I’m still in the process of learning about client-server communication in filtering enabled and how local scripts differ from server scripts. I understand that a local script obviously cannot change anything within the workspace, but can it read it? If I asked the local script to tell me the position of an object in Workspace, can it do so?
(I’ve tried searching elsewhere for answers but people only ask if you can use a local script to change anything in workspace, not read.)
Yeah, you should try it. Make a part, name it ‘Part’, and put it in the workspace. Then, put this into a localscript:
print(workspace.Part.Position)
To answer your question - Yes, the client can read data from Workspace,
TL;DR - Read this: Client-Server Runtime | Documentation - Roblox Creator Hub
If you have Accurate Play Solo enabled in Studio - then press Play Solo and look at the Explorer window, you’ll be able to see everything that the Client can see.
This is because APS mimicks a live client and server.
The thing is, the client can absolutely read and manipulate any object it can see, including the Workspace.
However, such changes do get shown to the Server.
In order for changes to be seen on the server, it must go through a Remote Event/Function.
You’ll probably know the following information, but just in case, here’s a quick summary of clients/servers.
Animations, GUIs, user input, the player’s character, camera, graphics rendering, sound and local scripts all run on the Client.
Anything that the user can see on their device is present and changeable by the client.
It holds data about the game world, and handles communication with services outside of the game, such as datastores, http requests, loading assets etc. It also runs server-side scripts.
Roblox has set up the servers to let basic communications through, such as where a part is positioned in the world, or where a player is moving to, when it dies or respawns, etc.
However, now because of Filtering Enabled, the client can only talk to the server through Remote Events and Remote Functions.
One way of understanding what RemoteEvents / Functions do, is to imagine two people who speak different languages, who are trying to talk to each other - they need a medium - such as Google Translate.
The same idea exists when the client and server needs to talk to each other. Remotes are used to communicate between the server and client.
A local script cannot read data from ServerScriptService, ServerStorage, data presented on other clients.
So everything that exists in your client or the workspace should be accessible via a local script.
WingItMan had a nice answer to your question, so I’ll just directly quote and reply to your thread.
LocalScripts can read and write to the Workspace. None of the changes directly made by a LocalScript will be visible on other clients or the server though.
Yes.