Self-hosted multiplayer web-based Scrabble

This repository was cloned from https://github.com/hanshuebner/html-scrabble

Features

From the original:

• Two to four players
• Czech, English, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian and Dutch letter sets
• Written in JavaScript, runs in browser
• Scalable user interface
• Desktop notification support
• Moderate sound effects
• Tile placement by clicking, drag&drop or keyboard entry
• Chat
• Standard Scrabble rules including "Challenge" with simple penalty
• No dictionary enforced
• Player online status display
• Participation in multiple games from one browser possible
• Uses node.js on the server
• No database required, no deployment complexities

Additions:

• Users log-in via a HTTP header set by a reverse-proxy. For example Nginx can use auth_basic or auth_request for authentication.
• Users can only play as their own players. No arbitrary players. No emails.
• Admin or game creator can delete games. Everyone can see finished games.
• Each game, player and turn have clocks. The UI also shows the clocks counting up.
• Game can be paused and resumed. It also automatically pauses when all players have left.

Limitations

• Human players only. No computer players are available.
• No dictionary. Any word can be entered.
• No security. The server uses sufficiently long random numbers as keys for games and players to make guessing a key impossible. The game and player keys are enough to join the game and make moves, though.
• Limited browser support. We're using Chrome and Firefox and I am not testing on other browsers.
• Unlicensed. "Scrabble" is a registered trademark by Hasbro and Spear, and the word is used in this program without permission.
• Bugs. There are some minor (and maybe even some major) bugs which I have not come around to fix yet, and maybe never will.
• Ugly code. I did not understand much of the original code when I started adding features, and did not refactor thoroughly in the course of action. There are several things in the code that I'd do differently now, but as the game works well enough as it is, I'm not doing it. If you want to hack this code, expect a high WTF rate.
• Ugly UI. Daniel's original work was very nice-looking, and my additions to the user interface can't compete with what he did.
• UI not translated. The user interface is available in English, only.
• Simple database. All game data is kept in memory and serialized to a JSON log using the node-dirty database system. This works well, but has limited capacity and the database file grows without bounds.

Installing

The game uses node.js as server and depends on some npm packages. To install dependencies:

$ npm install

Configuration

Create a workdir (defaults to the application directory) where you store config.json and the game database files.

The game reads config.default.json and updates it with any changes in config.json. At a minimum config.json must include adminUsers (a comma-separated list of admin users):

$ cat workdir/config.json
{
    "adminUsers": "user1, user2"
}

Reverse Proxy

A reverse proxy must be configured to set a header (specified as the usernameHeader in config-default.json) to the username. This defaults to X-WEBAUTH-USER. Websocket proxying must also be enabled.

An example Nginx config:

upstream scrabbleWeb { server 127.0.0.1:9093; }
server {
        listen 80;
        server_name scrabble.example.com;
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
server {
        listen 443 ssl http2;
        server_name scrabble.example.com;

        ssl_certificate           /etc/letsencrypt/live/scrabble.example.com/fullchain.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key       /etc/letsencrypt/live/scrabble.example.com/privkey.pem;

        auth_basic             "Restircted access";
        auth_basic_user_file   "/etc/nginx/passwords.htpasswd";

        location / {
            proxy_pass          http://scrabbleWeb;
            proxy_http_version  1.1;
            proxy_set_header    Host $host;
            proxy_set_header    X-WEBAUTH-USER $remote_user;
            proxy_set_header    Upgrade $http_upgrade;
            proxy_set_header    Connection "upgrade";
            proxy_set_header    X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
            proxy_set_header    X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
            proxy_set_header    X-Forwarded-Protocol $scheme;
            proxy_set_header    X-Forwarded-Host $http_host;
        }
}

Running

Start the game server using

$ node server.js