FSDeveloper Wiki Structure & Guidelines

With the increasing amount of articles and users of the FSDeveloper Wiki it has become desirable to make the structure of the Wiki and the articles more uniform, so that it is easier to use. Therefore these guidelines will present our vision on how to improve this.

Wiki structure

To make it easier for the different types of users to find the information they are looking for, the structure of the Wiki should be so that different routes can be used to find an article.

• Add the article to any relevant category. For example to indicate if the article is about scenery or aircraft design, if it is about modeling or texturing and to which FS version is applies.
• To help more novice users to find their way around, there should be an introduction article about the main design areas. So that they can use these as a starting point to learn more. So for example there should be an introduction page about modeling, which can be used as a starting point for the modeling articles.
• Within a design area it is desired to make a navigation template that can be used to easier navigate through all the related pages.
• The front page should become a sort of portal with information and easy links to all main starting points for developers. From here the introduction pages of the different sections should be accessible.

Article titles

Article titles should be as clear and short as possible. When creating a new article keep the following guidelines in mind. Administrators might rename the article later to fit better in the Wiki structure.

• Try to keep the article names as short as possible. So do not use whole sentences as a title, but try to keep them short and clear.
• Do not try to put the category of the article in the title, the Wiki software has good functionality for that. So do not call it “Airport – Modelling – 3D – Create control tower”, but use a short and clear name like “Creating a control tower” and be sure to add it to the modelling and airport design categories.

FS versions

There is a very useful template already to indicate which FS version an article is applicable for. But we need to decide if applicable for version Z means that the technique works in that version or if the technique works according to the SDK of that version. Examples are ground polygons for scenery still made with the FS2002 techniques, but they work in FSX. So would an article about them be applicable for FSX or not? Please provide your input here.

Besides that the articles should be as general as possible. So for one subject do not create a new article for every version of FS. Instead combine them and give each version a section. If the article does not apply to a certain version of FS, do not add a dummy section for that article already. The FS applicability template should show this already and to make it clearer you could mention it again in the introduction of the article.