User:Daric Gaersmith/Sandbox

01:09, 27 May 2014 (GMT): I'm back playing Skyrim once again. I am not in ESO, so please don't ask.

Userspace Links

Cartography
Gallery
Genealogy
In Game Characters
Modding on the XBox
Status Update
Templatery
TES Fan Fiction Collection
To Do List

Sandboxes

— working on Alfwyn's map of Solstheim.

— Apocryphal - the language on the Diiv Word Wall.
— adding a referencing stylesheet to the Cite web references.
— Empty or undefined.
— Rewriting the proposed "guidelines" for DLC namespaces. See The Silencer's sandbox for more details.

— new content for the Geode Vein page.

	introduction
	This page contains information about my sandboxes, what they're for, and how they work.

Smart Sandboxes

I have created a system of "smart sandboxes" that are able to report their own purpose and what their current status is. This makes extensive use of the {{#save}} parser function to save metadata in the database about each of my sandboxes, which is then aggregated by code in my Userspace Layout template. The information is set for each sandbox through the use of my ResetSandbox template, using the following code at the top of each sandbox.

{{User:Daric_Gaersmith/Templates/ResetSandbox
|sndbx=
|purpose=
|collab=
|users=
|status=
}}
<!-- Code above this line is for my sandbox template only. Please do not edit anything above this line. -->

This also allows me to easily specify collaboration settings for each sandbox, as per the {{Editing Allowed}} template.

Sandbox Purposes

The reason for wanting my sandboxes to be smart enough to report their own purpose is that I was finding that every time I recycled a sandbox, I also needed to update my profile page to display the current purpose for my sandbox, which necessitated an extra edit each time. This seemed like a waste of time and effort, so instead I made use of the existing {{#save}} parser function to make that change on my profile page automatically.

Pa — working on Alfwyn's map of Solstheim.
Veh — Apocryphal - the language on the Diiv Word Wall.
Ged — adding a referencing stylesheet to the Cite web references.
Gal — Empty or undefined.
Or — Rewriting the proposed "guidelines" for DLC namespaces. See The Silencer's sandbox for more details.
Un — new content for the Geode Vein page.

The code to generate the list above is elegant in its simplicity. Once I have used a single {{#load}} statement to gather the information from my Userspace Layout template, each sandbox's purpose can then be displayed with a line similar to this...

{{Bullet Link|[[User:Daric Gaersmith/Sandbox/Veh|Veh]]|{{{VehPurpose}}} }}

...simple, elegant, and dynamically updated each time I change the purpose of one of my sandboxes.

Sandbox Statuses

The reason for wanting my sandboxes to be smart enough to report their own status is that I tend to forget where I am up to in each sandbox if I haven't worked on them for a while. I have created a series of custom icons to indicate the current status of a particular sandbox. Here is what each icon means.

Value	Icon	Description
`fill`		Content has recently been copied from another page into this sandbox, but it has not been edited yet.
`text`		The textual content of the page is being added, edited, or reviewed.
`image`		The graphical content of the page is being added, edited, or reviewed.
`link`		The outbound links from the page are being added, edited, or reviewed.
`templ`		The templates that are used on the page are being added, edited, or reviewed.
`wait`		Waiting on input from someone else. There may be an Image Request or other reason for this hold. Check the sandbox's talk page for details of the delay.
`ready`		The content of the page is complete, and ready for roll-out to its intended destination page.

Consistent Look & Feel

My sandboxes have a consistent look and feel, through the use of my ResetSandbox template. Each has a heading that relies on the same box template that I have used extensively throughout my userspace.

Language

The writing that I have used within my sandboxes is the Enochian script, which is (arguably) a constructed language. The language is commonly used in magical settings, such as in the Defense of the Ancients 2 mod for Warcraft III:Reign of Chaos. It is read right-to-left, similar to many Eastern and Middle-eastern languages. I was thinking of making use of the Magic Script Alphabet that appears in-game, such as in the Master Illusion Texts of the College of Winterhold. However, as I couldn't find a TTF font file for it, I chose Enochian instead, as a similarly magical script. If anyone comes up with a truetype font for the in-game magical language, I would be keen to replace my sandbox images to use it. Also, it would be great to have a TES Magic Script equivalent of the DOVAH dragon font to be available on the site oneday. Who knows, I have access to free font-making software, I may just do this myself sometime.

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