RailsMUD: nope, won't work

Posted: 13 months ago (2009-07-03 23:42:10 UTC ) / Updated: 11 months ago (2009-08-22 02:51:20 UTC )

My initial concept for RailsMUD isn't going to cut it. A Juggernaut server will do fine for bouncing chat around, but it's not going to work for everything if I bounce off the database server.

Let me go back a step.

My original design was to have the Rails server send out messages via Juggernaut to the players. Great for chat, not bad for AI-initiated events. But there's a bit of timing weirdness there.

It's possible to have the AI server attach to the Rails server and call the Juggernaut APIs as well, thus making server push happen.

However, I had been hoping to go a step further than that, and make most stuff bounce off the database server. *That* isn't going to happen, because there's no good way to leave a query open with the database server and say "notify me when XXX table entry is added."

If I want to keep a Rails-based architecture at all, I should plan on some kind of back door so that an AI server can connect and push information to players that are connected. That's still doable. I'll think on that, and whether it's still a better idea than a non-Rails solution.

[Edit: these days there's a RailsGame architecture page with the current design.]