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[Killershrike.com] Vancian Spell List Revamp


Killer Shrike

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Vancian Spell List

 

Just finished with a complete recoding / rearchitecting of the Vancian (D&D style) Spell list on my site and updated all the links I could find within the site as well. This version is fully OOP and tied into the new nav system I switched over to last year, and also provides a much more solid foundation for me to build future functionality on top of (the original version thats been up for so many years is just a single big classic ASP spaghetti mess that's outlived its day and time).

 

Anyway, there is one downside to the new approach -- the old version has the advantage of simplicity and speed. The new approach has considerably more overhead. Performance is a concern. I invested some time into developing a respectable caching scheme for it, but I'm not sure how well it will scale -- ie, how many simultaneous users it will take before choking. Anyway, we'll likely find out soon.

 

This is very much a "beta" at this point; please let me know about any issues you encounter when using it.

 

Next on the agenda Im going to write some admin tools for me to make it easier to add and maintain spells, then I switch over to content -- I need to hunt down some bogus write ups that have been out there a long time and get them fixed, and I also have a pile of new material from a contributor to get pushed out to the masses.

 

Also assuming the Vancian Spells code proves to be successful, it will serve as a useful springboard for similar things in the future...

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Re: [Killershrike.com] Vancian Spell List Revamp

 

Glad people are finding it useful. Has anyone encountered any problems so far?

 

The closest thing to a problem is if I click the "Wizardry Spells By Level" link, the spells aren't sorted in alphabetical order. Easy enough to get the CSV and sort it myself, and it's only a minor quibble, but as you were asking...

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Re: [Killershrike.com] Vancian Spell List Revamp

 

The closest thing to a problem is if I click the "Wizardry Spells By Level" link' date=' the spells aren't sorted in alphabetical order. Easy enough to get the CSV and sort it myself, and it's only a minor quibble, but as you were asking...[/quote']

 

 

Ok, I looked into this and its actually sorting as intended -- its sorting by category, then spell.

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Re: [Killershrike.com] Vancian Spell List Revamp

 

I just added the ability to search by spell name for spells. I literally just wrote it and it seems to work, but I haven't subjected it to rigorous testing...so I'll let you guys hit it and hope for the best:

 

Spell List

 

NOTE: You need to type something in the search box and click the Submit link.

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Re: [Killershrike.com] Vancian Spell List Revamp

 

Would it be possible to add a "sort by name only" option? Not a biggie' date=' it would just be a convenience.[/quote']

 

Possible in theory, but the spells are cached and the cache is in a specific order. Thus I would have to fetch from the cache and then implement a custom sorting process which would defeat a lot of the purpose of caching in the first place.

 

I could open up an uncached fetch, but I don't really want to eat the overhead on the site for uncontrolled uncached requests.

 

I wont say never, but its not something Id be enthused about adding.

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Re: [Killershrike.com] Vancian Spell List Revamp

 

Ok, I found a bug in the new search by name functionality; if you Export to CSV the data is emitted correctly to csv, but the filename is normally based on the in-place filter's label. There isn't one for the search by name set since its entirely custom, so the file streamed over is unnamed. Ill look in to proxying the search parameter value as the equivalent tomorrow.

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Re: [Killershrike.com] Vancian Spell List Revamp

 

Ok' date=' I found a bug in the new search by name functionality; if you Export to CSV the data is emitted correctly to csv, but the filename is normally based on the in-place filter's label. There isn't one for the search by name set since its entirely custom, so the file streamed over is unnamed. Ill look in to proxying the search parameter value as the equivalent tomorrow.[/quote']

 

Fixed.

 

I did notice that Opera and Safari (for Windows) get confused on the file type, but a) I'm setting the MIME type correctly and B) the data is intact so if you save it to disk and change the extension to csv or txt it opens properly. Annoying, but I've learned better than to waste time trying to overcome quirkiness in those two browsers so it'll just have to suffice.

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Re: [Killershrike.com] Vancian Spell List Revamp

 

more great work, and as far as Vatican Spell List goes

 

"You get down on your knees and fiddle with your rosaries, and bow your head with great respect... and genuflect... genuflect... genuflect" ... Tom Lehrer

 

I didnt announce it, but at the bottom I added by PROVIDER as well...and there you are. ;)

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