Reading and Practice

Do:

• The Try Redis Tutorial

Browse:

• The Tutorials Point Redis Tutorial
• The Redis Command Reference

Read:

• The first two chapters of Elmasri and Navathe
• The Wikipedia article on Key-Value databases
• An Introduction to Redis Types
• Writing a Twitter Clone in Redis
• Thinking in Redis

Optionally read:

• The Socket.io Getting Started Guide, if you are interested in going beyond the database.

Instructions

This assignment is to be done in a two- or three-person group. Do not “partition” the work: work together. Everyone is responsible for understanding the entire homework submission, so everyone should contribute to the entire assignment.

Please begin by creating a github repository for your team. It should be a private repository named <yourgithubname>/cmsi486. At the top level of this repository, create a folder called homework1.

Please make sure to add me as a committer. My github name is rtoal.

The Assignment

Build a game with the following requirements:

• On the server, there is a game process (your application’s server-side) and a redis server.
• Clients move through a 64 x 64 game board with the arrow keys. Trying to move outside the game board has no effect.
• The game starts with 100 randomly positioned coins. There are 50 one-cent coins, 25 two-cent coints, 20 five-cent coins, and 5 ten-cent coins.
• New clients can connect at any time. Clients enter a name (up to 32 characters long) that must be unique per server.
• When a client successfully connects, it appears at a random position on the board.
• The server keeps track of the player’s positions, the player’s scores, and the remaining coins.
• When all coins are collected, a new set of 100 coins is randomly generated.
• Clients need to see the game state change in real time. They need to see each other and watch the coins disappear, etc.
• Each client sees not only the board but also the scores. The scores should be sorted with the highest score on top.
• A player that has been idle for 5 minutes disappears from the board.
• The player names, scores, and entire game state is to be managed in Redis.

Start by forking my version of a subset of the game, which does not use Redis. Since this assignment is for a database class, your job is to replace the in-memory state management of the game with Redis. (Note that in a couple cases, my game does not meet all the requirements; for example, I don't bump inactive users.) Use this assignment as an opportunity to learn new things, such as how to write simple Node-based webapps, the basics of socket.io, and new modern JavaScript features.

You will be graded on your choice of Redis keys (their names and their types). You must use a sorted set for the player name and scores. After all, Redis is known for being good for scoreboards.