5E XML Tag Question

[SailorLovins]

I am making a reference manual for a book. I am using the 5E Assets Module and Unearthed Arcana Module as my guide. I am organizing the block elements on the first page and was wondering what are the possible input values for the type tag in <blocktype type="string"> TEXT </blocktype>. Also in this example what is the function of the TEXT in between the tags? Looking at the U.A. manual I can't see this specific word in relation to the associated block. Could it be that it is the function name of the entire block element? I don't even know if I am wording my questions correctly. Even so thank you for your patience and guidance.

[Trenloe]

Start here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/...erence_Manuals

[Trenloe]

Also, do a "site search" for reference manual there are a few threads where the syntax is disucussed, with examples.

[Talyn]

"Text" is one of the blocktypes you can choose from, as is also the default blocktype, meaning it can be omitted to save a little bit of space once you know what you're doing. The "text" blocktype uses formatted text.

Other blocktypes available are: image (jpg and png (no alpha)), picture (png with alpha but recommended to not use this much for memory constraints), icon (display any of the ruleset-defined icons (including CoreRPG)), and header (displays a single line of string text as large font and centered).

[SailorLovins]

Thank you both for the info. I will add it to my cheat sheet. I've book marked that Wiki. I am going to scrap and start over with the project I am doing. I was successfully able to have fantasy grounds display my library links for the reference manual but something must have gone wrong in the <reference> <referencemanual> element or possibly in the <list><referencemanual> element. Im not sure. My coarse of action is to first start with all of the text and tables for the book I am converting and then will go in and add the pictures as I go. If I still get a blank sheet I will post what I have. I am working in small portions as I have learned from my mistake before about many lines of text going untested. More to follow. Thanks guys.

[Bidmaron]

Any reason you don't want to use Celestian's wonderful Author extension here?

[Talyn]

I haven't used Project: Author yet to see how its output is yet. Granted, most "general users" just want a result and don't care what's going on under the hood. But I think Celestian knows his stuff so P:A is probably a really good tool. It's on my list to check out at some point.

I honestly can't fully recommend using the 5E Assets (which is a horrible misnomer as well) or the older UA as a learning tool, as they split things apart "the old way" from when reference manuals were new. The newer preferred method is what @Moon Wizard has called the "inline" method where the refpage content and its index data are all contained in the same place which is much less confusing to debug and reduces the filesize by quite a bit as well. They are probably fine for getting the hang of the general structure and learning how to actually build a refpage though. Problem is there isn't a good freely available reference manual using the "inline" structure that I'm aware of. I've had the idea to do one for about a year now, but we see how far along I've gotten on that other than "having the idea."

[Bidmaron]

Well, I have to confess that I am just getting into the whole module construction thing, so I can't pretend to offer much of an opinion anywhere right now.

[SailorLovins]

Any reason you don't want to use Celestian's wonderful Author extension here?

I never knew this existed. What is it?

[kalmarjan]

I haven't used Project: Author yet to see how its output is yet. Granted, most "general users" just want a result and don't care what's going on under the hood. But I think Celestian knows his stuff so P:A is probably a really good tool. It's on my list to check out at some point.

I honestly can't fully recommend using the 5E Assets (which is a horrible misnomer as well) or the older UA as a learning tool, as they split things apart "the old way" from when reference manuals were new. The newer preferred method is what @Moon Wizard has called the "inline" method where the refpage content and its index data are all contained in the same place which is much less confusing to debug and reduces the filesize by quite a bit as well. They are probably fine for getting the hang of the general structure and learning how to actually build a refpage though. Problem is there isn't a good freely available reference manual using the "inline" structure that I'm aware of. I've had the idea to do one for about a year now, but we see how far along I've gotten on that other than "having the idea."

Talyn, what's the best way to get up to speed really quickly on making reference modules? I'm afraid my FG-Fu is limited to when I developed the SW ruleset graphics back in 2007-2008...