Greetings,
I'm starting to rollout some of the programs resulting from my work on Neolib v2. The first (and hopefully last) method I'm rolling out with is Docker. My reasoning behind this choice is as follows:
- Docker is gaining widespread attention across multiple communities and is growing at an incredible rate. Thus the number of third-party companies finding methods to adopting and hosting containers is increasing.
- Most issues with using Python as the primary language for the end-user is that it requires a tad bit of technical information for the end-user to get a successful install. Just to get my library working on Windows required over 10 different steps (thanks to the lack of native compiling). Containerizing the Python script with Docker avoids all of these issues.
- Network speed is the biggest variable with the efficiency of these types of programs. However, cloud architecture is still somewhat difficult to master and getting apps built for a native desktop environment to work in the cloud can be tricky. Many cloud companies are welcoming Docker with open arms thus making it easier to get these programs in the cloud and operating at incredible speeds.
- Finally, the above bullet point can also be applied to hardware challenges (although not as significantly).
The first program I've built using this architecture is a simple shop autopricer. It logs into the given account, loads the user shop inventory, prices each item via the shop wizard, and then updates the shop with the calculated price (average or minimum is supported at the time of writing this).
This program is really not intended to be fancy and the main reason I'm releasing it right now is for testing how well the deployment method works. In the future I plan on integrating a small-scale web server into the container which will provide a graphical interface to the programs (for those scared of the command line).
Here is a quick breakdown on getting up and running:
- Go here and follow the instructions for installing Docker on your operating system
- If on Mac OSX or Windows ensure you run the virtual machine and start docker as per the installation instructions
- Once you're in a command-line (either by starting the virtual machine or opening up a command line on Linux), enter the following command:
docker pull jmgilman/neoapps
- This will download the latest neoapps image. Please note this is a large download initially, however any future updates will not require downloading the entire image again and therefore should go fairly quickly.
- When the download is finished issue the following command to test the autopricer:
docker run -t jmgilman/neoapps ./start pricer -u [username] -p [password]
- Ensure you substitute 'username' and 'password' with your Neopets account username and password.
- The program should login in to your account, find any unpriced items, price them, update the shop, and then quit.
If you can successfully do the above steps, please reply below so I have an idea of how well this method is working. It's much appreciated, thank you!
Also, for those concerned or curious the source code for this can be seen here: https://github.com/j...an/neolib2_apps
The ./start is simply a shell script which executes the 'run.py' file with the passed arguments. Of course, you can always terminal into the container itself and check it out if you don't believe me 
