FEWS Game application configuration
What |
application_config.xml |
---|---|
Description |
Configuration of the FEWS Game application |
schema location |
application_config.xsd |
In the application configuration, global settings for the FEWS Game which are valid for all scenarios/scripts can be specified.
Schema definition
The structure of the XML-schema for the application configuration is as follows:
Explanation
The keys in the XML-schema are explained in the figure above. Some of the keys are explained in more detail here.
- The value of the key
Locale
must be a 2-letter abbreviation of the language in which the game will be played (e.g. EN for English or NL for Dutch). - Historical scenarios/scripts may be familiar to players of the game. Therefore it is possible to hide the year of the scenario/script in the FEWS Game by setting the flag
HideYear
to true. Note that for the FEWS Game a copy of the operational system should be used since some changes in the FEWS configuration are required; see below. - The key
FewsExecutable
must contain the (absolute or relative) path to the FEWS executable, which is usually located in thebin
-directory of a FEWS release. On the Linux platform, the FEWS executable is the shell scriptfews.sh
. See below for required changes in the FEWS configuration. - The key
FewsRegionDir
is the (absolute or relative) path to the so-called region directory of FEWS. The region directory contains the FEWS configuration (theConfig
-subdirectory) and the global properties for the FEWS configuration. The FEWS Game is generic and can be used with any FEWS configuration. Note that on a Windows system, the FEWS region directory is also specified in the so-calledjpif
-file that is located in thebin
-directory of the FEWS system. This specification must be consistent with the one inFewsRegionDir
. - The system time in FEWS is controlled by the FEWS Game. The frequency for updating the FEWS system time is specified by the key
FewsSystemTimeUpdateInMinutes
. See below for required changes in the FEWS configuration. - Scenarios/scripts that can be played with the FEWS Game must be part of a scenario/script database. The key
ScenarioDatabasePath
contains the (absolute or relative) path to the scenario/script database. - Events in a script can be associated with a file that is executed during the game. For example, a pdf-file can be associated with an event to simulate an incoming e-mail or an mp3-file to simulate telephone calls. Using the key
FileAssociation
, programs can be specified with which files with indicated extensions must be processed. Default file associations are used if nothing is specified here. - In the section
TimeControl
the presence of buttons for time control during the game can be configured, namely aPause/Play
button, aNext
button for jumping to the next scheduled event in the script, andFast Forward/Backward
buttons for speeding up/down time. - Communication between FEWS and the FEWS Game is handled by the so-called FEWS PI service. This service requires a port number that must be specified in the section
FewsPiPortNumber
. See below for required changes in the FEWS configuration. - The FEWS Game can also be played in a combined setting developed for the Dutch Water Service (Waterdienst). In such a combined setting, the hostname and the port number for connecting to the combined game must be specified in
ServerHostName
andServerPort
, respectively. In a stand-alone FEWS Game these keys are not relevant.
FEWS configuration
It is advisable to use a copy of the operational system for the FEWS Game, to prevent any possible obstructions to the operational activities. Also, some minor changes are needed in the FEWS configuration in order to use it with the FEWS Game:
- In order to hide the year within FEWS, the
dateTimeFormat
must be configured accordingly in thedateTime
section of the FEWS configuration fileExplorer.xml
. - The
cardinalTimeStep
, as configured in thedateTime
section of the FEWS configuration fileExplorer.xml
{}color, should be consistent withFewsSystemTimeUpdateInMinutes
. Indeed, it makes no sense to set it in the FEWS Game to 1 minute, while it is set to 1 hour in the FEWS configuration (although this will not cause any problems in the game). - Since all data for a scenario is pre-loaded in the FEWS local data store, it is desirable to hide certain data after the current system time, e.g. measurement data. This can be accomplished by specifying
hideExternalHistoricalAfterSystemTime=true
in the fileglobal.properties
, which is located in the FEWS configuration directory. - The port number
FewsPiPortNumber
for the FEWS PI service has to be in the range of port numbers that must be specified in the FEWS configuration fileExplorer.xml
in the directorySystemConfigFiles
, e.g.<piServicePortRange start="8100" end="8200"/>
- To distinguish the FEWS configuration for the FEWS Game, one could change the name and panel labels in
Explorer.xml
, which you will find in the directorySystemConfigFiles
. The name of the Explorer window is configured withsystemCaption
and the name of the panels withpanelHeaderLabels
. - Depending on the set-up of the Scenario and script database, an additional change could be required, see Scenario and script database.
Aan al deze namen zou je iets van TRAINING of SERIOUS GAME kunnen toevoegen.
Example
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <Config xmlns="http://localhost" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://localhost ../../../../../xml-schemas/application_config.xsd"> <Name>Example of application configuration</Name> <Locale>EN</Locale> <HideYear>true</HideYear> <FewsExecutable>FEWS\bin\FewsNoordzee_SA.exe</FewsExecutable> <FewsRegionDir>FEWS\FewsNoordzee_SA</FewsRegionDir> <FewsSystemTimeUpdateInMinutes>1</FewsSystemTimeUpdateInMinutes> <ScenarioDatabasePath>ScenarioDatabase</ScenarioDatabasePath> <FileAssociation extension="pdf">C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe</FileAssociation> <TimeControl> <Pause>true</Pause> <Next>false</Next> <FastForwardBackward>true</FastForwardBackward> </TimeControl <FewsPiPortNumber>8100</FewsPiPortNumber>