Pbw

Play By Web Engine for Rails. This project is in early development. See Wiki for more information.

This engine requires the use of Rails 3.2 or greater, coffeescript, devise and mongoid.

ActiveRecord is not used.

It creates apps that use Backbone for the front-end.

In your Gemfile, add this line:

gem 'pbw'

Then run the following commands:

bundle install
rails g pbw:install

The install generator will create:

• Backbone assets and directory layout in your app/assets/javascript directory
• Configuration file for mongoid in config directory
• Mount route for the pbw engine at "/pbw"
• A layout file set up for use with Backbone
• Home controller and index.erb containing javascript to initialize the Backbone router
• Backbone model, view and templates for User signup, login / logout and password recovery
• User::Lifecycle class for hooking in behaviour around users

Areas are locales within your game such as Rooms, Worlds or Regions.

They may contain Tokens and Items. They may also have Contraints and Triggers.

The base Pbw::Area model contains the attribute "name" by default. Additional attributes can be defined for your specific models.

rails g pbw:area [Class] [additional attributes]

Example:

rails g pbw:area Room description:string

The areas generator will create:

• A model inheriting from Pbw::Area
• Backbone scaffold for your area class

Items are classes of objects within your game such as Goods, Weapons or Vehicles.

Individual items can be contained within containers associated with areas, tokens or users. They may also have conversion to other objects or transfers between containers defined.

The base Pbw::Item model contains the attribute "name" by default. Additional attributes can be defined for your specific models.

rails g pbw:item [Class] [additional attributes]

Example:

rails g pbw:item TradeGood value:float description:string

The areas generator will create:

• A model inheriting from Pbw::Item
• Backbone scaffold for your item class

Tokens are classes of objects within your game such as Characters, Starships or Cities.

Tokens may have capabilities, commands and constraints that define what they may do. Tokens may belong to a user and a user may have multiple tokens. They may also be associated with an area.

The base Pbw::Token model contains the attribute "name" by default. Additional attributes can be defined for your specific models.

rails g pbw:token [Class] [additional attributes]

Example:

rails g pbw:token Adventurer health:integer experience:integer

The tokens generator will create:

• A model inheriting from Pbw::Token
• Backbone scaffold for your token class

Capabilities are associated with tokens and may define a number of callback functions.

The base Pbw::Capability model contains the attribute "name" by default. Additional attributes can be defined for your specific models.

rails g pbw:rules:capability [Class] [additional attributes]

Example:

rails g pbw:rules:capability Movement surface:boolean air:boolean instant:boolean cloaked:boolean

The capability generator will create:

• A model inheriting from Pbw::Capability

Commands are classes of orders given to tokens by users that schedule a process to be executed. They may have parameters which define the specific order to be given.

rails g pbw:rules:command [Class] [parameters]

If the parameter "-P" is passed, this generator will call the Process generator to create the relevant process as well.

Example:

rails g pbw:rules:command MoveCommand process:true area:string

The command generator will create:

• A model inheriting from Pbw::Command
• Backbone model, views and templates for submitting commands

Constraints are associated with areas and tokens and may define a number of callback functions.

The base Pbw::Constraint model contains the attribute "name" by default. Additional attributes can be defined for your specific models.

rails g pbw:rules:constraint [Class] [additional attributes]

Example:

rails g pbw:rules:constraint ItemCapacity cargo:integer life:integer

The constraint generator will create:

• A model inheriting from Pbw::Constraint

Processes are executed actions caused by commands or triggers.

Processes may be tick based running in 0 or more ticks of the game engine or update based in which case they are scheduled to be run on the next engine update.

The base Pbw::Process model contains the attribute "name" by default. Additional attributes can be defined for your specific models.

rails g pbw:rules:process [Class] [additional attributes]

Example:

rails g pbw:rules:process Travel

The constraint generator will create:

• A model inheriting from Pbw::Process

Triggers are associated with areas and tokens and they are checked after processes are run. In turn, they may cause other processes to be run if they are run.

The base Pbw::Trigger model contains the attribute "name" by default. Additional attributes can be defined for your specific models.

rails g pbw:rules:trigger [Class] [additional attributes]

Example:

rails g pbw:rules:trigger BattleTrigger

The constraint generator will create:

• A model inheriting from Pbw::Trigger

Pbw uses Devise for authentication mounted within the Pbw engine itself.

It uses CanCan for authorisation with four types roles associated with the Pbw::User. Default permission checking at the class level is provided which can be overriden for bespoke behaviour.

Example Token permission methods:

def self.viewable_by?(user, subject)
    user.admin? || subject.user == user
end

def self.creatable_by?(user, subject)
    true
end

def self.editable_by?(user, subject)
    user.admin? || subject.user == user
end

def self.deletable_by?(user, subject)
    user.admin? || subject.user == user
end 

A subclass would provide their own class methods that will be used in preference to the base methods of the Pbw::Token class. This is true of all managed class types.