For my next game I want to create a turn based game along the lines of Words With Friends, but I don't know where to start for the server side of the things and the whole push notifications type scenario. I need something that would word over http so I could get it to work for all platforms. Anyone have any information on how to go about something like this?
I'd be interested in something like this too, as I had pretty much the same idea. The interenet side of coding is something I;ve never done, not even on-line high-score tables, and I haven't go the foggiest idea of where to start.
The server side is not so difficult as you think PHP supports TCP sockets which are ideal to communicate with any app you create. The server code on the php page remains dormant until a request comes in which you parse and then send to all connected clients.
This read is useful but simply the comments in the php online help would be adequate.
http://www.devshed.com/c/a/PHP/Socket-Programming-With-PHP/ (http://www.devshed.com/c/a/PHP/Socket-Programming-With-PHP/)
For communication with PHP, you can also have or look at /samples/network/internetsessions.
Or when you have a small server (there are cheap managed V-Servers available), you can program everything with GLBasic.
Ok; I wasn't really wanting to get into a socket based system; that's not really something I've done before, but what you said did get me thinking I should be able to use http with a standard web service. So I created a quick test REST service in .NET using WCF and was able to connect from GLBasic and get my payload with NETWEBGET$. Took all of 10 minutes to get that working.
It will probably take me a weekend to turn it into something actually useful; but it will definitely work for what I want. Thanks!