an idea : lobby integrated news database

[KaiserJ]

was just thinking the other day as i started up steam... it's pretty handy how they have the "whats new" page pop up as soon as you log in (maybe that's just my settings...) and that got me to thinking... could spring benefit from a similar application?

my vision : logging on to the lobby via TASclient... lobby locates "springnewsXML" or something to that effect located online, and displays the latest spring news alongside the hints & tips screen. news could be ordered according to news type... mod news, (new releases, bugfixes) map news, (new maps) game news, (invitations / information about tourneys and challenges / news of upcoming spring engine updates / who won planetwars, etc.)

WHY do i think this is a good idea? well... from lurking on the forums, i can see that developpers have a tough time getting their mods and maps etc. into the hands of spring players.

example.
got a msg from one of my friends : "hey kaiser, wanna try the new star wars mod?"
me: "HELLS YES! that got released?!"
him: "yeah dude, i cant wait to try it"
(he hosts a game of Star Wars 1.0 fixed)
(me facepalms)

so what exactly happened here? my friend was vaguely aware that there was a star wars mod... but since he doesnt come and lurk around on the forums much, was unaware of its status... went and searched on jobjol, found SW1.0...

most spring players, if they are even aware of some of the awesome mods and maps etc. that are in the works, are out of touch with the awesomeness... they have no idea what is going on in terms of development of content... and as a result, for the most part, there might as well be NO content in the works, because the delivery of the content is flawed... you or I, as forumers, are perfectly aware of whats going on... but i have a feeling most spring players are the sort to visit the forum only once in a while, and even then, just to give it a glance-through before their next game begins. 8v8 DsD is not an inherently BAD thing... the problem lies when people say "oh im sick of this map etc" but cannot come up with any alternatives because they just have no clue what's available to them.

to relate this personally... i got set up on a blind date not too long ago by my friend... she kept insisting "oh my friend is hot, she's hot, don't worry!" but naturally, since all i knew of my date was heresay, i was extremely skeptical. of course, my friend wasn't trying to screw me over, so i eventually agreed, and was very pleasantly surprised at the girl i got to meet up with... if i had seen her, even a picture, i would have immediately agreed to the date without any second thoughts.... but since i had nothing tangible to grasp onto in terms of information, i was very wary of trying something new.

i'd like to think this skepticism is human nature; a safety response; a well founded prejudice against the unknown, the sort of natural instinct that has kept us alive as a species since our time began. spring news would turn an unknown mod or map from being a risk like a blind date whose face you havent seen, into something nice like the prospect of a pretty girl making out with you on your couch.

anyways... thoughts? comments? i could easily set up a web content management system for certain "editors" to add news stories to a database (dont want just ANYONE to be able to make a news story hur hur) and rework it as XML that could be loaded as data by TASclient, but i have no clue as to how to even begin to integrate into TASclient myself.

i hope you guys like this idea, i really could see it benefiting EVERYONE on the forum. (and i hope you like the novella i seem to have just written.)

[manolo_]

1st show the pic of the girl :D
2nd i like this idea, its really good, i could imagine it as somekind of new room with integrated pics/lil videos and stuff

[Satirik]

make the online part first, you can make popup + webbrowser using python scripts for tasclient

[Pxtl]

Don't re-invent the wheel. Just make a stripped down version of the "news" page that includes some screenshots and then stuff any open-source HTML renderer into the client for a "news" page.

[BrainDamage]

don't reinvent the wheel: use RSS

[el_matarife]

Can Delphi or WxWidgets access the system's default browser to render HTML? I know AF was experimenting with loading the main Spring news page in his lobby until he figured out that Java + Swing's HTML rendering capabilities were lacking to say the least. (I think it didn't even do CSS at the time.) Maybe we need to build a lobby from the ground up in QT since that has Webkit built in now.

[KaiserJ]

i cant post her pic, she's too cute it'll break your brains

the main spring news page is all well and good... but then again, it only contains information about the engine itself, rather than including content news... that's my main argument against it; but it would work great if content and game news was there as well, as well as frequent updates.

RSS feed, that's fine, not hard to make at all, in fact possibly easier than making my xml / php / sql structure that i had in my head.

cascading style sheet... they are nice, and i could make a gorgeous layout for the news; but i'd say not really too necessary in terms of implementation; basic HTML rendering is all that we would need to implement this, albiet in an ugly and utilitarian way. (but hell... if CSS works... booyah! gonna use it!)

[Satirik]

Code: Select all

import lobbyscript

api = lobbyscript.Callback()
gui = lobbyscript.GUI()

def changeControlProp(control,prop,subProp,value):
	p = gui.GetControlProperties(control,prop)
	p[subProp] = value
	return gui.SetControlProperties(control,prop,p)

def onLoggedIn():
	gui.AddForm("NewsPopup","EmptyForm",3)
	p = gui.GetControlProperties("NewsPopup","")
	p["Width"] = 900
	p["Height"] = 600
	p["ClientWidth"] = ""
	p["ClientHeight"] = ""
	p["Caption"] = "Latest News"
	gui.SetControlProperties("NewsPopup","",p)
	p = gui.GetControlProperties("NewsPopup","")
	p["Top"] = ""
	p["Left"] = ""
	p["Position"] = "poScreenCenter"
	gui.SetControlProperties("NewsPopup","",p)
	
	gui.AddControl("NewsBrowser","NewsPopup","TWebBrowserWrapper")
	changeControlProp("NewsPopup.NewsBrowser","","Align","alClient");
	changeControlProp("NewsPopup.NewsBrowser","","URL","http://spring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=2");

a script to make a popupwindow to a webpage showing up when logged in

[BrainDamage]

Can Delphi or WxWidgets access the system's default browser to render HTML? I know AF was experimenting with loading the main Spring news page in his lobby until he figured out that Java + Swing's HTML rendering capabilities were lacking to say the least. (I think it didn't even do CSS at the time.) Maybe we need to build a lobby from the ground up in QT since that has Webkit built in now.

http://wxwebkit.wxcommunity.com/

[el_matarife]

http://wxwebkit.wxcommunity.com/

Interesting, is that "production-grade"? The website is pretty barebones.

[Warlord Zsinj]

I would like to see a CNN-style rolling news ticker used in the lobby servers, cycling randomly (well, preferring newer items) through the available news. Clicking on the particular element of the news ticker should bring up a page with more detail.

[AF]

The default HTML renderer of swing HTML content was never intended to show fullblown websites, thus the javascript on this site that prevents email spambot evil ended up making the site look wierd, and wall of text syndrome ensued too.

So after a while I dropped the feature from aflobby, I offered the much requested what's new feature too but nobody had any media to advertise with or even a spec of what would be needed from me so I didn't implement it.

This has been discussed in the past and rss has been agreed everytime as the simplest and most efficient mechanism

[AF]

As a sidenote java 7 (6u10?) has a webpane component that uses webkit, and the JDIC project allows use of firefox/IE embedding

[el_matarife]

Okay, if Spring Lobby and AF's lobby can both use Webkit to render a webpage we may have something here. I assume Delphi and thus TASClient can render a page using IE/Trident?

[Forboding Angel]

Oh em gee, Like springinfo was designed to be?

be good

springinfo, complete with rss feeds for EVERYTHING. ./rollseyes

[Satirik]

you too

[KaiserJ]

thx satirik, i'm going to play with that code and see if i can get something cooking.

i think the majority of spring players rarely visit these forums, if at all... which is why i figured integration with the lobby would be prudent to keep them up to date about new things in spring.

springinfo is a great idea, but not enough people were made aware of it for it to fully take off IMO.

if there were a news service that i had editorial access to, be assured that my annoying tendency to type a lot would be put to good use; and coupled with the fact that i lurk the forums a lot and tend to get pretty excited about ANYTHING new in spring, we may well be onto something good.

[Forboding Angel]

springinfo is a great idea, but not enough people were made aware of it for it to fully take off IMO.

Oh like the multi page thread in gen dis? or the random mention of it here and there, or the topic in #main?

[MidKnight]

the last message on springinfo is from before 0.77

keep it updated and people will come eventually...

[Forboding Angel]

Maybe you should read the springinfo thread. Over 20 people have access to post frontpage news on that site. Not one of them ever have.

It is not MY site (yes I put it together, and yes I am hosting it), it is meant for all of the spring community, however, people here are too lazy to do anything useful except bitch about stuff, so there ya go.