Data Page for Stories

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by Durzan, Sep 9, 2019.

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  1. Durzan

    Durzan Really Experienced

    You know, it occurred to me that several problems of convenience could be solved if each CHYOA had a hidden page where metadata (defined variables, customization options, etc) for the story could be stored and defined behind the scenes.

    Only story owners and editors should be able to see and/or edit this page. This could help clean up and organize the implementation of variables and conditions on each page the reader sees.

    (On a side note, Game Mode really should have been approached as though it were a rudimentary programming language, with a simple to use GUI on top. That probably would've saved everyone who's been working on it behind the scenes quite a number of headaches. But whatever, hindsight is 20/20)
     
    RejectTed and gene.sis like this.
  2. gene.sis

    gene.sis CHYOA Guru

  3. Nemo of Utopia

    Nemo of Utopia CHYOA Guru

    I advocated for this back-in-the-day but they were incredibly resistant to the idea.
     
  4. Zeebop

    Zeebop CHYOA Guru

    That would basically be a kind of custom .css file, wouldn't it?
     
  5. Durzan

    Durzan Really Experienced

    ^ I suppose it would.

    I don't really know a lot about programming tbh. I'm just familiar with some of the basic concepts.
     
  6. gene.sis

    gene.sis CHYOA Guru

    A CSS file basically allows you to determine how a website should look (e.g. color, layout, fonts) without applying certain attributes to every element.
    With a custom CSS, you could replace the given appearance with your own preferences. (There are browser plugins which allow you to do that as well.)

    I don't get the link between CSS and a GUI. (Or are you referring to the original post?)
     
  7. Zeebop

    Zeebop CHYOA Guru

    I was thinking less of GUI than as a central file for variables which all the pages would reference. But I'm not sure how that would work with the site software.
     
  8. gene.sis

    gene.sis CHYOA Guru

    Well, it would work but is a different approach.

    The centralized approach is used with immersion variables. Only the story owner can set and edit them.

    Game Mode uses a de-centralized approach to allow every author to use and introduce new variables.

    Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages.