Preparation

• Log into GitHub
• Download and install IntelliJ Community

Learning path

1. You can learn Java basics at:
   https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-java
2. Find good information about John Conway's Game of Life in the internet and understand the rules

Working with GIT

• Checkout this repository from GitHub
• Create a new branch from development. Name your branch like the number of your Jira ticket, starting with feat/ prefix (e.g. feat/DES-1234)
• Push this branch to the remote repository
• While working on the code, commit the code changes in small chunks describing your changes shortly in the commit message
• Everytime you finish a subtask, push all related commits to the remote repository

Application

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• This app is split into two parts: client and server
• To start the whole application (in your IDE / IntelliJ):
  • Go to the project explorer
  • Find a file named GameOfLifeApplication
  • Right-click on the file
  • Select Run 'GameOfLifeApplication'
• After the application is started, you can reach the client in your browser via http://localhost:8081
• The client-part provides buttons Init, Next, Play and Stop which will trigger methods inside the server
• With button Play you have also additional integer value which should be used as a delay for continuous rendering of generations
• To have your generation printed you need to connect to the server first using the Connect button.
• If you have done some changes in the code, you need to restart the application and also reconnect the client by clicking Connect in the web UI.

Development

• Your entry point is the file named GameOfLifeService inside a package named implementation
• As a reference, see the example implementation inside the init method
• Also, you have methods named next, play and stop available
  • Like described in the Application section, these methods will trigger if you click the corresponding buttons in the UI
  • You will find the base implementation of the methods in GameOfLifeCommandProxy.java
  • Override these methods in GameOfLifeService.java
• To render your generation from the UI, you need to call the drawGeneration method with the data which needs to be rendered
  • See example in the init method
  • The length and height of your generation data matrix must match (e.g. 16x16), otherwise it will render incorrectly
• Feel free to create additional classes if it helps to organize your code