Reading an external file

[Kratilim]

Hi ppl,

Is it possible to read data from an external file? It doesn't really matter what type it is, but txt would be preferable (or at least something with plain text inside it).

The idea is that a web page modifies a certain local file, and that on speceific moments in the game, the game read it out and does stuff with the data it got from the file.

Anyone know how I would be able to do this?

Thanks!

[Blade[UG]]

Not without writing a DLLBind to do it.

[Demestotenes]

(1) UDK can read configs. (the ini files) but only on startup

(2) If you want to communicate with a web page, better use TCPLink
Theres even an example with communicating to web page (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TcpLink.html )
Also a web server ( http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/WebServer.html ) - but i dont know what it does.

[Kratilim]

(1) UDK can read configs. (the ini files) but only on startup

(2) If you want to communicate with a web page, better use TCPLink
Theres even an example with communicating to web page (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TcpLink.html )
Also a web server ( http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/WebServer.html ) - but i dont know what it does.

I've been trying to figure out how to use TCPlink. But I can't figure it out. I plan to use it to read data from a website or java based web application and use the read data ingame to change the players inventory (for example). Anyone know how I could use TCPlink for that? The most optimal situation would be that I could integrate some kind of command into kismet that I can trigger the reading of data through kismet or something likke that.

Could anyone lend me a hand?

[Demestotenes]

Can you run your own program on the server you use?

[Kratilim]

Can you run your own program on the server you use?

What exactly do you meen?

[Demestotenes]

Can you run your own .exe on the remote web server?

[Kratilim]

Can you run your own .exe on the remote web server?

Not really no. I must confess that I'm still exploring the possibility if it can work at all. If I know it can work, then I can start creating the web based app. The way the player would use it is that the player uses the web based app to communicate with other players, trade in inventory items and what not, and communicate that back to unreal to modify the player appropriately.

That is what I'd like to accomplish. If it can work, I'm going to ask a friend of mine to create the web based stuff for me. But I want to know if its possible at all first. (this stufff is for a school project btw)

[Demestotenes]

Theres a quick solution for making webserver-to-UDK data transfer.
( http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TcpLink.html )
At the end of this page, theres example code to download. Use the class TcpLinkClient.
It automatically requests a webpage in HTTP protocol and then gets the HTML text.

You could make a PHP script on your page, which would create the appropirate HTML file (and it would be dled by UDK)

Using that example code on google.com i got the following result. The HTML page is downloaded.

ScriptLog: [TcpLinkClient] Resolving: www.google.com
ScriptLog: Create link
ScriptLog: [TcpLinkClient] www.google.com resolved to 74.125.39.99:0
ScriptLog: [TcpLinkClient] Bound to port: 49940
Log: CheckConnectionAttempt: Connection attempt has not yet completed.
Log: CheckConnectionAttempt: Connection attempt has not yet completed.
Log: CheckConnectionAttempt: Connection attempt has not yet completed.
Log: CheckConnectionAttempt: Connection attempt has not yet completed.
ScriptLog: [TcpLinkClient] event opened
ScriptLog: [TcpLinkClient] Sending simple HTTP query
ScriptLog: [TcpLinkClient] end HTTP query
ScriptLog: [TcpLinkClient] ReceivedText:: HTTP/1.0 302 Found
Location: http://www.google.pl/
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Set-Cookie: PREF=ID=d8a76e6020ebfee0:TM=1277212262:LM=12772122 62:S=qONC9I6eKKRKk3lW; expires=Thu, 21-Jun-2012 13:11:02 GMT; path=/; domain=.google.com
Set-Cookie: NID=36=eZgu1WTeZJgbi23qYJ0CXOP8iUDckhbrOdTKcrBP9QS vxUPtZDPZh_-_Upxnbzoa2V4s1rh0z0BXDxRaWlwr3Gn65wYOr_Ot5_fww-QUXcECZuhzltCPhDZwPj1VOyy8; expires=Wed
, 22-Dec-2010 13:11:02 GMT; path=/; domain=.google.com; HttpOnly
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:11:02 GMT
Server: gws
Content-Length: 218
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block

<HTML><HEAD><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
<TITLE>302 Moved</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
<H1>302 Moved</H1>
The document has moved
<A HREF="http://www.google.pl/">here</A>.
</BODY></HTML>

ScriptLog: [TcpLinkClient] event closed

[Kratilim]

Theres a quick solution for making webserver-to-UDK data transfer.
( http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TcpLink.html )
At the end of this page, theres example code to download. Use the class TcpLinkClient.
It automatically requests a webpage in HTTP protocol and then gets the HTML text.

You could make a PHP script on your page, which would create the appropirate HTML file (and it would be dled by UDK)

Using that example code on google.com i got the following result. The HTML page is downloaded.

This is probably a very noobish question... But how do I make sure it actually uses/calls the TCPLinkClient script? Where do I call uppon it to make sure it reads google.com? When I put the script in my script folder, it does nothing by itself.

[Demestotenes]

I placed an exec function in GameInfo and then called it with console.

class DemeUIGame extends GameInfo;

exec function CreateLink()
{
	 Spawn(class'TcpLinkClient');
	`Log("Create link");
}

DefaultProperties
{ 
	PlayerControllerClass=class'DemeUIPlayerController'
	HUDType=class'DemeUIHud'
}

[Kratilim]

I placed an exec function in GameInfo and then called it with console.

class DemeUIGame extends GameInfo;

exec function CreateLink()
{
	 Spawn(class'TcpLinkClient');
	`Log("Create link");
}

DefaultProperties
{ 
	PlayerControllerClass=class'DemeUIPlayerController'
	HUDType=class'DemeUIHud'
}

Thanks!

Now for the next thing. Since XML would be the most usefull way to read/write data. Is there a way to read out XML data and assign the read values to specific strings and such? In other words, Sectioning off parts of what it reads as seperate data.

[Demestotenes]

There are alot of helpful functions for string processing
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Strin...ealScript.html

[hramajo]

Since XML would be the most usefull way to read/write data. Is there a way to read out XML data and assign the read values to specific strings and such? In other words, Sectioning off parts of what it reads as seperate data.

It is doable, but it involves C++ programming.
Just done it myself, made a DLL that reads and writes to a XML file.
Used a premade library in C++ called TinyXML.
http://www.grinninglizard.com/tinyxmldocs/index.html
and integrated that with the example code for DLLbind from the UDN pages.

[Blade[UG]]

Thanks!

Now for the next thing. Since XML would be the most usefull way to read/write data. Is there a way to read out XML data and assign the read values to specific strings and such? In other words, Sectioning off parts of what it reads as seperate data.

XML is very, very rarely useful or desireable.

[Demestotenes]

XML is very, very rarely useful or desireable.

Yes
I would rather make it like UDK's configs

variable_name=value
other_var=other_value
...

and then add a switch-case analyser for those files.

switch(VarName)
{
case "MyInt":
MyInt = int(VarValue);
break;
case "SomeOtherInt":
SomeOtherInt = int(VarValue);
break;
}

Or maybe utilise name somehow ( i dont know, but maybe its possible to assign a variable just knowing its name (during runtime).