Planetside 2 live activity stats and leaderboard.

The .NET Core 3.1 SDK and Runtime (the runtime is included with the SDK) is required to build and run the app. Download the latest version of the .NET Core 3.1 SDK from the downloads page.

This is the database provider used to store all data for the app.

1. Download and run the installer from Microsoft's website.

   • Note the location to which the installer extracted the setup files.

2. If SQL Server Installation Center did not automatically open, navigate to the folder where the installer extracted the setup files (SQLEXPR_x64_ENU or SQLEXPR_x86_ENU) and run SETUP.EXE.

3. Select New SQL Server stand-alon installation or add features to an existing installation.

4. Advance through the installer until reaching the Installation Type page. Select Perform a new installation of SQL Server 2017.

5. On the Feature Select page, check Database Engine Services and, optionally, SQL Server Replication. Change the the Instance root directory if you want.

6. On the Instace Configuration page, set both the Named instance and Instance ID fields to "SQLEXPRESS" (without quotes).

7. Leave the Server Configuration with its default values.

8. If running the app on your own local computer, select Windows authentication mode on the Database Engine Configuration page and Add Current User to the list of SQL Server administrators. If you're running the app in some other manner, I can't help you.

9. Continue advancing through the installer until it begins the actual installation. Once completed, it will show whether the installation succeeded.

10. It's not strictly required, but I'd recommend now downloading and installing SQL Server Management Studio.

Using a registered Service ID permits unthrottled querying of the Census API. Without one, you're limited to 10 queries per minute (e.g. 10 character lookups). This app greatly exceeds that limit, so you will need to get your own Service ID.

1. Apply for a service ID on the DBG Census API website. You'll receive an email notification once your request has been processed (I received mine within a few hours, but your results may vary).

2. Open Control Panel > System and Security > System > Advanced system settings. In the System Properties window that opens, select the Environment Variables... button on the Advanced tab. The Environment Variables window will open.

3. Under User veriables for username, select New... to add a new user variable with name "DaybreakGamesServiceKey" (without the quotes) and a value of your census API service key. Click OK to accept the new variable.

.NET Core 3.1 is only compatible with Visual Studio 2019 (v16.4). Download the free community edition here.

The commands folder contains files for starting the app and managing various related services.

Several of these must be run as administrator (Right Click > Run as administrator) to work correctly. For the files you'll run more often, I'd suggest creating a shortcut set to always run as administrator:

1. Create the shortcut
   Right Click on .bat file > Create shortcut. You can put move shortcut wherever you'd like.

2. Set the shortcut to run as administrator
   Right Click on the shortcut > Shortcut tab > Click the Advanced... button at the bottom > Check the _Run as administrator_ box.

BuildApp.bat
Run this if it's the first time running the app, or you just synced changes from the repository.

After a successful build, you'll be prompted to run the app. While the build itself does not require being run as administrator, if you want to run the app from this prompt you must run BuildApp.bat as administrator.

RunApp.bat
Run this as administrator to start the app. In a web browser navigate to the URL displayed after the Now listening on: ... console message (e.g. http://localhost:55574).

Note: The app will continue to collect Planetside 2 activity data while the app is running, regardless of whether you have the site open in a browser.

To stop the app gracefully, press Ctrl+C in the Command Prompt. Enter Y at the Cancel batch job? prompt.

StopSqlServer.bat
Run this as administrator to stop the SQL Server service. You should do this after stopping the app.

StartSqlServer.bat
Run this as administrator to start the SQL Server service. You shouldn't ever need to run this file if you're only running the app (i.e. not doing development), as RuntBat.bat automatically starts the SQL Server service if it's not already running.

DeleteOldSqlData.bat
See Maintenance section below.

Free SQL Database Space
Any given database instance of SQL Server 2017 Express is limited to 10gb in size. If running the app fairly frequently, you'll occasionally need to delete old data. Run commands\DeleteOldSqlData.bat as administrator to delete event data (deaths, logins, logouts) more than 2 days old and rebuild the associated indexes.

Update Weapon & Item Data
New weapons or items added to the game won't automatically be picked up by the app. Instead, stop the app, run commands\DeleteItemSqlData.bat as administrator, then restart the app. When the app restarts, these tables will be repopulated with the new weapons and items.

If you don't see your issue below, please write up an Issue.

When attempting to run the app, you get an error message like this:
An error occured initializing the DB. Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)

This means that the SQL Database service has been stopped for some reason. Manually start the service, then try running the app again.

1. Run squittal.LivePlanetmans\commands\StartSqlServer.bat (or your StopSqlServer.bat shortcut) as administrator.

1. Open the Services Windows app.

2. Scroll down to SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS). If the service has stopped, the Status column value will be blank.

3. Select Start from the row's right-click menu to restart the service.

The SQL Server Windows NT process started suddenly taking up a large amount of CPU, Memory, or Disk resources even though you're not currently running the app.

The SQL database & associated service are independant of the leaderboard app itself, and so they'll continue to run after the app is stopped. Manually stop the SQL Server service after closing the app, and restart it before running the app again.

1. Run squittal.LivePlanetmans\commands\StopSqlServer.bat (or your StopSqlServer.bat shortcut) as administrator.

1. Open the Services Windows app.

2. Scroll down to SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS). If the service is running, it will show Running in the Status column.

3. Select Stop from the row's right-click menu to stop the service.

1. Ending the SQL Server Windows NT process in Task Manager will stop the appropriate services, freeing up system resources.

1. If the SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) service is set to start with your computer, it will show Automatic under the Startup Type column. If you don't want this behavior, right-click and select Properties.

2. Set Startup type to Manual.

   You will need to ensure the service is running each time before starting the leaderboard app: select Start from the right-click menu.

This is a project for me to learn C# & .NET, re-learn OOP, and practice designing reporting business logic and dashboard UI.

• Backend is largely straight from Lampjaw's Voidwell.com, with some small modifications by me. Interacting with the Daybreak Games Census API and event streaming service are done with Lampjaw's DaybreakGames.Census NuGet package.
• Frontend/Client is ASP.NET Core Blazor (3.0.0-preview9.19457.4).
• UI is designed by me, with inspiration from fisu and Voidwell.
• Business logic is designed by me.