Guide: Spell database - Web interface

[Snoddasmannen]

Hi all!

I thought it was time to start a thread about the web interface I made for the Dom3DB. A lot of people know about it, some may even use it, but it's a good idea to start a thread so new people can find it easier and so on.

So, I've made a little web interface for the Dom3DB which in turn was assembled by DrPraetorious. Kudos for that work!

It is available online here:

http://www2.onyx.nu/pb/dom3/spells.html

So just fill in the magic paths available and you will get a nice list of the spells you can cast.

A major caveat is that it is not usable in Internet Explorer or its ilk. You can either blame IE for not supporting XSLT properly, or me for not choosing a more well established technical solution. It does work with Opera 9.5+ or Firefox 2+, and should work on Safari with a bit of luck (can anybody confirm?). It looks nicest with a browser that supports the nth-of-type() CSS selector and SVG, which I know Opera 9.5 does and I suspect FF does or soon will.

I actually just added a new feature, the ability to filter the results in some (by me) predermined ways. Specifically you can search for summons, buffs and/or others. I welcome suggestions for additional categories!

I had another purpose in mind with this post too. I want to get some input on how I could add the ability to discuss or add information/comments on the spells. My first idea was to add a new column to the results list with a link to wiki page corresponding to that spell. I know there is a dom3 strategy wiki out there, which seems to fit the job description. Anybody in here know much/maintain that? For this to work we will require a lot of active participation or most of the links will point to empty pages, and nobody will bother using it. Any feedback on whether this is a good approach, or does somebody have a better idea? I'd rather not go and implement a commenting system myself (been there ).

Alright, have fun everybody! Let me know if you want me to add more features - you may inspire me

Known issues: I have not updated to the 3.17 version of the DB, so a few spells are missing, notably the nationals for Hinnom et al.

[llamabeast]

Amazing tool!

One comment: It's not currently possible to differentiate national spells from normal ones (so far as I can see), which is a little confusing.

[ano]

Wow! It looks very, very nice, but probably there should be some detailed spell description including, of course, nation, in the case it is nation specific.

[Snoddasmannen]

Thanks guys!

Yes it's unfortunately true that it's not currently possible to differentiate national from non-national spells. The original database does contain this information, but I have not imported it to the web version.

There's a bit of grunt-work required to determine which nation each spell belongs to, but to just add that it is a national spell is less work.

The original database does not contain any detailed descriptions, so this is what I'm hoping we can use a wiki for.

[Ming]

Don't think it works with safari.

[vfb]

Very cool!

How difficult would it be to add a radio button to select combat spells or rituals? Right now Summon Summer Lions and Summon Fire Elemental are both just listed as a Summon.

And I did notice one weird entry:

Fires from Afar Evocation3 Stygian Paths

Also Flames from the Sky appears to be just missing.

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally Posted by vfb

How difficult would it be to add a radio button to select combat spells or rituals? Right now Summon Summer Lions and Summon Fire Elemental are both just listed as a Summon.

That was such a good idea that I had to add it right away Now supported.

And I did notice one weird entry:

Fires from Afar Evocation3 Stygian Paths

Also Flames from the Sky appears to be just missing.

The Stygian Paths thing is straight from the original database, not sure what that is all about I'll see what I can do to figure out what happened to flames from the sky.

[Ironhawk]

I'm sure its a good tool, but honestly - how useful is it to post it to the forums if it doesnt support IE? With all respect to the work you've done, it not functioning on IE means that the majority of viewers will not be able to use it.

[llamabeast]

Unless they download the free and shiny Firefox!

[lch]

Software like Firefox and Opera runs everywhere and is widely used, so I think it's natural to develop for them first. There's no Internet Explorer for Linux, and if you're on a Mac then you probably use Safari which is built on the same HTML engine like KDE's Konqueror, I think. The MSIE gets bad credit for a history of security issues and not being as portable.

Snoddasmannen mainly used this as a learning project to web technologies, too.

BTW, should I move this post to the "Maps & Mods" subsection, maybe?