RuneLibris Devlog #10

While working on RuneLibris those last weeks, it dawned on me that the infrastructure of the wiki was a mess. Things were defined at multiple places and there was room for lots of streamlined. As such, infrastructure work was my main focus this week.

I implemented a new task system on the wiki. A task is something that takes a considerable amount of time to do (i.e archiving a quest). This is in contrast to the todo template that is used to mark missing data or information, or in other words, a "sub-task". This new system also account for the possibility of a piece of content having interactions that differ greatly from the rest.

One of the things I realized was that RuneLibris was missing a way to tell which content is not archived. As such, I imported an exhaustive list of quests and minigames. Each entry using the aforementioned task template. I also created the requirement index metric to measure how inaccessible a piece of content is.

Another problem I tackled is how RuneScape has lots of subjects. For example, there are 44540 items in build 900. Creating a page or template for all of these would be pure insanity. I realized that when it comes to archiving those kinds of things, I only seek to archive its attributes (i.e item examines, item weights). As such, I have decided that attributes will be considered a meta aspect of sorts and that data will be validated using the python replacement script. This new system also solves a logic error where the wiki structure would have considered "Items examines" to be an item in itself, which it is obviously not.

An attempt was made to rework the aspect list found into the front page into a dynamic table, like the one used to document quest interactions. Although I was technically successful, I decided to stick to a bog standard wikitable as it is more readable. My motive was to add dynamic entries that would remind me to document data for a given build, but I realized that I can simply use a validation table to do that.

The tools required to generate the live preview from the VHD are now bundled with it. I must admit that not including them earlier was a bit of an oversight on my part.

I also started working on a quest requirement system as to enumerate all the requirements for a given quest and all its requirement as the equivalent system on RuneScape Wiki only list requirements for immediate quests.

Speaking of quests, I also started working on Doric's Quest.Reorganizing the wiki made me realize that I have the habit of starting lots of tasks without finish them. This is something I will try to correct.

Despite me starting this iteration of RuneLibris on 28 March 2025, only 1 quest has been archived so far. I find this lack of progress utterly unacceptable one my part and I will do everything in my power to course-correct.

In other news, I made the following changes to RuneLibris:

Corrected filesystem hierarchy errors
Removed unused MediaWiki functions from live preview
Added new entries to aspect list
Added new sections to maintenance panel
Added CSS support for colored table background on the live preview
Added membership status to task template
Created content index
Added tutorials to content index
Added repeatable parameter to task template
Reworked and streamlined front page
Transferred TODOs from a personal spreadsheet to relevant wiki pages
Reworked how TODO page works
Discontinued todo-historical in favor of lost media template
Indexed minigames
Relocated game pages to allow for hierarchical access
Merged scripts and misc aspects
Wrote a page describing the new RuneLibris pipeline
Added GrepWin to SoftwareSuite
Added Wget to SoftwareSuite
Added Halloween 2005 dialogue
Fixed Devlog HTML files to support new CSS file
Reworked aspect table on main page
Wrote documentation about MediaWiki templates
Removed unused templates
Grouped many TODOs into tasks
Wrote page explaining attribute term
Merged Mission control panel with front page
Merged validation panel with front page

Written by manpaint on 14 June 2025.