As promised, I have released the new version of my web site.
Feel free to make any comments. Please notify me of all mistakes you find, as insignificant as they are.
There are still many features to add:
- Migrate existing discussion forums
- Custom dungeons management
- Open registrations to public, allowing comments on all pages
- Links management (currently very ugly, sorry)
- Better graphical style for some elements
- Add the Offline Encyclopaedia (yes it will be there)
I hope you'll like the new site!
Encyclopaedia web site update
Forum rules
Please read the Forum rules and policies before posting.
Please read the Forum rules and policies before posting.
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ChristopheF
- Encyclopedist
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 1999 2:36 pm
- Location: France
- Contact:
I tried to log in as "Adamo" with password from this site, but I can`t do this.. Do I have to register again to enter your site? If so, could you import users nicks & passwords from this site to yours not to log on two times?
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Gambit37
- Should eat more pies
- Posts: 13766
- Joined: Wed May 31, 2000 1:57 pm
- Location: Location, Location
- Contact:
As Pad points out, the login stuff doesn't work yet. And I'm afraid for security reasons, there's no way I'd allow passwords from here to be used on another site. You wouldn't be able to technically anyway.
Regarding the update Christophe, it's looking very promising! I haven't had an in depth look yet, but will do so later. The one thing I immediately didn't like was the next/previous/random link footer on each page, it's not at all intuitive and looks very clunky.
Regarding the update Christophe, it's looking very promising! I haven't had an in depth look yet, but will do so later. The one thing I immediately didn't like was the next/previous/random link footer on each page, it's not at all intuitive and looks very clunky.
. I'd been wondering about them.
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Gambit37
- Should eat more pies
- Posts: 13766
- Joined: Wed May 31, 2000 1:57 pm
- Location: Location, Location
- Contact:
OK, I've had more of a play around, and here's some detailed feedback. I appreciate the site is not complete, and that you may change some of it, so some of my comments might be redundant.
1) I don't think the Heirarchical menu system works very well because the items are listed in a strange order. For example, the first item in Dungeon Master is "The Secrets of Dungeon Mastery". I would expect it to be Information or overview or something else. Can you improve this?
2) Related to (1), the previous and next buttons at the bottom of each article don't go to logical, relevant documents, but just traverse the docs as they (presumably) were entered in the database. In my opinion, this is pointless. It would be better to have some kind of "related links" area that only links to sensible data, in the case of "Secrets" that would be other hint books and maybe the hints and tips pages.
3) Related to (1) again: I would sub categorise things further. For example, I think the links to pages for the different platforms of each game should be brought under one category called "game Versions" or something.
4) Links should really be underlined and use a consistent color. The colour changes depending on where they are, and a lot of them are very indistinct as links.
5) OK, I discovered that you do in fact have a "related items" list at the top of each page. I didn't notice it because I didn't think they were links. Looking at the "Secrets of DM" page you have DM, Hint books and Reviews. I thought this was some kind of breadcrumb list, but I've now discovered the breadcrumbs tucked away above the article title. I recommend some serious usability improvements here:
5a) Make the page breadcrumbs much more obvious
5b) Move all the related items, author info, post date etc. to *beneath* the article - it all gets in the way of the article when it comes before the text.
5c) Ditch the previous and next controls and make the related items a clearer menu beneath the article
6) Remove the printer-friendly option and develop a print stylesheet. Shouldn't really need a separate printer version in this day and age, that's *so* 1999.
7) The category browser is just odd. I have no idea how it's supposed to work. Shouldn't there be some kind of search field that I can type keywords into? The way it's written suggests it works with keywords, but the functionality doesn't support that. What is a 'book page'? I find this whole area completely unintuitive and I think it needs more work to be useful.
I really like the fact you have a search facility -- it seems to work well.
9) I think the Encyclopedia part should be expanded by default; I still think this is the way most people will view the site, and it seems like there isn't much on the site when you first come to it because it's all hidden. In fact that's made me wonder about the navigation on DMCodex now....!
10) When you link off to an external link, the resulting page is very confusing. The actual link is pretty much hidden in all the author info. I don't think it works at all. Can you get rid of this level and simply link to external sites normally?
I realise some of this stuff is a bit negative, but I've tried to offer constructive suggestions where possible. Hope it helps!
1) I don't think the Heirarchical menu system works very well because the items are listed in a strange order. For example, the first item in Dungeon Master is "The Secrets of Dungeon Mastery". I would expect it to be Information or overview or something else. Can you improve this?
2) Related to (1), the previous and next buttons at the bottom of each article don't go to logical, relevant documents, but just traverse the docs as they (presumably) were entered in the database. In my opinion, this is pointless. It would be better to have some kind of "related links" area that only links to sensible data, in the case of "Secrets" that would be other hint books and maybe the hints and tips pages.
3) Related to (1) again: I would sub categorise things further. For example, I think the links to pages for the different platforms of each game should be brought under one category called "game Versions" or something.
4) Links should really be underlined and use a consistent color. The colour changes depending on where they are, and a lot of them are very indistinct as links.
5) OK, I discovered that you do in fact have a "related items" list at the top of each page. I didn't notice it because I didn't think they were links. Looking at the "Secrets of DM" page you have DM, Hint books and Reviews. I thought this was some kind of breadcrumb list, but I've now discovered the breadcrumbs tucked away above the article title. I recommend some serious usability improvements here:
5a) Make the page breadcrumbs much more obvious
5b) Move all the related items, author info, post date etc. to *beneath* the article - it all gets in the way of the article when it comes before the text.
5c) Ditch the previous and next controls and make the related items a clearer menu beneath the article
6) Remove the printer-friendly option and develop a print stylesheet. Shouldn't really need a separate printer version in this day and age, that's *so* 1999.
7) The category browser is just odd. I have no idea how it's supposed to work. Shouldn't there be some kind of search field that I can type keywords into? The way it's written suggests it works with keywords, but the functionality doesn't support that. What is a 'book page'? I find this whole area completely unintuitive and I think it needs more work to be useful.
I really like the fact you have a search facility -- it seems to work well.9) I think the Encyclopedia part should be expanded by default; I still think this is the way most people will view the site, and it seems like there isn't much on the site when you first come to it because it's all hidden. In fact that's made me wonder about the navigation on DMCodex now....!
10) When you link off to an external link, the resulting page is very confusing. The actual link is pretty much hidden in all the author info. I don't think it works at all. Can you get rid of this level and simply link to external sites normally?
I realise some of this stuff is a bit negative, but I've tried to offer constructive suggestions where possible. Hope it helps!
may i also suggest adding the amiga portraits of DM2, and the SNES portraits of DM to your site?
again, this is only a suggestion, but being an encyclopedia, im sure youd want to have EVERYTHING, its just a little something thats hard to notice, but im always loving the amiga version, hell i can get the portraits if you wanted me to! ^^
as always though, beautiful site.
again, this is only a suggestion, but being an encyclopedia, im sure youd want to have EVERYTHING, its just a little something thats hard to notice, but im always loving the amiga version, hell i can get the portraits if you wanted me to! ^^
as always though, beautiful site.
Immortal Dungeoneer.
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ChristopheF
- Encyclopedist
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 1999 2:36 pm
- Location: France
- Contact:
Encyclopaedia news
I made an update to my site, see the news over there.
I have also started working on Custom Dungeons management. I want to show you what I propose so that we can discuss:
1) I defined two specific content types: one called "Custom Dungeon" and the other called "Custom Dungeon Review".
These content types allow me to define a set of fields, each having a type (text box, text area, date, drop down list,...).
Using fields in a form ensures a standard way of structuring information for all dungeons.
2) It is possible to list all items of one given content type in a table. It is possible to define which fields are present in these tables.
I have have created two sample "Custom Dungeon" nodes and a single sample "Custom Dungeon Review" node.
You can sort the tables by clicking on the column headers: to find all dungeons for a given platform, to sort dungeons by descending overall rating to find the best rates ones, ...
3) Comments are disabled on these content types. People who want to discuss about the dungeons or the reviews must come over here in the forums.
This is what I think is the best.
4) Attachments are allowed for "Custom Dungeon", disallowed for "Custom Dungeon Review". Users will be able to attach their dungeon file, graphics, ...
5) When I open the site for registrations, any user will be able to post items using these content types.
6) The creator of a page will be able to edit this page to update its content or replace a file by a newer version.
7) Here you can see screenshots of the forms used to create "Custom Dungeon" and "Custom Dungeon Review" content (warning, large images!):
http://dmweb.free.fr/Stuff/CreateCD.png
http://dmweb.free.fr/Stuff/CreateCDR.png
This is a proposition, a prototype. Nothing is definitive. Let's discuss if it seems a good solution to our needs. I'll will only add all dungeons to the system when we agree on the solution to use.
Please post your feedback!
I have also started working on Custom Dungeons management. I want to show you what I propose so that we can discuss:
1) I defined two specific content types: one called "Custom Dungeon" and the other called "Custom Dungeon Review".
These content types allow me to define a set of fields, each having a type (text box, text area, date, drop down list,...).
Using fields in a form ensures a standard way of structuring information for all dungeons.
2) It is possible to list all items of one given content type in a table. It is possible to define which fields are present in these tables.
I have have created two sample "Custom Dungeon" nodes and a single sample "Custom Dungeon Review" node.
You can sort the tables by clicking on the column headers: to find all dungeons for a given platform, to sort dungeons by descending overall rating to find the best rates ones, ...
3) Comments are disabled on these content types. People who want to discuss about the dungeons or the reviews must come over here in the forums.
This is what I think is the best.
4) Attachments are allowed for "Custom Dungeon", disallowed for "Custom Dungeon Review". Users will be able to attach their dungeon file, graphics, ...
5) When I open the site for registrations, any user will be able to post items using these content types.
6) The creator of a page will be able to edit this page to update its content or replace a file by a newer version.
7) Here you can see screenshots of the forms used to create "Custom Dungeon" and "Custom Dungeon Review" content (warning, large images!):
http://dmweb.free.fr/Stuff/CreateCD.png
http://dmweb.free.fr/Stuff/CreateCDR.png
This is a proposition, a prototype. Nothing is definitive. Let's discuss if it seems a good solution to our needs. I'll will only add all dungeons to the system when we agree on the solution to use.
Please post your feedback!
Last edited by ChristopheF on Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:48 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Christophe - Dungeon Master Encyclopaedia
Seems cool, and the ability to edit the dungeon post for new versions sound exactly what is needed. Can the creator also have the ability to edit a link to discussion/review threads? Or better yet have the reviewer create a link to the dungeon being reviewed that reciprocally appears in the dungen thread (so if I had created a review thread to Dargoth now, then a link would have automatically appeared in the Dargoth thread to it)
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Paul Stevens
- CSBwin Guru
- Posts: 4322
- Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2001 6:00 pm
- Location: Madison, Wisconsin, USA
I hope you encourage people to submit dungeon
designs with ALL the necessary bits and pieces
necessary to play the game. Preferably in a single
.zip file. There are so many version of runtime
engines, graphic files, etc. We have seen new
users fight with the .rar. files and WinRAR is not
really freeware.
Disk space is not at such a premium as it
once was and a few megabytes is essentially zero.
At 5-megabyte each, 200 will fit in a gigabyte. That
will be a great day when we have 200 games available.
designs with ALL the necessary bits and pieces
necessary to play the game. Preferably in a single
.zip file. There are so many version of runtime
engines, graphic files, etc. We have seen new
users fight with the .rar. files and WinRAR is not
really freeware.
Disk space is not at such a premium as it
once was and a few megabytes is essentially zero.
At 5-megabyte each, 200 will fit in a gigabyte. That
will be a great day when we have 200 games available.
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ChristopheF
- Encyclopedist
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 1999 2:36 pm
- Location: France
- Contact:
I would like to explain a few things about how the new web site is built. It should answer some of Gambit's questions and be helpful to further discuss about the web site.
First, I confirm that I will not import user/passwords from this forum, although it should be technically possible (most applications store passwords as MD5 hashes in their database).
The web site is based on a Content Management System called Drupal.
In Drupal, each piece of content is called a "node".
Each node has a type called a "content type".
Drupal has some built-in content types. One of them is "book page". This content type is used for most pages on my site.
Additional Drupal modules can define new content types. For example, I use the "weblink" module which allows me to create nodes of type "weblink". Useful to enter URLs with name and description and make references to them in other pages.
I also use the "flexinode" module that allows me to easily create my own content types. These are based on simple forms. I used it to create the two content types "Custom Dungeon" and "Custom Dungeon Review".
About books
As I said, most pages on the site are of type "book page". The Drupal book module allows me to create a hierarchy of "book pages". Each book page can have child pages. Book pages that don't have a parent book page are "top level".
For example, the "Encyclopaedia" book page is top level. The "Dungeon Master" book page is a child of the "Encyclopaedia" book page.
When you display a book page, you get the content of the page itself and below there is also the list of child book pages. By default, child book pages are listed alphabetically but this has been changed with the last update I made.
The "Encyclopaedia" book page currently is empty, that is why when you open it you only see the list of child book pages (including "Dungeon Master", "Chaos Strikes Back", etc).
Before the last site update, there was also a "book navigation" section at the bottom of each page that included three links: "previous", "up" and "next".
Previous/next would go to the previous/next page in the book, and up would go one level up in the hierarchy of pages. I agree this was not very intuitive and useful and removed it.
Breadcrumb
The breadcrumb is displayed on the very first line of each page. It shows your location in the site. When you are on a book page, it shows the hierarchy above the page you are currently viewing. Each part in the hierarchy path is a link to the corresponding page.
Categories
Gambit, what you are calling "related links" are in fact Categories.
Drupal includes a powerful "taxonomy" sytem that allows categorization of content. Each node (each piece of content) can be categorized, independently of its type or location in the book hierarchy.
I have defined a simple, non hierarchical list of categories for my site. Each node can be included in any number of these categories.
For example, every page on my site that has a file attached for download is in the "Download" category.
If a visitor wants to download every possible file from the site, he need to browse that category, and it will build a listing of all the nodes in that category.
If you want to see only to the downloads related to Dungeon Master II, you can do it by browsing all the nodes that are part of both categories "Download" and "Dungeon Master II".
If you want to see all the manuals and hint books on the site, you can browse all the nodes that are part of any of the categories "Manual" and "Hint Book".
That is the purpose of the "Category browser" option available in the left menu. This Drupal module allows you to build such category based requests.
It can also limit the results to a single content type, that is why the list of content types defined on the web site is displayed.
I cannot change the way this module displays things unless I change the code of this module. But this can be done.
About the "printer-friendly" link on book pages
Gambit, I agree it is better to have a dedicated CSS style sheet for printing. That is what I have on the old static site.
But this option has one more thing: when you use it on a page, it will produce a web page suitable for printing but it will also include the whole hierarchy of child book pages in the process. I thought it was a nice feature.
However, it does not work at the highest level ("Encyclopaedia") because of memory limitation on the web server
Links to external web sites
I agree that the current situation is not good: you need two clicks to go to an external web site. This will be changed soon so that links will directly bring you to the destination web sites.
As you have seen, links management is not finished at all on the site, I also have to implement a nice page to list all the links in a readable and categorized way.
Links with Custom Dungeons
Beowuuf, I'll see what I can do to manage links between custom dungeon pages, review pages and discussion thread pages.
Archives format
I have used .RAR files on my web site for a long time now. I agree WinRAR is not freeware, but there are freeware archivers able to uncompress .rar files (like the unrar.exe command utility or 7-Zip for example).
However, I agree that for custom dungeons, the zip format should be more appropriate. I'll put a notice to encourage users to bundle csbwin with their dungeon to ensure version compatibility.
I hope all these explanations make things clearer. I realize I should probably post some of these explanations on the web site itself for visitors.
There are things I probably cannot change easily, but I am still open to any feedback in order to improve the web site to have the best user experience possible.
First, I confirm that I will not import user/passwords from this forum, although it should be technically possible (most applications store passwords as MD5 hashes in their database).
The web site is based on a Content Management System called Drupal.
In Drupal, each piece of content is called a "node".
Each node has a type called a "content type".
Drupal has some built-in content types. One of them is "book page". This content type is used for most pages on my site.
Additional Drupal modules can define new content types. For example, I use the "weblink" module which allows me to create nodes of type "weblink". Useful to enter URLs with name and description and make references to them in other pages.
I also use the "flexinode" module that allows me to easily create my own content types. These are based on simple forms. I used it to create the two content types "Custom Dungeon" and "Custom Dungeon Review".
About books
As I said, most pages on the site are of type "book page". The Drupal book module allows me to create a hierarchy of "book pages". Each book page can have child pages. Book pages that don't have a parent book page are "top level".
For example, the "Encyclopaedia" book page is top level. The "Dungeon Master" book page is a child of the "Encyclopaedia" book page.
When you display a book page, you get the content of the page itself and below there is also the list of child book pages. By default, child book pages are listed alphabetically but this has been changed with the last update I made.
The "Encyclopaedia" book page currently is empty, that is why when you open it you only see the list of child book pages (including "Dungeon Master", "Chaos Strikes Back", etc).
Before the last site update, there was also a "book navigation" section at the bottom of each page that included three links: "previous", "up" and "next".
Previous/next would go to the previous/next page in the book, and up would go one level up in the hierarchy of pages. I agree this was not very intuitive and useful and removed it.
Breadcrumb
The breadcrumb is displayed on the very first line of each page. It shows your location in the site. When you are on a book page, it shows the hierarchy above the page you are currently viewing. Each part in the hierarchy path is a link to the corresponding page.
Categories
Gambit, what you are calling "related links" are in fact Categories.
Drupal includes a powerful "taxonomy" sytem that allows categorization of content. Each node (each piece of content) can be categorized, independently of its type or location in the book hierarchy.
I have defined a simple, non hierarchical list of categories for my site. Each node can be included in any number of these categories.
For example, every page on my site that has a file attached for download is in the "Download" category.
If a visitor wants to download every possible file from the site, he need to browse that category, and it will build a listing of all the nodes in that category.
If you want to see only to the downloads related to Dungeon Master II, you can do it by browsing all the nodes that are part of both categories "Download" and "Dungeon Master II".
If you want to see all the manuals and hint books on the site, you can browse all the nodes that are part of any of the categories "Manual" and "Hint Book".
That is the purpose of the "Category browser" option available in the left menu. This Drupal module allows you to build such category based requests.
It can also limit the results to a single content type, that is why the list of content types defined on the web site is displayed.
I cannot change the way this module displays things unless I change the code of this module. But this can be done.
About the "printer-friendly" link on book pages
Gambit, I agree it is better to have a dedicated CSS style sheet for printing. That is what I have on the old static site.
But this option has one more thing: when you use it on a page, it will produce a web page suitable for printing but it will also include the whole hierarchy of child book pages in the process. I thought it was a nice feature.
However, it does not work at the highest level ("Encyclopaedia") because of memory limitation on the web server
Links to external web sites
I agree that the current situation is not good: you need two clicks to go to an external web site. This will be changed soon so that links will directly bring you to the destination web sites.
As you have seen, links management is not finished at all on the site, I also have to implement a nice page to list all the links in a readable and categorized way.
Links with Custom Dungeons
Beowuuf, I'll see what I can do to manage links between custom dungeon pages, review pages and discussion thread pages.
Archives format
I have used .RAR files on my web site for a long time now. I agree WinRAR is not freeware, but there are freeware archivers able to uncompress .rar files (like the unrar.exe command utility or 7-Zip for example).
However, I agree that for custom dungeons, the zip format should be more appropriate. I'll put a notice to encourage users to bundle csbwin with their dungeon to ensure version compatibility.
I hope all these explanations make things clearer. I realize I should probably post some of these explanations on the web site itself for visitors.
There are things I probably cannot change easily, but I am still open to any feedback in order to improve the web site to have the best user experience possible.
Christophe - Dungeon Master Encyclopaedia
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Tom Hatfield
- Ee Master
- Posts: 688
- Joined: Mon May 07, 2001 7:00 pm
- Location: Indiana, USA
- Contact:
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ChristopheF
- Encyclopedist
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 1999 2:36 pm
- Location: France
- Contact:
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ChristopheF
- Encyclopedist
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 1999 2:36 pm
- Location: France
- Contact:
Thanks!
What about the DM Codex? Do you plan to publish your content there or would you share it with me for addition to the encyclopaedia?
What about the DM Codex? Do you plan to publish your content there or would you share it with me for addition to the encyclopaedia?
Christophe - Dungeon Master Encyclopaedia
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DraconicMajesty
- Apprentice
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2006 1:17 pm
Yep, still waiting for the Codex to appear. In the meantime, I am still putting together lots of info for my site. Just in case nobody noticed, I managed to dig up the patent for the copy protection mechanism that was used on the Atari ST version of DM. The ST version also employed another trick - I am still compiling the info and will get it added as soon as I can.
Gambit wrote:
PLEASE finish Codex or release it as it is. As far as I know it`s almost finished... Release it first and then try to improve your site. I guess it would be one weekend for you. I hate to beg, but please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please, we`re hungry of hot new infos!I keep changing my mind!
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Spoiler
(@.@) (@.@) (@.@) (@.@) (@.@) (@.@) (@.@) (@.@) (@.@) (@.@) (@.@) (@.@)
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ChristopheF
- Encyclopedist
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 1999 2:36 pm
- Location: France
- Contact:
I also noticed some issues yesterday with random HTTP 500 errors (refresh the page until it works). Probably an issue at my ISP.
By the way, I made some minor updates recently...
By the way, I made some minor updates recently...
Christophe - Dungeon Master Encyclopaedia
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ChristopheF
- Encyclopedist
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 1999 2:36 pm
- Location: France
- Contact:
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ChristopheF
- Encyclopedist
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 1999 2:36 pm
- Location: France
- Contact: