<pclass="last">You are reading an old version of the Evennia documentation. <ahref="https://www.evennia.com/docs/latest/index.html">The latest version is here</a></p>.
<h1>Changing the Game Website<aclass="headerlink"href="#changing-the-game-website"title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>Evennia uses the <aclass="reference external"href="https://www.djangoproject.com/">Django</a> web framework as the basis of both its database configuration and the website it provides. While a full understanding of Django requires reading the Django documentation, we have provided this tutorial to get you running with the basics and how they pertain to Evennia. This text details getting everything set up. The <aclass="reference internal"href="Web-Character-View-Tutorial.html"><spanclass="doc std std-doc">Web-based Character view Tutorial</span></a> gives a more explicit example of making a custom web page connected to your game, and you may want to read that after finishing this guide.</p>
<sectionid="a-basic-overview">
<h2>A Basic Overview<aclass="headerlink"href="#a-basic-overview"title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Django is a web framework. It gives you a set of development tools for building a website quickly and easily.</p>
<p>Django projects are split up into <em>apps</em> and these apps all contribute to one project. For instance, you might have an app for conducting polls, or an app for showing news posts or, like us, one for creating a web client.</p>
<p>Each of these applications has a <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">urls.py</span></code> file, which specifies what <aclass="reference external"href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_resource_locator">URL</a>s are used by the app, a <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">views.py</span></code> file for the code that the URLs activate, a <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">templates</span></code> directory for displaying the results of that code in <aclass="reference external"href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html">HTML</a> for the user, and a <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">static</span></code> folder that holds assets like <aclass="reference external"href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS">CSS</a>, <aclass="reference external"href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</a>, and Image files (You may note your mygame/web folder does not have a <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">static</span></code> or <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">template</span></code> folder. This is intended and explained further below). Django applications may also have a <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">models.py</span></code> file for storing information in the database. We will not change any models here, take a look at the <aclass="reference internal"href="../Concepts/Models.html"><spanclass="doc std std-doc">New Models</span></a> page (as well as the <aclass="reference external"href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/db/models/">Django docs</a> on models) if you are interested.</p>
<p>There is also a root <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">urls.py</span></code> that determines the URL structure for the entire project. A starter <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">urls.py</span></code> is included in the default game template, and automatically imports all of Evennia’s default URLs for you. This is located in <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">web/urls.py</span></code>.</p>
</section>
<sectionid="changing-the-logo-on-the-front-page">
<h2>Changing the logo on the front page<aclass="headerlink"href="#changing-the-logo-on-the-front-page"title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Evennia’s default logo is a fun little googly-eyed snake wrapped around a gear globe. As cute as it is, it probably doesn’t represent your game. So one of the first things you may wish to do is replace it with a logo of your own.</p>
<p>Django web apps all have <em>static assets</em>: CSS files, Javascript files, and Image files. In order to make sure the final project has all the static files it needs, the system collects the files from every app’s <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">static</span></code> folder and places it in the <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">STATIC_ROOT</span></code> defined in <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">settings.py</span></code>. By default, the Evennia <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">STATIC_ROOT</span></code> is in <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">web/static</span></code>.</p>
<p>Because Django pulls files from all of those separate places and puts them in one folder, it’s possible for one file to overwrite another. We will use this to plug in our own files without having to change anything in the Evennia itself.</p>
<p>By default, Evennia is configured to pull files you put in the <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/web/static/</span></code><em>after</em> all other static files. That means that files under <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/web/static/</span></code> folder will overwrite any previously loaded files <em>having the same path under its static folder</em>. This last part is important to repeat: To overload the static resource from a standard <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">evennia/web/static</span></code> folder you need to replicate the path of folders and file names under <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/web/static/</span></code>. Luckily your game dir’s folder already has a lot of pre-made structure, so it should be pretty clear: For exampl for overriding website things, you put it under <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/web/static/website/</span></code>. Webclient would be <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/web/static/webclient</span></code> and so on.</p>
<p>Let’s see how this works for our logo. The default web application is in the Evennia library itself, in <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">evennia/web/</span></code>. We can see that there is a <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">static</span></code> folder here. If we browse down, we’ll eventually find the full path to the Evennia logo file: <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">evennia/web/static/website/images/evennia_logo.png</span></code>.</p>
<p>Put your own logo in the equivalent place in your game folder: <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/web/static/website/images/evennia_logo.png</span></code>.</p>
<p>To get this file pulled in, just change to your own game directory and reload the server:</p>
<p>to only update the static files without any other changes.</p>
<blockquote>
<div><p>Evennia will collect static files automatically during startup. So if <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">evennia</span><spanclass="pre">collectstatic</span></code> reports finding 0 files to collect, make sure you didn’t start the engine at some point - if so the collector has already done its work! To make sure, connect to the website and check so the logo has actually changed to your own version.</p>
</div></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div><p>The asset collector is actually collecting all data into one place, in the hidden directory <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/server/.static/</span></code>. It’s from here these files are actually served. Sometimes the static asset collector can get confused. If no matter what you do, your overridden files aren’t getting copied over the defaults, try emptying<codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/server/.static/</span></code> and run <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">evennia</span><spanclass="pre">collectstatic</span></code> anew.</p>
</div></blockquote>
</section>
<sectionid="changing-the-front-pages-text">
<h2>Changing the Front Page’s Text<aclass="headerlink"href="#changing-the-front-pages-text"title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The default front page for Evennia contains information about the Evennia project. You’ll probably want to replace this information with information about your own project. Changing the page template is done in a similar way to changing static resources.</p>
<p>Like static files, Django looks through a series of template folders to find the file it wants. The difference is that Django does not copy all of the template files into one place, it just searches through the template folders until it finds a template that matches what it’s looking for. This means that when you edit a template, the changes are instant. You don’t have to reload the server or run any extra commands to see these changes - reloading the web page in your browser is enough.</p>
<p>To replace the index page’s text, we’ll need to find the template for it. We’ll go into more detail about how to determine which template is used for rendering a page in the <aclass="reference internal"href="Web-Character-View-Tutorial.html"><spanclass="doc std std-doc">Web-based Character view Tutorial</span></a>. For now, you should know that the template we want to change is stored in <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">evennia/web/website/templates/website/index.html</span></code>.</p>
<p>To replace this template file, you will put your changed template inside <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/web/templates/</span></code>. In the same way as with static resources you must use replicate the same folder structure as in the main library. For example, to override the main <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">index.html</span></code> file found in <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">evennia/web/templates/website/index.html</span></code>, copy it <codeclass="docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">mygame/web/templates/website/index.html</span></code> and customize it as you like. Just reload your server to see your new version.</p>
</section>
<sectionid="further-reading">
<h2>Further reading<aclass="headerlink"href="#further-reading"title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>For further hints on working with the web presence, you could now continue to the <aclass="reference internal"href="Web-Character-View-Tutorial.html"><spanclass="doc std std-doc">Web-based Character view Tutorial</span></a> where you learn to make a web page that displays in-game character stats. You can also look at <aclass="reference external"href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/intro/tutorial01/">Django’s own tutorial</a> to get more insight in how Django works and what possibilities exist.</p>
<pclass="last">You are reading an old version of the Evennia documentation. <ahref="https://www.evennia.com/docs/latest/index.html">The latest version is here</a></p>.
