Udacity Design a Game: Tic Tac Toe

Section 0: Intro

This API is built with python running on the Google Cloud Platform, powered by API Endpoints. The API is designed for a game of tic tac toe against an AI.

Section 1: Setup environment:

1. Install the Google Cloud SDK for your environment. A install guide can be found here
2. Install the SDK for App Engine for Python. You can find an install guide here

Section 2: Install and run

Clone or download this project. Open a terminal and navigate to its path. Using dev_appserver.py .you can run the app.

Section 3: Usage

Open a browser and navigate to localhost:8080/_ah/api/explorer (default settings). Note: If you see the API Explorer window but no API listed, you may have to launch your browser in dev mode. For Chrome on Mac use the following command /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --user-data-dir=test --allow-running-insecure-content

Section 3.1: Tips on Testing

• To make it easier to test cronjobs and start over with a new database every time, you can start the appserver with some flags. Navigate to the folder with the app.yaml file: dev_appserver.py --dev_appserver_log_level=info --clear_datastore=yes --enable_sendmail=yes --show_mail_body=yes .
• You can start you browser with the API Explorer ready to go by launching Google Chrome from the command line using these arguments and flags: ```/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome http://localhost:8080/_ah/api/explorer http://localhost:8000 --user-data-dir=test --allow-running-insecure-content --disable-extensions --no-first-run --no-default-browser-check``

Section 4: Description

The board is represented as a string, e.g. X00OX0OOX. It comprises 9 fields, every 3 fields is a row:

X	0	0
O	X	0
O	O	X

In this example, player X (user) wins with marks on postion 1, 5, and 9

Section 5: Play!

Launch the API Explorer (localhost:8080/_ah/api/explorer) and click the tic_tac_toe API. You'll find a list of endpoints which you can use.

1. Create a user (tic_tac_toe.create_user) and memorize the user name.
2. Create a game (tic_tac_toe.new_game) with the user_name from step 1 and copy the games key from the response.
3. Make a move (tic_tac_toe.make_move) with the game key copied in step 2. Mark the numeric field which you want to mark as an X. The AI will make a move immediately and returns the marks in the response (see message attribute). Example: If you want to mark the field in the middle of the board (horizontally and vertically) with an X, mark field with index 5. To mark the upper right corner field, mark field with index 3 and so on.

Section 5.1: Score Keeping

If you win a game, your win gets written to the database with a date and a win flag.

Section 6: Files Included

• api.py: Contains endpoints and game playing logic.
• app.yaml: App configuration.
• cron.yaml: Cronjob configuration.
• main.py: Handler for taskqueue handler.
• models.py: Entity definitions and their helpful functions.
• utils.py: Helper function for retrieving ndb.Models by urlsafe Key string.

Section 7: Endpoints Included

• create_user

  • Path: 'user'
  • Method: POST
  • Parameters: user_name, email (optional)
  • Returns: Message confirming creation of the User.
  • Description: Creates a new User. user_name provided must be unique. Will raise a ConflictException if a User with that user_name already exists.

• new_game

  • Path: 'game'
  • Method: POST
  • Parameters: user_name
  • Returns: GameForm with initial game state.
  • Description: Creates a new Game. user_name provided must correspond to an existing user - will raise a NotFoundException if not.

• get_game

  • Path: 'game/{urlsafe_game_key}'
  • Method: GET
  • Parameters: urlsafe_game_key
  • Returns: GameForm with current game state.
  • Description: Returns the current state of a game.

• make_move

  • Path: 'game/{urlsafe_game_key}'
  • Method: PUT
  • Parameters: urlsafe_game_key
  • Returns: GameForm with new game state.
  • Description: If this causes a game to end, a corresponding Score entity will be created.

• get_scores

  • Path: 'scores'
  • Method: GET
  • Parameters: None
  • Returns: ScoreForms.
  • Description: Returns all Scores in the database (unordered).

• get_user_scores

  • Path: 'scores/user/{user_name}'
  • Method: GET
  • Parameters: user_name
  • Returns: ScoreForms.
  • Description: Returns all Scores recorded by the provided player (unordered). Will raise a NotFoundException if the User does not exist.

• get_user_games

  • Path: 'games/user/{user_name}'
  • Method: GET,
  • Parameters: user_name
  • Returns GameForms.
  • Description: Returns all of a User's active games

• cancel_game

  • Path: 'game/{urlsafe_game_key}/cancel'
  • Method: PUT,
  • Parameters: urlsafe_game_key
  • Returns GameForm.
  • Description: This endpoint allows users to cancel a game in progress.

• get_game_history

  • Path: 'game/{urlsafe_game_key}/history'
  • Method: GET,
  • Parameters: urlsafe_game_key
  • Returns GameForm.
  • Description: Return the history of a game

• get_user_rankings

  • Path: 'users/ranking'
  • Method: GET,
  • Parameters: none
  • Returns UserForms.
  • Description: Returns all players ranked by performance. The Player with the most wins gets ranked first, the one with the least wins last and so forth.

Section 7: Cronjobs

Every monday at 09:00, a cronjob gets called, sending out an email to every user who has open games to remind him to continue playing.

• Path: /crons/send_reminder
• Method: GET
• Parameters: none
• Return Status

Section 8: Models Included

• User

  • Stores unique user_name and (optional) email address.

• Game

  • Stores unique game states. Associated with User model via KeyProperty.

• Score

  • Records completed games. Associated with Users model via KeyProperty.

Section 9: Forms Included

• GameForm
  • Representation of a Game's state (urlsafe_key, game_over flag, message, user_name, cancelled).
• GameForms
  • Multiple GameForm container.
• NewGameForm
  • Used to create a new game (user_name)
• MakeMoveForm
  • Inbound make move form (mark).
• UserForm
  • Representation of a User (name, email, wins).
• UserForms
  • Multiple UserForm container.
• ScoreForm
  • Representation of a completed game's Score (user_name, date, won flag).
• ScoreForms
  • Multiple ScoreForm container.
• StringMessage
  • General purpose String container.