Board Thread:Support Requests - Getting Technical/@comment-3277-20200709224633/@comment-9605025-20200718232115

Fandyllic, I just wanted to clarify in case there was confusion. I am aware that converting from one method to any other at this point would require massive effort for any wiki with a sizable database. The point I was trying to make is that, for the most common use cases, DPL and Lua can provide suitable replacements. Therefore, when it comes to new wikis (which don't have the overhead of converting database methods), I don't think Fandom has much motivation for providing a database extension. As such, I would expect that Fandom would consider adding a standard database extension only once UCP conversion is complete; even then, it probably would be low priority. I am talking specifically about new wikis/wikis that don't already use SMW because I got the sense that was where the discussion was heading. If it wasn't, then yeah, for wikis that already use SMW they are probably figuring something out. However, in that case, they are motivated by the fact that they don't want to creak the existing wikis.

ZeroOne, I can certainly see how having the data centralized would be confusing for new editors. However, I would argue that flip side of that is it makes it harder to vandalize the database unnoticed. Having the data set on the pages themselves makes it easier for editors but also for vandals. Also, having the data in one place actually makes it easier to do bulk updates. As for pulling the data, that depends on how the script is written. I have seen wikis that have a single function for each property or something like that. In that case, yeah, the scripts would need to be kept up-to-date. However, you can write functions that the property to return is an argument. In that case, there is much less maintenance needed. From the looks of it, the Civilizations wiki uses a pretty generalized data retrieval script so I would be interested to know what kind of maintenance the wiki finds it has to do frequently in order to keep it working.

I think the bottom line is that I don't think enough wikis have a need for a database solution for Fandom to really care about it. I think they will do something for wikis that currently use SMW just so they don't break. However, I think Fandom is just going to force wikis to go without for those that don't already have it.