Oolite Website Domain & Fixing the Expansions Manager

[Nite Owl]

If memory serves clicking on the name of an OXZ on either the Main Page or the Expansion Packs page took you to the wiki entry for that OXZ. Clicking on the download icon on the Expansion Packs page would download the OXZ. Usually the wiki entry for an OXZ has a download link as well.

[hiran]

My guess is that this great work you are doing will eventually solve the issue of the wiki and/or download links for Expansions looping back to the Main Page of the web site? The looping occurs with the links on both the Main Page and the Expansion Packs page.

At the moment the site OXP page is fixed - download links work, or are you asking about something else?

but...
@hiran, we have a problem: if the information_url is empty - the link point on the main page of the site. The "right download" link (icon) works, but if you click on the package name itself, it redirect you to the main page.
Perhaps I should disable displaying the name as a link if information_url is empty?

I think I am getting the point. Now I have an idea.

With the OoliteAddonScanner I used to create the Index of Artefacts.
The wiki page could need an update again. But this is the point: I'd like to push the generated index into the site so it is available for browsing directly.

Why do I mention that?
Inside this index I have a link to the wiki for each and every item - be it some expansion, a ship or other equipment. I could leverage the same algorithm to provide the information_url in the expansion catalog or the oxp.json file. Have you had a chance to download the OoliteExpansionIndex?
I still would like to add these files into the oolite-web repo, similar like the index.html or the oxp.json.

[phkb]

Hmmm. If you can still use the DB...
How about creating the list of active URLs and replacing the content of expansionUrls.txt with that?

Done.

[hiran]

Hmmm. If you can still use the DB...
How about creating the list of active URLs and replacing the content of expansionUrls.txt with that?

Done.

Nice!

[timer]

If memory serves clicking on the name of an OXZ on either the Main Page or the Expansion Packs page took you to the wiki entry for that OXZ. Clicking on the download icon on the Expansion Packs page would download the OXZ. Usually the wiki entry for an OXZ has a download link as well.

Yes that's right.

Previously, the "main manifest" was generated from data in the database on the old site(server) - there, in fact, information_url (that contains link to wiki or forum) was filled for each extension - it was filled when adding a package in the admin panel.

But not every developer added this field (information_url) to the manifest.plist. The "main manifest" is now generated by scanning and extracting data(from manifest.plist) directly from the oxz archives. This is why the links to the wiki or forum pages for many packages are now gone.

After the old site stopped working (now apparently forever) we lost the mechanism for generating the "main manifest" from the database. The current generation mechanism is implemented by @hiran, it's great that he did this! The data itself (from database) has not disappeared anywhere - we have it. I'm sure we'll find way to solve all the problems )

[hiran]

If memory serves clicking on the name of an OXZ on either the Main Page or the Expansion Packs page took you to the wiki entry for that OXZ. Clicking on the download icon on the Expansion Packs page would download the OXZ. Usually the wiki entry for an OXZ has a download link as well.

Yes that's right.

Previously, the "main manifest" was generated from data in the database on the old site(server) - there, in fact, information_url (that contains link to wiki or forum) was filled for each extension - it was filled when adding a package in the admin panel.

But not every developer added this field (information_url) to the manifest.plist. The "main manifest" is now generated by scanning and extracting data(from manifest.plist) directly from the oxz archives. This is why the links to the wiki or forum pages for many packages are now gone.

After the old site stopped working (now apparently forever) we lost the mechanism for generating the "main manifest" from the database. The current generation mechanism is implemented by @hiran, it's great that he did this! The data itself (from database) has not disappeared anywhere - we have it. I'm sure we'll find way to solve all the problems )

I think now I get the impact. Thank you for the explanation, Timer.
I did not like the discrepancy between the catalog and the expansions' manifests - but apparently the catalog was more well maintained. We need to start maintaining the OXZs. Something I am discussing with Cholmondely anyway.

[phkb]

So what critical information do we need to have in the manifests, that isn’t there now? information_url, obviously. Any others?

[hiran]

So what critical information do we need to have in the manifests, that isn’t there now? information_url, obviously. Any others?

OoliteAddonScanner has repeatedly scanned all the OXZs and compared them with the expansions catalog.
The last result generated before we switched the catalog management is here: https://github.com/HiranChaudhuri/Oolit ... x-20230901

When extracting the zip, you will find an index.html that allows you to browse all expansions and see a table showing manifest and catalog information side by side. We can also quickly see which expansions have which wiki URL (if any).
If you want to know which expansions should be of interest, browse to the warnings page.

Hope this helps.

[timer]

So what critical information do we need to have in the manifests, that isn’t there now? information_url, obviously. Any others?

well... for the site it’s probably just an information_url. In the evening I will try to compare in detail what is being generated now with what was previously.

The interesting thing is that if inside each manifest.plist there was all the necessary information in all the archives, then the situation would be quite good )

A list of URLs as the source of catalogue("main manifest") generation is an elegant and simple solution. I assume that we will supplement it with the fact that URLs will be added to this list through the admin panel of the new site - this will allow validation of the added extension, because all summary information is only in the database, and you can fully check all dependencies, tags, etc. Only the database will allow it. This will also make it possible to differentiate rights - who can change/delete/deactivate which URLs.
@phkb, @hiran - what do you think about this?

I can write script that will generate the catalogue from the database exactly as it was before, but I'm not sure that this will be the right step.

[timer]

I think I am getting the point. Now I have an idea.

With the OoliteAddonScanner I used to create the Index of Artefacts.
The wiki page could need an update again. But this is the point: I'd like to push the generated index into the site so it is available for browsing directly.

Why do I mention that?

please, figure out where to post this on the site?
In which section (create a new one)?
On what page?
What should I name the link?

[hiran]

I think I am getting the point. Now I have an idea.

With the OoliteAddonScanner I used to create the Index of Artefacts.
The wiki page could need an update again. But this is the point: I'd like to push the generated index into the site so it is available for browsing directly.

Why do I mention that?

please, figure out where to post this on the site?
In which section (create a new one)?
On what page?
What should I name the link?

We could stick with the name 'Index of Artifacts'. Where you think it fits is not even important: we can still rename or move it around.

I was more asking for a directory to push the files in. Maybe I will just create something.

[timer]

I think I am getting the point. Now I have an idea.

With the OoliteAddonScanner I used to create the Index of Artefacts.
The wiki page could need an update again. But this is the point: I'd like to push the generated index into the site so it is available for browsing directly.

Why do I mention that?

please, figure out where to post this on the site?
In which section (create a new one)?
On what page?
What should I name the link?

We could stick with the name 'Index of Artifacts'. Where you think it fits is not even important: we can still rename or move it around.

I was more asking for a directory to push the files in. Maybe I will just create something.

IMHO here:
https://github.com/OoliteProject/oolite ... /root/html

in the end, you can do everything yourself - if I don’t like something, we’ll discuss it and change it

[timer]

ooh, I just took a closer look at "Oolite Known Universe"... it seems to me that there is too much "raw" information there...
I'm not sure that we should dump this information on site visitors in such a form and in such a volume...

[hiran]

ooh, I just took a closer look at "Oolite Known Universe"... it seems to me that there is too much "raw" information there...
I'm not sure that we should dump this information on site visitors in such a form and in such a volume...

I need a space where users can browse the files directly. I did not ask to place them in the middle of the homepage...

[timer]

ooh, I just took a closer look at "Oolite Known Universe"... it seems to me that there is too much "raw" information there...
I'm not sure that we should dump this information on site visitors in such a form and in such a volume...

I need a space where users can browse the files directly. I did not ask to place them in the middle of the homepage...

https://artifacts.oolite.space