[WIP][1.0.2] KerbalCraft - Share your genius inventions with your friends with one click

[Slother]

KerbalCraft is a small addon which will allow you to easily share your inventions right from the ingame editor.

Currently this project is the result of only two days coding, but it is working and I'm already starting to like it very much.

It has two parts: the actual KSP Mod which adds a window to the editor UI and a server part to store the shared ships. Once set up you can upload the ship which is currently loaded in your editor with one click. Downloading a ship is equally simple, just select it in the list and click Load or Merge, which functions exactly like the Load and Merge in the stock dialog to load a ship. The rest you can see on the screenshots.

The idea originated when I was chatting with a friend of mine about our current inventions and I had to realize that there is no simpler method to share than to actually pass the .craft files around. The only thing that came close to what I had in mind was http://KerbalX.com but that also involved throwing around .craft files and I didn't like that. I wanted something faster and more lightweight.

In its current state I can't host a public server for everyone to test this mod, because I have not implemented any security whatsoever. Right now the server functions like a folder with read/write permissions for everyone, i.e. everyone can upload, download and even delete everything without any authentication. I could add stuff like that, of course, but the purpose I originally had in mind was sharing inventions with my friends only, and I trust these people to not delete everything and upload manipulated ships which will make my computer explode. Trusting random people on the internet is a different story though.

I would really like to hear feedback what you guys think about this project and especially if you think it is worth it to add more features and possibly get it to state where a public server is feasible.

A download of both the server and client source will be available as soon as I get it on GitHub.

Update

I renamed the project to KerbalCraft and the source is now available on GitHub: https://github.com/JcBernack/KerbalCraft

It does not look very different on the surface but the rest is almost totally new.

The server is now able to parse the uploaded craft files and fill in some information automatically, like name, type, size, part count, etc.

The ingame GUI now uses asynchronous requests which will stop the UI from hanging while a request is pending and the window is now available from all scenes of the game, not only the editors. Outside the editors you can only view the list, to load or share a ship you must enter an editor.

And of course fixed more bugs than I can count.

The last thing missing before I could think about a public server is some kind of authentication.

I just don't want everyone to be able to delete all the ships on the server or upload crappy ships with my name.

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Edited May 13, 2015 by Slother

[BrutalRIP]

I will give this a go asap

[Slother]

Great, one fan already!

For the ones interested:

The server is a simple REST service written in nodejs with express, mongoose and mongo-db.

The UI addon uses RestSharp to consume the service.

This setup would also allow to easily build a website to view the ships in a browser, preferably a single-page application using AngularJS or EmberJS.

If anyone with experience in any of these fields is interested to help me, let me know!

[Thegamingdawn101]

Looks very promising!

[Slother]

Update: Source is now available and the server is now able to parse the .craft files.

That will come in handy later to detect which mods are used but I haven't decided yet how to handle that.

Currently the server will accept everything and you will get an error when trying to load a ship which has parts in it you don't have installed.

[BrutalRIP]

any news on this?

[Slother]

I added some necessary security features like a simple register/login system to prevent deleting ships which the user does not own.

A download counter and some other improvements to the UI were also added.

Furthermore, I now have access to a server which would be able to host the KerbelCraft-Server.

With its basic functionality I would consider it almost done. I hope I find the time to complete it maybe this or next week.

[BrutalRIP]

Cool thanks for the update and i look forward to a release