Can Vitalized Application Read Online Files

[drnebula]

I would like to take a game making application for teachers and vitalize it. The game maker part would be used by the teacher to create game files (in ini or arrayor other? format). The game player would be vitalized and be online. Students would use the game player online to open these game files that would also be online to play the games. Is this possibe? In the past I've found that I could not use the file obect in a vitalized application. But perhaps that is now possible or someone has come up with a work around. Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve

[UltimateWalrus]

You have to realize that being able to use the "file" object in Vitalize is a major security risk. If I can access files from a Vitalize application, what's to stop me from jamming a virus onto your hard drive and changing autoexec.bat (or whatever the modern equivalent to that is) to run the virus whenever the computer starts?

I've never tried building Vitalize apps, but if I were Clickteam, I would have all third-party extensions disabled, as well as anything else that can be used to make changes to the user's hard drive or allows full access to the user's RAM. It's just way too risky, and if word got out that viruses were riding in Vitalize applications, no one would dare use it.

I like your idea, but my intuition tells me that MMF is not the best platform to do it. Java is terrible for making games, so I wouldn't suggest that either. I don't know actionscript (though I plan to learn eventually), but I think that either Flash or Shockwave would be your best bet here. Sure, you'd have to learn a new computer language, but since when is it a bad thing to expand your horizons? <img src="/center/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

[drnebula]

How come Flash can do it and MMF can't? And why is the web different from opening a MMF application on your hard drive? This just seems like such a great thing to do, I'm surprised there is no way to get it done. I've heard this before, and you are probably correct, it just seems weird to me. Just curious.
Steve

[Yves]

Almost all the extension objects can read files from the server (from the directory of the application). For example if your application uses an array object and loads the file "Example.arr", Vitalize! will download it form the server. Ditto for the other objects.

You cannot SAVE files with Vitalize!.

Yves.

[Bovril]

You could save things by calling a server-side script, i.e. PHP / ASP / etc. You can't save files directly from MMF (I imagine) because it would have to start an FTP link, which would require your password, meaning that anyone with a resource hacker would be able to find your password in the file and start uploading whatever they want to your web space.

But like I said, a server side script which would be called by MMF would be safe (and is possible already) but you'll need to know some scripting language, and you'll need a server that can run it.

[drnebula]

Yves,
Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear.

So, I could have a vitalized application on a server. The user could run it and then choose an array file from a file selection box and choose the array file (all of these files also on the server in the same directoy) to load.

And which object would I use to do this? The file object?

Steve

[Jeff]

You can't write directly to the server.

You would need to use a script (PHP, ASP or something) and send the data via MOOSock to the server.

I would bet most other controls that run in a browser window have this same restriction.

[Yves]

[]So, I could have a vitalized application on a server. The user could run it and then choose an array file from a file selection box and choose the array file (all of these files also on the server in the same directoy) to load.

And which object would I use to do this? The file object? [/]

The File object is not vitalized. You should write the list of array files into a .txt file on the server, use a List object to load this .txt file and then when the user selects the file to load from the list, just load it with the Array object.

Yves.

[drnebula]

Is there a way to load ini files without using the File object?
STeve

[Yves]

Yes, just load the .INI file as usual, that should work. When you read a value, the INI object first tries to read the value from Vitalize.ini (i.e. from the section that corresponds to your application in Vitalize.ini). If it doesn't find it, i.e. if you haven't written this value with this application, then it downloads the .INI file and reads the value from it.

Yves.