IFWiki:Software database

This page is to help people understand the structure of the software database. Most people won't be interested.

Infobox and navboxes

Two boxes are added to each software page - an infobox at the top of the page (about the piece of software) and a navbox at the bottom (about similar groups of software).

Infobox

The two main pages are:

• Template:Software infobox.
  • This page defines the database structure and defines how the software infobox looks.
• Form:Software.
  • All existing pages in Category:Authoring system, Category:Interpreter and Category:Utilities have an "Edit form form" option, so that an infobox can be added or edited.

See also: IFWiki:Software without infoboxes.

Navboxes

The three navboxes are:

• Template:Authoring system navbox sets up the table, displays rows from Template:Authoring system navbox rows, then displays the final "Other software" row.
• Template:Interpreter navbox (working similarly with Template:Interpreter navbox rows).
• Template:Utility navbox (working similarly with Template:Utility navbox rows).

These navboxes are displayed in three ways:

• Directly on the three category pages.
• Via Template:Software navbox on the individual software pages.
  • This is added automatically by the software form.
  • It decides which of the above navboxes to display, based on the page title, then uses Template:Software navbox display.
  • A navbox will be displayed for each Type (usually only one).
• Via Template:Combined software navbox on Category:Software and the Software search page.
  • This sets up the table, displays rows from the three navboxes as above, then displays the final "Browse the software database" row.

Search

The search form is linked to from the navboxes. Again, there are two main pages:

• Form:Software search
  • This defines the search form which is used on the Software search page.
  • The checkboxes only show options which exist in the database (currently a subset of those on the data entry form).
  • It uses Template:Software search mapping to display a nicer set of options for one boolean field.
• Template:Software search displays the search results.

Drilldown

The drilldown page at Special:Drilldown/Software is linked to from the navboxes. It lets you drill down using various filters to find the software you need.

Recommendation pages

These should be useful for newcomers. The interpreter pages are linked to from IFDB.

• Template:Authoring system list is the main template for authoring systems.
  • Parameters are Style or System.
  • Tables are displayed via Template:Authoring system table (each row is displayed via Template:Authoring system table row).
  • Non-Browser system pages contain two separate tables,
  • Stable authoring systems shows all stable authoring systems.
  • Other lists show a subset of these, by style (e.g. Authoring systems for parser-based IF) or system (e.g. Authoring systems for Windows).
  • These are automatically added to Category:Lists of authoring systems

• Template:Interpreter list is the main template for interpreters.
  • Parameters are Format or System.
  • Format can be a comma-separated list of two or more, e.g. Format=TADS 2,TADS 3
  • Tables are displayed via Template:Interpreter table (each row is displayed via Template:Interpreter table row).
  • As above, non-Browser system pages contain two separate tables,
  • Recommended interpreters shows all stable interpreters which can be downloaded easily to play games.
  • Other lists show a subset of these, by format (e.g. Glulx interpreters) or system (e.g. Windows interpreters).
  • These are all automatically added to Category:Lists of interpreters

• The Stable utilities is a single page, not based on a template, and shows all stable utilities.