_name' will have their innerHTML updated with 'counter_value'.

'''updatePageTitle()'''
This function allows to update the current page title and turn description according to the game state. If the current game state description this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn is modified before calling the function, it allows to update the turn description without changing state.

Example from Terra Mystica:
<pre>
onClickFavorTile: function( evt )
{
[...]

if ( ... ) {

this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn = _('Special action: ') + _('Advance 1 space on a Cult track');
this.updatePageTitle();
this.removeActionButtons();

this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm1', _("Fire"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm2', _("Water"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm3', _("Earth"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm4', _("Air"),
function() { ... }
);

this.addActionButton( 'action_cancel', _("Cancel"), function() { ... }, false, false, 'gray'
);

return;
}

[...]

}
</pre>

== BGA GUI components ==

BGA framework provides some useful ready-to-use components for the game interface:

[[Studio#BGA_Studio_game_components_reference]]

Note that each time you are using an additional component, you must declare it at the top of your Javascript file in the list of modules used.

Example if you are using "ebg.stock":
<pre>
define([
"dojo","dojo/_base/declare",
"ebg/core/gamegui",
"ebg/counter",
"ebg/stock" /// <=== we are using ebg.stock module
],
</pre>

Game interface logic: yourgamename.js

2020-06-11T09:50:08Z

Een: /* Other useful stuff */ updatePageTitle()

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game interface. Here you will define:

* Which actions on the page will generate calls to the server.
* What happens when you get a notification for a change from the server and how it will show in the browser.

== File structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described below with comments on the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* '''constructor''': here you can define global variables for your whole interface.
* '''setup''': this method is called when the page is refreshed, and sets up the game interface.
* '''onEnteringState''': this method is called when entering a new game state. You can use it to customize the view for each game state.
* '''onLeavingState''': this method is called when leaving a game state.
* '''onUpdateActionButtons''': called when entering a new state, in order to add action buttons to the status bar.
* ''(utility methods)'': this is where you can define your utility methods.
* ''(player's actions)'': this is where you can write your handlers for player actions on the interface (example: click on an item).
* '''setupNotifications''': this method associates notifications with notification handlers. For each game notification, you can trigger a javascript method to handle it and update the game interface.
* ''(notification handlers)'': this is where you define the notifications handlers associated with notifications in '''setupNotifications''', above.

== General tips ==

; this.player_id
: ID of the player on whose browser the code is running.

; this.isSpectator
: Flag set to true if the user at the table is a spectator (not a player).
: Note: This is a variable, not a function.
: Note: If you want to hide an element from spectators, you should use [[Game_interface_stylesheet:_yourgamename.css#spectatorMode|CSS 'spectatorMode' class]].

; this.gamedatas
: Contains the initial set of data to init the game, created at game start or by game refresh (F5).
: You can update it as needed to keep an up-to-date reference of the game on the client side if you need it. (Most of the time this is unnecessary).

; this.isCurrentPlayerActive()
: Returns true if the player on whose browser the code is running is currently active (it's his turn to play).

; this.getActivePlayerId()
: Return the ID of the active player, or null if we are not in an "activeplayer" type state.

; this.getActivePlayers()
: Return an array with the IDs of players who are currently active (or an empty array if there are none).

; this.bRealtime
: Return true if the game is in realtime. Note that having a distinct behavior in realtime and turn-based should be exceptional.

== Dojo framework ==

BGA uses the [http://dojotoolkit.org/ Dojo Javascript framework].

The Dojo framework allows us to do complex things more easily. The BGA framework uses Dojo extensively.

To implement a game, you only need to use a few parts of the Dojo framework. All the Dojo methods you need are described on this page.

== ShrinkSafe minimization ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the js code is minimized using ShrinkSafe (based on ECMASCRIPT version 3). Some advanced syntax may not be compatible with this process. In particular:
* You should not use reserved keywords from the javascript language as variables.
* You should not declare default argument values in function declarations. The following syntax is invalid for ShrinkSafe: '''function myFunc(requiredArg, optionalArg = 'defaultValue') {}'''

'''Tip:''' a developer encountering some problems with this has successfully used [http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/58580/jshint JSHint] on NetBeans to evaluate code to make it compatible for ECMAScript 3. With the plugin installed, set the below options in '''.jshintrc''' file, and then open '''Action Items''' window (in NetBeans):<pre>{ "maxerr": 999, "esversion": 3 }</pre>

'''Tip:''' some online tools also allow to convert between different versions of javascript, such as https://www.typescriptlang.org/play

== Accessing and manipulating the DOM ==

'''$('some_html_element_id')'''

The $() function is used to get an HTML element using its "id" attribute.

Example 1: modify the content of a "span" element:

<pre>
In your HTML code:
<span id="a_value_in_the_game_interface">1234</span>

In your Javascript code:
$('a_value_in_the_game_interface').innerHTML = "9999";
</pre>

Note: $() is the standard method to access some HTML element with the BGA Framework. You should not use the '''getElementById''' function.

'''dojo.style'''

With dojo.style you can modify the CSS property of any HTML element in your interface.

Examples:

<pre>
// Make an element disappear
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'display', 'none' );

// Give an element a 2px border
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'borderWidth', '2px' );

// Change the background position of an element
// (very practical when you are using CSS sprites to transform an element to another)
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'backgroundPosition', '-20px -50px' );
</pre>

Note: you must always use dojo.style to modify the CSS properties of HTML elements.

Note²: if you have to modify several CSS properties of an element, or if you have a complex CSS transformation to do, you should consider using dojo.addClass/dojo.removeClass (see below).

'''dojo CSS classes manipulation'''

In many situations, many small CSS property updates can be replaced by a CSS class change (i.e., you add a CSS class to your element instead of applying all modifications manually).

Advantages are:
* All your CSS stuff remains in your CSS file.
* You can add/remove a list of CSS modifications with a simple function and without error.
* You can test whether you applied the CSS to an element with the '''dojo.hasClass''' method.

Example from ''Reversi'':

<pre>
// We add "possibleMove" to an element
dojo.addClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' );

// In our CSS file, the class is defined as:
.possibleMove {
background-color: white;
opacity: 0.2;
filter:alpha(opacity=20); /* For IE8 and earlier */
cursor: pointer;
}

// So we've applied 4 CSS property changes in one line of code.

// ... and when we need to check if a square is a possible move on the client side:
if( dojo.hasClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' ) )
{ ... }

// ... and if we want to remove all possible moves in one line of code (see "dojo.query" method):
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );
</pre>

Conclusion: We encourage you to use '''dojo.addClass''', '''dojo.removeClass''' and '''dojo.hasClass''' to make your life easier :)

'''dojo.query'''

With dojo.query, you can query a bunch of HTML elements with a single function, with a "CSS selector" style.

Example:
<pre>
// All elements with class "possibleMove":
var elements = dojo.query( '.possibleMove' );

// Count number of tokens (i.e., elements of class "token") on the board (i.e., the element with id "board"):
dojo.query( '#board .token' ).length;
</pre>

But what is really cool with dojo.query is that you can combine it with almost all methods above.

Examples:
<pre>
// Trigger a method when the mouse enter in any element with class "meeple":
dojo.query( '.meeple' ).connect( 'onmouseenter', this, 'myMethodToTrigger' );

// Hide all meeples who are on the board
dojo.query( '#board .meeple' ).style( 'display', 'none' );
</pre>

'''dojo.place'''

dojo.place is the best function to insert HTML code somewhere in your game interface without breaking something. It is much better to use than the '''innerHTML=''' method if you must insert HTML tags and not only values.

<pre>
// Insert your HTML code as a child of a container element
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id" );

// Replace the container element with your new html
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id", "replace" );

</pre>

The third parameter of dojo.place can take various interesting value.

values possibles :

"replace" : (see description above).

"first" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the first child.

"last" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the last child.

"before" : places the node right before the reference node.

"last (value by default) " : places the node right after the reference node.

"only" : replaces all children of the reference node with the node.

positif integer : This parameter can be a positif integer. In this case, the node will be placed as a child of the reference node with this number (counting from 0). If the number is more than number of children, the node will be appended to the reference node making it the last child.

See also full doc on dojo.place : [https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.7/dojo/place.html]

Usually, when you want to insert some piece of HTML in your game interface, you should use "[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]".

'''addStyleToClass: function( cssClassName, cssProperty, propertyValue )'''

Same as dojo.style(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

=== Animations ===

'''Dojo Animations'''

BGA animations is based on Dojo Animation ([http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.8/animation/ see tutorial here]).

However, most of the time, you can just use methods below, which are built on top of Dojo Animation.

Note: one interesting method from Dojo that could be useful from time to time is "Dojo.Animation". It allows you to make any CSS property "slide" from one value to another.

'''this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay )'''

You can use slideToObject to "slide" an element to a target position.

Sliding element on the game area is the recommended and the most used way to animate your game interface. Using slides allow players to figure out what is happening on the game, as if they were playing with the real boardgame.

The parameters are:
* mobile_obj: the ID of the object to move. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned.
* target_obj: the ID of the target object. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned. Note that it is not mandatory that mobile_obj and target_obj have the same size. If their size are different, the system slides the center of mobile_obj to the center of target_obj.
* duration: (optional) defines the duration in millisecond of the slide. The default is 500 milliseconds.
* delay: (optional). If you defines a delay, the slide will start only after this delay. This is particularly useful when you want to slide several object from the same position to the same position: you can give a 0ms delay to the first object, a 100ms delay to the second one, a 200ms delay to the third one, ... this way they won't be superposed during the slide.

BE CAREFUL: The method returns an dojo.fx animation, so you can combine it with other animation if you want to. It means that you have to call the "play()" method, otherwise the animation WON'T START.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObject( "some_token", "some_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y, duration, delay )'''

This method does exactly the same as "slideToObject", except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will slide to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

Example: slide a token to some place on the board, 10 pixels to the bottom:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectPos( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 0, 10 ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideTemporaryObject( mobile_obj_html, mobile_obj_parent, from, to, duration, delay )'''

This method is useful when you want to slide a temporary HTML object from one place to another. As this object does not exists before the animation and won't remain after, it could be complex to create this object (with dojo.place), to place it at its origin (with placeOnObject) to slide it (with slideToObject) and to make it disappear at the end.

slideTemporaryObject does all of this for you:
* mobile_obj_html is a piece of HTML code that represent the object to slide.
* mobile_obj_parent is the ID of an HTML element of your interface that will be the parent of this temporary HTML object.
* from is the ID of the origin of the slide.
* to is the ID of the target of the slide.
* duration/delay works exactly like in "slideToObject"

Example:
<pre>
this.slideTemporaryObject( '<div class="token_icon"></div>', 'tokens', 'my_origin_div', 'my_target_div' );
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectAndDestroy: function( node, to, time, delay )'''

This method is a handy shortcut to slide an existing HTML object to some place then destroy it upon arrival. It can be used for example to move a victory token or a card from the board to the player panel to show that the player earns it, then destroy it when we don't need to keep it visible on the player panel.

It works the same as this.slideToObject and takes the same arguments.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectAndDestroy( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 1000, 0 );
</pre>

'''this.fadeOutAndDestroy( node, duration, delay )'''

This function fade out the target HTML node, then destroy it.

Example:
<pre>
this.fadeOutAndDestroy( "a_card_that_must_disappear" );
</pre>

CAREFUL: the HTML node still exists until during few milliseconds, until the fadeOut has been completed.

'''Rotating elements'''

You can check here [http://jimfulton.info/demos/dojo-animated-rotate.html an example of use] of Dojo to make an element rotate.

This example combines "Dojo.Animation" method and a CSS3 property that allow you to rotate the element.

IMPORTANT: to asses browser compatibility, you must select the CSS property to use just like in the example (see sourcecode below):

<pre>
var transform;
dojo.forEach(
['transform', 'WebkitTransform', 'msTransform',
'MozTransform', 'OTransform'],
function (name) {
if (typeof dojo.body().style[name] != 'undefined') {
transform = name;
}
});
// ... and then use "transform" as the name of your CSS property for rotation
</pre>

'''Animation Callbacks'''

If you wish to run some code only after an animation has completed you can do this by linking a callback method.

<pre>
var animation_id = this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay );
dojo.connect(animation_id, 'onEnd', dojo.hitch(this, 'callback_function', parameters));
animation_id.play();

…

callback_function: function(params) {
// this will be called after the animation ends
},
</pre>

If you wish to call a second animation after the first (rather than general code) then you can use a dojo animation chain (see tutorial referenced above).

=== Moving elements ===

'''this.placeOnObject( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

placeOnObject works exactly like "slideToObject", except that the effect is immediate.

This is not really an animation, but placeOnObject is frequently used before starting an animation.

Example:
<pre>
// (We just created an object "my_new_token")

// Place the new token on current player board
this.placeOnObject( "my_new_token", "overall_player_board_"+this.player_id );

// Then slide it to its position on the board
this.slideToObject( "my_new_token", "a_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.placeOnObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y )'''

This method works exactly like placeOnObject, except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will be placed to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

'''this.attachToNewParent( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

With this method, you change the HTML parent of "mobile_obj" element. "target_obj" is the new parent of this element. The beauty of
attachToNewParent is that the mobile_obj element DOES NOT MOVE during this process.

Note: what happens is that the method calculate a relative position of mobile_obj to make sure it does not move after the HTML parent changes.

Why using this method?

Changing the HTML parent of an element can be useful for the following reasons:
* When the HTML parent moves, all its child are moving with them. If some game elements is no more linked with a parent HTML object, you may want to attach it to another place.
* The z_order (vertical order of display) depends on the position in the DOM, so you may need to change the parent of some game elements when they are moving in your game area.

CAREFUL: this function destroys original object and places a clone onto a new parent, this will break all references to this HTML element (ex: dojo.connect).

== Players input ==

'''dojo.connect'''

Used to associate a player event with one of your notification method.

Example: associate a click on an element ("my_element") with one of our method ("onClickOnMyElement"):
<pre>
dojo.connect( $('my_element'), 'onclick', this, 'onClickOnMyElement' );
</pre>

Note: this is the only possible correct way to associate a player input event to your code, and you must not use anything else.

'''this.checkAction( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkAction: function( action, nomessage )

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):

* "action"
* "module"
* "class"
return true if action is authorized (ie: the action is listed as a "possibleaction" in current game state).

return false and display an error message if not (display no message if nomessage parameter is true). The displayed error message could be either "This move is not allowed at this moment" or "An action is already in progress".

Example:
<pre>
function onClickOnGameElement( evt )
{
if( this.checkAction( "my_action" ) )
{
// Do the action
}
}
</pre>

'''this.checkPossibleActions( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkPossibleActions: function( action, nomessage )

* this is independent of the player being active, so can be used instead of this.checkAction(). This is particularly useful for multiplayer states when the player is not active in a 'player may like to change their mind' scenario.

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):
* "action"
* "module"
* "class"

'''this.ajaxcall( url, parameters, obj_callback, callback, callback_error )'''

This method must be used to send a player input to the game server.

* url: the url of the action to perform. For a game, it must be: "/<mygame>/<mygame>/myAction.html"
* parameters: an array of parameter to send to the game server. Note that "lock:true" must always be specified in this list of parameter in order the interface can be locked during the server call.
* obj_callback: must be set to "this".
* callback: a function to trigger when the server returns and everything went fine.
* callback_error: (optional and rarely used) a function to trigger when the server returns an error.

Usage:
<pre>
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/myaction.html', { lock: true,
arg1: myarg1,
arg2: myarg2,
...
}, this, function( result ) {
// Do some stuff after a successful call
} );
</pre>

'''this.confirmationDialog()'''

Display a confirmation dialog with a yes/no choice.

We advice you to NOT use this function unless the player action is really critical and could ruins the game, because it slows down the game and upset players.

Usage: this.confirmationDialog( "Question to displayed", callback_function_if_click_on_yes );

Example:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure to use this bonus (points penalty at the end of the game) ?'),
dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/seasons/seasons/useBonus.html',
{ id:bonus_id, lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

; addEventToClass: function( cssClassName, eventName, functionName )
: Same as dojo.connect(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

'''this.addActionButton( id, label, method, (opt)destination, (opt)blinking, (opt)color )'''

You can use this method to add an action button in the main action status bar.

Arguments:
* id: an element ID that should be unique in your HTML DOM document.
* label: the text of the button. Should be translatable (use _() function).
* method: the name of your method that must be triggered when the player clicks on this button.
* destination (optional): deprecated, do not use this. Use '''null''' as value if you need to specify other arguments.
* blinking (optional): if set to '''true''', the button is going blink to catch player's attention. Please don't abuse of blinking button.
* color: could be '''blue''' (default), '''red''' or '''gray'''.

You should only use this method in your "onUpdateActionButtons" method. Usually, you use it like this (from Hears example):

<pre>
onUpdateActionButtons: function( stateName, args ) {

if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
switch( stateName ) {
case 'giveCards':
this.addActionButton( 'giveCards_button', _('Give selected cards'), 'onGiveCards' );
break;
}
}
},
</pre>

In the example above, we are adding a "Give selected cards" button in the case we are on game state "giveCards". When player clicks on this button, it triggers our "onGiveCards" method.

Example using blinking red button:
<pre>
this.addActionButton( 'commit_button', _('Confirm'), 'onConfirm', null, true, 'red');
</pre>

Note: at least in studio example above will make button huge, because it sets it display of blinking things to '''block''',
if you don't like it you have to change css display value
of the button to inline-block (the id of the button is the first argument, i.e 'commit_button' in example above)

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Notifications ==

When something happens on the server side, your game interface Javascript logic received a notification.

Here's how you can handle these notifications on the client side.

=== Subscribe to notifications ===

Your Javascript "setupNotifications" method is the place where you can subscribe to notifications from your PHP code.

Here's how you associate one of your Javascript method to a notification "playDisc" (from Reversi example):

<pre>
// In setupNotifications method:
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
</pre>

Note: the "playDisc" corresponds to the name of the notification you define it in your PHP code, in your "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer" method.

Then, you have to define your "notif_playDisc" method:

<pre>
notif_playDisc: function( notif )
{
// Remove current possible moves (makes the board more clear)
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );

this.addDiscOnBoard( notif.args.x, notif.args.y, notif.args.player_id );
},
</pre>

In a notification handler like our "notif_playDisc" method, you can access to all notifications arguments with "notif.args".

Example:
<pre>
// If you did this on PHP side:
self::notifyAllPlayers( "myNotification", '', array( "myArgument" => 3 ) );

// On Javascript side, you can access the "myArgument" like this:
notif_myNotification: function( notif )
{
alert( "myArgument = " + notif.args.myArgument );
}
</pre>

=== Synchronous notifications ===

When several notifications are received by your game interface, these notifications are processed immediately, one after the other, in the same exact order they have been generated in your PHP game logic.

However, sometimes, you need to give some time to the players to figure out what happened on the game before jumping to the next notification. Indeed, in many games, they are a lot of automatic actions, and the computer is going to resolve all these actions very fast if you don't tell it not to do so.

As an example, for Reversi, when someone is playing a disc, we want to wait 500 milliseconds before doing anything else in order the opponent player can figure out what move has been played.

Here's how we do this, right after our subscription:
<pre>
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
this.notifqueue.setSynchronous( 'playDisc', 500 ); // Wait 500 milliseconds after executing the playDisc handler
</pre>

=== Pre-defined notification types ===

'''tableWindow''' - This defines notification to display [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_dialogs|Scoring Dialogs]], see below.

'''message''' - This defines notification that shows on players log and have no other effect

// You can call this on php side without doing anything on client side
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'message', 'hello', array( ) );

== Tooltips ==

'''this.addTooltip( nodeId, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to the DOM node.

Specify 'helpString' to display some information about "what is this game element?".
Specify 'actionString' to display some information about "what happens when I click on this element?".

You must specify both helpString and actionString. Most of the time, you should use only one and specify a void string ("") for the other one.

Usually, _() must be used for the text to be marked for translation.

"Delay" is an optional parameter. Usually, it is primarily used to specify a zero delay for some game element when the tooltip gives really important information for the game - but remember: no essential information must be placed in tooltips as they won't be displayed in some browsers (see [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines|Guidelines]]).

Example:
<pre>
this.addTooltip( 'cardcount', _('Number of cards in hand'), '' );
</pre>

'''this.addTooltipHtml( nodeId, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to the DOM node (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

'''this.addTooltipToClass( cssClass, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass.

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips.

'''this.addTooltipHtmlToClass( cssClass, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips

'''this.removeTooltip( nodeId )'''

Remove a tooltip from the DOM node.

== Dialogs, warning messages, confirmation dialogs, ... ==

=== Warning messages ===

Sometimes, there is something important that is happening on the game and you have to make sure all players get the message. Most of the time, the evolution of the game situation or the game log is enough, but sometimes you need something more visible.

Ex: someone fulfill one of the end of the game condition, so this is the last turn.

'''this.showMessage( msg, type )'''

showMessage shows a message in a big rectangular area on the top of the screen of current player.

* "msg" is the string to display. It should be translated.
* "type" can be set to "info" or "error". If set to "info", the message will be an informative message on a white background. If set to "error", the message will be an error message on a red background.

Important: the normal way to inform players about the progression of the game is the game log. "showMessage" is intrusive and should not be used often.

=== Confirmation dialog ===

'''confirmationDialog( message, yesHandler, noHandler )'''

When an important action with a lot of consequences is triggered by the player, you may want to propose a confirmation dialog.

CAREFUL: the general guidelines of BGA is to AVOID the use of confirmation dialog. Confirmation dialogs slow down the game and bother players. The players knows that they have to pay attention about each move when they are playing online.

The situation where you should use a confirmation dialog are the following:
* It must not happen very often during a game.
* It must be linked to an action that can really "kill a game" if the player do not pay attention.
* It must be something that can be done by mistake (ex: a link on the action status bar).

How to display a confirmation dialog:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to bake the pie?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.bakeThePie();
} ) );
return; // nothing should be called or done after calling this, all action must be done in the handler
</pre>

=== Multiple choice dialog ===
You can use this dialog to give user a choice with small amount of options:
<pre>
var keys = [1,5,10];
this.multipleChoiceDialog(
_('How many bugs to fix?"), keys,
dojo.hitch(this, function(choice) {
var bugchoice = keys[choice];
console.log('dialog callback with '+bugchoice);
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/fixBugs.html', { bugs: bugchoice}, this, function( result ) {} ); }));
</pre>

=== Dialogs ===

As a general rule, you shouldn't use dialogs windows.

BGA guidelines specify that all game elements should be displayed on the main screen. Players can eventually scroll down to see game elements they don't need to see anytime, and you may eventually create anchors to move between game area section. Of course dialogs windows are very practical, but the thing is: all players know how to scroll down, and not all players know how to show up your dialog window. In addition, when the dialog shows up, players can't access the other game components.

Sometimes although, you need to display a dialog window. Here is how you do this:

// Create the new dialog over the play zone. You should store the handler in a member variable to access it later
this.myDlg = new ebg.popindialog();
this.myDlg.create( 'myDialogUniqueId' );
this.myDlg.setTitle( _("my dialog title to translate") );
this.myDlg.setMaxWidth( 500 ); // Optional

// Create the HTML of my dialog.
// The best practice here is to use [[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]
var html = this.format_block( 'jstpl_myDialogTemplate', {
arg1: myArg1,
arg2: myArg2,
...
} );

// Show the dialog
this.myDlg.setContent( html ); // Must be set before calling show() so that the size of the content is defined before positioning the dialog
this.myDlg.show();

// Now that the dialog has been displayed, you can connect your method to some dialog elements
// Example, if you have an "OK" button in the HTML of your dialog:
dojo.connect( $('my_ok_button'), 'onclick', this, function(evt){
evt.preventDefault();
this.myDlg.destroy();
} );

If necessary, you can remove the default top right corner 'close' icon, or replace the function called when it is clicked:
// Removes the default close icon
this.myDlg.hideCloseIcon();

// Replace the function call when it's clicked
this.myDlg.replaceQuitCallback( function() { ... } );

=== Scoring dialogs ===

Sometimes at the end of a round you want to display a big table that details the points wins in each section of the game.

Example: in Hearts game, we display at the end of each round the number of "heart" cards collected by each player, the player who collected the Queen of Spades, and the total number of points loose by each player.

Scoring dialogs are managed entirely on '''PHP side''', but they are described here as their effects are visible only on client side.

Displaying a scoring dialog is quite simple and is using a special notification type: "tableWindow":
<pre>
// on PHP side:
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table
) );
</pre>

The "table" argument is a 2 dimensional PHP array that describe the table you want to display, line by line and column by column.

Example: display an 3x3 array of strings
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", "three" ), // This is my first line
array( "four", "five", "six" ), // This is my second line
array( "seven", "height", "nine" ) // This is my third line
);
</pre>

As you can see above, in each "cell" of your array you can display a simple string value. But you can also display a complex value with a template and associated arguments like this:
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", array( "str" => clienttranslate("a string with an ${argument}"), "args" => array( 'argument' => 'argument_value' ) ) ),
array( "four", "five", "six" ),
array( "seven", "height", "nine" )
);
</pre>

This is especially useful when you want to display player names with colors. Example from "Hearts":
<pre>
$firstRow = array( '' );
foreach( $players as $player_id => $player )
{
$firstRow[] = array( 'str' => '${player_name}',
'args' => array( 'player_name' => $player['player_name'] ),
'type' => 'header'
);
}
$table[] = $firstRow;
</pre>

You can also use three extra attributes in the parameter array for the notification:

<pre>
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table,
"header" => array('str' => clienttranslate('Table header with parameter ${number}'),
'args' => array( 'number' => 3 ),
),
"footer" => '<div>Some footer</div>',
"closing" => clienttranslate( "Closing button label" )
) );
</pre>

*'''header''': the content for this parameter will display before the table (also, the html will be parsed and player names will be colored according to the current game colors).
*'''footer''': the content for this parameter will display after the table (no parsing for coloring the player names)
*'''closing''': if this parameter is used, a button will be displayed with this label at the bottom of the popup and will allow players to close it (more easily than by clicking the top right 'cross' icon).

=== Scoring animated display ===

Sometimes (Terra Mystica final scoring for example), you may want to display a score value over an element to make the scoring easier to follow for the players.
You can do it with:

<pre>
this.displayScoring( anchor_id, color, score, duration );
</pre>

'''anchor_id''': ID of the element to place the animated score onto (without the '#')

'''color''': hexadecimal RGB representation of the color (should be the color of the scoring player), but without a leading '#'. For instance, 'ff0000' for red.

'''score''': numeric score to display, prefixed by a '+'

'''duration''': animation duration in milliseconds

=== Speech bubble ===

For better interactivity in some games (Love Letter for example), you may use comic book style speech bubbles to express the players voices.
This is done with:

<pre>
this.showBubble( anchor_id, text, delay, duration, custom_class )
</pre>

delay in milliseconds is optional (default 0)

duration in milliseconds is optional (default 3000)

custom_class is optional, if you need to override the default bubble style

'''Warning''': if your bubble could overlap other active elements of the interface (buttons in particular), as it stays in place even after disappearing, you should use a custom class to give it the style "pointer-events: none;" in order to intercept click events.

== Update players score ==

Increase a player score (with a positive or negative number):

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].incValue( score_delta );
</pre>

Set a player score to a specific value:

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].setValue( new_score );
</pre>

== Players panels ==

=== Adding stuff to player's panel ===

At first, create a new "JS template" string in your template (tpl) file:

(from Gomoku example)
<pre>
var jstpl_player_board = '\<div class="cp_board">\
<div id="stoneicon_p${id}" class="gmk_stoneicon gmk_stoneicon_${color}"></div><span id="stonecount_p${id}">0</span>\
</div>';
</pre>

Then, you add this piece of code in your JS file to add this template to each player panel:

<pre>
// Setting up player boards
for( var player_id in gamedatas.players )
{
var player = gamedatas.players[player_id];

// Setting up players boards if needed
var player_board_div = $('player_board_'+player_id);
dojo.place( this.format_block('jstpl_player_board', player ), player_board_div );
}
</pre>

(Note: the code above is of course from your "setup" function in your Javascript).

Very often, you have to distinguish current player and others players. In this case, you just have to create another JS template (ex: jstpl_otherplayer_board) and use it when "player_id" is different than "this.player_id".

=== Player's panel disabling/enabling ===

'''this.disablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Disable given player panel (the panel background become gray).

Usually, this is used to signal that this played passes, or will be inactive during a while.

Note that the only effect of this is visual. There are no consequences on the behaviour of the panel itself.

'''this.enablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Enable a player panel that has been disabled before.

'''this.enableAllPlayerPanels()'''

Enable all player panels that has been disabled before.

== Image loading ==

See also [[Game_art:_img_directory]].

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

'''dontPreloadImage( image_file_name )'''

Using dontPreloadImage, you tell the interface to not preload a specific image in your img directory.

Example of use:
<pre>
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
</pre>

This is particularly useful if for example you have 2 different themes for a game. To accelerate the loading of the game, you can specify to not preload images corresponding to the other theme.

Another example of use: in "Gosu" game with Kamakor extension, you play with 5 sets of cards among 10 available. Cards images are organized by sets, and we only preload the images corresponding to the 5 current sets with '''ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( image_file_names_array )'''.
<pre>
// By default, do not preload anything
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan1.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan2.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan3.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan4.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan5.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan6.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan7.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan8.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan9.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan10.png' );
var to_preload = [];
for( i in this.gamedatas.clans )
{
var clan_id = this.gamedatas.clans[i];
to_preload.push( 'clan'+clan_id+'.png' );
}
if( to_preload.length == 5 )
{
this.ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( to_preload );
}
</pre>

'''Note:''' You don't need to specify to not preload game box images (game_box.png, game_box75.png...) since they are not preloaded by default.

== Other useful stuff ==

'''dojo.hitch'''

With dojo.hitch, you can create a callback function that will run with your game object context whatever happen.

Typical example: display a BGA confirmation dialog with a callback function created with dojo.hitch:

<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to make this?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/makeThis.html', { lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

In the example above, using dojo.hitch, we ensure that the "this" object will be set when the callback is called.

; updateCounters(counters)
: Useful for updating game counters in the player panel (such as resources).
: 'counters' arg is an associative array [counter_name_value => [ 'counter_name' => counter_name_value, 'counter_value' => counter_value_value], ... ]
: All counters must be referenced in this.gamedatas.counters and will be updated.
: DOM objects referenced by 'counter_name' will have their innerHTML updated with 'counter_value'.

'''updatePageTitle()'''
This function allows to update the current page title and turn description according to the game state. If the current game state description this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn is modified before calling the function, it allows to update the turn description without changing state.

Example from Terra Mystica:
<pre>
onClickFavorTile: function( evt )
{
[...]

if ( ... ) {

this.gamedatas.gamestate.descriptionmyturn = _('Special action: ') + _('Advance 1 space on a Cult track');
this.updatePageTitle();
this.removeActionButtons();

this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm1', _("Fire"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm2', _("Water"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm3', _("Earth"),
function() { ... }
);
this.addActionButton( 'action_confirm4', _("Air"),
function() { ... }
);

this.addActionButton( 'action_cancel', _("Cancel"), function() { ... }, false, false, 'gray'
);

return;
}

[...]

}
</pre>

== BGA GUI components ==

BGA framework provides some useful ready-to-use components for the game interface:

[[Studio#BGA_Studio_game_components_reference]]

Note that each time you are using an additional component, you must declare it at the top of your Javascript file in the list of modules used.

Example if you are using "ebg.stock":
<pre>
define([
"dojo","dojo/_base/declare",
"ebg/core/gamegui",
"ebg/counter",
"ebg/stock" /// <=== we are using ebg.stock module
],
</pre>

Game options and preferences: gameoptions.inc.php

2020-06-10T15:17:09Z

Een: Add documentation for default

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

In this file, you can define your game options (= game variants) and user preferences.

Note: If your game has no variants or preferences, you don't have to modify this file.

'''IMPORTANT:''' after you edited this file in your SFTP folder you have to go to the control panel and press "Reload game options configuration" for your changes to take effect.

== Game Options ==

Game options is something selected by table creator and usually correspond to game variant, for example if game includes expansion or certain special rule.

These variants defined in gameoptions.inc.php as variable
$game_options = array(...); // exactly named that

Each option is pair number => 'option description array'.

All options defined in this file should have a corresponding "game state label" with the same ID (see "initGameStateLabels" in yourgame.game.php)

self::initGameStateLabels ( array (
...
"my_first_game_variant" => 100,
) );

That is how you access them during runtime:

$this->gamestate->table_globals[100]

The following are the parameters of option description array:
* '''name''' - '''mandatory'''. The name of the option visible for table creator. Value must be wrapped in totranslate function.
* '''values''' - '''mandatory'''. The array (map) of values with additional parameters per value.
** '''name''' - '''mandatory'''. String representation of the numeric value visible to table creator. Value must be wrapped in totranslate function.
** '''description''' - String description of this value to use when the name of the option is not self-explanatory. Displayed at the table under the option when this value is selected.
** '''tmdisplay''' - String representation of the option visible in the table description, usually if variant "names" are On and Off, but the description would be same as option name when On, and nothing when Off.
** '''nobeginner''' - Set to true if not recommended for begginers
** '''beta''' - Option in beta stage on development
** '''premium''' - Option can be only used by premium members
* '''default''' - indicates the default value to use for this option (optional, if not present the first value listed is the default)
* '''displaycondition''' - checks the conditions before displaying the option for selection. All conditions must be true for the option to display. Supported condition types:
** ''otheroption'' condition ensures another option is set to this given values. Framework options - 201 - ELO OFF.
** ''otheroptionisnot'' conditions ensure another option is NOT set to this given values
* '''displayconditionoperand''' - can be 'and' (this is the default) or 'or'. Allows to change the behaviour to display the option if one of the conditions is true instead of all of them.
* '''startcondition''' - checks the conditions (on options VALUES) before starting the game. All conditions must be true for the game to start, otherwise players will get a red error message when attempting to begin the game. Supported condition types:
** ''minplayers'' condition ensures at least this many players
** ''maxplayers'' conditions ensure at most this many players
** ''otheroption'' conditions ensure another option is set to this given values. That works the same as in '''displaycondition'''.
** ''otheroptionisnot'' conditions ensure another option is NOT set to this given value. That works the same as in '''displaycondition'''.
* '''notdisplayedmessage''' - if option is not suppose to be visible because of displaycondition but this is set, the text will be visible instead of combo drop down

<pre>
$game_options = array(
100 => array(
'name' => totranslate('my game option'),
'values' => array(
// A simple value for this option:
1 => array(
'name' => totranslate('option 1')
),

// A simple value for this option.
// If this value is chosen, the value of "tmdisplay" is displayed in the game lobby
2 => array(
'name' => totranslate('option 2'),
'tmdisplay' => totranslate('option 2')
),

// Another value, with other options:
// beta=true => this option is in beta version right now.
// nobeginner=true => this option is not recommended for beginners
3 => array(
'name' => totranslate('option 3'),
'beta' => true,
'nobeginner' => true
),
),
'default' => 1
),

101 => array(
'name' => totranslate('Draft variant'),
'values' => array(
1 => array(
'name' => totranslate('No draft')
),
2 => array(
'name' => totranslate('Draft'),
'tmdisplay' => totranslate('Draft'),
'premium' => true,
'nobeginner' => true
),
),
'displaycondition' => array(
// Note: do not display this option unless these conditions are met
array(
'type' => 'otheroption',
'id' => 100, // Game specific option defined in the same array above
'value' => array(2, 3, 4)
),
// Note: do not display this option unless these conditions are met
array( 'type' => 'otheroption',
'id' => 201, // ELO OFF hardcoded framework option
'value' => 1 // 1 if OFF
)
),

'startcondition' => array(
1 => array(),
2 => array(
array(
'type' => 'maxplayers',
'value' => 3,
'message' => totranslate('Draft option is available for 3 players maximum.')
)
),
),
),

102 => array(
'name' => totranslate('Takeovers'),
'values' => array(
2 => array(
'name' => totranslate('No takeover')
),
1 => array(
'name' => totranslate('Allow takeovers'),
'tmdisplay' => totranslate('Takeovers'),
'premium' => true,
'nobeginner' => true
),
),
'displaycondition' => array( // Note: do not display this option unless these conditions are met
array(
'type' => 'otheroption',
'id' => 100,
'value' => array(3, 4)
)
),
'startcondition' => array(
2 => array(),
1 => array(
array(
'type' => 'maxplayers',
'value' => 2,
'message' => totranslate('Rebel vs Imperium Takeover Scenario is available for 2 players only.')
)
),
),
)
);
</pre>

Example of option that condition on ELO off

<pre>
$game_options = array(

100 => array(
'name' => totranslate('Learning Game (No Research)'),
'values' => array(

1 => array( 'name' => totranslate('Off'), 'tmdisplay' => totranslate('') ),
2 => array( 'name' => totranslate('On'), 'tmdisplay' => totranslate('Learning Game') ),

),
'displaycondition' => array(
// Note: do not display this option unless these conditions are met
array( 'type' => 'otheroption',
'id' => 201, // ELO OFF hardcoded framework option
'value' => 1, // 1 if OFF

)
),
'notdisplayedmessage' => totranslate('Learning variant available only with ELO off')
),

);
</pre>

Example of using condition on your own option
<pre>
102 => array(
'name' => totranslate('Scenarios'),
'values' => array(
1 => array( 'name' => totranslate('Off'),
'nobeginner' => false ),
2 => array( 'name' => totranslate('On'), 'tmdisplay' => totranslate('Scenarios'),
'nobeginner' => true ),

),
'displaycondition' => array(
// Note: do not display this option unless these conditions are met
array( 'type' => 'otheroptionisnot',
'id' => 100, // learning variant
'value' => 2, // 1 if OFF,2 is ON

)
),
'notdisplayedmessage' => totranslate('Scenarios variant is not available if Learning variant is chosen')
),
</pre>

== User Preferences ==

User preferences is something cosmetic about the game interface which however can create user wars, so you can satisfy all users
by giving them individual preferences. You should use this only if it significantly improves the interface for a large proportion of users.

<pre>
$game_preferences = array(
100 => array(
'name' => totranslate('Notation style'),
'needReload' => true, // after user changes this preference game interface would auto-reload
'values' => array(
1 => array( 'name' => totranslate( 'Classic' ), 'cssPref' => 'notation_classic' ),
2 => array( 'name' => totranslate( 'Tournament' ), 'cssPref' => 'notation_tournament' )
)
)
);
</pre>

There is two ways to check/apply this. In java Script

if (this.prefs[100].value == 2) ...

This checks if preferences 100 has selected value 2.

Second, if cssPref specified it will be applied to the '''<html>''' tag. So you can use different css styling for the preference. Note: it seems needed to set needReload to true for that class change to be effective.

As user you have to select them from the Gear menu when game is started. On studio only user0 will have it actually working (bug?).

Game interface logic: yourgamename.js

2020-06-04T08:54:57Z

Een: /* ShrinkSafe minimization */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game interface. Here you will define:

* Which actions on the page will generate calls to the server.
* What happens when you get a notification for a change from the server and how it will show in the browser.

== File structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described below with comments on the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* '''constructor''': here you can define global variables for your whole interface.
* '''setup''': this method is called when the page is refreshed, and sets up the game interface.
* '''onEnteringState''': this method is called when entering a new game state. You can use it to customize the view for each game state.
* '''onLeavingState''': this method is called when leaving a game state.
* '''onUpdateActionButtons''': called when entering a new state, in order to add action buttons to the status bar.
* ''(utility methods)'': this is where you can define your utility methods.
* ''(player's actions)'': this is where you can write your handlers for player actions on the interface (example: click on an item).
* '''setupNotifications''': this method associates notifications with notification handlers. For each game notification, you can trigger a javascript method to handle it and update the game interface.
* ''(notification handlers)'': this is where you define the notifications handlers associated with notifications in '''setupNotifications''', above.

== General tips ==

; this.player_id
: ID of the player on whose browser the code is running.

; this.isSpectator
: Flag set to true if the user at the table is a spectator (not a player).
: Note: This is a variable, not a function.
: Note: If you want to hide an element from spectators, you should use [[Game_interface_stylesheet:_yourgamename.css#spectatorMode|CSS 'spectatorMode' class]].

; this.gamedatas
: Contains the initial set of data to init the game, created at game start or by game refresh (F5).
: You can update it as needed to keep an up-to-date reference of the game on the client side if you need it. (Most of the time this is unnecessary).

; this.isCurrentPlayerActive()
: Returns true if the player on whose browser the code is running is currently active (it's his turn to play).

; this.getActivePlayerId()
: Return the ID of the active player, or null if we are not in an "activeplayer" type state.

; this.getActivePlayers()
: Return an array with the IDs of players who are currently active (or an empty array if there are none).

; this.bRealtime
: Return true if the game is in realtime. Note that having a distinct behavior in realtime and turn-based should be exceptional.

== Dojo framework ==

BGA uses the [http://dojotoolkit.org/ Dojo Javascript framework].

The Dojo framework allows us to do complex things more easily. The BGA framework uses Dojo extensively.

To implement a game, you only need to use a few parts of the Dojo framework. All the Dojo methods you need are described on this page.

== ShrinkSafe minimization ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the js code is minimized using ShrinkSafe (based on ECMASCRIPT version 3). Some advanced syntax may not be compatible with this process. In particular:
* You should not use reserved keywords from the javascript language as variables.
* You should not declare default argument values in function declarations. The following syntax is invalid for ShrinkSafe: '''function myFunc(requiredArg, optionalArg = 'defaultValue') {}'''

'''Tip:''' a developer encountering some problems with this has successfully used [http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/58580/jshint JSHint] on NetBeans to evaluate code to make it compatible for ECMAScript 3. With the plugin installed, set the below options in '''.jshintrc''' file, and then open '''Action Items''' window (in NetBeans):<pre>{ "maxerr": 999, "esversion": 3 }</pre>

'''Tip:''' some online tools also allow to convert between different versions of javascript, such as https://www.typescriptlang.org/play

== Accessing and manipulating the DOM ==

'''$('some_html_element_id')'''

The $() function is used to get an HTML element using its "id" attribute.

Example 1: modify the content of a "span" element:

<pre>
In your HTML code:
<span id="a_value_in_the_game_interface">1234</span>

In your Javascript code:
$('a_value_in_the_game_interface').innerHTML = "9999";
</pre>

Note: $() is the standard method to access some HTML element with the BGA Framework. You should not use the '''getElementById''' function.

'''dojo.style'''

With dojo.style you can modify the CSS property of any HTML element in your interface.

Examples:

<pre>
// Make an element disappear
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'display', 'none' );

// Give an element a 2px border
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'borderWidth', '2px' );

// Change the background position of an element
// (very practical when you are using CSS sprites to transform an element to another)
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'backgroundPosition', '-20px -50px' );
</pre>

Note: you must always use dojo.style to modify the CSS properties of HTML elements.

Note²: if you have to modify several CSS properties of an element, or if you have a complex CSS transformation to do, you should consider using dojo.addClass/dojo.removeClass (see below).

'''dojo CSS classes manipulation'''

In many situations, many small CSS property updates can be replaced by a CSS class change (i.e., you add a CSS class to your element instead of applying all modifications manually).

Advantages are:
* All your CSS stuff remains in your CSS file.
* You can add/remove a list of CSS modifications with a simple function and without error.
* You can test whether you applied the CSS to an element with the '''dojo.hasClass''' method.

Example from ''Reversi'':

<pre>
// We add "possibleMove" to an element
dojo.addClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' );

// In our CSS file, the class is defined as:
.possibleMove {
background-color: white;
opacity: 0.2;
filter:alpha(opacity=20); /* For IE8 and earlier */
cursor: pointer;
}

// So we've applied 4 CSS property changes in one line of code.

// ... and when we need to check if a square is a possible move on the client side:
if( dojo.hasClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' ) )
{ ... }

// ... and if we want to remove all possible moves in one line of code (see "dojo.query" method):
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );
</pre>

Conclusion: We encourage you to use '''dojo.addClass''', '''dojo.removeClass''' and '''dojo.hasClass''' to make your life easier :)

'''dojo.query'''

With dojo.query, you can query a bunch of HTML elements with a single function, with a "CSS selector" style.

Example:
<pre>
// All elements with class "possibleMove":
var elements = dojo.query( '.possibleMove' );

// Count number of tokens (i.e., elements of class "token") on the board (i.e., the element with id "board"):
dojo.query( '#board .token' ).length;
</pre>

But what is really cool with dojo.query is that you can combine it with almost all methods above.

Examples:
<pre>
// Trigger a method when the mouse enter in any element with class "meeple":
dojo.query( '.meeple' ).connect( 'onmouseenter', this, 'myMethodToTrigger' );

// Hide all meeples who are on the board
dojo.query( '#board .meeple' ).style( 'display', 'none' );
</pre>

'''dojo.place'''

dojo.place is the best function to insert HTML code somewhere in your game interface without breaking something. It is much better to use than the '''innerHTML=''' method if you must insert HTML tags and not only values.

<pre>
// Insert your HTML code as a child of a container element
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id" );

// Replace the container element with your new html
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id", "replace" );

</pre>

The third parameter of dojo.place can take various interesting value.

values possibles :

"replace" : (see description above).

"first" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the first child.

"last" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the last child.

"before" : places the node right before the reference node.

"last (value by default) " : places the node right after the reference node.

"only" : replaces all children of the reference node with the node.

positif integer : This parameter can be a positif integer. In this case, the node will be placed as a child of the reference node with this number (counting from 0). If the number is more than number of children, the node will be appended to the reference node making it the last child.

See also full doc on dojo.place : [https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.7/dojo/place.html]

Usually, when you want to insert some piece of HTML in your game interface, you should use "[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]".

'''addStyleToClass: function( cssClassName, cssProperty, propertyValue )'''

Same as dojo.style(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

=== Animations ===

'''Dojo Animations'''

BGA animations is based on Dojo Animation ([http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.8/animation/ see tutorial here]).

However, most of the time, you can just use methods below, which are built on top of Dojo Animation.

Note: one interesting method from Dojo that could be useful from time to time is "Dojo.Animation". It allows you to make any CSS property "slide" from one value to another.

'''this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay )'''

You can use slideToObject to "slide" an element to a target position.

Sliding element on the game area is the recommended and the most used way to animate your game interface. Using slides allow players to figure out what is happening on the game, as if they were playing with the real boardgame.

The parameters are:
* mobile_obj: the ID of the object to move. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned.
* target_obj: the ID of the target object. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned. Note that it is not mandatory that mobile_obj and target_obj have the same size. If their size are different, the system slides the center of mobile_obj to the center of target_obj.
* duration: (optional) defines the duration in millisecond of the slide. The default is 500 milliseconds.
* delay: (optional). If you defines a delay, the slide will start only after this delay. This is particularly useful when you want to slide several object from the same position to the same position: you can give a 0ms delay to the first object, a 100ms delay to the second one, a 200ms delay to the third one, ... this way they won't be superposed during the slide.

BE CAREFUL: The method returns an dojo.fx animation, so you can combine it with other animation if you want to. It means that you have to call the "play()" method, otherwise the animation WON'T START.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObject( "some_token", "some_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y, duration, delay )'''

This method does exactly the same as "slideToObject", except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will slide to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

Example: slide a token to some place on the board, 10 pixels to the bottom:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectPos( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 0, 10 ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideTemporaryObject( mobile_obj_html, mobile_obj_parent, from, to, duration, delay )'''

This method is useful when you want to slide a temporary HTML object from one place to another. As this object does not exists before the animation and won't remain after, it could be complex to create this object (with dojo.place), to place it at its origin (with placeOnObject) to slide it (with slideToObject) and to make it disappear at the end.

slideTemporaryObject does all of this for you:
* mobile_obj_html is a piece of HTML code that represent the object to slide.
* mobile_obj_parent is the ID of an HTML element of your interface that will be the parent of this temporary HTML object.
* from is the ID of the origin of the slide.
* to is the ID of the target of the slide.
* duration/delay works exactly like in "slideToObject"

Example:
<pre>
this.slideTemporaryObject( '<div class="token_icon"></div>', 'tokens', 'my_origin_div', 'my_target_div' );
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectAndDestroy: function( node, to, time, delay )'''

This method is a handy shortcut to slide an existing HTML object to some place then destroy it upon arrival. It can be used for example to move a victory token or a card from the board to the player panel to show that the player earns it, then destroy it when we don't need to keep it visible on the player panel.

It works the same as this.slideToObject and takes the same arguments.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectAndDestroy( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 1000, 0 );
</pre>

'''this.fadeOutAndDestroy( node, duration, delay )'''

This function fade out the target HTML node, then destroy it.

Example:
<pre>
this.fadeOutAndDestroy( "a_card_that_must_disappear" );
</pre>

CAREFUL: the HTML node still exists until during few milliseconds, until the fadeOut has been completed.

'''Rotating elements'''

You can check here [http://jimfulton.info/demos/dojo-animated-rotate.html an example of use] of Dojo to make an element rotate.

This example combines "Dojo.Animation" method and a CSS3 property that allow you to rotate the element.

IMPORTANT: to asses browser compatibility, you must select the CSS property to use just like in the example (see sourcecode below):

<pre>
var transform;
dojo.forEach(
['transform', 'WebkitTransform', 'msTransform',
'MozTransform', 'OTransform'],
function (name) {
if (typeof dojo.body().style[name] != 'undefined') {
transform = name;
}
});
// ... and then use "transform" as the name of your CSS property for rotation
</pre>

'''Animation Callbacks'''

If you wish to run some code only after an animation has completed you can do this by linking a callback method.

<pre>
var animation_id = this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay );
dojo.connect(animation_id, 'onEnd', dojo.hitch(this, 'callback_function', parameters));
animation_id.play();

…

callback_function: function(params) {
// this will be called after the animation ends
},
</pre>

If you wish to call a second animation after the first (rather than general code) then you can use a dojo animation chain (see tutorial referenced above).

=== Moving elements ===

'''this.placeOnObject( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

placeOnObject works exactly like "slideToObject", except that the effect is immediate.

This is not really an animation, but placeOnObject is frequently used before starting an animation.

Example:
<pre>
// (We just created an object "my_new_token")

// Place the new token on current player board
this.placeOnObject( "my_new_token", "overall_player_board_"+this.player_id );

// Then slide it to its position on the board
this.slideToObject( "my_new_token", "a_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.placeOnObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y )'''

This method works exactly like placeOnObject, except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will be placed to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

'''this.attachToNewParent( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

With this method, you change the HTML parent of "mobile_obj" element. "target_obj" is the new parent of this element. The beauty of
attachToNewParent is that the mobile_obj element DOES NOT MOVE during this process.

Note: what happens is that the method calculate a relative position of mobile_obj to make sure it does not move after the HTML parent changes.

Why using this method?

Changing the HTML parent of an element can be useful for the following reasons:
* When the HTML parent moves, all its child are moving with them. If some game elements is no more linked with a parent HTML object, you may want to attach it to another place.
* The z_order (vertical order of display) depends on the position in the DOM, so you may need to change the parent of some game elements when they are moving in your game area.

CAREFUL: this function destroys original object and places a clone onto a new parent, this will break all references to this HTML element (ex: dojo.connect).

== Players input ==

'''dojo.connect'''

Used to associate a player event with one of your notification method.

Example: associate a click on an element ("my_element") with one of our method ("onClickOnMyElement"):
<pre>
dojo.connect( $('my_element'), 'onclick', this, 'onClickOnMyElement' );
</pre>

Note: this is the only possible correct way to associate a player input event to your code, and you must not use anything else.

'''this.checkAction( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkAction: function( action, nomessage )

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):

* "action"
* "module"
* "class"
return true if action is authorized (ie: the action is listed as a "possibleaction" in current game state).

return false and display an error message if not (display no message if nomessage parameter is true). The displayed error message could be either "This move is not allowed at this moment" or "An action is already in progress".

Example:
<pre>
function onClickOnGameElement( evt )
{
if( this.checkAction( "my_action" ) )
{
// Do the action
}
}
</pre>

'''this.checkPossibleActions( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkPossibleActions: function( action, nomessage )

* this is independent of the player being active, so can be used instead of this.checkAction(). This is particularly useful for multiplayer states when the player is not active in a 'player may like to change their mind' scenario.

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):
* "action"
* "module"
* "class"

'''this.ajaxcall( url, parameters, obj_callback, callback, callback_error )'''

This method must be used to send a player input to the game server.

* url: the url of the action to perform. For a game, it must be: "/<mygame>/<mygame>/myAction.html"
* parameters: an array of parameter to send to the game server. Note that "lock:true" must always be specified in this list of parameter in order the interface can be locked during the server call.
* obj_callback: must be set to "this".
* callback: a function to trigger when the server returns and everything went fine.
* callback_error: (optional and rarely used) a function to trigger when the server returns an error.

Usage:
<pre>
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/myaction.html', { lock: true,
arg1: myarg1,
arg2: myarg2,
...
}, this, function( result ) {
// Do some stuff after a successful call
} );
</pre>

'''this.confirmationDialog()'''

Display a confirmation dialog with a yes/no choice.

We advice you to NOT use this function unless the player action is really critical and could ruins the game, because it slows down the game and upset players.

Usage: this.confirmationDialog( "Question to displayed", callback_function_if_click_on_yes );

Example:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure to use this bonus (points penalty at the end of the game) ?'),
dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/seasons/seasons/useBonus.html',
{ id:bonus_id, lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

; addEventToClass: function( cssClassName, eventName, functionName )
: Same as dojo.connect(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

'''this.addActionButton( id, label, method, (opt)destination, (opt)blinking, (opt)color )'''

You can use this method to add an action button in the main action status bar.

Arguments:
* id: an element ID that should be unique in your HTML DOM document.
* label: the text of the button. Should be translatable (use _() function).
* method: the name of your method that must be triggered when the player clicks on this button.
* destination (optional): deprecated, do not use this. Use '''null''' as value if you need to specify other arguments.
* blinking (optional): if set to '''true''', the button is going blink to catch player's attention. Please don't abuse of blinking button.
* color: could be '''blue''' (default), '''red''' or '''gray'''.

You should only use this method in your "onUpdateActionButtons" method. Usually, you use it like this (from Hears example):

<pre>
onUpdateActionButtons: function( stateName, args ) {

if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
switch( stateName ) {
case 'giveCards':
this.addActionButton( 'giveCards_button', _('Give selected cards'), 'onGiveCards' );
break;
}
}
},
</pre>

In the example above, we are adding a "Give selected cards" button in the case we are on game state "giveCards". When player clicks on this button, it triggers our "onGiveCards" method.

Example using blinking red button:
<pre>
this.addActionButton( 'commit_button', _('Confirm'), 'onConfirm', null, true, 'red');
</pre>

Note: at least in studio example above will make button huge, because it sets it display of blinking things to '''block''',
if you don't like it you have to change css display value
of the button to inline-block (the id of the button is the first argument, i.e 'commit_button' in example above)

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Notifications ==

When something happens on the server side, your game interface Javascript logic received a notification.

Here's how you can handle these notifications on the client side.

=== Subscribe to notifications ===

Your Javascript "setupNotifications" method is the place where you can subscribe to notifications from your PHP code.

Here's how you associate one of your Javascript method to a notification "playDisc" (from Reversi example):

<pre>
// In setupNotifications method:
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
</pre>

Note: the "playDisc" corresponds to the name of the notification you define it in your PHP code, in your "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer" method.

Then, you have to define your "notif_playDisc" method:

<pre>
notif_playDisc: function( notif )
{
// Remove current possible moves (makes the board more clear)
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );

this.addDiscOnBoard( notif.args.x, notif.args.y, notif.args.player_id );
},
</pre>

In a notification handler like our "notif_playDisc" method, you can access to all notifications arguments with "notif.args".

Example:
<pre>
// If you did this on PHP side:
self::notifyAllPlayers( "myNotification", '', array( "myArgument" => 3 ) );

// On Javascript side, you can access the "myArgument" like this:
notif_myNotification: function( notif )
{
alert( "myArgument = " + notif.args.myArgument );
}
</pre>

=== Synchronous notifications ===

When several notifications are received by your game interface, these notifications are processed immediately, one after the other, in the same exact order they have been generated in your PHP game logic.

However, sometimes, you need to give some time to the players to figure out what happened on the game before jumping to the next notification. Indeed, in many games, they are a lot of automatic actions, and the computer is going to resolve all these actions very fast if you don't tell it not to do so.

As an example, for Reversi, when someone is playing a disc, we want to wait 500 milliseconds before doing anything else in order the opponent player can figure out what move has been played.

Here's how we do this, right after our subscription:
<pre>
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
this.notifqueue.setSynchronous( 'playDisc', 500 ); // Wait 500 milliseconds after executing the playDisc handler
</pre>

=== Pre-defined notification types ===

'''tableWindow''' - This defines notification to display [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_dialogs|Scoring Dialogs]], see below.

'''message''' - This defines notification that shows on players log and have no other effect

// You can call this on php side without doing anything on client side
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'message', 'hello', array( ) );

== Tooltips ==

'''this.addTooltip( nodeId, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to the DOM node.

Specify 'helpString' to display some information about "what is this game element?".
Specify 'actionString' to display some information about "what happens when I click on this element?".

You must specify both helpString and actionString. Most of the time, you should use only one and specify a void string ("") for the other one.

Usually, _() must be used for the text to be marked for translation.

"Delay" is an optional parameter. Usually, it is primarily used to specify a zero delay for some game element when the tooltip gives really important information for the game - but remember: no essential information must be placed in tooltips as they won't be displayed in some browsers (see [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines|Guidelines]]).

Example:
<pre>
this.addTooltip( 'cardcount', _('Number of cards in hand'), '' );
</pre>

'''this.addTooltipHtml( nodeId, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to the DOM node (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

'''this.addTooltipToClass( cssClass, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass.

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips.

'''this.addTooltipHtmlToClass( cssClass, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips

'''this.removeTooltip( nodeId )'''

Remove a tooltip from the DOM node.

== Dialogs, warning messages, confirmation dialogs, ... ==

=== Warning messages ===

Sometimes, there is something important that is happening on the game and you have to make sure all players get the message. Most of the time, the evolution of the game situation or the game log is enough, but sometimes you need something more visible.

Ex: someone fulfill one of the end of the game condition, so this is the last turn.

'''this.showMessage( msg, type )'''

showMessage shows a message in a big rectangular area on the top of the screen of current player.

* "msg" is the string to display. It should be translated.
* "type" can be set to "info" or "error". If set to "info", the message will be an informative message on a white background. If set to "error", the message will be an error message on a red background.

Important: the normal way to inform players about the progression of the game is the game log. "showMessage" is intrusive and should not be used often.

=== Confirmation dialog ===

'''confirmationDialog( message, yesHandler, noHandler )'''

When an important action with a lot of consequences is triggered by the player, you may want to propose a confirmation dialog.

CAREFUL: the general guidelines of BGA is to AVOID the use of confirmation dialog. Confirmation dialogs slow down the game and bother players. The players knows that they have to pay attention about each move when they are playing online.

The situation where you should use a confirmation dialog are the following:
* It must not happen very often during a game.
* It must be linked to an action that can really "kill a game" if the player do not pay attention.
* It must be something that can be done by mistake (ex: a link on the action status bar).

How to display a confirmation dialog:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to bake the pie?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.bakeThePie();
} ) );
return; // nothing should be called or done after calling this, all action must be done in the handler
</pre>

=== Multiple choice dialog ===
You can use this dialog to give user a choice with small amount of options:
<pre>
var keys = [1,5,10];
this.multipleChoiceDialog(
_('How many bugs to fix?"), keys,
dojo.hitch(this, function(choice) {
var bugchoice = keys[choice];
console.log('dialog callback with '+bugchoice);
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/fixBugs.html', { bugs: bugchoice}, this, function( result ) {} ); }));
</pre>

=== Dialogs ===

As a general rule, you shouldn't use dialogs windows.

BGA guidelines specify that all game elements should be displayed on the main screen. Players can eventually scroll down to see game elements they don't need to see anytime, and you may eventually create anchors to move between game area section. Of course dialogs windows are very practical, but the thing is: all players know how to scroll down, and not all players know how to show up your dialog window. In addition, when the dialog shows up, players can't access the other game components.

Sometimes although, you need to display a dialog window. Here is how you do this:

// Create the new dialog over the play zone. You should store the handler in a member variable to access it later
this.myDlg = new ebg.popindialog();
this.myDlg.create( 'myDialogUniqueId' );
this.myDlg.setTitle( _("my dialog title to translate") );
this.myDlg.setMaxWidth( 500 ); // Optional

// Create the HTML of my dialog.
// The best practice here is to use [[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]
var html = this.format_block( 'jstpl_myDialogTemplate', {
arg1: myArg1,
arg2: myArg2,
...
} );

// Show the dialog
this.myDlg.setContent( html ); // Must be set before calling show() so that the size of the content is defined before positioning the dialog
this.myDlg.show();

// Now that the dialog has been displayed, you can connect your method to some dialog elements
// Example, if you have an "OK" button in the HTML of your dialog:
dojo.connect( $('my_ok_button'), 'onclick', this, function(evt){
evt.preventDefault();
this.myDlg.destroy();
} );

If necessary, you can remove the default top right corner 'close' icon, or replace the function called when it is clicked:
// Removes the default close icon
this.myDlg.hideCloseIcon();

// Replace the function call when it's clicked
this.myDlg.replaceQuitCallback( function() { ... } );

=== Scoring dialogs ===

Sometimes at the end of a round you want to display a big table that details the points wins in each section of the game.

Example: in Hearts game, we display at the end of each round the number of "heart" cards collected by each player, the player who collected the Queen of Spades, and the total number of points loose by each player.

Scoring dialogs are managed entirely on '''PHP side''', but they are described here as their effects are visible only on client side.

Displaying a scoring dialog is quite simple and is using a special notification type: "tableWindow":
<pre>
// on PHP side:
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table
) );
</pre>

The "table" argument is a 2 dimensional PHP array that describe the table you want to display, line by line and column by column.

Example: display an 3x3 array of strings
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", "three" ), // This is my first line
array( "four", "five", "six" ), // This is my second line
array( "seven", "height", "nine" ) // This is my third line
);
</pre>

As you can see above, in each "cell" of your array you can display a simple string value. But you can also display a complex value with a template and associated arguments like this:
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", array( "str" => clienttranslate("a string with an ${argument}"), "args" => array( 'argument' => 'argument_value' ) ) ),
array( "four", "five", "six" ),
array( "seven", "height", "nine" )
);
</pre>

This is especially useful when you want to display player names with colors. Example from "Hearts":
<pre>
$firstRow = array( '' );
foreach( $players as $player_id => $player )
{
$firstRow[] = array( 'str' => '${player_name}',
'args' => array( 'player_name' => $player['player_name'] ),
'type' => 'header'
);
}
$table[] = $firstRow;
</pre>

You can also use three extra attributes in the parameter array for the notification:

<pre>
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table,
"header" => array('str' => clienttranslate('Table header with parameter ${number}'),
'args' => array( 'number' => 3 ),
),
"footer" => '<div>Some footer</div>',
"closing" => clienttranslate( "Closing button label" )
) );
</pre>

*'''header''': the content for this parameter will display before the table (also, the html will be parsed and player names will be colored according to the current game colors).
*'''footer''': the content for this parameter will display after the table (no parsing for coloring the player names)
*'''closing''': if this parameter is used, a button will be displayed with this label at the bottom of the popup and will allow players to close it (more easily than by clicking the top right 'cross' icon).

=== Scoring animated display ===

Sometimes (Terra Mystica final scoring for example), you may want to display a score value over an element to make the scoring easier to follow for the players.
You can do it with:

<pre>
this.displayScoring( anchor_id, color, score );
</pre>

=== Speech bubble ===

For better interactivity in some games (Love Letter for example), you may use comic book style speech bubbles to express the players voices.
This is done with:

<pre>
this.showBubble( anchor_id, text, delay, duration, custom_class )
</pre>

delay in milliseconds is optional (default 0)

duration in milliseconds is optional (default 3000)

custom_class is optional, if you need to override the default bubble style

'''Warning''': if your bubble could overlap other active elements of the interface (buttons in particular), as it stays in place even after disappearing, you should use a custom class to give it the style "pointer-events: none;" in order to intercept click events.

== Update players score ==

Increase a player score (with a positive or negative number):

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].incValue( score_delta );
</pre>

Set a player score to a specific value:

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].setValue( new_score );
</pre>

== Players panels ==

=== Adding stuff to player's panel ===

At first, create a new "JS template" string in your template (tpl) file:

(from Gomoku example)
<pre>
var jstpl_player_board = '\<div class="cp_board">\
<div id="stoneicon_p${id}" class="gmk_stoneicon gmk_stoneicon_${color}"></div><span id="stonecount_p${id}">0</span>\
</div>';
</pre>

Then, you add this piece of code in your JS file to add this template to each player panel:

<pre>
// Setting up player boards
for( var player_id in gamedatas.players )
{
var player = gamedatas.players[player_id];

// Setting up players boards if needed
var player_board_div = $('player_board_'+player_id);
dojo.place( this.format_block('jstpl_player_board', player ), player_board_div );
}
</pre>

(Note: the code above is of course from your "setup" function in your Javascript).

Very often, you have to distinguish current player and others players. In this case, you just have to create another JS template (ex: jstpl_otherplayer_board) and use it when "player_id" is different than "this.player_id".

=== Player's panel disabling/enabling ===

'''this.disablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Disable given player panel (the panel background become gray).

Usually, this is used to signal that this played passes, or will be inactive during a while.

Note that the only effect of this is visual. There are no consequences on the behaviour of the panel itself.

'''this.enablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Enable a player panel that has been disabled before.

'''this.enableAllPlayerPanels()'''

Enable all player panels that has been disabled before.

== Image loading ==

See also [[Game_art:_img_directory]].

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

'''dontPreloadImage( image_file_name )'''

Using dontPreloadImage, you tell the interface to not preload a specific image in your img directory.

Example of use:
<pre>
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
</pre>

This is particularly useful if for example you have 2 different themes for a game. To accelerate the loading of the game, you can specify to not preload images corresponding to the other theme.

Another example of use: in "Gosu" game with Kamakor extension, you play with 5 sets of cards among 10 available. Cards images are organized by sets, and we only preload the images corresponding to the 5 current sets with '''ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( image_file_names_array )'''.
<pre>
// By default, do not preload anything
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan1.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan2.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan3.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan4.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan5.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan6.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan7.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan8.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan9.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan10.png' );
var to_preload = [];
for( i in this.gamedatas.clans )
{
var clan_id = this.gamedatas.clans[i];
to_preload.push( 'clan'+clan_id+'.png' );
}
if( to_preload.length == 5 )
{
this.ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( to_preload );
}
</pre>

'''Note:''' You don't need to specify to not preload game box images (game_box.png, game_box75.png...) since they are not preloaded by default.

== Other useful stuff ==

'''dojo.hitch'''

With dojo.hitch, you can create a callback function that will run with your game object context whatever happen.

Typical example: display a BGA confirmation dialog with a callback function created with dojo.hitch:

<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to make this?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/makeThis.html', { lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

In the example above, using dojo.hitch, we ensure that the "this" object will be set when the callback is called.

; updateCounters(counters)
: Useful for updating game counters in the player panel (such as resources).
: 'counters' arg is an associative array [counter_name_value => [ 'counter_name' => counter_name_value, 'counter_value' => counter_value_value], ... ]
: All counters must be referenced in this.gamedatas.counters and will be updated.
: DOM objects referenced by 'counter_name' will have their innerHTML updated with 'counter_value'.

== BGA GUI components ==

BGA framework provides some useful ready-to-use components for the game interface:

[[Studio#BGA_Studio_game_components_reference]]

Note that each time you are using an additional component, you must declare it at the top of your Javascript file in the list of modules used.

Example if you are using "ebg.stock":
<pre>
define([
"dojo","dojo/_base/declare",
"ebg/core/gamegui",
"ebg/counter",
"ebg/stock" /// <=== we are using ebg.stock module
],
</pre>

Studio

2020-05-26T11:04:13Z

Een: /* Discover BGA Studio in 5 presentations */

[[File:Bga_studio_small.jpg]]

Note: Please DO NOT translate Studio Documentation, so that there can be one place where you can find the latest information available.

== What is Board Game Arena Studio? ==

'''Board Game Arena Studio''' is a platform to build online board game adaptations using the Board Game Arena platform.

It is open to any gamer with software development skills :)

BGA Studio website: http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com

Original announcement on BGA forum: http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1973

== Discover BGA Studio in 5 presentations ==

Why, how, what... to start discovering BGA Studio, we prepared 5 "powerpoint" presentations for you:

* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/5-reasons-why-you-should-use-bga-studio-for-your-online-board-game 5 reasons why you should use BGA Studio for your online board game] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/5/58/1-why-developing.pdf ‎Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-8-steps-to-create-a-board-game-on-board-game-arena The 8 steps to create a board game on Board Game Arena] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/1/1e/2-8-steps-to-realize.pdf Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-bga-framework-at-a-glance The BGA Framework at a glance] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/7/79/3-thebgaframework.pdf Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-focus-on-bga-game-state-machine Focus on BGA game state machine] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/9/98/4-gamestates.pdf Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines BGA developers guidelines] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/7/76/5-guidelines.pdf ‎Download as PDF])

== How to join the BGA developer team? ==

Please see this page: [[How to join BGA developer team?]]

== Great, I'm in! ... How should I start? ==

If you didn't already, check the presentations at the top of this page to get the basics.

Then, you should checkout the [[First steps with BGA Studio]] to make sure that runs fine.

After that, we strongly advise you to take one of these game creation tutorials:
* [[Tutorial reversi]] - an abstract strategy game played on an 8×8 uncheckered board for 2 players
* [[Tutorial gomoku]] - an abstract strategy game tic-tac-toe style for 2 players
* [[Tutorial hearts]] - a card game for 4 players

Then start editing files and see what happens! ;)

Once you're done with tutorials, you can start a real game (or join existing project)
* [[Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough]]

If you have any questions, please check out the '''[[Studio FAQ]]''' first, then if you didn't find the answer you were looking for, please post your question on the [http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 '''development forum'''].

== BGA Studio documentation ==

=== BGA Studio Framework reference ===

This part of the documentation focuses on the development framework itself: functions and methods available to build your game.

[[Studio file reference|File structure of a BGA game]]

==== Game logic (Server side) ====

* [[Main game logic: yourgamename.game.php]]
* [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]]
* [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]]
* [[Players actions: yourgamename.action.php]]
* [[Game material description: material.inc.php]]
* [[Game statistics: stats.inc.php]]

==== Game interface (Client side) ====

* [[Game interface logic: yourgamename.js]]
* [[Game art: img directory]]
* [[Game interface stylesheet: yourgamename.css]]
* [[Game layout: view and template: yourgamename.view.php and yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl]]
* [[Your game mobile version]]

==== Other components ====

* [[Translations]] (how to make your game translatable)
* [[Game options and preferences: gameoptions.inc.php]]
* [[Game meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]]
* [[Game replay]]
* [[3D]]
* [[Some usual board game elements image ressources]]

=== BGA Studio game components reference ===

Game components are useful tools you can use in your game adaptations.

* [[Deck]]: a PHP component to manage cards (deck, hands, picking cards, moving cards, shuffle deck, ...).
* [[Counter]]: a JS component to manage a counter that can increase/decrease (ex: player's score).
* [[Scrollmap]]: a JS component to manage a scrollable game area (useful when the game area can be infinite. Examples: Saboteur or Takenoko games).
* [[Stock]]: a JS component to manage and display a set of game elements displayed at a position.
* [[Zone]]: a JS component to manage a zone of the board where several game elements can come and leave, but should be well displayed together (See for example: token's places at Can't Stop).

Undocumented component (if somebody knows please help with docs)
* [[Draggable]]: a JS component to manage drag'n'drop actions.
* [[ExpandableSection]]: a JS component to manage a rectangular block of HTML than can be displayed/hidden.
* [[Wrapper]]: a JS component to wrap a <div> element around its child, even if these elements are absolute positioned.

=== BGA Studio user guide ===

This part of the documentation is a user guide for the BGA Studio online development environment.

* [[BGA game Lifecycle]]
* [[First steps with BGA Studio]]
* [[Tutorial reversi]]
* [[Tutorial gomoku]]
* [[Tutorial hearts]]
* [[Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough]]
* [[Tools and tips of BGA Studio]] - Tips and instructions on setting up development environment
* [[Practical debugging]] - Tips focused on debugging
* [[Studio logs]] - Instructions for log access
* [[BGA Studio Cookbook]] - Tips and instructions on using API's, libraries and frameworks
* [[BGA Studio Guidelines]]
* [[Troubleshooting]] - Most common "I am really stuck" situations
* [[Studio FAQ]]
* [[Pre-release checklist]] - Go throught this list if you think you done development
* [[Post-release phase]]
* [[BGA Code Sharing]] - Shared resources, projects on git hub, common code, other links

== Other resources ==

[http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 Development forum]

[https://en.boardgamearena.com/#!bugs Bug tracking system]

Studio

2020-05-26T11:03:03Z

Een: /* Discover BGA Studio in 5 presentations */

[[File:Bga_studio_small.jpg]]

Note: Please DO NOT translate Studio Documentation, so that there can be one place where you can find the latest information available.

== What is Board Game Arena Studio? ==

'''Board Game Arena Studio''' is a platform to build online board game adaptations using the Board Game Arena platform.

It is open to any gamer with software development skills :)

BGA Studio website: http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com

Original announcement on BGA forum: http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1973

== Discover BGA Studio in 5 presentations ==

Why, how, what... to start discovering BGA Studio, we prepared 5 "powerpoint" presentations for you:

* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/5-reasons-why-you-should-use-bga-studio-for-your-online-board-game 5 reasons why you should use BGA Studio for your online board game] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/5/58/1-why-developing.pdf ‎| Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-8-steps-to-create-a-board-game-on-board-game-arena The 8 steps to create a board game on Board Game Arena] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/1/1e/2-8-steps-to-realize.pdf | Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-bga-framework-at-a-glance The BGA Framework at a glance] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/7/79/3-thebgaframework.pdf | Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-focus-on-bga-game-state-machine Focus on BGA game state machine] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/9/98/4-gamestates.pdf | Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines BGA developers guidelines] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/7/76/5-guidelines.pdf ‎| Download as PDF])

== How to join the BGA developer team? ==

Please see this page: [[How to join BGA developer team?]]

== Great, I'm in! ... How should I start? ==

If you didn't already, check the presentations at the top of this page to get the basics.

Then, you should checkout the [[First steps with BGA Studio]] to make sure that runs fine.

After that, we strongly advise you to take one of these game creation tutorials:
* [[Tutorial reversi]] - an abstract strategy game played on an 8×8 uncheckered board for 2 players
* [[Tutorial gomoku]] - an abstract strategy game tic-tac-toe style for 2 players
* [[Tutorial hearts]] - a card game for 4 players

Then start editing files and see what happens! ;)

Once you're done with tutorials, you can start a real game (or join existing project)
* [[Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough]]

If you have any questions, please check out the '''[[Studio FAQ]]''' first, then if you didn't find the answer you were looking for, please post your question on the [http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 '''development forum'''].

== BGA Studio documentation ==

=== BGA Studio Framework reference ===

This part of the documentation focuses on the development framework itself: functions and methods available to build your game.

[[Studio file reference|File structure of a BGA game]]

==== Game logic (Server side) ====

* [[Main game logic: yourgamename.game.php]]
* [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]]
* [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]]
* [[Players actions: yourgamename.action.php]]
* [[Game material description: material.inc.php]]
* [[Game statistics: stats.inc.php]]

==== Game interface (Client side) ====

* [[Game interface logic: yourgamename.js]]
* [[Game art: img directory]]
* [[Game interface stylesheet: yourgamename.css]]
* [[Game layout: view and template: yourgamename.view.php and yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl]]
* [[Your game mobile version]]

==== Other components ====

* [[Translations]] (how to make your game translatable)
* [[Game options and preferences: gameoptions.inc.php]]
* [[Game meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]]
* [[Game replay]]
* [[3D]]
* [[Some usual board game elements image ressources]]

=== BGA Studio game components reference ===

Game components are useful tools you can use in your game adaptations.

* [[Deck]]: a PHP component to manage cards (deck, hands, picking cards, moving cards, shuffle deck, ...).
* [[Counter]]: a JS component to manage a counter that can increase/decrease (ex: player's score).
* [[Scrollmap]]: a JS component to manage a scrollable game area (useful when the game area can be infinite. Examples: Saboteur or Takenoko games).
* [[Stock]]: a JS component to manage and display a set of game elements displayed at a position.
* [[Zone]]: a JS component to manage a zone of the board where several game elements can come and leave, but should be well displayed together (See for example: token's places at Can't Stop).

Undocumented component (if somebody knows please help with docs)
* [[Draggable]]: a JS component to manage drag'n'drop actions.
* [[ExpandableSection]]: a JS component to manage a rectangular block of HTML than can be displayed/hidden.
* [[Wrapper]]: a JS component to wrap a <div> element around its child, even if these elements are absolute positioned.

=== BGA Studio user guide ===

This part of the documentation is a user guide for the BGA Studio online development environment.

* [[BGA game Lifecycle]]
* [[First steps with BGA Studio]]
* [[Tutorial reversi]]
* [[Tutorial gomoku]]
* [[Tutorial hearts]]
* [[Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough]]
* [[Tools and tips of BGA Studio]] - Tips and instructions on setting up development environment
* [[Practical debugging]] - Tips focused on debugging
* [[Studio logs]] - Instructions for log access
* [[BGA Studio Cookbook]] - Tips and instructions on using API's, libraries and frameworks
* [[BGA Studio Guidelines]]
* [[Troubleshooting]] - Most common "I am really stuck" situations
* [[Studio FAQ]]
* [[Pre-release checklist]] - Go throught this list if you think you done development
* [[Post-release phase]]
* [[BGA Code Sharing]] - Shared resources, projects on git hub, common code, other links

== Other resources ==

[http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 Development forum]

[https://en.boardgamearena.com/#!bugs Bug tracking system]

Studio

2020-05-26T11:01:45Z

Een: /* Discover BGA Studio in 5 presentations */ fix links

[[File:Bga_studio_small.jpg]]

Note: Please DO NOT translate Studio Documentation, so that there can be one place where you can find the latest information available.

== What is Board Game Arena Studio? ==

'''Board Game Arena Studio''' is a platform to build online board game adaptations using the Board Game Arena platform.

It is open to any gamer with software development skills :)

BGA Studio website: http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com

Original announcement on BGA forum: http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1973

== Discover BGA Studio in 5 presentations ==

Why, how, what... to start discovering BGA Studio, we prepared 5 "powerpoint" presentations for you:

* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/5-reasons-why-you-should-use-bga-studio-for-your-online-board-game 5 reasons why you should use BGA Studio for your online board game] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/5/58/1-why-developing.pdf ‎| Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-8-steps-to-create-a-board-game-on-board-game-arena The 8 steps to create a board game on Board Game Arena] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/1/1e/2-8-steps-to-realize.pdf‎‎ | Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-bga-framework-at-a-glance The BGA Framework at a glance] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/7/79/3-thebgaframework.pdf | Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-focus-on-bga-game-state-machine Focus on BGA game state machine] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/9/98/4-gamestates.pdf | Download as PDF])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines BGA developers guidelines] (or [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/7/76/5-guidelines.pdf ‎| Download as PDF])

== How to join the BGA developer team? ==

Please see this page: [[How to join BGA developer team?]]

== Great, I'm in! ... How should I start? ==

If you didn't already, check the presentations at the top of this page to get the basics.

Then, you should checkout the [[First steps with BGA Studio]] to make sure that runs fine.

After that, we strongly advise you to take one of these game creation tutorials:
* [[Tutorial reversi]] - an abstract strategy game played on an 8×8 uncheckered board for 2 players
* [[Tutorial gomoku]] - an abstract strategy game tic-tac-toe style for 2 players
* [[Tutorial hearts]] - a card game for 4 players

Then start editing files and see what happens! ;)

Once you're done with tutorials, you can start a real game (or join existing project)
* [[Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough]]

If you have any questions, please check out the '''[[Studio FAQ]]''' first, then if you didn't find the answer you were looking for, please post your question on the [http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 '''development forum'''].

== BGA Studio documentation ==

=== BGA Studio Framework reference ===

This part of the documentation focuses on the development framework itself: functions and methods available to build your game.

[[Studio file reference|File structure of a BGA game]]

==== Game logic (Server side) ====

* [[Main game logic: yourgamename.game.php]]
* [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]]
* [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]]
* [[Players actions: yourgamename.action.php]]
* [[Game material description: material.inc.php]]
* [[Game statistics: stats.inc.php]]

==== Game interface (Client side) ====

* [[Game interface logic: yourgamename.js]]
* [[Game art: img directory]]
* [[Game interface stylesheet: yourgamename.css]]
* [[Game layout: view and template: yourgamename.view.php and yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl]]
* [[Your game mobile version]]

==== Other components ====

* [[Translations]] (how to make your game translatable)
* [[Game options and preferences: gameoptions.inc.php]]
* [[Game meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]]
* [[Game replay]]
* [[3D]]
* [[Some usual board game elements image ressources]]

=== BGA Studio game components reference ===

Game components are useful tools you can use in your game adaptations.

* [[Deck]]: a PHP component to manage cards (deck, hands, picking cards, moving cards, shuffle deck, ...).
* [[Counter]]: a JS component to manage a counter that can increase/decrease (ex: player's score).
* [[Scrollmap]]: a JS component to manage a scrollable game area (useful when the game area can be infinite. Examples: Saboteur or Takenoko games).
* [[Stock]]: a JS component to manage and display a set of game elements displayed at a position.
* [[Zone]]: a JS component to manage a zone of the board where several game elements can come and leave, but should be well displayed together (See for example: token's places at Can't Stop).

Undocumented component (if somebody knows please help with docs)
* [[Draggable]]: a JS component to manage drag'n'drop actions.
* [[ExpandableSection]]: a JS component to manage a rectangular block of HTML than can be displayed/hidden.
* [[Wrapper]]: a JS component to wrap a <div> element around its child, even if these elements are absolute positioned.

=== BGA Studio user guide ===

This part of the documentation is a user guide for the BGA Studio online development environment.

* [[BGA game Lifecycle]]
* [[First steps with BGA Studio]]
* [[Tutorial reversi]]
* [[Tutorial gomoku]]
* [[Tutorial hearts]]
* [[Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough]]
* [[Tools and tips of BGA Studio]] - Tips and instructions on setting up development environment
* [[Practical debugging]] - Tips focused on debugging
* [[Studio logs]] - Instructions for log access
* [[BGA Studio Cookbook]] - Tips and instructions on using API's, libraries and frameworks
* [[BGA Studio Guidelines]]
* [[Troubleshooting]] - Most common "I am really stuck" situations
* [[Studio FAQ]]
* [[Pre-release checklist]] - Go throught this list if you think you done development
* [[Post-release phase]]
* [[BGA Code Sharing]] - Shared resources, projects on git hub, common code, other links

== Other resources ==

[http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 Development forum]

[https://en.boardgamearena.com/#!bugs Bug tracking system]

Studio

2020-05-26T10:58:42Z

Een: /* Discover BGA Studio in 5 presentations */ direct links to pdfs

[[File:Bga_studio_small.jpg]]

Note: Please DO NOT translate Studio Documentation, so that there can be one place where you can find the latest information available.

== What is Board Game Arena Studio? ==

'''Board Game Arena Studio''' is a platform to build online board game adaptations using the Board Game Arena platform.

It is open to any gamer with software development skills :)

BGA Studio website: http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com

Original announcement on BGA forum: http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1973

== Discover BGA Studio in 5 presentations ==

Why, how, what... to start discovering BGA Studio, we prepared 5 "powerpoint" presentations for you:

* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/5-reasons-why-you-should-use-bga-studio-for-your-online-board-game 5 reasons why you should use BGA Studio for your online board game] (or [[http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/5/58/1-why-developing.pdf‎|Download as PDF]])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-8-steps-to-create-a-board-game-on-board-game-arena The 8 steps to create a board game on Board Game Arena] (or [[http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/1/1e/2-8-steps-to-realize.pdf‎‎|Download as PDF]])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/the-bga-framework-at-a-glance The BGA Framework at a glance] (or [[http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/7/79/3-thebgaframework.pdf|Download as PDF]])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-focus-on-bga-game-state-machine Focus on BGA game state machine] (or [[http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/9/98/4-gamestates.pdf|Download as PDF]])
* [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines BGA developers guidelines] (or [[http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/images/7/76/5-guidelines.pdf‎|Download as PDF]])

== How to join the BGA developer team? ==

Please see this page: [[How to join BGA developer team?]]

== Great, I'm in! ... How should I start? ==

If you didn't already, check the presentations at the top of this page to get the basics.

Then, you should checkout the [[First steps with BGA Studio]] to make sure that runs fine.

After that, we strongly advise you to take one of these game creation tutorials:
* [[Tutorial reversi]] - an abstract strategy game played on an 8×8 uncheckered board for 2 players
* [[Tutorial gomoku]] - an abstract strategy game tic-tac-toe style for 2 players
* [[Tutorial hearts]] - a card game for 4 players

Then start editing files and see what happens! ;)

Once you're done with tutorials, you can start a real game (or join existing project)
* [[Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough]]

If you have any questions, please check out the '''[[Studio FAQ]]''' first, then if you didn't find the answer you were looking for, please post your question on the [http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 '''development forum'''].

== BGA Studio documentation ==

=== BGA Studio Framework reference ===

This part of the documentation focuses on the development framework itself: functions and methods available to build your game.

[[Studio file reference|File structure of a BGA game]]

==== Game logic (Server side) ====

* [[Main game logic: yourgamename.game.php]]
* [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]]
* [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]]
* [[Players actions: yourgamename.action.php]]
* [[Game material description: material.inc.php]]
* [[Game statistics: stats.inc.php]]

==== Game interface (Client side) ====

* [[Game interface logic: yourgamename.js]]
* [[Game art: img directory]]
* [[Game interface stylesheet: yourgamename.css]]
* [[Game layout: view and template: yourgamename.view.php and yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl]]
* [[Your game mobile version]]

==== Other components ====

* [[Translations]] (how to make your game translatable)
* [[Game options and preferences: gameoptions.inc.php]]
* [[Game meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]]
* [[Game replay]]
* [[3D]]
* [[Some usual board game elements image ressources]]

=== BGA Studio game components reference ===

Game components are useful tools you can use in your game adaptations.

* [[Deck]]: a PHP component to manage cards (deck, hands, picking cards, moving cards, shuffle deck, ...).
* [[Counter]]: a JS component to manage a counter that can increase/decrease (ex: player's score).
* [[Scrollmap]]: a JS component to manage a scrollable game area (useful when the game area can be infinite. Examples: Saboteur or Takenoko games).
* [[Stock]]: a JS component to manage and display a set of game elements displayed at a position.
* [[Zone]]: a JS component to manage a zone of the board where several game elements can come and leave, but should be well displayed together (See for example: token's places at Can't Stop).

Undocumented component (if somebody knows please help with docs)
* [[Draggable]]: a JS component to manage drag'n'drop actions.
* [[ExpandableSection]]: a JS component to manage a rectangular block of HTML than can be displayed/hidden.
* [[Wrapper]]: a JS component to wrap a <div> element around its child, even if these elements are absolute positioned.

=== BGA Studio user guide ===

This part of the documentation is a user guide for the BGA Studio online development environment.

* [[BGA game Lifecycle]]
* [[First steps with BGA Studio]]
* [[Tutorial reversi]]
* [[Tutorial gomoku]]
* [[Tutorial hearts]]
* [[Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough]]
* [[Tools and tips of BGA Studio]] - Tips and instructions on setting up development environment
* [[Practical debugging]] - Tips focused on debugging
* [[Studio logs]] - Instructions for log access
* [[BGA Studio Cookbook]] - Tips and instructions on using API's, libraries and frameworks
* [[BGA Studio Guidelines]]
* [[Troubleshooting]] - Most common "I am really stuck" situations
* [[Studio FAQ]]
* [[Pre-release checklist]] - Go throught this list if you think you done development
* [[Post-release phase]]
* [[BGA Code Sharing]] - Shared resources, projects on git hub, common code, other links

== Other resources ==

[http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 Development forum]

[https://en.boardgamearena.com/#!bugs Bug tracking system]

Game interface logic: yourgamename.js

2020-05-24T19:11:50Z

Een: /* Shrinksafe minimization */ Tip

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

This is the main file for your game interface. Here you will define:

* Which actions on the page will generate calls to the server.
* What happens when you get a notification for a change from the server and how it will show in the browser.

== File structure ==

The details of how the file is structured are described below with comments on the code skeleton provided to you.

Here is the basic structure:

* '''constructor''': here you can define global variables for your whole interface.
* '''setup''': this method is called when the page is refreshed, and sets up the game interface.
* '''onEnteringState''': this method is called when entering a new game state. You can use it to customize the view for each game state.
* '''onLeavingState''': this method is called when leaving a game state.
* '''onUpdateActionButtons''': called when entering a new state, in order to add action buttons to the status bar.
* ''(utility methods)'': this is where you can define your utility methods.
* ''(player's actions)'': this is where you can write your handlers for player actions on the interface (example: click on an item).
* '''setupNotifications''': this method associates notifications with notification handlers. For each game notification, you can trigger a javascript method to handle it and update the game interface.
* ''(notification handlers)'': this is where you define the notifications handlers associated with notifications in '''setupNotifications''', above.

== General tips ==

; this.player_id
: ID of the player on whose browser the code is running.

; this.isSpectator
: Flag set to true if the user at the table is a spectator (not a player).
: Note: This is a variable, not a function.
: Note: If you want to hide an element from spectators, you should use [[Game_interface_stylesheet:_yourgamename.css#spectatorMode|CSS 'spectatorMode' class]].

; this.gamedatas
: Contains the initial set of data to init the game, created at game start or by game refresh (F5).
: You can update it as needed to keep an up-to-date reference of the game on the client side if you need it. (Most of the time this is unnecessary).

; this.isCurrentPlayerActive()
: Returns true if the player on whose browser the code is running is currently active (it's his turn to play).

; this.getActivePlayerId()
: Return the ID of the active player, or null if we are not in an "activeplayer" type state.

; this.getActivePlayers()
: Return an array with the IDs of players who are currently active (or an empty array if there are none).

; this.bRealtime
: Return true if the game is in realtime. Note that having a distinct behavior in realtime and turn-based should be exceptional.

== Dojo framework ==

BGA uses the [http://dojotoolkit.org/ Dojo Javascript framework].

The Dojo framework allows us to do complex things more easily. The BGA framework uses Dojo extensively.

To implement a game, you only need to use a few parts of the Dojo framework. All the Dojo methods you need are described on this page.

== Shrinksafe minimization ==

For performance reasons, when deploying a game the js code is minimized using Shrinksafe (based on ECMASCRIPT version 3). Some advanced syntax may not be compatible with this process. In particular:
* You should not use reserved keywords from the javascript language as variables.
* You should not declare default argument values in function declarations. The following syntax is invalid for Shrinksafe: '''function myFunc(requiredArg, optionalArg = 'defaultValue') {}'''

Tip: a developer encountering some problems with this has successfully used JSHint on NetBeans to evaluate code to make it compatible for ECMAScript 3.

== Accessing and manipulating the DOM ==

'''$('some_html_element_id')'''

The $() function is used to get an HTML element using its "id" attribute.

Example 1: modify the content of a "span" element:

<pre>
In your HTML code:
<span id="a_value_in_the_game_interface">1234</span>

In your Javascript code:
$('a_value_in_the_game_interface').innerHTML = "9999";
</pre>

Note: $() is the standard method to access some HTML element with the BGA Framework. You should not use the '''getElementById''' function.

'''dojo.style'''

With dojo.style you can modify the CSS property of any HTML element in your interface.

Examples:

<pre>
// Make an element disappear
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'display', 'none' );

// Give an element a 2px border
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'borderWidth', '2px' );

// Change the background position of an element
// (very practical when you are using CSS sprites to transform an element to another)
dojo.style( 'my_element', 'backgroundPosition', '-20px -50px' );
</pre>

Note: you must always use dojo.style to modify the CSS properties of HTML elements.

Note²: if you have to modify several CSS properties of an element, or if you have a complex CSS transformation to do, you should consider using dojo.addClass/dojo.removeClass (see below).

'''dojo CSS classes manipulation'''

In many situations, many small CSS property updates can be replaced by a CSS class change (i.e., you add a CSS class to your element instead of applying all modifications manually).

Advantages are:
* All your CSS stuff remains in your CSS file.
* You can add/remove a list of CSS modifications with a simple function and without error.
* You can test whether you applied the CSS to an element with the '''dojo.hasClass''' method.

Example from ''Reversi'':

<pre>
// We add "possibleMove" to an element
dojo.addClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' );

// In our CSS file, the class is defined as:
.possibleMove {
background-color: white;
opacity: 0.2;
filter:alpha(opacity=20); /* For IE8 and earlier */
cursor: pointer;
}

// So we've applied 4 CSS property changes in one line of code.

// ... and when we need to check if a square is a possible move on the client side:
if( dojo.hasClass( 'square_'+x+'_'+y, 'possibleMove' ) )
{ ... }

// ... and if we want to remove all possible moves in one line of code (see "dojo.query" method):
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );
</pre>

Conclusion: We encourage you to use '''dojo.addClass''', '''dojo.removeClass''' and '''dojo.hasClass''' to make your life easier :)

'''dojo.query'''

With dojo.query, you can query a bunch of HTML elements with a single function, with a "CSS selector" style.

Example:
<pre>
// All elements with class "possibleMove":
var elements = dojo.query( '.possibleMove' );

// Count number of tokens (i.e., elements of class "token") on the board (i.e., the element with id "board"):
dojo.query( '#board .token' ).length;
</pre>

But what is really cool with dojo.query is that you can combine it with almost all methods above.

Examples:
<pre>
// Trigger a method when the mouse enter in any element with class "meeple":
dojo.query( '.meeple' ).connect( 'onmouseenter', this, 'myMethodToTrigger' );

// Hide all meeples who are on the board
dojo.query( '#board .meeple' ).style( 'display', 'none' );
</pre>

'''dojo.place'''

dojo.place is the best function to insert HTML code somewhere in your game interface without breaking something. It is much better to use than the '''innerHTML=''' method if you must insert HTML tags and not only values.

<pre>
// Insert your HTML code as a child of a container element
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id" );

// Replace the container element with your new html
dojo.place( "<your html code>", "your_container_element_id", "replace" );

</pre>

The third parameter of dojo.place can take various interesting value.

values possibles :

"replace" : (see description above).

"first" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the first child.

"last" : Places the node as a child of the reference node. The node is placed as the last child.

"before" : places the node right before the reference node.

"last (value by default) " : places the node right after the reference node.

"only" : replaces all children of the reference node with the node.

positif integer : This parameter can be a positif integer. In this case, the node will be placed as a child of the reference node with this number (counting from 0). If the number is more than number of children, the node will be appended to the reference node making it the last child.

See also full doc on dojo.place : [https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.7/dojo/place.html]

Usually, when you want to insert some piece of HTML in your game interface, you should use "[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]".

'''addStyleToClass: function( cssClassName, cssProperty, propertyValue )'''

Same as dojo.style(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

=== Animations ===

'''Dojo Animations'''

BGA animations is based on Dojo Animation ([http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.8/animation/ see tutorial here]).

However, most of the time, you can just use methods below, which are built on top of Dojo Animation.

Note: one interesting method from Dojo that could be useful from time to time is "Dojo.Animation". It allows you to make any CSS property "slide" from one value to another.

'''this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay )'''

You can use slideToObject to "slide" an element to a target position.

Sliding element on the game area is the recommended and the most used way to animate your game interface. Using slides allow players to figure out what is happening on the game, as if they were playing with the real boardgame.

The parameters are:
* mobile_obj: the ID of the object to move. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned.
* target_obj: the ID of the target object. This object must be "relative" or "absolute" positioned. Note that it is not mandatory that mobile_obj and target_obj have the same size. If their size are different, the system slides the center of mobile_obj to the center of target_obj.
* duration: (optional) defines the duration in millisecond of the slide. The default is 500 milliseconds.
* delay: (optional). If you defines a delay, the slide will start only after this delay. This is particularly useful when you want to slide several object from the same position to the same position: you can give a 0ms delay to the first object, a 100ms delay to the second one, a 200ms delay to the third one, ... this way they won't be superposed during the slide.

BE CAREFUL: The method returns an dojo.fx animation, so you can combine it with other animation if you want to. It means that you have to call the "play()" method, otherwise the animation WON'T START.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObject( "some_token", "some_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y, duration, delay )'''

This method does exactly the same as "slideToObject", except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will slide to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

Example: slide a token to some place on the board, 10 pixels to the bottom:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectPos( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 0, 10 ).play();
</pre>

'''this.slideTemporaryObject( mobile_obj_html, mobile_obj_parent, from, to, duration, delay )'''

This method is useful when you want to slide a temporary HTML object from one place to another. As this object does not exists before the animation and won't remain after, it could be complex to create this object (with dojo.place), to place it at its origin (with placeOnObject) to slide it (with slideToObject) and to make it disappear at the end.

slideTemporaryObject does all of this for you:
* mobile_obj_html is a piece of HTML code that represent the object to slide.
* mobile_obj_parent is the ID of an HTML element of your interface that will be the parent of this temporary HTML object.
* from is the ID of the origin of the slide.
* to is the ID of the target of the slide.
* duration/delay works exactly like in "slideToObject"

Example:
<pre>
this.slideTemporaryObject( '<div class="token_icon"></div>', 'tokens', 'my_origin_div', 'my_target_div' );
</pre>

'''this.slideToObjectAndDestroy: function( node, to, time, delay )'''

This method is a handy shortcut to slide an existing HTML object to some place then destroy it upon arrival. It can be used for example to move a victory token or a card from the board to the player panel to show that the player earns it, then destroy it when we don't need to keep it visible on the player panel.

It works the same as this.slideToObject and takes the same arguments.

Example:
<pre>
this.slideToObjectAndDestroy( "some_token", "some_place_on_board", 1000, 0 );
</pre>

'''this.fadeOutAndDestroy( node, duration, delay )'''

This function fade out the target HTML node, then destroy it.

Example:
<pre>
this.fadeOutAndDestroy( "a_card_that_must_disappear" );
</pre>

CAREFUL: the HTML node still exists until during few milliseconds, until the fadeOut has been completed.

'''Rotating elements'''

You can check here [http://jimfulton.info/demos/dojo-animated-rotate.html an example of use] of Dojo to make an element rotate.

This example combines "Dojo.Animation" method and a CSS3 property that allow you to rotate the element.

IMPORTANT: to asses browser compatibility, you must select the CSS property to use just like in the example (see sourcecode below):

<pre>
var transform;
dojo.forEach(
['transform', 'WebkitTransform', 'msTransform',
'MozTransform', 'OTransform'],
function (name) {
if (typeof dojo.body().style[name] != 'undefined') {
transform = name;
}
});
// ... and then use "transform" as the name of your CSS property for rotation
</pre>

'''Animation Callbacks'''

If you wish to run some code only after an animation has completed you can do this by linking a callback method.

<pre>
var animation_id = this.slideToObject( mobile_obj, target_obj, duration, delay );
dojo.connect(animation_id, 'onEnd', dojo.hitch(this, 'callback_function', parameters));
animation_id.play();

…

callback_function: function(params) {
// this will be called after the animation ends
},
</pre>

If you wish to call a second animation after the first (rather than general code) then you can use a dojo animation chain (see tutorial referenced above).

=== Moving elements ===

'''this.placeOnObject( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

placeOnObject works exactly like "slideToObject", except that the effect is immediate.

This is not really an animation, but placeOnObject is frequently used before starting an animation.

Example:
<pre>
// (We just created an object "my_new_token")

// Place the new token on current player board
this.placeOnObject( "my_new_token", "overall_player_board_"+this.player_id );

// Then slide it to its position on the board
this.slideToObject( "my_new_token", "a_place_on_board" ).play();
</pre>

'''this.placeOnObjectPos( mobile_obj, target_obj, target_x, target_y )'''

This method works exactly like placeOnObject, except than you can specify some (x,y) coordinates. This way, "mobile_obj" will be placed to the specified x,y position relatively to "target_obj".

'''this.attachToNewParent( mobile_obj, target_obj )'''

With this method, you change the HTML parent of "mobile_obj" element. "target_obj" is the new parent of this element. The beauty of
attachToNewParent is that the mobile_obj element DOES NOT MOVE during this process.

Note: what happens is that the method calculate a relative position of mobile_obj to make sure it does not move after the HTML parent changes.

Why using this method?

Changing the HTML parent of an element can be useful for the following reasons:
* When the HTML parent moves, all its child are moving with them. If some game elements is no more linked with a parent HTML object, you may want to attach it to another place.
* The z_order (vertical order of display) depends on the position in the DOM, so you may need to change the parent of some game elements when they are moving in your game area.

CAREFUL: this function destroys original object and places a clone onto a new parent, this will break all references to this HTML element (ex: dojo.connect).

== Players input ==

'''dojo.connect'''

Used to associate a player event with one of your notification method.

Example: associate a click on an element ("my_element") with one of our method ("onClickOnMyElement"):
<pre>
dojo.connect( $('my_element'), 'onclick', this, 'onClickOnMyElement' );
</pre>

Note: this is the only possible correct way to associate a player input event to your code, and you must not use anything else.

'''this.checkAction( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkAction: function( action, nomessage )

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):

* "action"
* "module"
* "class"
return true if action is authorized (ie: the action is listed as a "possibleaction" in current game state).

return false and display an error message if not (display no message if nomessage parameter is true). The displayed error message could be either "This move is not allowed at this moment" or "An action is already in progress".

Example:
<pre>
function onClickOnGameElement( evt )
{
if( this.checkAction( "my_action" ) )
{
// Do the action
}
}
</pre>

'''this.checkPossibleActions( "my_action_name" )'''

Usage: checkPossibleActions: function( action, nomessage )

* this is independent of the player being active, so can be used instead of this.checkAction(). This is particularly useful for multiplayer states when the player is not active in a 'player may like to change their mind' scenario.

Check if player can do the specified action by taking into account:
* current game state
* interface locking (a player can't do any action if an action is already in progress)

Restricted arguments names (please don't use them):
* "action"
* "module"
* "class"

'''this.ajaxcall( url, parameters, obj_callback, callback, callback_error )'''

This method must be used to send a player input to the game server.

* url: the url of the action to perform. For a game, it must be: "/<mygame>/<mygame>/myAction.html"
* parameters: an array of parameter to send to the game server. Note that "lock:true" must always be specified in this list of parameter in order the interface can be locked during the server call.
* obj_callback: must be set to "this".
* callback: a function to trigger when the server returns and everything went fine.
* callback_error: (optional and rarely used) a function to trigger when the server returns an error.

Usage:
<pre>
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/myaction.html', { lock: true,
arg1: myarg1,
arg2: myarg2,
...
}, this, function( result ) {
// Do some stuff after a successful call
} );
</pre>

'''this.confirmationDialog()'''

Display a confirmation dialog with a yes/no choice.

We advice you to NOT use this function unless the player action is really critical and could ruins the game, because it slows down the game and upset players.

Usage: this.confirmationDialog( "Question to displayed", callback_function_if_click_on_yes );

Example:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure to use this bonus (points penalty at the end of the game) ?'),
dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/seasons/seasons/useBonus.html',
{ id:bonus_id, lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

; addEventToClass: function( cssClassName, eventName, functionName )
: Same as dojo.connect(), but for all the nodes set with the specified cssClassName

'''this.addActionButton( id, label, method, (opt)destination, (opt)blinking, (opt)color )'''

You can use this method to add an action button in the main action status bar.

Arguments:
* id: an element ID that should be unique in your HTML DOM document.
* label: the text of the button. Should be translatable (use _() function).
* method: the name of your method that must be triggered when the player clicks on this button.
* destination (optional): deprecated, do not use this. Use '''null''' as value if you need to specify other arguments.
* blinking (optional): if set to '''true''', the button is going blink to catch player's attention. Please don't abuse of blinking button.
* color: could be '''blue''' (default), '''red''' or '''gray'''.

You should only use this method in your "onUpdateActionButtons" method. Usually, you use it like this (from Hears example):

<pre>
onUpdateActionButtons: function( stateName, args ) {

if (this.isCurrentPlayerActive()) {
switch( stateName ) {
case 'giveCards':
this.addActionButton( 'giveCards_button', _('Give selected cards'), 'onGiveCards' );
break;
}
}
},
</pre>

In the example above, we are adding a "Give selected cards" button in the case we are on game state "giveCards". When player clicks on this button, it triggers our "onGiveCards" method.

Example using blinking red button:
<pre>
this.addActionButton( 'commit_button', _('Confirm'), 'onConfirm', null, true, 'red');
</pre>

Note: at least in studio example above will make button huge, because it sets it display of blinking things to '''block''',
if you don't like it you have to change css display value
of the button to inline-block (the id of the button is the first argument, i.e 'commit_button' in example above)

== Translations ==

See [[Translations]]

== Notifications ==

When something happens on the server side, your game interface Javascript logic received a notification.

Here's how you can handle these notifications on the client side.

=== Subscribe to notifications ===

Your Javascript "setupNotifications" method is the place where you can subscribe to notifications from your PHP code.

Here's how you associate one of your Javascript method to a notification "playDisc" (from Reversi example):

<pre>
// In setupNotifications method:
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
</pre>

Note: the "playDisc" corresponds to the name of the notification you define it in your PHP code, in your "notifyAllPlayers" or "notifyPlayer" method.

Then, you have to define your "notif_playDisc" method:

<pre>
notif_playDisc: function( notif )
{
// Remove current possible moves (makes the board more clear)
dojo.query( '.possibleMove' ).removeClass( 'possibleMove' );

this.addDiscOnBoard( notif.args.x, notif.args.y, notif.args.player_id );
},
</pre>

In a notification handler like our "notif_playDisc" method, you can access to all notifications arguments with "notif.args".

Example:
<pre>
// If you did this on PHP side:
self::notifyAllPlayers( "myNotification", '', array( "myArgument" => 3 ) );

// On Javascript side, you can access the "myArgument" like this:
notif_myNotification: function( notif )
{
alert( "myArgument = " + notif.args.myArgument );
}
</pre>

=== Synchronous notifications ===

When several notifications are received by your game interface, these notifications are processed immediately, one after the other, in the same exact order they have been generated in your PHP game logic.

However, sometimes, you need to give some time to the players to figure out what happened on the game before jumping to the next notification. Indeed, in many games, they are a lot of automatic actions, and the computer is going to resolve all these actions very fast if you don't tell it not to do so.

As an example, for Reversi, when someone is playing a disc, we want to wait 500 milliseconds before doing anything else in order the opponent player can figure out what move has been played.

Here's how we do this, right after our subscription:
<pre>
dojo.subscribe( 'playDisc', this, "notif_playDisc" );
this.notifqueue.setSynchronous( 'playDisc', 500 ); // Wait 500 milliseconds after executing the playDisc handler
</pre>

=== Pre-defined notification types ===

'''tableWindow''' - This defines notification to display [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Scoring_dialogs|Scoring Dialogs]], see below.

'''message''' - This defines notification that shows on players log and have no other effect

// You can call this on php side without doing anything on client side
self::notifyAllPlayers( 'message', 'hello', array( ) );

== Tooltips ==

'''this.addTooltip( nodeId, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to the DOM node.

Specify 'helpString' to display some information about "what is this game element?".
Specify 'actionString' to display some information about "what happens when I click on this element?".

You must specify both helpString and actionString. Most of the time, you should use only one and specify a void string ("") for the other one.

Usually, _() must be used for the text to be marked for translation.

"Delay" is an optional parameter. Usually, it is primarily used to specify a zero delay for some game element when the tooltip gives really important information for the game - but remember: no essential information must be placed in tooltips as they won't be displayed in some browsers (see [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines|Guidelines]]).

Example:
<pre>
this.addTooltip( 'cardcount', _('Number of cards in hand'), '' );
</pre>

'''this.addTooltipHtml( nodeId, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to the DOM node (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

'''this.addTooltipToClass( cssClass, _( helpString ), _( actionString ), delay )'''

Add a simple text tooltip to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass.

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips.

'''this.addTooltipHtmlToClass( cssClass, html, delay )'''

Add an HTML tooltip to to all the DOM nodes set with this cssClass (for more elaborate content such as presenting a bigger version of a card).

IMPORTANT: all concerned nodes must have IDs to get tooltips

'''this.removeTooltip( nodeId )'''

Remove a tooltip from the DOM node.

== Dialogs, warning messages, confirmation dialogs, ... ==

=== Warning messages ===

Sometimes, there is something important that is happening on the game and you have to make sure all players get the message. Most of the time, the evolution of the game situation or the game log is enough, but sometimes you need something more visible.

Ex: someone fulfill one of the end of the game condition, so this is the last turn.

'''this.showMessage( msg, type )'''

showMessage shows a message in a big rectangular area on the top of the screen of current player.

* "msg" is the string to display. It should be translated.
* "type" can be set to "info" or "error". If set to "info", the message will be an informative message on a white background. If set to "error", the message will be an error message on a red background.

Important: the normal way to inform players about the progression of the game is the game log. "showMessage" is intrusive and should not be used often.

=== Confirmation dialog ===

'''confirmationDialog( message, yesHandler, noHandler )'''

When an important action with a lot of consequences is triggered by the player, you may want to propose a confirmation dialog.

CAREFUL: the general guidelines of BGA is to AVOID the use of confirmation dialog. Confirmation dialogs slow down the game and bother players. The players knows that they have to pay attention about each move when they are playing online.

The situation where you should use a confirmation dialog are the following:
* It must not happen very often during a game.
* It must be linked to an action that can really "kill a game" if the player do not pay attention.
* It must be something that can be done by mistake (ex: a link on the action status bar).

How to display a confirmation dialog:
<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to bake the pie?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.bakeThePie();
} ) );
return; // nothing should be called or done after calling this, all action must be done in the handler
</pre>

=== Multiple choice dialog ===
You can use this dialog to give user a choice with small amount of options:
<pre>
var keys = [1,5,10];
this.multipleChoiceDialog(
_('How many bugs to fix?"), keys,
dojo.hitch(this, function(choice) {
var bugchoice = keys[choice];
console.log('dialog callback with '+bugchoice);
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/fixBugs.html', { bugs: bugchoice}, this, function( result ) {} ); }));
</pre>

=== Dialogs ===

As a general rule, you shouldn't use dialogs windows.

BGA guidelines specify that all game elements should be displayed on the main screen. Players can eventually scroll down to see game elements they don't need to see anytime, and you may eventually create anchors to move between game area section. Of course dialogs windows are very practical, but the thing is: all players know how to scroll down, and not all players know how to show up your dialog window. In addition, when the dialog shows up, players can't access the other game components.

Sometimes although, you need to display a dialog window. Here is how you do this:

// Create the new dialog over the play zone. You should store the handler in a member variable to access it later
this.myDlg = new ebg.popindialog();
this.myDlg.create( 'myDialogUniqueId' );
this.myDlg.setTitle( _("my dialog title to translate") );
this.myDlg.setMaxWidth( 500 ); // Optional

// Create the HTML of my dialog.
// The best practice here is to use [[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl#Javascript_templates|Javascript templates]]
var html = this.format_block( 'jstpl_myDialogTemplate', {
arg1: myArg1,
arg2: myArg2,
...
} );

// Show the dialog
this.myDlg.setContent( html ); // Must be set before calling show() so that the size of the content is defined before positioning the dialog
this.myDlg.show();

// Now that the dialog has been displayed, you can connect your method to some dialog elements
// Example, if you have an "OK" button in the HTML of your dialog:
dojo.connect( $('my_ok_button'), 'onclick', this, function(evt){
evt.preventDefault();
this.myDlg.destroy();
} );

If necessary, you can remove the default top right corner 'close' icon, or replace the function called when it is clicked:
// Removes the default close icon
this.myDlg.hideCloseIcon();

// Replace the function call when it's clicked
this.myDlg.replaceQuitCallback( function() { ... } );

=== Scoring dialogs ===

Sometimes at the end of a round you want to display a big table that details the points wins in each section of the game.

Example: in Hearts game, we display at the end of each round the number of "heart" cards collected by each player, the player who collected the Queen of Spades, and the total number of points loose by each player.

Scoring dialogs are managed entirely on '''PHP side''', but they are described here as their effects are visible only on client side.

Displaying a scoring dialog is quite simple and is using a special notification type: "tableWindow":
<pre>
// on PHP side:
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table
) );
</pre>

The "table" argument is a 2 dimensional PHP array that describe the table you want to display, line by line and column by column.

Example: display an 3x3 array of strings
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", "three" ), // This is my first line
array( "four", "five", "six" ), // This is my second line
array( "seven", "height", "nine" ) // This is my third line
);
</pre>

As you can see above, in each "cell" of your array you can display a simple string value. But you can also display a complex value with a template and associated arguments like this:
<pre>
$table = array(
array( "one", "two", array( "str" => clienttranslate("a string with an ${argument}"), "args" => array( 'argument' => 'argument_value' ) ) ),
array( "four", "five", "six" ),
array( "seven", "height", "nine" )
);
</pre>

This is especially useful when you want to display player names with colors. Example from "Hearts":
<pre>
$firstRow = array( '' );
foreach( $players as $player_id => $player )
{
$firstRow[] = array( 'str' => '${player_name}',
'args' => array( 'player_name' => $player['player_name'] ),
'type' => 'header'
);
}
$table[] = $firstRow;
</pre>

You can also use three extra attributes in the parameter array for the notification:

<pre>
$this->notifyAllPlayers( "tableWindow", '', array(
"id" => 'finalScoring',
"title" => clienttranslate("Title of the scoring dialog"),
"table" => $table,
"header" => array('str' => clienttranslate('Table header with parameter ${number}'),
'args' => array( 'number' => 3 ),
),
"footer" => '<div>Some footer</div>',
"closing" => clienttranslate( "Closing button label" )
) );
</pre>

*'''header''': the content for this parameter will display before the table (also, the html will be parsed and player names will be colored according to the current game colors).
*'''footer''': the content for this parameter will display after the table (no parsing for coloring the player names)
*'''closing''': if this parameter is used, a button will be displayed with this label at the bottom of the popup and will allow players to close it (more easily than by clicking the top right 'cross' icon).

=== Scoring animated display ===

Sometimes (Terra Mystica final scoring for example), you may want to display a score value over an element to make the scoring easier to follow for the players.
You can do it with:

<pre>
this.displayScoring( anchor_id, color, score );
</pre>

=== Speech bubble ===

For better interactivity in some games (Love Letter for example), you may use comic book style speech bubbles to express the players voices.
This is done with:

<pre>
this.showBubble( anchor_id, text, delay, duration, custom_class )
</pre>

delay in milliseconds is optional (default 0)

duration in milliseconds is optional (default 3000)

custom_class is optional, if you need to override the default bubble style

'''Warning''': if your bubble could overlap other active elements of the interface (buttons in particular), as it stays in place even after disappearing, you should use a custom class to give it the style "pointer-events: none;" in order to intercept click events.

== Update players score ==

Increase a player score (with a positive or negative number):

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].incValue( score_delta );
</pre>

Set a player score to a specific value:

<pre>
this.scoreCtrl[ player_id ].setValue( new_score );
</pre>

== Players panels ==

=== Adding stuff to player's panel ===

At first, create a new "JS template" string in your template (tpl) file:

(from Gomoku example)
<pre>
var jstpl_player_board = '\<div class="cp_board">\
<div id="stoneicon_p${id}" class="gmk_stoneicon gmk_stoneicon_${color}"></div><span id="stonecount_p${id}">0</span>\
</div>';
</pre>

Then, you add this piece of code in your JS file to add this template to each player panel:

<pre>
// Setting up player boards
for( var player_id in gamedatas.players )
{
var player = gamedatas.players[player_id];

// Setting up players boards if needed
var player_board_div = $('player_board_'+player_id);
dojo.place( this.format_block('jstpl_player_board', player ), player_board_div );
}
</pre>

(Note: the code above is of course from your "setup" function in your Javascript).

Very often, you have to distinguish current player and others players. In this case, you just have to create another JS template (ex: jstpl_otherplayer_board) and use it when "player_id" is different than "this.player_id".

=== Player's panel disabling/enabling ===

'''this.disablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Disable given player panel (the panel background become gray).

Usually, this is used to signal that this played passes, or will be inactive during a while.

Note that the only effect of this is visual. There are no consequences on the behaviour of the panel itself.

'''this.enablePlayerPanel( player_id )'''

Enable a player panel that has been disabled before.

'''this.enableAllPlayerPanels()'''

Enable all player panels that has been disabled before.

== Image loading ==

See also [[Game_art:_img_directory]].

'''Be careful''': by default, ALL images of your img directory are loaded on a player's browser when he loads the game. For this reason, don't let in your img directory images that are not useful, otherwise it's going to slowdown the game load.

'''dontPreloadImage( image_file_name )'''

Using dontPreloadImage, you tell the interface to not preload a specific image in your img directory.

Example of use:
<pre>
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
</pre>

This is particularly useful if for example you have 2 different themes for a game. To accelerate the loading of the game, you can specify to not preload images corresponding to the other theme.

Another example of use: in "Gosu" game with Kamakor extension, you play with 5 sets of cards among 10 available. Cards images are organized by sets, and we only preload the images corresponding to the 5 current sets with '''ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( image_file_names_array )'''.
<pre>
// By default, do not preload anything
this.dontPreloadImage( 'cards.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan1.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan2.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan3.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan4.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan5.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan6.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan7.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan8.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan9.png' );
this.dontPreloadImage( 'clan10.png' );
var to_preload = [];
for( i in this.gamedatas.clans )
{
var clan_id = this.gamedatas.clans[i];
to_preload.push( 'clan'+clan_id+'.png' );
}
if( to_preload.length == 5 )
{
this.ensureSpecificGameImageLoading( to_preload );
}
</pre>

'''Note:''' You don't need to specify to not preload game box images (game_box.png, game_box75.png...) since they are not preloaded by default.

== Other useful stuff ==

'''dojo.hitch'''

With dojo.hitch, you can create a callback function that will run with your game object context whatever happen.

Typical example: display a BGA confirmation dialog with a callback function created with dojo.hitch:

<pre>
this.confirmationDialog( _('Are you sure you want to make this?'), dojo.hitch( this, function() {
this.ajaxcall( '/mygame/mygame/makeThis.html', { lock:true }, this, function( result ) {} );
} ) );
</pre>

In the example above, using dojo.hitch, we ensure that the "this" object will be set when the callback is called.

; updateCounters(counters)
: Useful for updating game counters in the player panel (such as resources).
: 'counters' arg is an associative array [counter_name_value => [ 'counter_name' => counter_name_value, 'counter_value' => counter_value_value], ... ]
: All counters must be referenced in this.gamedatas.counters and will be updated.
: DOM objects referenced by 'counter_name' will have their innerHTML updated with 'counter_value'.

== BGA GUI components ==

BGA framework provides some useful ready-to-use components for the game interface:

[[Studio#BGA_Studio_game_components_reference]]

Note that each time you are using an additional component, you must declare it at the top of your Javascript file in the list of modules used.

Example if you are using "ebg.stock":
<pre>
define([
"dojo","dojo/_base/declare",
"ebg/core/gamegui",
"ebg/counter",
"ebg/stock" /// <=== we are using ebg.stock module
],
</pre>

Pre-release checklist

2020-05-24T12:43:14Z

Een: game page images infos

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

If you think your game is ready to be reviewed by by BGA admins and/or Publisher please consult this checklist first

* Metadata and graphics
** [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]] has correct and up to date information about the game
** Game box graphics is 3D version of the game box (if available) and publisher icon is correct (see [[Game art: img directory]]). Space around the box has to be transparent, not white.
** You have added a game_banner.jpg and some game_displayX.jpg images to make the game page pretty (NB: on the studio, you have to create a build for these images to appear on the studio game page)
** There is no images in img directory which are not needed anymore
** Multiple images (i.e. cards) are compressed in "Sprite" (see [[Game art: img directory]])
** Each image should not exceed 4M
** Total size should not exceed 10M, image compression should be used otherwise
* Server side
** Game progression is implemented (getGameProgression() in php)
** Zombie turn is implemented (zombieTurn() in php). Note: it can only be tested if you explicitly click on the quit button to create a zombie. If you are expelled it does not generated a Zombie.
** You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
** Game has meaningful notification messages (but don't overkill it, more user logs will slow down the loading)
** You implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Special testing
** Game is tested with spectator (non player observer): watch you own game with a different account, which is not in the game, and check that it works (and that no secret information is visible). For example, you start a game with express start and your dev0, dev1, dev2 accounts are playing. Then you connect with your dev4 account in a private browser window, and you go to the game.
** Game is tested with in-game replay feature (by clicking on notification log items)
** Game works in Chrome and Firefox browsers at least. Also very recommended to test in IE 11 and Edge.
** Game works on mobile device (if you don't have mobile device to test at least test in Chrome with smaller screen, they have a mode for that)
** Test your game in realtime mode. Usually people will run out of time if you use default times unless you add call giveExtraTime($active_player_id) before each turn
** Test your game in 3D mode (if it makes sense; 3D mode can also be disabled through the 'enable_3d' parameter for gameinfos.inc.php, but if it "mostly works", it can be nice to keep it activated even if 2D is more appropriate for the game, just because it's fun to look at)
* Cleanup
** Remove all extra console.log from your js code
** Remove all unnecessary debug logging from your php code
** Copyright headers in all source files have your name
* User Interface
** Review BGA UI design Guidelines [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines]]
** If the elements in your game zone don't occupy all the available horizontal space, they should be centered.
** Non-self explanatory graphic elements should have tooltips
** If graphic elements appear in notification log they should have titles (i.e. title attribute of div) so can be read in non rendered form (i.e. as text only)
** Strings in your source code are ready for translation. See [[Translations]]
** A prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes to avoid namespace conflicts, i.e. vla_selected vs selected
** If you are looking for advice on design and some 3rd party testing you can post a message on the developers forum, and ask other developers, there are a lot of people who will gladly do it.
* Finally
** If possible (meaning if there is not already a project with that name) copy your project to a new project '''matching exactly the name of the game''' (no prefix or suffix). If not possible move on to the next steps, admin will have to retrieve the other project and overwrite it.
** Create a build for your game from the "manage game" page (using the '''Build a new release version''' section) and check the log to make sure that everything builds fine (very often the js build fails because of [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Shrinksafe_minimization | this constraint]]).
** Send an e-mail to studio@boardgamearena.com asking to move the project forward for review. You cannot deploy yourself from the "manage game" page until a first deploy has been done by the admins. Please note that '''everything must be OK on the licensing''' side for a project to be moved out of the studio.

Post-release phase

2020-05-20T19:15:31Z

Een: /* Updating the database schema */ contact us info (from BETA onwards)

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Your game is now on BGA: congrats!

But what happened when there are some bugs to fix or when you want to optimize something?

Don't be afraid: you're still allowed to modify your game. You just have to pay attention to the points below.

== Bugs reporting ==

Bugs are reported in the [http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=4 BGA bugs forum].

During days after your game has been published and from time to time, please have a look at it to check if everything is fine.

== How to submit changes? ==

There is 3 (short) steps to make your changes visible on BGA (from your Control Panel):

* Commit your changes.
* Build a new version (don't forget to do a successful commit BEFORE your build).
* Deploy your new version in production.

== What can be modified after release? ==

Everything can be modified. BUT, some items requires a special attention, and you must inform us in some cases:

===Changes that breaks the games in progress===

Some changes will break the games in progress at the moment the release/the hotfix will be performed. Each time you make a change, you should ask you the question "it is safe to make this change in a game in progress", and if the answer is "no" you have to inform us.

Example of changes that break the games in progress:
* Changes in the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql).
* New global variable or game option accessed during the game (if it's only used during setup, it should be safe).
* Change ID of existing game states (adding new game states is fine).

Of course, as a rule of thumb, you should avoid to introduce changes that break a game in progress. Sometimes however, you do not have any other choice. In this case:
* Try to group all your updates in one version, thus we won't have to block your game several times.
* Tell us explicitly that you introduce some update that can break games in progress so we can block the game during a short time.

Note: in the near future, we will introduce the possibility for you to block/unblock a game directly from your Control Panel in order to perform all the process by yourself.

=== Updating Statistics ===

You should be careful when updating a statistics:

* If you want to add a new statistic, please be aware that for ongoing games this statistic won't always be correct since it has not been counted from the start of that game.
* If you want to update a statistic, please update it and do not remove/create another one. Otherwise, the statistic won't keep the same ID and players will lose all the historical statistics data.
* If your game is published on BGA, please don't remove any statistics (historical data will be lost).

=== Updating the database schema ===

If you want to update the database schema of the game (dbmodel.sql) and your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), you should inform us before releasing the new version (see "[[#Changes that breaks the games in progress|changes that breaks the games in progress]]").

Any modification in dbmodel.sql should also appear in your nameofyourgame.game.php, in a function

function upgradeTableDb( $from_version ){

if( $from_version <= YYMMDDHHMM ){ // where your CURRENT version in production has number YYMMDD-HHMM

// You DB schema update request.
// Note: all tables names should be prefixed by "DBPREFIX_" to be compatible with the applyDbUpgradeToAllDB method you should use below
$sql = "CREATE TABLE DBPREFIX_xxxxxxx ....";

// The method below is applying your DB schema update request to all tables, including the BGA framework utility tables like "zz_replayXXXX" or "zz_savepointXXXX".
// You should really use this request, in conjunction with "DBPREFIX_" in your $sql, so ALL tables are updated. All utility tables MUST have the same schema than the main table, otherwise the game may be blocked.
self::applyDbUpgradeToAllDB( $sql );

}}

Note1: of course you need to change your dbmodel.sql accordingly, so that new games get your updated scheme.

Note2: this is always risky to modify the DB scheme, so:
_ if your game is already open to everyone on BGA (from BETA onwards), it may be worth contacting us before, so we can stop the realtime games during the update (this way, only turn based games are concerned by the DB live upgrade).
_ if you can avoid it... try to avoid it :)

=== Updating string to be translated ===

When you update a string that has been marked to be translatable, please keep in mind that all current translations done by the BGA community will be lost.

Consequently, when you are about to modify a string to be translated (after release), please ask you the following questions:
* Is it just an English misspelling? In this case, it is better to fix the English translation of the string than the original string to be translated.
* Has the meaning of the string changed? If yes, you HAVE to change the original string in order to invalidate all translations that has been done already.
* Is there a similar string already used elsewhere in my game? In this case, you'd better use it again to enjoy immediately all translations already available.

===Tell the community about your changes :)===

The player's community is always happy to know that someone is taking care of their preferred game :)

If your are the developer of game XXXX, you are also the administrator of player's group "XXXX's players", and you can publish some news in this group newsfeed.

When you fix a bug or add something, do not hesitate to tell the players about this in this group: you'll get the "thank you" you deserved :)

See for example Werewolves group:
https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=2465913

===Major changes===

If you do some major changes to your game like:
* Introducing a new expansion.
* Major code rewriting/refactoring.

... please tell us. In this case, we can:
* Make your game back from "gold" to "public beta", to incite player to report bugs.
* And eventually, publish a news about it :)

Pre-release checklist

2020-05-19T12:22:24Z

Een: Some extra info on 3D mode

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

If you think your game is ready to be reviewed by by BGA admins and/or Publisher please consult this checklist first

* Metadata and graphics
** [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php]] has correct and up to date information about the game
** Game box graphics is 3D version of the game box (if available) and publisher icon is correct (see [[Game art: img directory]]). Space around the box has to be transparent, not white.
** There is no images in img directory which are not needed anymore
** Multiple images (i.e. cards) are compressed in "Sprite" (see [[Game art: img directory]])
** Each image should not exceed 4M
** Total size should not exceed 10M, image compression should be used otherwise
* Server side
** Game progression is implemented (getGameProgression() in php)
** Zombie turn is implemented (zombieTurn() in php). Note: it can only be tested if you explicitly click on the quit button to create a zombie. If you are expelled it does not generated a Zombie.
** You have defined and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
** Game has meaningful notification messages (but don't overkill it, more user logs will slow down the loading)
** You implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Special testing
** Game is tested with spectator (non player observer): watch you own game with a different account, which is not in the game, and check that it works (and that no secret information is visible). For example, you start a game with express start and your dev0, dev1, dev2 accounts are playing. Then you connect with your dev4 account in a private browser window, and you go to the game.
** Game is tested with in-game replay feature (by clicking on notification log items)
** Game works in Chrome and Firefox browsers at least. Also very recommended to test in IE 11 and Edge.
** Game works on mobile device (if you don't have mobile device to test at least test in Chrome with smaller screen, they have a mode for that)
** Test your game in realtime mode. Usually people will run out of time if you use default times unless you add call giveExtraTime($active_player_id) before each turn
** Test your game in 3D mode (if it makes sense; 3D mode can also be disabled through the 'enable_3d' parameter for gameinfos.inc.php, but if it "mostly works", it can be nice to keep it activated even if 2D is more appropriate for the game, just because it's fun to look at)
* Cleanup
** Remove all extra console.log from your js code
** Remove all unnecessary debug logging from your php code
** Copyright headers in all source files have your name
* User Interface
** Review BGA UI design Guidelines [[BGA_Studio_Guidelines]]
** If the elements in your game zone don't occupy all the available horizontal space, they should be centered.
** Non-self explanatory graphic elements should have tooltips
** If graphic elements appear in notification log they should have titles (i.e. title attribute of div) so can be read in non rendered form (i.e. as text only)
** Strings in your source code are ready for translation. See [[Translations]]
** A prefix for example a trigram for your game that you append to all the css classes to avoid namespace conflicts, i.e. vla_selected vs selected
** If you are looking for advice on design and some 3rd party testing you can post a message on the developers forum, and ask other developers, there are a lot of people who will gladly do it.
* Finally
** If possible (meaning if there is not already a project with that name) copy your project to a new project '''matching exactly the name of the game''' (no prefix or suffix). If not possible move on to the next steps, admin will have to retrieve the other project and overwrite it.
** Create a build for your game from the "manage game" page (using the '''Build a new release version''' section) and check the log to make sure that everything builds fine (very often the js build fails because of [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Shrinksafe_minimization | this constraint]]).
** Send an e-mail to studio@boardgamearena.com asking to move the project forward for review. You cannot deploy yourself from the "manage game" page until a first deploy has been done by the admins. Please note that '''everything must be OK on the licensing''' side for a project to be moved out of the studio.