Syndicaton Goes Live on the Source

[Cynic]

(Before we begin, this is an extract from an upcoming announcement however considering we wont be posting said announcement for wee bit longer yet I've decided to let this part pop up here early May be subject to change depending on my whims - yeah I'm that moody. Enjoy!)

AionArmory - Aionsource Syndication



Well after a few busy days we're pleased to announce the integration of Syndication between the AionArmory and Aionsource's forums.

That's right, and I know you're all still following where I'm going with this, now when you're talking about a particular spell or item and everyone thinks you're crazy you can prove them wrong! Syndication allows you to create nifty little links within your posts to the Armory, perhaps a demonstration is in order!

Items:

A small item code will produce:

[item=full-small]Archon Tribunus's Cloth Tunic[/item]

[item=full-small]Archon Tribunus's Cloth Tunic[/item]

A standard or medium item code will produce:

[item]Archon Tribunus's Greatsword[/item]

Aion Armory Item

A large item code will produce:

[item=full-large]Premium Power Shard[/item]

[item=full-large]Premium Power Shard[/item]


Spells:

The same is also true for spells with the same coding legend being applicable.

[spell=full-small]Sleep I[/spell]
[spell]Voice of Destruction I[/spell]
[spell=full-large]Spell of Restraint I[/spell]

[spell=full-small]Sleep I[/spell]
Aion Armory Spell
[spell=full-large]Spell of Restraint I[/spell]

Direct IDs:

Now this is always handy, if you're a Chanter you would have noticed that last spell I linked is actually a extremely handy little spell from level 50 however the one that appeared is some sort of default spell - perhaps a mob's. Within the game and therefore the Armory there are spells and items with the same names, that's just how the world works out. However fear not there's always a cure, if you attempt to link something and it gives you something other than what you desired you can return to the Armory page itself and do a Direct ID tag.

At the end of the URL for every specific item/spell within the Armory there is a unique ID, [spell=text]1343[/spell]'s is 1343, by using this in your code you can rest easy knowing it will always go to the right place.

www.aionarmory.com/spell.aspx?id=1343

By taking the item/spell's name within your [item] or [spell] tag and replacing it with the ID [spell=text]Spell of Restraint I[/spell] turns into [spell=text]1343[/spell] (Keep on reading if you don't get it, the next section contains an example). Now hold the phone Cynic, why were there no images attached to those last two links but they still came up with tooltips when I hovered over them?

Well Billy thanks for asking that for you see that brings us onto our next snazy little section...

Text Links:

Syndication also offers the feature of creating links to the Armory without the images of what you're linking, these links will still generate tooltips if you hover over them however. I do believe we'll use our ever faithful Spell of Restraint for this example too.

[spell=text]Spell of Restraint I[/spell]
[spell=text]1343[/spell]
[item=text]Azure Dragon's Dirk[/item]
[item=text]100200627[/item]

[spell=text]Spell of Restraint I[/spell]
[spell=text]1343[/spell]
[item=text]Azure Dragon's Dirk[/item]
[item=text]100200627[/item]

And that about covers it for AionArmory Syndication folks, didn't expect this to be so long but it never hurts to go over everything.

Additonal Notes:

• Always use direct ID's when possible, as noted in the last two examples using names can lead to mixups. Spells in particular suffer from this.
• Syndication is expected for NPCs and Quests within the very near future, keep an eye out for patch notes and further announcements.
• If in doubt feel free to contact us for support, the AionArmory forum is a great place for this.
• Patch 2 is on the near horizon for the Armory, keep your eyes pealed!

I would also like to apologize to any of you misfortunate enough to quote this and read the raw text, due to the structure we have used in our syndication code here at Source it's somewhat... tricky to ensure certain tags don't parse so we can explain this system to you guys in full depth. As such the bbcode on this post is an utter atrocity however there is a method to the madness, I think...

Later, Cynic <3

[cyan]

gj supreme master

[Ryuzaki]

Nice I already noticed it was added to the post options :P

[Cynic]

I was debating about explaining the post options but those really just add the item/spell tags and usually require editing still to get the desired result.

I personally find it easier to just type the item/spell tags manually rather than clicking a button then going in and editing what pops up, maybe that's just me. ^^

Anywho I hope you guys enjoy this, special thanks to Nic(Sang) as usual for his work developing the Armory btw!

[Rshm]

Aion Armory Quest woot this works )) - you need to put an icon to: "Wrap [quest] tags around selected text" on the editor though xD

Aion Armory Item

[stykxs]

If [spell] and [item] work the same, why is there a distinction? [armory]Id[/armory] would work, yes?

[sanktanglia]

because that way would be very inefficient for our database. itd have to query every table until it found the matching id, wheras this way we are able to lookup and cache the data easily

[Koroem]

How about recipe linking?

[sanktanglia]

will get all the other entities added some time this weekend

[Kryptyx]

Is there any syndication support for this feature? So users can add names and have them cross reference to the URL. Are you handling that part at the BBC part or more on the JS part?

[sanktanglia]

we have an aspx page that will convert names/ids to their ids/names, and we have a bbc mod that will request and cache that info, so people can link via name

[Tahlmah]

Outstanding job to all who helped make it happen. I love this feature.

[Kryptyx]

Originally Posted by sanktanglia

we have an aspx page that will convert names/ids to their ids/names, and we have a bbc mod that will request and cache that info, so people can link via name

Any chance we will see an API for this, maybe a SOAP request or something?

[sanktanglia]

while we don't have anything like this planned, i have seen a few people asking about data access features, so i'll add it to my maybe/todo

[Kryptyx]

Another solution would to just build this into the syndication itself.