Re: [Rails-devel] using dropbox

[Jim B. <jim...@ya...>]

Chris Shaffer wrote:
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2009 07:39:12 -0700
> From: Chris Shaffer <chr...@gm...>
> Subject: [Rails-devel] Using dropbox
> To: rai...@li...
> Message-ID:
> 	<ad2...@ma...>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Someone posted on BoardGameGeek that they are using Rails to play by  
> email
> with DropBox, a file sharing service.  The players presumably just  
> need to
> email each other to say "it's your turn."  Very neat.

I've been playing 18xx pbem using rails and and a dropbox, with the  
person who posted on BGG.

Here's a quick overview of what dropbox does for us, in tandem with  
rails-

First, dropbox essentially it gives you a shared folder 'in the  
cloud'- it looks like a local/desktop folder, but gets automatically  
sync'd across everyone.  (www.getdropbox.com)

No saving attachments and forwarding along- we save directly to the  
dropbox, from rails.  (As I mentioned, it looks like a local drive.)

We see a shared record of the game.

We use a java runtime option to coerce timestamps into UTC format, so  
the default Rails filenames all sequence properly across timezones.

Also, dropbox supports notifications- I see popup notifications on my  
mac, via growl- so, we don't even really need to email each other when  
we move (though we typically do).  Instead, we use a reserved/ 
placeholder file in a game folder (a 'token'), that we update to name  
the next player.

It works quite well- I get notifications of someone's move from  
dropbox, long before I usually get the email.  I quickly notice any  
game activity, and immediately can see if it's my move in any current  
game(s)- it's also easy to review the 'current player' across a bunch  
of games simultaneously.  And, of course, I get a lot less unnecessary  
email noise and corrections, from the pbem.

Rails has been working well!  We've stumbled into some bugs (which we  
filed), but overall it's very simple and easy to use.

- jim