plugplay
Plug-and-play solution for multiplayer games using WebSockets.
Server
Server component is a node application responsible for managing global game state and WebSocket connections. It's basically a Redux application running on the server.
Example
The most basic, noop example:
const plugplay = const dataReducer = { //...modify `state.data` based on action and return it};const mapStateToClientProps = { // construct and return properties object recieved by each client};const plugins = /** initialized server plugins **/
API
The server component exposes one function as a default export. Calling the function starts the server and returns a dispatch function that can be used to dispatch actions to the reducers.
any
The OptionsObject
has the following shape:
OptionsObject: nextGameState: any clientProps: any plugins: Object port: number
dataReducer
Function used to change the state of the game in response to actions occuring. The function is called every
time an action is dispatched, with the full game state and the action as arguments. The reducer should
return value that will be saved as state.data
(which is the subtree designated for custom part of the
game state).
Default value: state => (state.data || {})
mapStateToClientProps
Function used to construct property objects sent to each connected client. The function is called every time after
the dataReducer
produces new game state, with the full game state and clientInfo
object as properties. By default,
clientInfo
object has only socketId
property, but it can be extended using plugins. The clientInfo
can be used
to provide each client with customized properties that reflect the state of the game from the client perspective.
Default value: state => state
plugins
Plugins array provides a way of extending the default pluginplay
functionality using plugins. The array expects
a list of initialized plugins, in an order that matters (see plugin's readme for specific requirements). See "Plugins"
section for information on their API.
Default value: []
port
The port on which the application should listen for WebSocket connections
Default value: 3000
Client
The client component is a browser module responsible for connecting to server component.
Example
const plugplay = const onPropsUpdated = { // perform view updates based on changes in the client props}const actions = actions // triggers a reducer run on the server
API
The client component exposes one function as a default export. Calling the function connects the client to the server and starts listening for props changes. It returns the actions object with methods that can be used to send information back to the server.
actions: ActionsObject
The OptionsObject
has the following shape:
OptionsObject: void serverUrl: string plugins: Object
onPropsUpdated
Function that can be used to update the view the reflect the new state of the game. The function is called every
time new client properties are recieved from the server, with the properties object as arguments. The return value is ignored.
Default value: () => {}
(noop)
serverUrl
The URL to the running server plugplay
component
Required
plugins
Plugins array provides a way of extending the default pluginplay
functionality using plugins. The array expects
a list of initialized plugins, in an order that matters (see plugin's readme for specific requirements). See "Plugins"
section for information on their API.
Default value: []
The ActionsObject
contains action creator methods, and has the following shape by default (but can be extended by plugins):
ActionsObject: void
default
action
Can be used to send a generic client action to the server. It will trigger server-side reducer with an action of shape:
type: 'USER_ACTION' payload: socketId: string ... // other props from plugins type: string // type provided to action creator data: any // data provided to action creator
Plugins
You can extend the functionality provided by plugplay using plugins. Plugins can do one or more of these things:
- modify a subtree of the state, named after the plugin's name
- dispatch actions to the state, namespaced by the plugin's name
- decorate the payload of actions dispatched by other plugins or plugplay's core
- decorate the
clientInfo
object provided tomapStateToClientProps
function - extend action creators object on the client
- any other side effects on both server and client (e.g. persistance of data)
Existing plugins
See documentation for each to learn how to use them:
Creating plugins
The following only concerns plugins developers, and is not required to know to make games with plugplay
.
Server API
Server-side, plugins expose a factory function, which can be used to customize plugin's behaviour using options.
The factory function returns an instance of the plugin, which should passed to plugplay
using plugins
array in options.
pluginInstance: PluginInstanceObject
PluginInstanceObject: name: string void void nextState: Object decoratedClientInfo: Object