Player Overview

Distribution

You should have received the Starting Player as a Tar/GZip file. It should include all the source, shell scripts and other files needed to get you started. You can add the project to your workspace using the Eclipse menu:

    File >> Import

Choose Existing Projects into Workspace under the General drop-down. Select the Select Archive File at the top, and browse to the location of the Tar/GZip file. If you are on a CCIS Linux machine you can simply use the full path location:

    /home/lieber/.www/courses/cs4500/f09/files/source/Player/player.tgz

The Player project should be checked, and you can click Finish. The Player project should then appear in your Package Explorer.

Once the project is imported (and Eclipse compiles it), you can build a runnable JAR using the makeSubmission.sh script. You will use your team name for submissions, so I'll use "BryansTeam" for demonstration. Open a terminal and navigate to your Eclipse workspace directory.

Run the makeSubmission.sh command:

    ./makeSubmission.sh "BryansTeam"

Which will create two JAR archives: BryansTeam.jar, which is a runnable JAR, and BryansTeam_source.jar which contains just your Players source. The source will be submitted to Blackboard, and the runnable JAR will be placed in a common scratch directory, so that all the teams can have a number of players to test with.

The runnable JAR can be run using the command:

    java -jar BryansTeam.jar

Or alternatively with:

    java -cp BryansTeam.jar player.PlayerMain

If you get non-error feedback, then everything is set and you're ready to begin exploring the source and adding intelligence. If you get errors, then you must contact the course staff immediately.

Files and Organization

The directories are organized as follows:

    Player/
       overview.html
       teamreadme.sh
       makeTar.sh
       makeSubmission.sh
       scglibs.jar

       files/
          context.txt
       
       test/
          LocalGameTest.java
          PlayerTest.java
    
       player/
          PlayerMain.java
          Register.java
          Player.java
          player.mf
          PlayerServer.java
        
          tasks/
             SolveTask.java
             ReofferTask.java
             AcceptTask.java
             OfferTask.java
             ProvideTask.java

Player/: Base directory, contains all the sources. Feel free to rename this for your player, but be careful running some of these scripts.
overview.html: This File...
teamreadme.txt: The README file your team should fill in for each project submission. It should include your SCRUM info, and a development diary that describes the contribution of each team member.
makeTar.sh: Script used to make the Tar/GZip distribution.
makeSubmission.sh: Script used to make the two JARs you will submit for each project (runnable, and source).
scglibs.jar: A JAR containing all the necessary class files that you shouldn't have to worry about. It includes the DemeterF Runtime and the SCGLibs source.
test/: We've put a few test files in here to get you started. For the sake of organization you should put all Test related Java files in this package.
test/PlayerTest.java: A simple Test class for the Player.
test/LocalGameTest.java: Runs a simple game between a few of your Players in a single Java/Runtime instance. You can debug the game in Eclipse this way if you notice problems that you can't figure out when running in distributed competitions.
files/: Use this to put any test (non-java) files or other configuration files for your player. Currently there's only one file, used to test the Player with a simple context.
files/context.txt: Contains a simple PlayerContext to test the Player classes. See PlayerTest.java for how we use it.
player/: The player package, for all things Player related.
player/PlayerMain.java: The Main class for running the Player; everything starts here.
player/Register.java: Competitions require registration with the Administrator. This class handles that, and can be used/run to register a Player separately for testing or multiple competitions.
player/Player.java: Delegation point for the Player tasks. Created with a PlayerContext and a Logger. When play() is called it in-turn calls each of the player tasks, to create a final PlayerTrans.
player/player.mf: A JAR manifest file for the Player. This is included in the JAR to make it runnable, so that your submitted JAR can be run with: java -jar YourTeam.jar
player/PlayerServer.java: The HTTP server portion of the Player. This class handles the setup/binding of the server, and interaction with the Administrator over sockets.
tasks/: Package that contains the Player's tasks/functions.
tasks/SolveTask.java: A basic Solution task. Basically creates a random assignment for the variables of the given Problem.
tasks/ReofferTask.java: Reoffers all the Challenges from others. This is used when the Player doesn't find challenges worth accepting.
tasks/AcceptTask.java: Figure out what challenges to accept. This is currently done randomly, but you should add more intelligence.
tasks/OfferTask.java: Creates new challenges to be offered. Currently random, but you should offer challenges based on more information.
tasks/ProvideTask.java: Provides Problems (once accepted) for others to solve.

More Information

The source files themselves contain lots of comments and, of course, the code that makes things work. Read through them to see what we were thinking when the classes were organized/written. We will also provide a document on testing your Player with an Administrator instance both on your own, and with others... look for that in the course directories.