Thread:Kagehirin/@comment-1877307-20200405025622/@comment-1877307-20200411183837

progress update screenshot

This is a sample of what I was able to do with JS so far. So particularly, I can add the name of the character based on the image, alter the vertical alignment and font size of the table cells, adjust dimensions, etc. Of course the particulars of the design can be tweaked (colors, dimensions, positions, etc.) The one thing I am unsure how to do at this moment is how to pull the icons for the characters (the small circle ones). This is because they aren't on the page already, and due to the way mediawiki software works, I think I'd need to have them "on the page" already to start working with them. There is likely a bit of a hacky work around though -- to have them on the page but sort of "hidden", but still in the code, so that they can be targeted by the JS, and then put into place on the page via JS. This could probably be done just by throwing them all into a template and transcluding said template into the story pages. (It likely wouldn't have to cause any visual changes, if implemented in the way I think it would work.)

I need to test some of these possible work arounds on my user page first. Again I'm currently just working on a local copy of my JS file, so I can't show it live just yet.

I also have to work out how it will play with the way the stories are currently rendered in tabs. Because of how that tab extension works, it doesn't load each story part right away. This means the JS would have to be re-invoked after each new tab is clicked on and loaded, for each chapter of a given story.

A possible option is to have a second version of the story page (for example, transcluding all story chapters into a long scrolling page view, instead of tabbed). This could be done quite simply (you can see the source of my /test page in my user namespace as an example of that). It would allow easy transclusion of additional templates, buttons, etc, as well, if needed. Of course it would be a bit of extra work, and also would not be reflected in tab view, so this is only one option of course. I figure I would share all my thoughts on potential options.

For changing text boxes, in an ideal world they wouldn't be in table cells, because tables aren't really made for layouts. They're supposed to be for displaying and organizing relational data, and when you add long paragraphs of text and/or large images, it makes formatting more than a bit wonky. To be completely fair, I know that at the time this format was put into place years ago, the current standards like flexbox and grid weren't as prevalent, if even supported. I am going to try and reorganize the structure of this using JS so manual edits don't have to be done, but I'll have to see how it goes before I can say for certain whether X or Y needs to be manually edited for certain.

Anyway the code isn't quite ready for going live as much testing and tweaking still needs to be done. I really want to make sure there isn't too much manual work required, since I know automation tools are limited here on Fandom, and a lot of manual work is *already* done for these stories. Plus I'm sure everyone here is quite busy with the new content. I'll continue to post any progress updates I have, as I am able.