Background Research
The purpose of this section is to show some of the areas that need to be investigated before attempting the complicated process of creating an online multiplayer Flash game. Flash
Flash is the authoring tool that been used for a number of years to create animations on websites due to its powerful 2D graphic engine. There are very few issues with browser compatibility as Macromedia provides flash plug-ins for all of the major web browsers Baker (2006). Flash can be used for wide variety of games, Makar (2003) states that Flash can be used for amusements such as tic-tac-toe to a complicated real time multiplayer game.
Although can be used for online multiplayer game, it cannot be used on it own, it needs a server side language such as C++, PHP or Java. Lapi (2003) advises Java for Java for a number of reasons: first of all it is very well known for its portability and this means that your Java application can be executed on a number of different operating systems without changing one single line of code. Data is transferred from Flash via form of XML.
Java
Java, the language, is a high-level object-oriented programming language, influenced in various ways by C, C++, and Smalltalk, with ideas borrowed from other languages, Adamson (2006). In the project Java will play the role of the server it will be used to update the player’s game information in the multiplayer environment.
Xml
XML is short for EXtensible Markup Language, it can be used for multiple tasks but for purpose of this project it will be used for data exchange between two incompatible types Flash and Java. Converting the data to XML can greatly reduce this complexity and create data that can be read by many different types of applications, W3Schools (????).
References
Title: Cross Browser Compatibility
Author: Baker
Year: 2006
Link: http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20060117CrossBrowserCompatibility.html
Title: Macromedia Flash MX Game Design Demystified: The Official Guide to Creating Games with Flash
Author: Jobe Makar
Year: 2003
Publisher: Macromedia Press
Title:Sockets: the basics of multiplayer games
Author: Marco Lapi
Year: 2003
Link: http://www.gotoandplay.it/_articles/2003/12/xmlSocket.php
Title:XML is Used to Exchange Data
Author: W3Schools
Year: ????
Link:http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_usedfor.asp