[TUTORIAL] Java for L2J 101

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theone
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[TUTORIAL] Java for L2J 101

Post by theone »

I really didnt know where to put this so I put it here, it can be moved where ever it should be by the L2J team.
As I had mentionned a while back, I think that one thing that has been lacking for a long time on this forum are good basic tutorials for our newbie users and wannabe coders, so they can learn the basics of coding for L2J(and in general) and can therefore give back better contributions to the community. Since nothing has been done to encourage(at least nothing that I noticed...) the creation of such tutorials, I'll make the first one right here, right now!

I hope that this small contribution of mine will help you guys(and girls) who are new to server development and put you on your way to become active members of this community.

The tools that you will require:
In order to start working on Java code, you should get one of the great FREE Java IDE available. I would strongly recommend either NetBeans or Eclipse (I use Eclipse myself, but many prefer NetBeans).
And that's about it as far as tools! Follow the installation instructions and make sure you have the latest Java JDK installed!


The basics of Java
Ok, first of all, there is something you NEED to understand if you are to comprehend anything that follows: players, mobs, npcs, skills, items, etc... DO NOT exist as far as Java is concerned!
They are all the same thing, lines of code(and objects)!
It is vital that you understand this if you want to understand anything else. So get out of your "player pants" and into your "programmer pants" :)

Part 1: The Classes
Dont be fooled by the name, this has nothing to do with "fighter","mage",etc classes :mrgreen:
In Java, a class is basically a script file, not unlike the .py files that are used for the quest scripts.
A java program is composed of a number of class files. So basically, a java application(like a L2J server for example), is made of a group of script files which "talk" to each other (yeah, I know.. it's not exactly that but it's a simple way to explain it to those who dont know anything about this)
A simple class could look something like this:

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package javatutorial; public class JavaTutorial{    private static int tutoId = 101;     public static int getTutoId()    {        return tutoId;    }}
Part 2: private/public/static
These terms define the type of variable/method in front of which they are placed.
Example:

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public static List<String> nameList = new ArrayList<String>();
Here are some basic explanations on these terms.
private : The variable/method can only be called from inside its class.
public : The variable/method can be called from any other class that imports its class
static : a variable/method that has the same value no matter in which instance of its class (see "The Objects" further down)

Part 3: The types of variables
There are many types of variables that can be used in Java, but there is something ESSENTIAL for your variables to be useable:
You NEED to define of what type a variable is before you use it.
For those of you who code in PhP or Python, this will be a new habit to develop.
There are a few ways to declare a variable:
Uninitiated: (might throw errors if you forget to give it a value)

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private String name;
Initiated:

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private String name = "";
There are many basic types of variables, I will cover here only the most common so not to confuse you too much
int : an integer number (no decimals) ranging from -2.147kkk to 2.147kkk
double : this is NOT a double number!!! a double means a decimal number. For example, 3.453 is a double
long : a long integer, which can range from -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807 . It is used for example to get the current time in milliseconds -> System.currentTimeMillis()
String : a letter, a word, a group of words are Strings.
boolean : a true or false value (exemple: private boolean isGM = true; )

Part 4: The Objects
Java is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language. This means that everything is based on objects.
Q:"But what the hell are objects?"
A:Put simply, an object is an instance of a class that is unique. Or even more simple, for each object created, it is linked to a unique "copy" of a class.
Ok, this doesnt sound simple... I know... lets try to explain this a bit better :)
Lets go back to the L2J code for one minute, and examine the way a monster is created.
THESE ARE NOT REAL L2J FILES, THEY ARE MEANT JUST TO HELP YOU LEARN

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package base; public class L2Object{	private int hp = 100;	private int mp = 50;	private String name = "monster1"; 	public int getHp()	{		return hp;	} 	public int getMp()	{		return mp;	} 	public String getName()	{		return name;	} 	public void setHp(int newHp)	{		hp = newHp;	} 	public void setName(String newName)	{		name = newName;	} 	public void setMp(int newMp)	{		mp = newMp;	}} 

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package base; public class Monster extends L2Object{	private boolean isAggro = false; 	public boolean isAggro()	{		return isAggro;	} 	public void setAggro(boolean val)	{		isAggro = val;	}}
So, looking at these we can first see that the Monster class "extends" the L2Object class, but we will get back to this further down, for now lets concentrate on the Monster.java class.
Lets see what happens if we "create" a monster.

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Monster mob = new Monster();
Ok, we've created it... so what happened?
We have created a new instance of the Monster class. Instantiation has NOTHING to do with the dungeon instances in L2J, it's a way of saying that we created a new unique copy of the Monster.java class that is linked to our new "mob" variable.
So if after creating it we do this:

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mob.setAggro(true);
the value we just set is attributed to this particular instance of Monster.java(our new mob) and not to any other.
I hope you're following so far, because it's about to get a bit more interesting :)
Lets get back to the "extends L2Object" part that we can see in Monster.java
This tells us that the Monster class is an extention of the L2Object class.
In other words, each time you instantiate the Monster class, you're also instantiating the L2Object class with it.
This means that we can also use the methods contained in L2Object on our mob!

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mob.setHp(4000);
This method would work without any problems, because our "mob" is an instance of Monster and the Monster class is an extention of the L2Object class, therefore our "mob" is also a L2Object!


Part 5: Packets... what the hell is that?
Packets are streams of information sent from one application to another, usually in different locations on a network(internet is a network ;) ).
The types of data that can be sent vary from Streams, String, Integers, Doubles, Bytes, etc...
There are 2 main types of connections used: UDP and TCP
Both have their strenghts and weaknesses, but it's not vital to go through this here. You can easily find informations on these if you google them.
If you look in the packets section of the L2J core, you will find a series of files which handle packets for many different purposes.
These are "worker classes" made to handle packets sent/received to/from the client and login server.
Inside these classes you will notice alot of writeS, readI, etc...
These methods are implemented in a superclass of these packet workers and have for function to read the informations contained in the packets received or write informations into a packet sent.
You should study the packet folders in the L2J core extensively, as they are the heart of what makes the L2J server work!

Part 6: Encryption, Encoding
I will not cover detailed explanations here as this is meant to be a basic tutorial. If you desire more in-depth informations you can look it up on the internet.
Encryption: Put simple, this is a process during which information is made unreadable unless you have the correct key to decrypt that information.
Encoding: This is a process which transforms information from one format to another. In many cases, it's used to transform Strings into other strings which do not contain any foreign characters, therefore are portable from one system to another. Note: encryption is also an advanced form of encoding.

Part 7: Threads
Ok, now this is a bit more advanced stuff, but I want to explain the basic idea behind threads and what they do.
Each program has 1 main thread to start with.
This Thread could be compared to a 1-way street.
So if you are calling many different methods, they will be executed somewhat like this:
-> method1 -> method2 -> method3
In most cases, this is more than sufficient, but when you have time-consuming methods or if you need to run many methods at the same time you then need to create new threads. To create a thread, you need to either extend the Thread class with the class you want to use or create a Runnable class like so(this is my prefered method):

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class ThreadableAction implements Runnable{    public void run()    {        // Your code goes here...    }}
Runnable classes NEED to have a "public void run()" method.
Lets see how we create a new thread and what the result will be

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Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadableAction);t.start();
-> method1 -> method2 -> method3
-> ThreadableAction

So now this method will be done separately from the rest of methods on the main thread.
Multi-threading is the way multi-task is handled on our computers.
We use quite alot of multi-threading on L2J servers, especially for packets.
Each time a new packet is received a new thread is created and it is passed to a worker(the class files in the core /network folders)
This allows to handle a great number of packets at the same time. Without doing this, the servers would lag even with only 2 or 3 players because the server would need to wait for 1 packet to be handled completely before going to the next.
[/i]

I hope this helps some of you, if you have anything to add please feel free!
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DrHouse
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Re: [TUTORIAL] Java for L2J 101

Post by DrHouse »

Hey!

Thanks for the guide. I hope newbies have got at least 1/10 of your patience to read it and to understand a bunch of new things. :D

After fast reading, these are my 2 cents:

-> About part 4: I think there are some key words that any tutorial shouldn't miss: "Class (mold), Instance (cake), Reference (pointer), Field, Method (function) and Primitive Type". I believe they are important to understand Java OOP, some of them are there but some others not. Also it would be nice to have some examples to illustrate difference between == and equals(), this is usually confusing when starting
-> Maybe some words about operators could be fine (for instance, difference between == and =, also about new)
-> 'float' primitive type is missing :P
-> I think this paragraph may be very confusing:
Each time a new packet is received a new thread is created and it is passed to a worker(the class files in the core /network folders)
This allows to handle a great number of packets at the same time. Without doing this, the servers would lag even with only 2 or 3 players because the server would need to wait for 1 packet to be handled completely before going to the next.
A packet is not a thread, it is just a "threadableAction" (using your words). So after every packet is received server doesn't instantiated a new thread (which has hard impact on memory and on CPU after being started). This is quite important difference (Thread != Runnable). Thread is a big class which involves a native abstraction of a OS "subprocess".

Also, the lag predictions are quite pessimistic :P Actually just 1 thread (selectorthread) is getting data from OS I/O memory and instantiating the packets. Then, these packets are inserted into a queue, from which are taken from 2-3-4 worker (as you said) threads which eventually will run them. In addition, if we are on a 4 core cpu (no hyperthreading) only 4 threads can be run at the same time so whenever you have more than 4 packets waiting, they will have to wait, even if you have 15-16 thread objects initialized (which actually happens, since there are threads for AI, General, scripts, IO, ...)

For threading this might be a good complement: viewtopic.php?f=79&t=15700

BTW really good guide, as told above, I hope newbies read it
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jurchiks
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Re: [TUTORIAL] Java for L2J 101

Post by jurchiks »

this site is about Java in general, but imho it's really good and easy to understand:
http://www.cafeaulait.org/course/
I haven't read it all yet, but week 2 has much interesting info, like this:
http://www.cafeaulait.org/course/week2/03.html
http://www.cafeaulait.org/course/week2/09.html

P.S. the ITALIC on all of the text makes it somewhat harder to read...
If you have problems, FIRST TRY SOLVING THEM YOURSELF, and if you get errors, TRY TO ANALYZE THEM, and ONLY if you can't help it, THEN ask here.
Otherwise you will never learn anything if all you do is copy-paste!
Discussion breeds innovation.
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Shaka
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Re: [TUTORIAL] Java for L2J 101

Post by Shaka »

thank you very much for guiding us to complete what DrHouse referred to, can find the primitive and the table of operator precedence.

I apologize if my English is bad. > <

Here 's a book I bought recently, for beginners, is in Spanish

Java 2 - Manual de Programación.

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The English version here.

Java: A Beginners Guide.

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theone
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Re: [TUTORIAL] Java for L2J 101

Post by theone »

To House:
Thx for the explanations. I know all this but I tried to make it uber simple for people who are new to Java to understand the very very basics of programming.
I tried to cover a little bit of most of what new comers will run into so they could grasp the general concepts :)
(furthermore, I've never been the greatest at putting my ideas down on paper, so stuff got missed :mrgreen: )
Btw, I had not seen your tutorial on Threads before, really nice! Too bad I didnt see this some months ago when I was learning about Threads and Runnables for my current project :D

Maybe allowing more advanced users to post in the FAQ and Guides section would allow to add more in-depth tutorials for different types/methods/techniques/etc...?
I mean, it would be nice to have something like this for the L2J users who are learning development:
[TUTORIAL] Primitive Types
[TUTORIAL] Understanding L2J server core structure
[TUTORIAL] Understanding L2J datapack structure
[TUTORIAL] Class/Interface/Enum
[TUTORIAL] extends/implements
[TUTORIAL] Packets
[TUTORIAL] Thread/ThreadPool => Already done by Dr House
etc...

To L2J team:
Please feel free to edit my post directly if you find missing or incorrect things(lets keep it easy to read for people who are eager to learn), I wrote this directly here and re-read myself only very fast. Just reply: "updated post" :) Thx guys!
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Re: [TUTORIAL] Java for L2J 101

Post by ThePhoenixBird »

--moved to FAQ

Awesome contribution theone
Hope that someone can then wikify this great guide in http://l2jserver.com/wiki/Basics_of_Coding_for_L2J
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