Veronica K. B. Olsen
146 lines
6.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
146 lines
6.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_tech:
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*********************
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Technical Information
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*********************
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This section contains details of how novelWriter stores and handles the project data.
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How Project Data is Stored
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==========================
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All novelWriter files are written with utf-8 encoding. Since Python automatically converts Unix
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line endings to Windows line endings on Windows systems, novelWriter does not make any adaptations
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to the formatting on Windows systems. This is handled entirely by the Python standard library.
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Python also handles this fairly well when working on the same files on both Windows and Unix-based
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operating systems.
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Main Project File
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-----------------
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The project itself requires a dedicated folder for storing its files where novelWriter will create
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its own "file system" where the folder and file hierarchy is described in a project XML file. This
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is the main project file in the project's root folder with the name ``nwProject.nwx``. This file
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also contains all the meta data required for the project, and a number of related project settings.
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If this file is lost or corrupted, the structure of the project is lost, although not the text
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itself. It is important to keep this file backed up, either through the built-in backup tool, or
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your own backup solution.
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.. tip::
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The novelWriter project folder is structured so that it can easily be added to a version control
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system like git. If so, you may want to add a `.gitignore` file to exclude files with the
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extensions `.json` as JSON files are used to cache the index and various run-time settings and
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are generally large files that change often. You'd also want to exclude the ``cache`` folder.
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The project XML file is indent-formatted, suitable for diff tools and version control since most of
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the file will stay static, although a timesetamp is set in the meta section on line 2 each time the
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file is saved, and various meta data entries are incremented on each save.
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Project Documents
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-----------------
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All the project documents are saved in a folder in the main project folder named ``content``. Each
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document has a file handle taken from the first 13 characters of a SHA256 hash of the system time
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when the document was first created. The documents are saved with a filename assembled from this
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hash and the file extension ``.nwd``.
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If you wish to find the file system location of a document in the project, you can either look it
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up in the project XML file, select :guilabel:`Show File Details` from the :guilabel:`Document` menu
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when having the document open, or look in the ``ToC.txt`` file in the root of the project folder.
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The ``ToC.txt`` file has a list of all documents in the project, referenced by their label, and
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where they are saved.
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The reason for this cryptic file naming is to avoid issues with file naming conventions and
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restrictions on different operating systems, and also to have a file name that does not depend on
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what the user names the document within the project, or changes it to.
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Each document file contains a plain text version of the text from the editor. The file can in
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principle be edited in any text editor, and is suitable for diffing and version control if so
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desired. Just make sure the file remains in utf-8 encoding, otherwise unicode chatracters may
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become mangled when the file is opened in novelWriter again.
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The first lines of the file may contain some meta data starting with the characters ``%%~``. These
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lines are mainly there to restore some information if it is lost from the project file, and the
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information may be helpful if you do open the file in an external editor as it contains the
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document label and the document class and layout. The lines can be deleted without any consequences
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to the rest of the content of the file, and will be added back the next time the document is saved
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in novelWriter.
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The File Saving Process
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-----------------------
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When saving the project file, or any of the documents, the data is first saved to a temporary file.
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If successful, the old data file is removed, and the temporary file becomes the new file. This
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ensures that the previously saved data is only replaced when the new data has been successfully
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saved to the storage medium.
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For the project XML file, a ``.bak`` file is in addition kept, which will always contain the
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previous version of the file, although when auto-save is enabled, they may have the same content.
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If the opening of a project file fails, novelWriter will automatically try to open the ``.bak``
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file instead.
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Project Meta Data
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=================
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The project folder contains a subfolder named ``meta``, containing a number of files. The meta
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folder contains semi-important files. That is, they can be lost with only minor impact to the
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project.
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If you use version control software on your project, you can exclude this folder, although you may
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want to track the session log file. The JSON files within this folder can safely be ignored as they
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will be automatically regenerated if lost.
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The Project Index
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-----------------
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Between writing sessions, the project index is saved in a JSON file in ``meta/tagsIndex.json``.
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This file is not critical. If it is lost, it can be rebuilt from within novelWriter from the
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:guilabel:`Tools` menu.
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The index is maintained and updated whenever a document or note is saved in the editor. It contains
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all references and tags in documents and notes, as well as the location of all headers in the
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project, and the word counts within each header section.
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The integrity of the index is checked when the file is loaded. It is possible to corrupt the index
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if the file is manually edited and manipulated, so the check is important to avoid sudden crashes
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of novelWriter. if the file contains errors, novelWriter will automatically build it anew. If the
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check somehow fails and novelWriter keeps crashing, you can delete the file manually and rebuild
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the index. If this too fails, you have likely encountered a bug.
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Cached GUI Options
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------------------
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A file named ``meta/guiOptions.json`` contains the latest state of various GUI buttons, switches,
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dialog window sizes, column sizes, etc, from the GUI. These are the GUI settings that are specific
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to the project. Global GUI settings are stored in the main config file.
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The file is not critical, but if it is lost, all such GUI options will revert back to their default
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settings.
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Session Stats
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-------------
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The writing progress is saved in the ``meta/sessionStats.log`` file. This file records the length
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and word counts of each writing session on the given project. The file is used by the
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:guilabel:`Writing Statistics` tool. If this file is lost, the history it contains is also lost,
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but it has otherwise no impact on the project.
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Project Cache
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=============
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The project ``cache`` folder contains non-critical files. If these files are lost, there is no
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impact on the functionality of novelWriter or the history of the project. It contains temporary
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files, like the preview document in the :guilabel:`Build Novel Project` tool.
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It should be excluded from version control tools if such are used.
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