Player IDs v7

• status: complete
• version: 7.x
• follows from: Player List

Overview

To exchange messages between players or between a logic and a player, it is necessary to know the id of the recipient of a message.

Own ID

The own id is available under:

node.player.id

ID of Players in a Game Room

By default, the list of players' objects is available only to the logic and stored in a PlayerList object under: node.game.pl.

If players need to get the IDs of other players in the same game room, there are the following possibilities.

Replying to an incoming message

Every incoming message contains the ID of the sender under msg.from.

node.on.data('INCOMING_MSG', function(msg) {
    var idOfSender = msg.from;
    // Reply "Thanks".
    node.say('THANKS', idOfSender);
});

Note: to send a message to the logic, the alias "SERVER" can be used as a recipient's id.

Matcher API

Use the Matcher API to share the ID of a partner (currently the API supports only matching players in pairs). The ID of a player's partner is stored under:

node.game.partner

Enabling onConnect notifications for players

Adjust the channel configuration to notify players of each others connections.

notify: {

        // When a player connects / disconnects.
        onConnect: true,
}

The list of players will then be available under node.game.pl, as in logic.

This setting is safe in lab experiments, but it should be used with caution in online experiments.

Custom Sharing of IDs

This is the most flexible option for sharing the IDs, but requires some code on both logic and players.

logic

// Get the ids of all players.
let ids = node.game.pl.id.getAllKeys(); 
ids.forEach(function(idx, i) {
    // Send the other ids to each player.
    node.say('PARTNERS', idx, ids.slice(0,i).concat(ids.slice(i+1));
});

player

node.on.data('PARTNERS', function(msg) {
    // Store a reference to the ids for later use.
    node.game.partners = msg.data;
});

Additional Methods to Get Player IDs

Listening to Connections, Reconnections, Disconnections

New players connecting to a game room will trigger a "PCONNECT" event on the logic.

node.on.pconnect(function(player) {
    var idOfConnectingClient = player.id;
    console.log('Somebody connected: ', idOfConnectingClient);
});

Note: players that are placed in a room at creation will not trigger the "PCONNECT" event.

Similarly, the id of disconnecting and reconnecting players is available through the "PDISCONNECT" and "PRECONNECT" events.

node.on.pdisconnect(function(player) {
    var idOfDisconnectedClient = player.id;
    console.log('Somebody disconnected: ', idOfDisconnectedClient);
});

node.on.preconnect(function(player) {
    var idOfReconnectingClient = player.id;
    console.log('Somebody reconnected: ', idOfReconnectingClient);
});

Access All IDs through the Channel Registry

The logic has access to the channel registry.

// IDs of all clients (logics, monitors, bots, players) ever connected to any room in the the channel.
channel.registry.getIds();

// IDs of all players (bots and players) ever connected to any room in the channel. 
channel.registry.clients.player.getAllKeys();

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