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Read Thread: Remotely hosted clues--details for you! =)

Remotely hosted clues--details for you! =)
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Oct 30, 2007 10:10pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Some of you might have noticed that when you view the cached version of a clue--which actually happens more often than you might imagine since that's what's used for PDA-friendly pages and to print several clues on a single page--the results can often be quite ugly. The reason being is that AQ doesn't know where the clue begins or ends on the page. It just scrapes the whole page, removes most of the HTML, all the formatting, and strips all the images from the page, and saves that as the cached clue.

The results, sometimes, can be quite ugly!

Now, however, you can explicitly mark the beginning and end of your clue to help AQ generate prettier cached clues. Only the section between the specified start and finish of the clue will be pulled out, then stripped of the HTML, formatting, and images.

To mark the part of the page that is a clue, use something like this:

< !-- aq -- >
Write clue here
< !-- aq end -- >

There shouldn't be spaces next to the angle brackets--I included them here only so the HTML stuff doesn't disappear completely as a comment in the post!

The tags are NOT required--AQ will continue to cache clues like it always has if it cannot find the start and end of the clue, but if you host your own clues on a remote website, many people would appreciate the use of the new tags. =)

Cached clues are only updated about once per month, so if you do update your clues with the tags, it may take awhile before the change is reflected in the cached version of your clues. Not to worry, though--it'll update eventually. *nodding*

If you host your clues on LbNA, nothing to worry about. This is pretty much meant for those who do not host their clues on AQ or LbNA.

-- Ryan
Re: Remotely hosted clues--details for you! =)
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #147833 by Green Tortuga
Oct 30, 2007 11:00pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote To mark the part of the page that is a clue, use something like this:

< !-- aq -- >
Write clue here
< !-- aq end -- >


What happens if you have clues to several different boxes on the same web page? Will the entire page be cached for each box? Should you therefore put the first mark before the first clue and the end mark after the last clue?

Also, I've never done this, but what happens when the link on AQ leads to an offsite web page, and the instructions on that web page are to follow a link to a third web page? Will AQ not cache the third page?

Finally, if the clue is mainly hosted on AQ but includes links to other web pages as part of the clue, does AQ cache those?
Re: Remotely hosted clues--details for you! =)
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #147843 by Kirbert
Oct 30, 2007 11:15pm
Thread (disabled) Board
What happens if you have clues to several different boxes on the same web page? Will the entire page be cached for each box?


I had considered setting it up so people could mark the start and finish of each clue if they have multiple clues on a single webpage, but people really should not list more than one clue per page to begin with. It makes it hard for people--especially those who aren't computer savy--to print out sometimes dozens of pages of clues just for two small paragraphs that have the one clue they're interested in. I figure at that point, things are already screwed up enough. If the cached version is screwed up as well, at least it's no worse than the non-cached version. =)

So yes, the entire page would be cached for each box. I might allow an option to mark clue numbers at some point, but I don't think it's really worth the effort. I'd rather encourage people to limit themselves to one clue per page to begin with.

but what happens when the link on AQ leads to an offsite web page, and the instructions on that web page are to follow a link to a third web page? Will AQ not cache the third page?


Only the page that is immediately linked to will get cached, and AQ will not follow links in the page to other pages. (All links in the linked page will be stripped out of the cached version anyhow.)

if the clue is mainly hosted on AQ but includes links to other web pages as part of the clue, does AQ cache those?


No.

-- Ryan
Re: Remotely hosted clues--details for you! =)
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #147845 by Green Tortuga
Oct 31, 2007 5:56am
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote if the clue is mainly hosted on AQ but includes links to other web pages as part of the clue, does AQ cache those?

No.


Well, if it's written out without the internet "lingo" around it, it will cache it, right?
ie: atlasquest dot com instead of or in addition to www.atlasquest.com
Eeny Meany Miney Moe
Re: Remotely hosted clues--details for you! =)
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #147878 by Eeny Meany Miney Moe
Oct 31, 2007 8:34am
Thread (disabled) Board
Well, if it's written out without the internet "lingo" around it, it will cache it, right?
ie: atlasquest dot com instead of or in addition to www.atlasquest.com


It'll cache the name of the link--just not the HTML that actually makes it linkable. So if you write www.atlasquest.com in a clue that links to www.atlasquest.com, the www.atlasquest.com will show up in the clue. The difference is that people won't be able to click on it to open the site because the link itself will be gone.

-- Ryan