Getting Started

It's pretty easy to get started with creating your own schema with Helix. It requires a bit of bootstrapping if you're starting from scratch, but you should quickly be on your way to developing your schema after following one of the below sections in this guide.

Installing the framework

Before you start working on your schema, you'll need to install Helix onto your server. The exact instructions will vary based on your server provider, or if you're hosting the server yourself.

You'll need to download the framework from GitHub into a folder called helix. This folder goes into your server's gamemodes folder at garrysmod/gamemodes/helix. That's it! The framework is now installed onto your server. Of course, you'll need to restart your server after installing the framework and a schema.

MySQL usage

By default, Helix will use SQLite (which is built into Garry's Mod) to store player/character data. This requires no configuration and will work "out of the box" after installing and will be fine for most server owners. However, you might want to connect your database to your website or use multiple servers with one database - this will require the usage of an external database accessible elsewhere. This will require the use of a MySQL server. Some server providers will provide you with a MySQL database for free to use with your server.

Installing

Helix uses the MySQLOO library to connect to MySQL databases. You'll need to follow the instructions for installing that library onto your server before continuing. In a nutshell, you need to make sure gmsv_mysqloo_win32.dll or gmsv_mysqloo_linux.dll (depending on your server's operating system) is in the garrysmod/lua/bin folder.

In older versions of MySQLOO, you previously required a .dll called libmysql.dll to place in your root server folder, where srcds/srcds_linux was stored. Newer versions of MySQLOO no longer require this.

Configuring

Now that you've installed MySQLOO, you need to tell Helix that you want to connect to an external MySQL database instead of using SQLite. This requires creating a helix.yml configuration file in the garrysmod/gamemodes/helix folder. There is an example one already made for you called helix.example.yml that you can copy and rename to helix.yml.

The first thing you'll need to change is the adapter entry so that it says mysqloo. Next is to change the other entries to match your database's connection information. Here is an example of what your helix.yml should look like:

 database:
   adapter: "mysqloo"
   hostname: "myexampledatabase.com"
   username: "myusername"
   password: "mypassword"
   database: "helix"
   port: 3306

The hostname field can either be a domain name (like myexampledatabase.com) or an IP address (123.123.123.123). If you don't know what the port field should be, simply leave it as the default 3306; this is the default port for MySQL database connections. The database field is the name of the database that you've created for Helix. Note that it does not need to be helix, it can be whatever you'd like.

Another important thing to note about this configuration file is that you must indent with two spaces only. database should not have any spacing before it, and all other entries must have two spaces before them. Failing to ensure this will make the configuration file fail to load.

Starting with the HL2 RP schema (Basic)

This section is for using the existing HL2 RP schema as a base for your own schema. It contains a good amount of example code if you need a stronger foundation than just a skeleton.

First, you'll need to download the schema from GitHub. Make sure that you download the contents of the repository into a folder called ixhl2rp and place it into your garrysmod/gamemodes folder. That's all you'll need to do to get the schema installed, other than setting your gamemode to ixhl2rp in the server's command line.

Starting with the skeleton (Basic)

If you don't want excess code you might not use, or prefer to build from an almost-empty foundation that covers the basic bootstrapping, then the skeleton schema is for you. The skeleton schema contains a lot of comments explaining why code is laid out in a certain way, and some other helpful tips/explanations. Make sure you give it a read!

You'll need to download the schema from GitHub into the folder name of your choice - just make sure it's all lowercase with no spaces. Our example for the sake of brevity will be myschema. Place the folder into garrysmod/gamemodes.

Next up is to modify the gamemode info so that Garry's Mod will properly recognize it. Rename skeleton.txt in your schema folder to your folder's name. In our example we would rename skeleton.txt to myschema.txt. Next, you'll need to modify the contents of myschema.txt and replace the existing information with your own - making sure to replace the "skeleton" at the top of the file to your folder's name. In our case we would replace it with "myschema". Once you've renamed the file, you're all good to go!

Converting from Clockwork (Intermediate)

If you are looking to switch to Helix from Clockwork, you can follow the conversion guide.

Starting from scratch (Intermediate)

You can always create the gamemode files yourself if you'd like (although we suggest the skeleton schema in general). In general, a schema is a gamemode that is derived from helix and automatically loads schema/sh_schema.lua. You shouldn't have your schema files outside of the schema folder. The files you'll need are as follows:

gamemode/init.lua

 AddCSLuaFile("cl_init.lua")
 DeriveGamemode("helix")

gamemode/cl_init.lua

 DeriveGamemode("helix")

schema/sh_schema.lua

 Schema.name = "My Schema"
 Schema.author = "me!"
 Schema.description = "My awesome schema."

 -- include your other schema files
 ix.util.Include("cl_schema.lua")
 ix.util.Include("sv_schema.lua")
 -- etc.