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Village Pub – Technical

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Technical Discussion

Links not being recognised

See Talk:True Crime: New York City (GameCube) for details. Xevious 19:13, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

Occasionally, it can take a bit of time for the Wiki software to re-index its links. It also happens with image thumbnails from time to time. -- tyagi 05:45, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Pages to be deleted

If you have emptied a temporary page, or deleted spam, or whatever, and the remaining page needs to be deleted, please mark it {{delete}}. This will allow an admin to see it and delete it. Xevious 10:22, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Double Redirect Page

For some reason a pile of items were on the Double Redirect page with links to Help talk:Template for Single-Format Games. On editting the links, they were not linked there, so something odd happened to the Double Redirect page... :( I've cleared up the problem for now, but may re-occur in the future.--Barthax 12:41, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

OK, I'll keep an eye on this -- tyagi 18:57, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Image Links

Does anyone know how to get an image to link to an article rather than to the image page itself? For example, on the front page, it would be good to get the "featured article" image to link to the article rather than to the image itself. -- tyagi 21:17, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Nearest thing I can find is a redirect in the comment of the picture (currently active). It doesn't produce a pretty result though... --Barthax 09:24, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, adding the redirect directive automatically removes other content from the page, so the fairuse template is no longer on the page. :( --Barthax 09:47, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, this isn't the desired effect. I'm sure it can be done another way, but it'll be something to do with the MediaWiki markup used to put the image on the page. Perhaps a parameter to the Image tag? I'll see if I can find anything on the MediaWiki meta-wiki. -- tyagi 20:03, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Links that should work correctly don't seem to be functioning here nor at the MediaWiki: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Navigational_images !! :( --Barthax 16:24, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Draft Game Entry WikiCode Script

I've developed a small Perl script to generate a gameInfoBox instance. It currently just runs on the command line and dumps the template output which can then be pasted straight in to a new game page. This will give the gameInfoBox component of a new page. I need to include the rest of the page template and also consider multi-format entries. But it's a start. For those who are non-technical, I will ultimately make it a standard Windows executable that can be run by clicking on an icon. But not yet...

Anyway, I'll keep the code at this page GamerWiki:makeGameEntry.

Done another one for those more preferable to use a web browser. GamerWiki:TemplateTemplates

That's an interesting hack. I'll read it through this weekend and see if I can install it OK on our build. -- tyagi 23:36, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Did you find anything useful here? Xevious 18:21, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Spaces above templates

See NBA 2K6 (Xbox) - look above the formats list. Why's there a big gap? Xevious 15:58, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

This has got to do with the code for including a template.

As embedded text in the page:

<a name="Formats"></a><h2> Formats </h2>
<ul><li> <a href="/index.php/NBA_2K6_%28Xbox%29" title="NBA 2K6 (Xbox)">Microsoft Xbox</a>
</li><li> <a href="/index.php/NBA_2K6_%28PlayStation_2%29" title="NBA 2K6 (PlayStation 2)">Sony PlayStation 2</a>
</li></ul>

As the template include:

<a name="Formats"></a><h2> Formats </h2>
<p><br />
</p>
<ul><li> <a href="/index.php/NBA_2K6_%28Xbox%29" title="NBA 2K6 (Xbox)">Microsoft Xbox</a>
</li><li> <a href="/index.php/NBA_2K6_%28PlayStation_2%29" title="NBA 2K6 (PlayStation 2)">Sony PlayStation 2</a>
</li></ul>

The code of the wiki must have been updated recently - has anyone done code changes other than that from the version change? --Barthax 18:56, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

No code changes apart from the 1.6.x update recently. If we think this is a bug then I can look at the Wiki code and submit a patch. -- tyagi 03:03, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Bot development

Generating game pages

The only stumbling block here, I think, is in terms of the multi-format system we use. But that's something that could be done later. What I think would be useful:

Bot creates a page for each games page on the weekly releases
It fills in:
- Game name
- Platform (note - this will be different from the short platform in the title, you'll need to do a lookup)
- EU release date (based on where it's listed on the Games to be Added page? Or maybe you have to do all of one week at a time setting the date in the Bot?)
- Replaces "gametitle" and "Your New Game" in screenshot bit with game's actual title
- adds an {autogen} tag for us to use when going through and reviewing
- possibly other bits if you fancy querying GameFAQs!
We can then work through the autogen category adding in all the other details, and doing the multiformat formatting.

Xevious 08:48, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm concerned I may have inadvertently altered something the bot(s) may be expecting - I've altered the GameInfobox template and the help page to accomodate an amount of automatic NeedsCover entry. So, this is more a heads-up in case you begin experiences unexpected errors... :) --Barthax 16:25, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

This shouldn't be a problem. I'm in the final stages of bot development to do automated page creation for new titles and it obtains its templates from the Wiki anyway rather than using a static offline copy. I should have it running this weekend (July 15th). -- tyagi 00:58, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Problem with bot overwriting pages

I've just noticed a problem with the TyagiBot. It appears to overwrite pages, resetting all previous content and history. Case in point is Super Stuntman (Spectrum) - the page which began the discussion on the use of scanned-in images. There is currently (at the time of writing) only one edit on the page by the bot. :( --Barthax 09:40, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

It's not overwriting anything - it's just using the correct (Spectrum) suffix rather than the incorrect (ZX Spectrum) one! Xevious 09:03, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

LOL! Sorry 'bout that. D'oh! --Barthax 01:01, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Joining the list-generation stuff for the 'bot

I've been in the process of collecting more data on older systems. Trouble is, the information is scant so far (no real surprise). So rather than generating the individual pages manually, should I start dumping info into Xevious' bot pages, or should I be generating my own? The format seems pretty simple. :) --Barthax 19:41, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

You're more than welcome to format some information in the style that Xevious uses. What I'd need to know is what template to use off the wiki and what data goes where. Best idea is to drop me a mail with some sample data and how you want it to look. -- tyagi 07:30, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Scanning

Quality of scanning material

Originally discussed over at Talk:Super Stuntman (ZX Spectrum), initial posts below are in reference to Super Stuntman (ZX Spectrum).

I have watermarked the images for this article. The reason being that good quality scans of covers can be used to generate pirate copies of the original. I understand that this probably isn't a real risk for such an old title, but with the images being original scans, I thought it might be safe to do this? What do others think? I'm happy to revert if others think this is pointless. -- tyagi 08:04, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Certainly once I get started on more recent items in my collection it does become a significant factor. Better safe than sorry in general. :) --Barthax 13:59, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Can we not just have the pictures at a slightly lower resolution? The watermarks just look a bit iffy. Xevious 15:53, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree that a watermark is not really desirable. We need to quantify what is an "acceptably low resolution". There should be some thought about this on t'interweb, so I'll take a look when I've got a moment. -- tyagi 22:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Discussion continued here...

Any movement on the acceptably low resolution? I've a little queue of images awaiting upload. :D --Barthax 12:39, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

As has probably been noticed, I'm uploading pictures on a reasonably regularly basis... I'm purposefully keeping the resolution sufficiently low so as to avoid potential replication but retain reasonable quality. Should the need to increase resolution occur, let me know & I have better quality scans of all stuff uploaded. --Barthax 12:43, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I think the quality you're using is fine. They're certainly not high enough resolution for someone to make a duplicate. -- tyagi 18:49, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Scanning CDs/GDs

I could do with some input on this matter. My technical knowledge of how CDs (and GD-ROMs) are made up tells me that normal light from the scanner, while bright, will have no adverse effect on the media for the purposes of a reasonably scanned image (I'm not considering high quality - just sufficient for my own purposes of documenting my collection & subsequent submissions of images here under the quality notes above). Despite my knowledge, something is still nagging at the back of my mind telling me something is going to go wrong with the media. I've hunted Google & not found anything. Does anyone have any pointers on this? --Barthax 19:46, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Seems not to be damaging them discs. :D --Barthax 12:36, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

PC games

At the moment we have a situation where PC games are just called PC games, irrespecive of the operating system they work on. Would it be possible to add an extra line to the GameInfoBox which only appears for PC games, which firstly states the operating system and then sticks the game into a category for that OS? Xevious 13:50, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Definitely. I was thinking about this just the other day. Maybe the field should be titled 'Platform'? or perhaps 'Operating System'? -- tyagi 19:45, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Shouldn't be too difficult: there's a series of functions in MediaWiki including the {{#ifeq: <test1>|<test2>|<equal>|<not equal>}} (requires install - see bottom of linked page). --Barthax 15:15, 27 October 2006 (UTC)
Now these have been installed, I've added an 'os' variable to the template, shown when a PC game is defined. Feel free to make changes. Xevious 15:18, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
I think it would be best to be specific concerning manufacturer for "Windows". We can then safely categorise them too. --Barthax 18:07, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

How do you mean? Xevious 18:09, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
Well, is it OS/2 Windows, Microsoft Windows, X Windows - unfortunately "Windows" is a little too generic. There is an issue with DOS games - I would suggest simply DOS for that as most games that were designed for Microsoft DOS will work on IBM PC-DOS and Dr DOS. --Barthax 18:12, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I see what you mean. Agreed, then. Xevious 10:12, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Linux games are another potential issue in the same way as DOS. Most Linux games will work with a particular generation of the GNU C Library. GNU C Library versions are tied to the Linux kernel version, however, games capable of running with a particular GNU C Library version will often run on non-Linux based kernels too! For now, as the market is sufficiently commercially limited, I'd say we keep that to Linux as per DOS. --Barthax 18:15, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Editted the GameInfobox & GameLinkbar templates a little further & as time progresses, those PC games which have no os parameter will get entered into Category:Maintenance/MissingOSParameter. --Barthax 21:09, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Sub-Categories

Should we force a PC game to exist in either Category:Personal Computer or one sub-category? Currently they're going into both. --Barthax 18:20, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
I'd say let them go into both. After all, the PC category is looking at the hardware, which is analogous to all other platforms. Xevious 10:14, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

GameLinkBar

I've made a very minor adjustment to the GameLinkBar template. Thanks to the ParserFunctions now being included, it now adds in an image of the system if such exists. I've forced the update of 007: Racing (PlayStation) so you can see it in action. To design the images, get the thumb into GIF format & set the transparency. Upload the image <platform>_thumblogo.gif - example one is Image:Sony PlayStation thumblogo.gif. It's a minor thing, but should help liven up the pages. --Barthax 14:06, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Adjusted the SystemInfobox template also. Works nicely on the Sony PlayStation page. :) Could possibly do with a little spacing though. --Barthax 14:13, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Nice idea. Can we use PNG format instead of GIF - it should look nicer. Xevious 15:04, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

No reason why not - or even PNG preferred & fall back to GIF (mind you that's more processing needed...). PNG is fine - I'm old-school web, so immediately consider GIF when it comes to transparency! :D --Barthax 17:58, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Definitely brightens up the page and linkbar. Not sure where we'll get suitable logos in the right size/quality/format for all systems, but I'm sure we can dig them out. There's also the continued quirk of an image linking back to its image page rather than to a defined Wiki page... Las time I looked at this, I didn't like any of the hacks that people proposed on the Mediawiki list. -- tyagi 18:07, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Chronology re-use

A little light re-use for the Chronology templates now that we have the Parser Functions. On the Dungeons & Dragons page, the Template:Dungeons & Dragons chronology is used twice: first for the list & second for the GameSeries inclusion. The sample utilises a single (non-named) parameter - if that parameter is the word list then the chronology produces * entries and if it's not, then it produces list entries. Will need a little work to get it functioning for the likes of the Street Fighter & other large scale series, but for the smaller stuff, it's nice & simple plus it saves on duplication. --Barthax 17:08, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

My word. Have a gold star. Xevious 18:07, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

A step beyond gold: The Template:ChronologyList can now be utilised throughout the chronology pages making them much easier to re-use. Create the x_chronology template page as linked to from the GameSeries template and enter the following:

{{ChronologyList|{{{1|}}}|<first game in series>|<second game>|<etc>|<etc>|}}

You can then use that chronology page in one of two ways. The typical GameSeries template is retained. Alternatively, you can supply the x_chronology template.

The Template:ChronologyList currently supports up to 24 games in any one series. It's very simple to increase that number (the pattern of detail is obvious).

Example time: Template:Midway Arcade Treasures chronology can be used in one of two ways:

List

Using {{Template:Midway Arcade Treasures chronology|list}} gives:

Non-list

Using the template without any parameters gives:

Midway Arcade Treasures | Midway Arcade Treasures 2 | Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play (PSP) | Midway Arcade Treasures 3

So, why all this effort? Well, it means we only have one place to update for any one series. Update it there & all pages which use the series in whichever manner will be updated. :D --Barthax 13:10, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Template placement

Something I've just noticed: shouldn't the chronology templates be located at Games/xxseriesxx chronology in line with the other templates, to avoid polluting the template namespace? Actually, we should probably have had the main text at Games/xx, formats at GameFormats/xx and so on, but too late now I think. Xevious 11:38, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

You're right - we should have it sub-named. Going forward, then, would it be better to have these as GameChronology/xx - there are too many formats pages to simply rectify, but we've not got too many of the chronology ones just yet. :) --Barthax 14:36, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Better to just have Chronology/xx I think, since it's a series and not a game chronology. We should probably also change the formats one as well from now on - yes, there are lots already, but there are many more still to come. I hesitate because at the moment in the Special:All_templates list it's rather handy with the formats page listed next to the main template page in most cases (it breaks when there are numbered sequels and so on), but it'll die if ever someone brings out a game with a name ending in "formats"! Xevious 16:12, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Just to confirm, then, there would be Games, Formats and Chronology sub-sections. Any thought to using a namespace format: Games: Formats: Chronology: instead? Figured this would be a good time to bring that up prior to any changes. :) --Barthax 17:41, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Is that possible - doesn't it have to be in Template: namespace in order to work with the {} tags? I vote for Games/, GameFormats/ and Chronology/ or with colons if the namespace is possible. Xevious 10:03, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

You can include any page using {{}} format. When no namespace is given, the Template: namespace is implied. Normal pages have a namespace - it just happens to be blank :D : {{:N/a}} gives:

Text incorrectly entered as N/a should be N/A.

--Barthax 10:32, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

It would be good for it to be in a sub-section, such as Games/, GameFormats/, Chronology/. I'm not at all fussed about it being moved from under the Template: namespace, as (in my opinion) any templates are good under this space provided they're organised sensibly. I'd like to keep all templates together as much as possible. -- tyagi 13:32, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

I think we have consensus then! Games/, GameFormats/, Chronology/. No need to change the formats ones immediately - but I'll change the help guides soon. I don't think it'll take too much time to move the chronology ones, will it? They will need to be changed to be consistent otherwise the GameSeries template will break ... Xevious 14:04, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm doing it now ... Xevious 14:12, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

99% sure I've moved them all to Template:Chronology/xxx and have updated the GameSeries box. At least now they're all gathered in one place so it'll be easy to see them all together - if we do decide to create new namespaces then it's a five-minute job instead of 20! Xevious 14:37, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Further design

Also, for a platinum star - can we incorporate some way of putting in a line break or horizontal line, for cases where there's a main series and a sub series? Xevious 11:40, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Personally, I had thought: put everything prior to the horizontal line into a single {{ChronologyList}} and leave the rest as-is. Now that you've queried it, I realise that's not going to work for the main series page. :( I'll have a think - should be easy enough with more {{#if:}} statements, but I don't want to rely too heavily on them. :) --Barthax 14:49, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I've found a reason for more than the current 24 entries in the template: Template:Bomberman chronology. Should we expand the template or can anyone see how such a chronology could be further split? --Barthax 13:32, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Expand the template, I reckon. For a series like this where there isn't a side series or so on, then splitting makes no sense. Xevious 14:01, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Spoilers

A new user created a seperate page for weapons on Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Mega Drive) because it contains spoilers. I've moved it back onto the main page and created two templates to go before and after:

Spoilers are hidden here - click 'show' to read

and

End of spoilers

I've had a great idea though. Would it be possible to do a "click for spoiler" span thing in CSS, so you could actually not see the spoiler at all? I might have a go at this but my CSS isn't great. Xevious 12:54, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, it might need specific CSS and Javascript defined in the wiki software itself ... Xevious 13:07, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Shouldn't be too difficult, just like the Template:GameSeries. --Barthax 18:10, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

NavSpoilerFrame now in action for the given example. I've left Xevious' spoiler alerts in place to complement. Comments welcome & improvements very likely needed. :D --Barthax 20:36, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

- Looking good! Is it possible to include the div tags inside the spoiler-start and spoiler-end templates? Xevious 10:11, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

- Yeah, I was considering that but there's a coupld of hiccups to the process. First you can't create a page with open <div> tags - the save process will close them off. So, the second issue is the use of passing the content into the template: the manner in which we use the GameSeries template requires the use of a seperate page to include (the Chronology/x pages). We could follow this sort of line & introduce a GameSpoiler/x-style page convention. Comments? --Barthax 16:15, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

- - That sounds too complicated, really. I think what you've got is great; we'll just have to explain how to use it in a help file. Xevious 18:31, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

- Just confirmed: if the template page (Template:spoiler-start for example) receives wiki markup, the markup is given raw: User:Barthax/Sandbox/SpoilerPage. --Barthax 16:22, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

GamerWiki:Village Pub (technical)