I have a simple web app called Sea Salt that serves a javascript game. I'd like to keep track of users at a very low level- just track them across requests, and maybe track if they come to the site again the next day but that's not super important. I don't want to make them log in or anything.
And it has a splash screen. I want the following behavior:
- first time you come to /, you get "welcome to this app, click to start"
- if you click that, you go to /play and I create a User entry for you.
- if you come to / again, you get "you've already started. click here to continue OR if that wasn't you, click here to restart."
- if you restart, I create a new User entry for you.
Very simplified App Engine python server code:
application = webapp.WSGIApplication([('/', Intro),
('/restart', Restart),
('/play', Play), ...
Set up the URL mappings.
class Intro(webapp.RequestHandler):
def get(self):
cookie_id = self.request.cookies.get('sea_salt_id')
if cookie_id and User.get_by_id(int(cookie_id)):
#(render already_started.html)
else:
#(render index.html)
Pretty simple. If you go to /, first check the cookie. If your cookie corresponds to a real user, then you must have been here before. already_started.html contains links to /restart and /play. Otherwise, you haven't been here, so show you the splash screen, which has just a form that posts to /play.
class Restart(webapp.RequestHandler):
def get(self):
self.response.headers.add_header(
'Set-Cookie',
'sea_salt_id=-1; expires=Thu, 01-Jan-1970 00:00:01 GMT')
self.redirect('/')
If you to go to /restart, delete your cookie, and send you back to /.
class Play(webapp.RequestHandler):
def get(self):
cookie_id = self.request.cookies.get('sea_salt_id')
if not cookie_id or not User.get_by_id(int(cookie_id)):
self.redirect('/')
#(render game.html)
def post(self):
cookie_id = self.request.cookies.get('sea_salt_id')
if not cookie_id or not User.get_by_id(int(cookie_id)):
user = User.create()
user.put()
id = user.key().id()
self.response.headers.add_header(
'Set-Cookie',
'sea_salt_id=%d; expires=Fri, 31-Dec-2020 23:59:59 GMT' % id)
#(render game.html)
This is the trickiest. If you go to /play via a GET (like typing it in the address bar), either let you keep playing (if you've already started) or redirect you to /. If you go to /play via a POST, either let you keep playing (if you've already started) or create a user for you and then let you play. I think this is right, because GETs should be read-only while POSTs can write, right?
This all seems a little too complex for its own good, but it seems to work. If you have any better ideas (or if I've made any mistakes), I'd love to hear them. Thanks!
