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AppGameKit Studio Chat / Is AGK Studio capable?

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ruckertheron
7
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Joined: 12th Nov 2016
Location:
Posted: 11th Jun 2019 15:18
I am attempting to do an app in which one can answer questions and gain points for the right answer. Easy right?? The thing is...

1. I want to be able to update or change the questions from time to time after the app is completed.
2. I want to be able to store values somewhere in the cloud so they can access there own score.
3. I want to be able to add a donate button.

Which one of these are capable?


ruckertheron
7
Years of Service
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Joined: 12th Nov 2016
Location:
Posted: 11th Jun 2019 16:49
Also I want to be able to access those scores. I have family across the country. I want them to be able to download the app and answer the questions to where I can access the data from where I am..
Dybing
12
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Joined: 12th Sep 2011
Location: Bergen, Norway
Posted: 11th Jun 2019 17:08 Edited at: 11th Jun 2019 17:14
To answer your questions - and these apply equally to AppGameKit Studio and Classic

1. I want to be able to update or change the questions from time to time after the app is completed.

Yes, but you'll need an API server running somewhere on the interwebs that your app checks with to find if there are any updates to the questions (and answers I assume)

2. I want to be able to store values somewhere in the cloud so they can access there own score.

Yes, but this complicates matters a tiny bit, as each user need their own unique ID (which is not the same as user-name) and to prevent cheating, some security on the API.

3. I want to be able to add a donate button.

If an app on desktop, no problem. If on iOS or Android, neither Apple nor Google are too fond of 'alternative' payments unless they get their 30% (exceptions exist for charities). So a donate button in the app is a big no-no if publishing on those platforms. However you can have a link to a website, and on that website have a donate button. What I did for a little app, where I had a big button marked 'About' which would take one to one of my blog-posts explaining how the app works, and a link to paypal for donations. Gotten a few as well, but it's not big money as such. A couple of dollars here and there.

And to expand a bit on 1 & 2:

The easiest is to write a little REST API app and host on an AWS (or other cloud provider) Ubuntu VM - but that assumes you have knowledge in a language that will do that - and some basic Linux knowledge. Also this cost money, the smallest VM is about 20USD a month.

An alternative is Google Firebase, but it can be a bit of a challenge to set up properly. The good news is, it's free up to a point (more here: https://firebase.google.com/pricing/). The other good news is that it uses a real-time DB so across the world, updates to your database will propogate through to the clients near instantly. Not sure though how well the more advanced features of Firebase is supported by AGK.

Third alternative is to host your own server at home - preferably on something simple, like a Raspberry Pi. Then you need look into getting a DNS address that will auto-update your IP address as I assume you're on a commercial ISP that don't include a static IP. Have a look at noip here: https://www.noip.com/ - one big advantage for this if you're a beginner is that you can write and run your server app in AppGameKit as well, as AppGameKit is available for free on the Raspberry Pi.

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