Board Thread:Site-Related Tasks/@comment-1487274-20200201103259

Hi, everyone! For the last few months I was recreating Marvel Database:Comic Template with Lua. I've started this project, because current template is too cumbersome and complicated; it uses many other templates and a lot of DPL queries, so it is not easy to change and adapt it to new situations, while Lua provides much more flexibility. Moreover, some things are too difficult or outright impossible to do with wikitext. A good example, that partially inspired me to start this work, is Marvel Comics Vol 1 1000. Even after I simplified current template as much as possible, it still can't properly work with such huge issues. But Lua can do it; it can deal with at least 100 normal stories, and around 90 reprints (for example, User:Harasar/Sandbox/Marvel_Comics_Vol_1_1002). Now my work is pretty much finished and I'm ready to show results.

With Lua it became easy to change how information is displayed on page, so I made two variants: As you can see, the biggest difference in new variant, is that I separated story contributors from the main infobox and placed them together with list of appearances and synopsis. It is especially useful for issues with many stories, as it shows everything in the same place, instead of forcing readers to jump back and forth between list of appearances/synopsis in the middle of the page and infobox at the top.
 * For Marvel Comics Vol 1 1000:
 * Normal variant (i.e. remake of current template with addition/changes described below) - User:Harasar/Sandbox/Marvel Comics Vol 1 1001
 * New variant - User:Harasar/Sandbox/Marvel Comics Vol 1 1000
 * For Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury Vol 1 1
 * Normal variant – User:Harasar/Sandbox/Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury Vol 1 2
 * New variant - User:Harasar/Sandbox/Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury Vol 1 1

I've also moved link to volume page to the very top of the main infobox, instead of being under main cover, and changed links to previous/next issues into red arrows placed left and right of link to volume page. Personally, I like this new variant much more, than original one, as it provides additional flexibility.

I've added and changed several things:

 * Stories are now numerated. It is a small detail, but it annoyed me to manually count stories every time I needed to add story number for reprinted issue.
 * New category "Reprint Story Number Needed" is added if "ReprintOf…" parameter is filled, but corresponding "ReprintOfStory…" parameter is not.
 * New category "Cover Image Correction Needed" is added if main cover image isn't named according to Naming Convention. In other words it is not "(comic issue name).jpg" nor "(comic issue name) Textless.jpg"
 * New categories "Images Category Needed" and "Reviews Category Needed" added if corresponding category have images/pages, but category isn't created.
 * New category "Reprinted Cover" is added if "Reprint_CoverArtists" parameter is filled.
 * Based on discussion in this thread, I've changed how "Reprint_CoverArtists" parameter works. Now it can get information from another issue, OR directly from image (for example, User:Harasar/Sandbox/Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury Vol 1 1).
 * While working with reprints, I've noticed that while some covers are reprinted from another issue, they are slightly changed by another artist. Same with some stories, they are generally the same as original story, but with few adjustments. Because of this I've added a possibility to add contributors (for example, second story in User:Harasar/Sandbox/Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury Vol 1 1 is a reprint, but "Writer2_1" parameter is also filled, to add additional writer.
 * Contributors from reprints are now displayed with italic font style, to easily differentiate them from normal contributors.
 * Message "This story is a reprint of…" now display not only issue from which it reprints, but also an exact story number. In cases when story title in reprint is different from original one, information about it is also displayed in this message.
 * Rearranged order of "President", "CCO", "Publisher", "Editor-in-Chief", "Production" and "Cover Artist" contributors and placed them all into "Issue details".
 * Added categorization for "President", "CCO", "Publisher" and "Production" parameters like with all other contributors.
 * Renamed parameters "President1_1", "President1_2", etc. and "Publisher1_1", "Publisher1_2", etc. to "President1", "President2", etc.  and "Publisher1", "Publisher2", etc. Because they are the same for entire issue, so there is no need for additional numbers. In fact, like CCO and Editor-in-Chief there is only one President at any given time, so I wanted to abandon all numbers and rename parameter to simply "President", but I've noticed that in several issues these parameters are also used for Vice-Presidents. So, unless we add an additional parameter for Vice-Presidents, parameters should stay as "President1", "President2", etc.
 * Added "ISBN" parameter.
 * Removed support for "Season" parameter. All pages that used it were edited by me to change "Season" to "Month".
 * Removed support for "Title", "Title2", "Volume", "Issue" and "HeadTitle" parameters. I've removed them from thousands of pages, but there is still around 600 pages to edit.
 * Based on discussion in this thread, I've removed support for "Publisher" parameter – it was used to add pages into categories of imprints like "Epic Comics", "Timely Comics", etc. I'm still in the process of removing them, there is still around 800 pages to edit.
 * By same logic, I've removed autocategorization into "Annuals", "Handbooks", "Trade Paperbacks" categories, because it is better to categorize entire volumes, instead of individual issues.
 * Removed support for "NotesHeader", "TriviaHeader", "SeeAlsoHeader", "RecommendedHeader", "LinksHeader", "CustomSection1", "CustomText1", "CustomSection2" and "CustomText2" parameters. Most of them weren't even used on any pages, except for "CustomSection1" and "CustomText1". I've already edited all pages with these parameters.
 * Removed support for "Image1", "Image1Text", "Appearing1_1", "ImageText", "Gallery", "Synopsis1Header", "Contributors1Header", "Appearing1Header", "AppearingCategories", "Race1", "Location1", "Item1" and "Vehicle1". Most of them weren't used on any pages. I've already edited all pages with these parameters.

I also propose to add or change several things:

 * Don't add canceled issues into release week, publication year and month categories. If issue was canceled, then it wasn't released and wasn't published, so I don't understand why they should appear in these categories.
 * Don't add page into "Comic Quote Needed" category, if all stories in the issue are reprints.
 * Add "Quote1", "Quote2", etc. parameters to add different quotes for each story.
 * For stories, reprinted in another comic, add a message like "This story was reprinted in following books: …"
 * Remove "EventName…" parameters and change "Event…" parameters to piped links. With Lua it is not a problem to get actual event name from link. Also, rename "Event" parameter to "Event1" for uniformity.
 * Do the same thing with "StoryArc…" and "StoryArcName…" parameters, moreover, if we use second variant, then we can rename "StoryArc…" parameters to "StoryArc1_1", "StoryArc1_2", "StoryArc2_1", etc. to display them in the exact story that is a part of story arc. In other words, if only second story is a part of story arc, then the link would be added into infobox of second story's contributors, instead of a link at the top of the main infobox.
 * Also in crossovers between different volumes parameters "PreviousIssue"/"NextIssue" are used to add links to previous/next issue in the volume, and previous/next part of story. If we use second variant, then we can divide it. Red arrows at the top would always be links to previous/next issue in the volume, while new parameters like "PreviousStory1"/"NextStory1" would be used to add links to previous/next part of story in the infobox of corresponding story.
 * I wanted to remove parameters "CustomRole", and currently it isn't supported by new template, but while I was editing issues with these parameters, some of them can't be easily changed to some other role. For example, in many issues these parameters are used for various kinds of editors like "Assistant Editors", "Executive Editor", "Consulting Editors", etc. I guess they indeed have different positions and roles in real life, but for us as a wiki I don't see any reason to divide them from normal editors. But these parameters are also used for "Designers", "Researchers", "Special Thanks", and other things that can't be changed into some other existing role. Although in some cases they were placed into "Production" parameter. So, perhaps we should add new parameters for additional contributor roles with proper categorization.
 * And speaking about "Production" parameter – in the current template it and "Producer" are used interchangeably and displayed together. I'm not sure, but Producer seems like a different role to me. So, perhaps, it should be displayed separately. Also, I'm not sure about additional numbers in "Production" parameters, i.e. should they stay as "Production1_1", "Production1_2", etc. or should be renamed to "Production1", "Production2", etc.

So, what do you think of the changes I made and propositions? Do you prefer first variant? Or second? Or maybe something else entirely? All comments, suggestions, ideas and critique are welcome. 