ApocalypticCards

A game to alleviate boredom while under "stay-at-home" orders.

Developed during a series of live coding sessions which began on March 28th 2020 and are currently on-going as of 5th May 2020, this Delphi-powered game aims to help while away the hours for those who are currently 'self isolating' or forced to stay at home during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

We also wanted to demonstrate that there are many approaches to solving the problems inherent in what looks like a simple task as well as show case some Delphi live-coding by a loose collection of Embarcadero MVPs. In particular the client-side apps employ a multitude of technologies and operating system platform targets such as VCL, FMX, Web, Windows, Linux and macOS. We might even stretch out and produce Android and iOS versions - Delphi can do it, so why not?

NOTE: You do not have to wear a mask while coding but if you are sharing your keyboard or screen you do need to stay six feet away from your computer peripherals. We don't have to ask you to practice social distancing - you're a coder, being socially distant from The Normals is the default setting. ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbgaHNrDdBs&list=PL-oEujJyp0deGinpcUgiZwoa_rPnmgCwN

How to set up a local apache virtual host server on Linux for this game

Your local hosts file

NOTE

If you don't want to create a virtual host on your Apache setup, skip this step

First you'll need to add an entry to your /etc/hosts file so you can have local DNS resolve:

$ sudo nano /etc/hosts

Amend your file with something along these lines:

# ...

## Apocalypse Cards local
127.0.0.1   apocalypse-cards

#...

I've chosen to have an URL of http://apocalypse-cards. You can choose what ever you want.

The Apache module

Navigate to the folder where you've git clone the Apocalypse Cards game repository and under

<cardgame folder>/server/out/bin/Linux64/Release

you'll find various files. The one we are now looking for is libmod_cardgame.so.

Copy that file to the Apache module folder ( the command a2query -d will return such folder ):

$ sudo cp libmod_cardgame.so "$(a2query -d)mod_cardgame.so"

The module is now available to be loaded by Apache.

We now need to create a file under /etc/apache2/mods-available so that we can load it.

Using your preferred plain text editor create/edit a file called cardgame.load:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-available/cardgame.load

Add the following single line to it:

LoadModule cardgame_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_cardgame.so

A local database for the game

This example assumes you have a MySQL server with version 8.x.

At this moment you can go and create a database on your local MySQL server:

CREATE DATABASE `apocalypticcards`;

You should also create a user that has access to that database:

CREATE USER 'apocalypticcards'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH caching_sha2_password BY 'apocalypticcards';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `apocalypticcards`.* TO 'apocalypticcards'@'localhost';

You'll note that I'm using the new login plugin caching_sha2_password. If you have issues with the Apocalypse Card server not connecting try:

CREATE USER 'apocalypticcards'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'apocalypticcards';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `apocalypticcards`.* TO 'apocalypticcards'@'localhost';

If you still have issues, try to omit the login plugin ( For versions other than 8.x ):

CREATE USER 'apocalypticcards'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'apocalypticcards';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `apocalypticcards`.* TO 'apocalypticcards'@'localhost';

We have provided some SQL scripts that you can find under <cardgame folder>/install.

There you'll find 2 files: data.sql and database.sql.

On the command line you can issue:

$ mysql -u apocalypticcards -papocalypticcards apocalypticcards < database.sql

Then, to populate some initial values:

$ mysql -u apocalypticcards -papocalypticcards apocalypticcards < data.sql

The Apocalypse Cards server database connection setup

Before we can load the module, it needs to find the database connection configuration file under /etc/apocalypsecards.

Create that folder:

$ sudo mkdir -p /etc/apocalypsecards

Under <cardgame folder>/server/out/bin/Linux64/Release you'll find the *.ini file with the database configuration.

Copy such file to the /etc/apocalypsecards folder:

$ sudo cp cardgame.ini /etc/apocalypsecards/

The file should look something like this:

username=apocalypticcards
password=apocalypticcards
database=apocalypticcards

If you followed all the above instructions, the file is ready to go. If not, then edit accordingly to your specific database setup.

Loading the module

At this moment we can add the module to the list of loaded ones by doing like so:

$ sudo a2enmod cardgame
$ sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

If that last command does not return any error, all went well.

You can verify that the module is loaded by doing the following:

$ a2query -m | grep cardgame

The result should be:

cardgame (enabled by site administrator)

Using the module in a site

At this point you have 2 options:

Use the module across all virtual sites
Use the module on a specific virtual site

Click on one of the links for information on how to setup your choice.

Use the module across all virtual sites

NOTE

This has so far only been tested using the Virtual Site option.

If you have no other virtual site setup on your local Apache server and don't mind the module running on what ever is the first site Apache serves then let's start by creating a cardgame.conf under /etc/apache2/conf-available:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/cardgame.conf

This file should look like this:

 <Location /api>
    SetHandler mod_cardgame-handler
 </Location>

Now let's enable that configuration and restart Apache:

$ sudo a2enconf cardgame
$ sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

If all went well, no errors where reported.

You can now browse to http://localhost/api/games and see that it should return you a JSON empty array.

Use the module on a specific virtual site

In order to have a virtual server with the module, we'll need to create one.

Since there's talk about the server serving animated gifs, I've chosen to create a folder in order to accommodate a site folder structure:

$ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/apocalypse-cards
$ sudo chown www-data.www-data /etc/www/apocalypse-cards

Remember that if you want local DNS resolution of this virtual site, please follow instruction for editing your /etc/hosts file.

Use your preferred text editor to create/edit a file under /etc/apache2/sites-available/:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/001-apocalypse-cards.conf

This file should look like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName apocalypse-cards
    ServerAdmin yourname@example.com

    DirectoryIndex index.html.
    DocumentRoot /var/www/apocalypse-cards

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error-apocalypse-cards.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access-apocalypse-cards.log combined

    <Location /api>
        SetHandler mod_cardgame-handler
    </Location>

    <Directory /var/www/apocalypse-cards>
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

In order for Apache to begin to serve the virtual host do the following:

$ sudo a2ensite 001-apocalypse-cards
$ sudo systemctl reload apache2.service

If all went well, no errors where reported.

You can now browse to http://apocalypse-cards/api/games and see that it should return you a JSON empty array.

NOTE

Many thanks to Gustavo Carreno who made many excellent and significant contributions to this Read Me document.

gcarreno / ApocalypticCards