DSP Wiki:Plan

Here, we will attempt to outline the overall plan for DSP Wiki

UI/UX

The aim for the UI/UX (aka "Skin" in Mediawiki terms, "Theme" is another good word) is to be as similar to the in-game UI as possible. In particular:

• Color scheme: "Dark" theme, colors shifted to match game colors (light blue #d1ffff and/or orange #f3a602). The currently used orange theme is NOT the final product, it is borrowed from another wiki until we can get the Skin written - this is not a small task!
• The page content area will be transitioned to look similar to the various windows in the game. Goal is to replicate the Inventory window, with the upper-left "folder tab" housing the page title, and the upper-right "sort / close window" area being replaced by page status/notification icons, and action links. The CSS for this is tricky, but work is ongoing.
• We are also considering using the in-game mouse cursor, but have not reached a decision.
• Please DO NOT apply excessive CSS in-line or in-page unless it is absolutely necessary. Especially try to avoid overriding site-wide CSS, except for special circumstances. Doing so makes it incredibly difficult to go back and update the Skin when necessary. This especially applies to background colors.
• Templates should be used for most CSS overrides, when possible. This allows us to make the change in one place, and affect all instances. For some additional information, see the Templates section below.

Cards

We are working on using "cards" (to borrow the term from Bootstrap) to compartmentalize information. For example, the front page will have a Card for each main category (Gameplay, Items, Technologies, etc.) and each will have a brief text description and link either to the Category page for that topic, or an actual page, depending. The category pages will then have Cards breaking them down similarly, etc. Cards will be created using Templates to make things easier, but for now, adding information to pages without the use of cards is acceptable.

Mobile

Our mobile support currently is "barely implemented". We're aware of some things that are thoroughly broken such as randomly wrong-sized images, invisible icons, etc. Putting effort into fixing these for the current mobile skin detracts from time spent writing the real skin, so we're only fixing Mobile issues that completely break the site for users, at this time. Stay with us, we'll get there!

Images

• Images should be the highest quality possible, and lowest file size obtainable. Different formats apply for different purposes. JPG is best for images with a lot of color transitions, e.g. screenshots of the game itself. PNG works best for simpler images with areas of solid color, and for transparent backgrounds.
• DSP Wiki has conditional approval to utilize game assets for display purposes. To maintain these conditions, DO NOT upload game assets that are not released in the vanilla (un-modded) game. If it can't be found in-game, it should not be on DSP Wiki.
• Whenever possible, images such as icons or other elements of UI, should have transparent backgrounds. This allows them to be layered on other elements and to adapt to potential changes in the Wiki color scheme.
• Use full words in image names, but keep them as short as possible. It should ultimately be easy to both search for an image, and understand what it is, based on the name.
  

For example:

• Nondescriptive: Untitled1.png
• Too long: That_one_time_I_flew_too_close_to_a_black_hole.jpg
• About right: Icon_Assembler_Mk.1.png

Pages

• If you think it deserves its own page, you're probably right. Go ahead and create a page, we can merge it elsewhere later on if needed.
• At first, there will be many pages marked "Stub". These are put in place merely to start mapping out the wiki and giving others a starting point. These pages may contain instructions within them of how they are envisioned to be used.
  • You can use the {{Stub}} template to mark a page as Stub.
• If you plan to add a great deal of content to a page, please be sure to mark it as {{WIP}}. It is optional but encouraged to copy the page to a user sandbox page for working on it, then copying the completed version back.
• While it's perfectly fine to create Collector pages for things such as Items, every item/technology/upgrade/etc. should get its own page. This helps them show up when Searching the wiki, either via the Wiki's own search engine or via Google.

Templates

• We are evaluating templates from other wikis for import to DSP Wiki. Templates are quite a big beast to tackle, as many rely on other templates or LUA modules and just importing one could result in requiring dozens more. Each required one must be evaluated for whether it is needed on our Wiki. If you have a desire for a template to do something, file a request and we'll look into it. If you're experienced with MediaWiki Template creation, this is an area we can use a lot of help!
• We want to avoid having a billion highly specialized templates, but not at the expense of usefulness and ease of maintaining a unified wiki.
• Extension:TemplateStyles is installed, activated, and in use on many templates already. Please put any template-styling in a subpage named "style.css", and ensure that it is saved in the "Sanitized CSS" Content Model, or it will not load correctly. While in this content model, CodeEditor will be the default editor for editing the stylesheet. If you find yourself unable to save the page after an edit, it is because of invalid or unsafe CSS. Unfortunately at this time, no error message is provided to say what is wrong.

UPDATE: As of 2/15/2021, The editing of Templates is now restricted to sysop (highest level admin) only. This is to prevent the wholesale changes of the structure of the templates that is used by automated scripts to keep game information updated. If you need a template created or revised, join the wiki's Discord and put it in #wiki-requests.

Categories

• A wiki of this type doesn't require a great deal of categories, but we'd like to sub-categorize as much as possible. For example, the "Items" Category should ultimately contain all items available in the game, but as with the game, it should be sub-categorized at least to "Buildings" and "Components", and possibly even further, such as "Assemblers" "Resource Extractors" and "Logistics" under buildings, etc.
• Remember to add a brief description to new categories, so that they get a page and don't show as a broken link
• Ultimately, Categories should be intuitive to the average game player, and follow a logical path - see "Cards" under "UI/UX" for more on why.