Further Explorations - HTML5 Canvas - page 909

This Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
There is much more you can do with ElectroServer than what we showed you in this chapter.
Sending and receiving PublicMessage events can get you only so far when designing multi-
user/multiplayer applications.
Tostartdesigningmultiplayerapplicationsseriously,youwillneedtodelveintotheextension
and plug-in architecture of ElectroServer, as well as explore plug-in events, which are used
to communicate to the server portion of an application. We suggest you check out ht-
tp://www.electrotank.com/es5.html formoreinformationaboutthesocketserver.Youcanalso
read ActionScript for Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds by Jobe Makar (New Riders).
Even though it centers on Flash and an earlier version of ElectroServer, the architectural in-
formationaboutdesigningappsforasocketserveriswellworthyourtime.Youcancheckout
the current ElectroServer JavaScript Client API .
At the same time, ElectroServer can be used with technologies other than Canvas (such as
Flash, iOS, and so on), so Canvas will be able to communicate with other socket servers via
JavaScript and WebSockets. We chose to base this example on ElectroServer because it al-
lowedustocreateafullapplication foryoutotestandworkthrough.Otherlibrariesandtools
areboundtoappearverysoonthatcanworkwithCanvas—forexample, theSmartFoxserver ,
which now supports WebSockets and JavaScript without add-ons.