Property file

All the properties needed by the server in order to properly work are looked up in a property file whose absolute path can be specified by defining a system property named juoserver.propFilePath - e.g.,

... -Djuoserver.propFilePath=/path/to/myjuoserver.properties ...

If this system property is not specified, the server tries to read the property file from the following default location:

YOUR_HOME/.juoserver/juoserver.properties

Properties

Up until now, the following properties exist:

• uopath - Mantatory property indicating the path of the UO installation within the file system (which is needed in order for the server to properly read maps and other files).
• server.name - String representing the name of the server as can be seen by clients when connecting to it; default value: JUOServer.
• server.host - This property represents the internet address to which clients will try to connect to after they selected the server by name (this is done right after having entered the username and password) and should therefore be set to an internet address that clients will be able to connect to once they've looked it up.

  The default value of the server.host property is localhost, which is suitable only for the case in which both server and client run on the same machine (see below for details).

  Note that this property's value is not necessarily the same as the internet address on which the server will listen on; in particular, the UO login protocol requires that (see also the Protocol getting started page):

  1. The server will listen on all the available addresses on the machine it runs on (you can verify it by running the netstat command),
  2. Clients connect to the server by connecting to the internet address specified by the "Server:" label in the Razor window,
  3. When a client connects to the server and after they enter their credentials, they will be presented with a list of server containing a single entry, whose name equals the value of the server.name property,
  4. When the client selects the server by clicking on the right arrow button in the bottom-right corner of the client window, it actually shuts down the previously used connection and starts a new one, and attempts to connect to the internet endpoint defined by:
     • Address = value of the property server.host,
     • Port = value of the property server.port.

  This distinction is important in all cases in which the address that clients actually used to initially connect to the server (defined in the Razor window) differs from this property's value, because it is possible that while the former is reachable from the client, the latter is not.

  For example, if you don't specify a value for the server.host property, start both the server and the client on the same computer and select localhost on the Razor window, then you'll have no problem in connecting and proceeding into the game, because both connections (the initial one and the one used after the server has been selected) will be the same (localhost).

  Instead, if you still don't specify a value for the server.host property and start the server on one machine, S and the client from another machine C, the initial connection will succeed, meaning you'll get past the login screen (where you enter username and password), but when you select the server the client will hang for sometime and eventually yield the following message: "The client could not attach to the game server. It must have been taken down, please wait a few minutes and try again". This happens because, even though the client machine C can reach the server machine S (i.e., it can ping it), C won't recognize S by the name localhost.

  For this reason, the server.host property should be set to an internet address that clients will be able to connect to after they've looked it up: for a LAN environment it can be something like 10.0.0.105, while for a real WAN usage it must be a public internet address (either a numberic IP or a resolvable name). You can avoid specifying this property only if you run both the server and the client on the same machine.

• server.port - This is both the port on which the server listens for clients connections, and the port used to define the endpoint on which the clients will be redirected to after they've selected the server (see previous property's explanation). Default value: 7775.

This is sample contents of the property file:

uopath = /home/myuser/UOML
server.host = 10.0.0.105
server.port = 2593

Furthermore, if you want to use the CustomizationHelper class, you'll need to define the following properties:

• skills.idxFileName - Name of the skills index file - e.g., Skills.idx
• skills.mulFileName - Name of the skills mul file - e.g., skills.mul