Removal of the database

Tuesday 20th October, 2015 · Posted by Roguey · 1 comments

Back in March last year I started the process of converting the X3AP/TC sites, so those sites didnt require a database. When I originally created those sites, I would get the types folder and convert those files into database tables. This was a long and complex task - which often lead to problems; which was high-lighted when the game was updated (often missing minor changes).

So for a long time I wanted to work directly with types files - making it much easier to update (just by uploading the updated files). My X-Rebirth site was my first attempt, as my code loaded in the files and converted them into tables - not removing the needed for the database but created tables from them. The X3AP/TC sites was my second attempt; this time removing the database altogether. This meant my code had to follow the same rules and conditions Egosoft had made, however crazy they were.

Due to how things went, I managed to convert 3 sections over to the new code - ships, universe and wares before stopping work on them. A few days ago I was contacted by a reader asking why my station pages had missing sections in them. This was because parts of the database were deleted, and the station section still relied on the partially existing X3AP/TC database.



So during the past days ive been re-working on the station code, removing the database requirement. This was not an easy process, as I hit quite a few problems; calculating production cycles, ware relation to rel-price and the lack of support that a database gives you. However after much work I think I had the problem solved now. Both the X3AP and X3TC now use the new code. I have also modifed the universe maps to link to the correct factories (instead of the dock page).

If everything is working correctly, then all your see if a slight change to the station pages. However under the hood its very different, working directly with the same in-game files. Due the scale of the changes there is bound to be some issues - let me know if you find any.

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