reflections

Work Completed

• PHP integration
• Session-based instances
• Ordering of questions based on effective difficulty

Summary

The core functionality seems to be complete. I've managed to get data out of the database and loaded it into the Flash movie. However, I've done it a bit differently than I described earlier.

First, the PHP script for the game page begins. It starts an HTTP session, which has a unique session id. The script creates a temporary file, named [session_id].dat. It runs a query against the database to get 5 random categories, and then runs queries to get 5 random questions from each category, and to order the questions by their difficulty, so that the most difficult questions are worth more points. It then writes this data to the temporary file.

Next, the PHP script loads the Flash movie, passing it the session id. With this session id, the Flash file can load data from the temporary file, filling up the game board with categories and questions.

Right now, I'm having some problems making the questions disappear after they are answered, so that users cannot answer a question more than once (as alluded to by Danny in his desk crit). Additionally, there are one or two other bugs I want to fix before the showcase.

Work On Tap

• Bug squashing
• Prepare for showcase