Forums » Advanced Editor Forum » Read Thread

When you create an item, and choose to add an item effect, you have to specify which page you use it on, and where it leads you. Well, the item I want to create is one that always leads to one place, and always takes you back to the page you used it on (with a simple "go back" link on the item page). I don't want to have to make 80 different item effects (one for its use on each and every page).

Is that what "Default effect" is?

So can this be done, and if so, how would I go about doing it? Thanks!

EDIT- Yes, after reading the Using Items help page, that is what "Default effect" is (should have started there, lol).

But... now that I have A solution, I'd like a better one. I would much rather not have to use an item. Is there another way? Is there a way to create a link that shows up on every single page without manually putting it in every time?

EDIT 2: What I'm considering doing is basically putting in a "game mode" that the reader may switch between on any page. I am not sure I'll put it in, because aesthetics are pretty important to me (the "default effect" with an item has already solved the problem, but I'm looking for a neater way; specifically, just a link at the bottom that is on every page without having to do it 80 times)

Could this be done in Global Script- without using an Item and nasty Item box that shows up? Thanks again!

EDIT3: I will be looking into making the item box invisible, too. Since Ogre helped me learn how to make the page title invisible, perhaps that is possible as well?

The only way I can think of automatically adding a link to every page is through JavaScript. You'd have to first create the one real link and hide it behind a restriction or inaccessible page. Then you plug it into this script, replacing any double quotes with \42 and single quotes with \'. If there are no other links on a page, the "No links" text will still display.

$PAGETEXT := "<!--<-->script<!-->-->
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
  var ul = document.querySelector('.dark1border + div > ul'),
      html =  '<!--<-->li<!-->--><!--<-->a onclick=\42PostBack(\'FollowLink\',\'1\');return false;\42 href=\42#\42<!-->-->The Next Page<!--<-->/a<!-->--><!--<-->/li<!-->-->';
  ul.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', html);
});
<!--<-->/script<!-->-->" + $PAGETEXT

You could, and I'm sure you could find a way to position them together, but that likely would mess with any other absolute positioning you tried to do. I think if you're trying to create an element that looks and acts like it's part of a set, it's better to just inject it into that set than go crazy with CSS trickery.

There won't be an icon with that method though, right?

But my major concern here is this, if you'll forget the item thing for the moment: how can you put a link on every page using script, without having to manually put it in every single time? My problem would be solved if I can have a global link.

The post above yours by BradinDvorak may be what I need, so I'll have to investigate that script. I do know that with less than one month left in this contest I may just say f it to this entire idea, if I can't get it working in a day. But if I could just have a the same link appear on every page, then I'd have what I'm after.

Being accessible from anywhere is kind of the point of an item.

Though I have several links in the top bar of a storygame I've made:

Looks decent I think.

I already have something in global PAGE script to help color my links and hide the title at the top of the page, thanks to help from Ogre11 (I have never used global link, and I don't even know what it does). It's this:

And on every single page in the top left script icon, in order to have the parallax effect I want, I have this (Ogre11 again, and BradinDvorak helped a ton with this one):

Would putting your script in, do you think, cause issues with those? If I'm honest, I can barely follow any of my own script, because a lot of it came from other people, and the rest was from trial and error without really understanding what I was doing.

I'm not expecting you to do the testing for me; I'll do it myself in a test game. But I'm just asking if off of the top of your head if you think it might present problems.

Thanks again for being so helpful and not hoarding epic scripting! All of you guys are so helpful here. It's awesome.

(1) What do I do with the href='#' part? I ask because I changed the number in PostBack('FollowLink','2') to PostBack('FollowLink','27'), because 27 is the page number, and switched the square brackets to <>, but I'm still getting a validation error.

(2) I'm not sure I understand what you mean with the & # 3 9 ; parts. Where would I put that?

Alas, no results. :(

Unless... is the page it goes to supposed to be an item? Or something like that? Sorry to keep pestering, but I'm probably going to be diving into this for a couple of days and then if I can't figure it out by then, it's back to writing.

More specifically, "#" is used to jump to an element on a given webpage if you provide the element's id after the "#". For instance, #804457 jumps to this post right here. A "#" by itself takes you to the top of the page.

In this case, it doesn't matter what its href is as long as there's something there, since some browsers might treat it strangely without one. The important part is the onclick function, and as long as it returns false, the href is ignored.

This put the link at the top of my page. So at least I've gotten that far. Still more work to do, as it actually didn't take me to page 2 (but again, I think that might have something to do with href='#') but thanks again!

When clicking on it it actually does nothing but add a # to the end of the url in preview. It doesn't actually take me anywhere but to the same page.

Here is exactly what I have now, and it doesn't produce an error. However, again, clicking it doesn't take me to page 2, it just keeps me on the same page but adds a # to the end of the url.

Doing exactly the same thing but with $PAGETEXT := $PAGETEXT + style instead was producing errors preventing validation of the script.

Still have a link that appears at the top but which leads to nowhere, though. Will keep grinding. (updating in case you see something or in three years some other poor sap needs to see how to do this)

THIS is why it wasn't working: There needs to be a space between the ' on either side of the page number. The number 2 WAS the correct page number, I just didn't have spaces between the ' and the number on either side. When I did that... POOF! It works now. Thanks a lot for helping. Really all of you guys. So willing to help a code noob. It's very appreciated.

Next on the agenda is to see if this scripting causes irreparable damage to my actual storygame. Need to make sure it's compatible.

"COMPUTER- FOLLOW EVERYTHING IN THAT LINK SCRIPT AND TAKE US WHERE IT LEADS".

In your storygame you'd follow a similar process to making 'use item' links in Zikara/my article- you can do Killa's method or make a page linked from the first page (for convenience- so you can go into preview and get to the page's source quickly) and put all the links there. If you're going to do this a lot, probably want your a page for all these links.

So I've pulled this from my LINKS page on my current WIP:

<a onclick='PostBack(&#39;FollowLink&#39;,&#39;709&#39;);return false;' href='#'><b>[COMBINE!]</b></a>

The purple number will be different for you and you'd need to change the " to ' as I've done if you copy and paste from the source.

But in my other game, I use the same number found at that location for that particular page, and unfortunately it creates an error every time. EDIT- I did mention that it jumps to another chapter. I doubt that could be the issue, but who knows? (certainly not me lol). But I'll test it by putting it in the same chapter to see.

EDIT-SCRATCH THAT. It works ONE TIME if I do that, and sends me back to the beginning. Man...

Hmmm... Make a link in each chapter, then add an if/then condition to the script? That's scary sounding...

That or just write the entire game in a single chapter (ugh...)

There is one other issue: My script that changes text and font for the rest of the game actually screws with the link at the top's color. Not really too concerned about it though.

90% certain it's solved now. This is what I did:

(1)Entered the script in global page.

(2)Started the game.

(3) Actually put the link to my options page at the bottom so I could have it on the page during gameplay.

(4) Went to the page that had the link

(5) Viewed page source

(6) Used control+F to find all the locations of the name of the link. Found one that had the LINK NUMBER, which was INDEED different from the PAGE number. There were two cases; one where the number was 30, which is what I entered in the Global Page Script, and another one, which had a different number. I changed the script to a different number, and it worked.

Final test: See if it works between chapters now that I know how to find the LINK number.

Again, that number is the PAGE number, not the LINK number. The two numbers hold no relation at all. Odds are the 2nd link you made just happens to be the one to that page.

This is how you get the link number:

It's finally working, with only one minor issue with the font (most likely due to the scripting I have on other pages). But I can totally live with that. So, again, you and all the others, thanks for the help. Finally working. I am quite excited about that.

Obviously this is hardly relevant. But it is making me wonder if FollowLink is still a valid parameter on this website (you know, maybe some Glorious Leader Super Admin changed it so that it isn't allowed anymore?).

Back to grinding!

As I said before, I'm quite the virgin at this sort of thing, so sorry for the elementary questions/misunderstandings.

EDIT- Mission accomplished! The problem was that & # 3 9 ; and the page number need to be separated by a space. Or at least, when I did that, suddenly it started working.

So, here is where I stand now.

It DOES work between chapters. So that part is solved. Only one problem remains:

Getting the link to look right up top. I'm thinking since I already have a global script for my link hover colors, that it's messing with it. The blue just doesn't work with my aesthetics in the game for normal links. I'll see if there is something I can figure out on that, but at this point the important part is now people can switch between which visual mode they want to use, which I think is pretty important since I don't want to annoy readers.

Fingers crossed, but it looks like all your help has solved the main problem. And thanks a million to all of you.

One weird problem remains... If I delete the link to that options page on the first page of my chapter 1 (the page I put it on so that I could see the page source and find the link number), I then get the error when I click on the link. Does deleting the link from that page, perhaps, change the link number?

Don't delete the original link. Think of the links injected into every page via the global page script as references to that one. You can hide it with an impossible link restriction, you can put it on an inaccessible page, but don't delete it or none of them will work.

I'm okay with that if I can make it invisible, WHICH I CAN by changing it's color black (since that's the color of the page at the bottom). Unfortunately, the bullet remains (orange) and the hover color remains orange, and I can't get rid of THAT without getting rid of my link hover color adjustment (and blue just does NOT work for me).

Just like every page has an ID, every link you create in the editor has an ID. Now, for example the function PostBack('FollowLink', '5'), of course refers to the link with the ID of 5, but all it does it direct the site to follow that specific link; where it leads is dependent on the link itself. If you remove the "real" link, then there's no defined destination and you'll get an error if you try to access it with a copied "FollowLink".

I'm saying you need the link, but it's possible to hide it. You could create a variable that's always zero and then put a link restriction that hides the link unless it isn't zero (or any similarly impossible condition), or you could place the link on a page that the player will never be able to access. As long as the link "exists" on a page somewhere.

EDIT- Yep, that did it. Also it works across chapters, so it looks like every base is covered.

Well you guys, all that's left is making the link at the top look right, which is nothing but font, color and spacing. Thanks again! I honestly can't believe how helpful you guys are. Over at a physics forum I frequented for homework help often times some of those assholes responded with "use the search function." (which, btw, I have done extensively, but there is only so much you can find)

On the Title page of the story game, and on the page that the link goes to (which allows you to toggle the options), the top of the page looks like this:

But on every other page it looks like this:

Obviously there is some sort of bolding going on with the font. Is it because of the previous link's or page's bold? What could it be? I don't know. I'll investigate later tonight.

The title page and the options page lack the div script all the other pages have, and they also lack some of the on page font scripting. I'm not sure exactly what is causing this, but other than that, everything looks and works great.

Of course, I can live with that. ;)

You might have an unclosed bold tag somewhere or it’s being bolded by some more general CSS selector. You can always slap a "font-weight: normal" in its CSS to force it not to be bold.