Arma 3 Attendance Tracker

Setup

Set Up a Database Engine

You will need a running MySQL or MariaDB instance.

If you do not have a MySQL or MariaDB instance, you can use one of the following:

• MySQL Community Server (free)
• MariaDB (free)
• Docker (free)
  • MySQL Docker Image
  • MariaDB Docker Image

The tested and recommended database engine is MariaDB version 11.0.2.

Create a Database

You will need to create a database in your instance. You can do this using your preferred MySQL client or one of the following:

• phpMyAdmin (web based)
• HeidiSQL (Windows only and simpler)
• MySQL Workbench (feature rich but heavy)
• DBeaver (feature rich but heavy)

You could also use a CLI client such as the mysql command line client to run the following command:

CREATE DATABASE `arma3_attendance`;

Mod Installation

1. Download the latest release from the releases page.
2. Extract the .zip and move @AttendanceTracker to your Arma 3 server's root directory.
3. Inside of @AttendanceTracker you will find an AttendanceTracker.config.example.json file. Copy this as AttendanceTRacker.config.json. Open this new file and configure it to your circumstances. See the Configuration section for more information.
4. Add the mod to your server's startup parameters. For example: -serverMod="@AttendanceTracker;"

At next run, the Arma 3 server will launch with the mod running.

Configuration

The configuration file example is located at @AttendanceTracker/config.json.example. This should be copied to @AttendanceTracker/config.json and edited to suit your circumstances.

The following table describes the configuration options.

Key	Type	Description	Default
sqlConfig.mySqlHost	string	The hostname of your MySQL instance.	localhost
sqlConfig.mySqlPort	integer	The port of your MySQL instance.	3306
sqlConfig.mySqlUser	string	The username to use when connecting to your MySQL instance.	root
sqlConfig.mySqlPassword	string	The password to use when connecting to your MySQL instance.	root
sqlConfig.mySqlDatabase	string	The name of the database to use.	arma3_attendance
armaConfig.dbUpdateInterval	string, time.Duration Go type	The number of seconds between disconnect_time updates per user.	"90s"
armaConfig.debug	boolean	Whether or not to enable debug logging.	false
armaConfig.traceLogToFile	boolean	Whether or not to enable trace logging to the addon folder's log file.	false

Usage

The extension uses GORM for database access and will automatically create the schema in the database you specify in the configuration file.

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Important Notes

Logging

"debug": true: The extension will log ERROR and WARN events to the Arma 3 server's RPT file, which can be found in the server's profile folder.

"debug": false: The extension will log ERROR, WARN, INFO, and DEBUG events to the Arma 3 server's RPT file, which can be found in the server's profile folder.

All events will always be logged to @AttendanceTracker/attendanceTracker.log in log line format.

Timezone

All times will be logged as UTC time. This is to ensure that all times are logged in a consistent manner, regardless of the timezone of the server. Because these are DATETIME fields, they will not be adjusted to your local time when viewing them in a database client.

To do so, you can use the following function in your queries:

CONVERT_TZ(<field>, 'UTC', 'US/Eastern')

A full list of timezones available to your database can be found this way:

SELECT * 
FROM mysql.time_zone_name

Performance

The extension will update the disconnect_time field for each player every dbUpdateInterval seconds. This is to ensure that the disconnect_time field is updated in the event that the server crashes or the mission ends without a disconnect event.

These calls are threaded in the Go runtime and will not block the Arma 3 server while processing. The default value of 90 seconds should be sufficient for most servers. Each period begins when a player connects to the server or connects to a mission, which provides a natural offset.

Server Crash Time Filling

In the event that the server crashes and a user has not been in the mission longer than dbUpdateInterval and therefore has a NULL disconnect_time_utc value, upon next launch the extension will update the row procedure:

• If more than dbUpdateInterval has passed since the row's join_time_utc value, the row will be updated with a disconnect_time_utc value of join_time_utc + dbUpdateInterval.
• If less than dbUpdateInterval has passed since the row's join_time_utc value, the row will be updated with a disconnect_time_utc value of the current time.

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Database Schema

Table Name	Description
worlds	Stores world information.
missions	Stores mission information.
sessions	Stores rows that indicate player information and join/disconnect times.

Worlds

The worlds table will store basic info about the world. This is used to link missions to worlds.

Missions

The missions table will store basic info about the mission. This is used to link attendance items to missions.

Sessions

The sessions table will store rows that indicate player information and join/disconnect times. This can be used to calculate play time per player per mission. Each row is also linked to a mission, so that these records can be grouped.

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Useful Queries

Show missions with attendance

See Timezone for more information on converting times to your local timezone.

TODO

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Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

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Development

Prerequisites

• Docker

Building Extension using Docker

You will need Docker Engine installed and running. This can be done on Windows or on Linux. However, you will need to use Linux containers if you're on Windows (specified in Docker Desktop settings).

Once it's built, copy the file from ./dist to the project root, then build the addon.

COMPILING FOR WINDOWS

These compile commands should be run from the project root.

docker pull x1unix/go-mingw:1.20

# version is semantic + build date + git hash
# e.g. 1.0.0-2021-05-30-1a2b3c4d
$versionSem = '1.1.1'
$dateStr = Get-Date -Format 'yyyyMMdd'
$version = "$versionSem-$dateStr-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"

# Compile x64 Windows DLL
docker run --rm -it -v ${PWD}\extension\AttendanceTracker:/go/work -w /go/work -e GOARCH=amd64 -e CGO_ENABLED=1 x1unix/go-mingw:1.20 go build -o ./dist/AttendanceTracker_x64.dll -buildmode=c-shared -ldflags "-w -s -X main.EXTENSION_VERSION=$version" ./cmd

Move-Item -Path ./extension/AttendanceTracker/dist/AttendanceTracker_x64.dll -Destination ./AttendanceTracker_x64.dll -Force

# Compile x86 Windows DLL
docker run --rm -it -v ${PWD}\extension\AttendanceTracker:/go/work -w /go/work -e GOARCH=386 -e CGO_ENABLED=1 x1unix/go-mingw:1.20 go build -o ./dist/AttendanceTracker.dll -buildmode=c-shared -ldflags "-w -s -X main.EXTENSION_VERSION=$version" ./cmd

Move-Item -Path ./extension/AttendanceTracker/dist/AttendanceTracker.dll -Destination ./AttendanceTracker.dll -Force

# Compile x64 Windows EXE
docker run --rm -it -v ${PWD}:/go/work -w /go/work -e GOARCH=amd64 -e CGO_ENABLED=1 x1unix/go-mingw:1.20 go build -o ./dist/AttendanceTracker_x64.exe -ldflags "-w -s -X main.EXTENSION_VERSION=$version" ./extension/AttendanceTracker/cmd

COMPILING FOR LINUX

docker build -t indifox926/build-a3go:linux-so -f ./build/Dockerfile.build .

# Compile x64 Linux .so
docker run --rm -it -v ${PWD}\extension\AttendanceTracker:/app -e GOOS=linux -e GOARCH=amd64 -e CGO_ENABLED=1 indifox926/build-a3go:linux-so go build -o ./dist/AttendanceTracker_x64.so -linkshared -ldflags "-w -s -X main.EXTENSION_VERSION=$version" ./cmd

Move-Item -Path ./extension/AttendanceTracker/dist/AttendanceTracker_x64.so -Destination ./AttendanceTracker_x64.so -Force

# Compile x86 Linux .so
docker run --rm -it -v ${PWD}\extension\AttendanceTracker:/app -e GOOS=linux -e GOARCH=386 -e CGO_ENABLED=1 indifox926/build-a3go:linux-so go build -o ./dist/AttendanceTracker.so -linkshared -ldflags "-w -s -X main.EXTENSION_VERSION=$version" ./cmd

Move-Item -Path ./extension/AttendanceTracker/dist/AttendanceTracker.so -Destination ./AttendanceTracker.so -Force

Compile Addon

First, move the compiled dlls from extension/AttendanceTracker/dist to the project root.

To prepare the addon, you'll need to download the HEMTT binary, place it in the project root, and run the following command:

./HEMTT.exe release

The PBOs and relevant files will be placed in the ./.hemmttout/build directory.

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Credits

• Go
• Go Arma 3 Extension Template
• GORM