Implement something like matchExpression for Lists.

[kyngs]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I want to send a player to a different lobby than they're on. I've got a list named players where I put all UUIDs of the connected players on the server.

Describe the solution you'd like
Ideally, there would be a way to negate the containsValue in the list selector.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Repeating the allocation x times until the returned server is not the same one as the one the player is on.

Additional context
The GameServerAllocation documentation kinda suggests that this should already be possible.

lists (Beta, “CountsAndLists” feature flag) enables filtering based on game server List status, such as allowing for inclusion or exclusion of specific players. Optional.

The exclusion of specific players seems exactly like what I'm looking for here.

[markmandel]

How far until we have an allocation query language 😁

[kyngs]

ikr? But this seems like something that was originally intended to be implemented but got forgotten somewhere in the process.
Do you plan to implement this feature in the near future? Or should I use the workaround for now?

Tho an allocation query language would be very cool

[kyngs]

This is a bit time-sensitive for me. So I will ask differently. Would a PR for this be accepted?

[markmandel]

Some ideas for workarounds for you:

• Use a third party tool like: https://agones.dev/site/docs/third-party-content/libraries-tools/#messaging to track Allocated GameServers. So you can manually redirect.
• If you are using GameServerAllocation directly, you can use matchExpressions which allows more complex expressions. In that world, you could have a unique label value on each GameServer, and therefore could look for GameServers without that value.
  • If you wanted to expose this by proto on the Allocation Service, this isn't currently exposed, and staled out in Support full filtering expressions on the Allocator Service #2028 (but is still probably a useful idea!)

If we wanted to do this for Lists, I'd argue that it should probably be something similar to matchExpression format though - rather than just a basic "not-in" criteria - which could be more work, and should have some upfront design work done before implementation.

Did that help?

[kyngs]

Some ideas for workarounds for you:

* Use a third party tool like: https://agones.dev/site/docs/third-party-content/libraries-tools/#messaging to track Allocated GameServers. So you can manually redirect.

* If you are using GameServerAllocation directly, you can use `matchExpressions` which allows more complex expressions. In that world, you could have a unique label value on each GameServer, and therefore could look for GameServers without that value.
  
  * If you wanted to expose this by proto on the Allocation Service, this isn't currently exposed, and staled out in [Support full filtering expressions on the Allocator Service #2028](https://github.com/googleforgames/agones/issues/2028) (but is still probably a useful idea!)

If we wanted to do this for Lists, I'd argue that it should probably be something similar to matchExpression format though - rather than just a basic "not-in" criteria - which could be more work, and should have some upfront design work done before implementation.

Did that help?

Thanks for the ideas.
I actually do track the allocated servers using a messaging system.

However, I didn't realize that I could simply use the agones.dev/gameserver label with the matchExpression query to exclude the server the player is currently on.

Your idea to implement smth like matchExpression for lists sounds great, I say we keep this issue open and repurpose it for this idea. What do you think?

[kyngs]

The workaround mentioned in my last post won't work either, because the agones.dev/gameserver label isn't present on the GameServer resource, but only on the pod. Do you have any other ideas? I can only think of having a snippet of code on the backend server, that would use the Agones SDK to set the label with the current server name.

[markmandel]

The GameServer itself can set labels through the SDK.
https://agones.dev/site/docs/guides/client-sdks/#metadata-management

So yes, you will need to set a label on the GameServer.

Your idea to implement smth like matchExpression for lists sounds great, I say we keep this issue open and repurpose it for this idea. What do you think?

SGTM!

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[github-actions]

'This issue is marked as Stale due to inactivity for more than 30 days. To avoid being marked as 'stale' please add 'awaiting-maintainer' label or add a comment. Thank you for your contributions '