Q: What is SmartFoxServer Lite?
The idea behind SmartFoxServer Lite
is to provide a free educational tool that will help Flash
developers to learn the concepts of multiuser applications
and games.
You will find, together with the server, several step-by-step
tutorials that will guide you from the very basics up to
the creation of fully functional applications and games.
We also plan to update the section in the future, adding
more tutorials and articles and we would also like to publish
your creations and articles done with SmartFox!
Q: What SmartFoxServer Lite can
do?
SmartFoxServer Lite will enable you to easily and
quickly create all kind of multiuser applications, games,
chats, whiteboards...
It is made of three main parts:
1) The Java server
2) The Flash API component called SmartFoxClient
Lite
3) The online tutorials and demos
Here's a list of features:
- Create Zones (groups of Rooms)
- Create Rooms (groups of Users)
- Create Game Rooms
- Server side variables: User Variables and Room Variables
- Exchange structured Actionscript objects transparently
- Users can join multiple rooms at one time
- Server keep all users synchronized about other users,
rooms and zones event.
- Simple event-driven programming model
- And much more ...
Q: What are the limitations of SmartFoxServer
Lite?
Being an educational tool it lacks of some advanced
features such as direct database access, custom server side
extensions and administration tools.
However most of these functionalities are used by expert
multiplayer developers
while SmartFoxServer Lite is targeted to
a less advanced audience.
The maximum amount of concurrent connections is limited
to 50.
Q: Is SmartFoxServer Lite free?
Yes, you can download SmartFoxServer Lite
for free and freely redistribute it.
Q: What do I need to run SmartFoxServer
Lite?
SmartFoxServer Lite is a pure 100% Java application,
so it can run on all platforms capable of running the JRE
version 1.4.2 or higher.
It will run on any Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003, Linux and
MacOS X (10.3 and higher). To downlad the latest Java Runtime
please check
this url.
The minimum hardware requirements are:
300Mhz CPU
32Mb of RAM
5Mb of free disk space
Q: Are the examples compatible with
Flash MX2004?
All the examples provided were created using Flash MX and
exported for the Flash player 6. All the source files will
work under Flash MX2004 without problems.
After you have downloaded and installed SmartFoxServer
Lite you will find a folder called "API
Components" containing two versions of the
SmartFoxClient extension, one for Flash
MX and the other for Flash MX2004.
Just double click on the one you want to install and you're
ready to use it!
Q: Will SmartFoxServer Lite slow
down my computer?
SmartFoxServer Lite is not a resident software,
nor it runs in the background.
In our tests SmartFoxServer handled 500 clients and
about 6-8Mbit of network traffic on a low-end P2-350 consuming
little cpu time (around 15-20%)
It will only use very little resources when it's running,
and since it will handle a maximum of 50
concurrent connections it will consume almost no cpu resources and very little
memory.
Q: Do I need to be an expert programmer
to follow the SmartFoxServer tutorials?
The tutorials that you will find in these pages
will guide you step by step through the basics up to the
creation of fully functional applications and games.
In order to be able to grasp all the concepts some good
Actionscript foundations are required. You don't need to
be a guru, but if you have just moved the first steps in
coding with Flash then you should take your time to learn
all the basics before proceeding with these multiuser articles.
Q: Do I need to know Java in order
to learn from the articles?
No Java knowledge is needed. The sample applications
are all written in Flash and that's the only tool you should
know to follow the tutorials.
Q: There are many multiuser servers
out there. Why should I learn how to use this one?
SmartFoxServer Lite was created with simplicity
in mind and as a learning tool it's not as complicated as
a full-fledged multiplayer server.
We've tried to keep everything as easy as possible implementing
powerful commands that will enable you to start learning
multiplayer applications quickly and easily.
Through our set of tutorials you will be learning the basics
and intermediate concepts that are common to all multiuser
games and apps, so moving to another server technology will
not be too difficult as you already know the problems involved
in the development of such applications.
Q: I use a personal firewall on
my computer. Can this create problems?
Not necessarily but it may give some problems:
it depends alot on its configuration.
SmartFoxServer Lite accepts connection
on TCP port number 9339 so you must ensure that your firewall
will not block network traffic on that port.
If you are behind a firewall in a LAN you should then ask
permissions to your network administrator.
Q: Can I use SmartFoxServer Lite
in a production environment?
SmartFoxServer Lite is a stable server
but it was not done for production.
The main reasons are that it lacks a number of security
checks (flood filters, request validations etc...) and it
doesn't have any administration tool.
Even if there's no problem with running your own test applications
and games we wouldn't recommend to use it for production.
There are 2 commercial SmartFoxServer versions
available for production environments and with a lot more
features:
- unlimited number of concurrent connections (handle several
thousands users on a single CPU server)
- high performance and scalability by using the latest Java
1.4 NIO libraries
- multiple RDBMS support through JDBC drivers
- extension framework that will allow developers to write
server-side logic and server-extensions very easily using
different languages, not only Java.
- Advanced administration graphical interface
- Anti-flood filters
- and much much much more ...
You can check them at www.smartfoxserver.com
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