LinkedContent

🔗 Linked Content

How a world's entities and dictionaries follow a library item, and what that link does at each step: editing, updating, publishing, downloading, and repair.

The same story, in short, opens from About Linked Content… in a linked copy's menu in the World Editor, and from the ? in the title bar of Update Available and Update This World.

How to Link a Copy to Your Library

1. In the World Editor, open the entity or dictionary.
2. Select Save to Library. The copy is saved as a library item and follows it.

For an independent copy of an item you already have, open the copy's menu and select Link to Library Item…, then pick the item.

How to Update a Linked Copy

1. In the library, right-click the entity or dictionary tile. Or, in the World Editor, open the linked copy's menu.
2. Select Check for Updates. If a world is behind, Update Available opens.
3. To compare a world first, select View Changes.
4. For each world, pick Update, Use Author's, Keep Mine or Unlink.
5. Select Apply Updates.

A linked copy of your own item also updates the next time you open its world.

How to Publish Linked Content

1. On the main menu, select your world.
2. Select Publish World.
3. Under Linked Content, check Include as required for each item that should download with the world.
4. For a source of yours with no listing yet, pick Public or Unlisted. It publishes first.
5. Select Publish.
6. If a source is refused, read the reason and select Retry.

How to Offer an Entity or Dictionary as an Add-on

1. In the library, open the entity or dictionary.
2. Select Publish.
3. Set Listing to Public. An Unlisted listing can't be an add-on.
4. Under Compatible Worlds, check Offer as add-on for each world.
5. Select Publish. The world's author then reviews the offer.

How to Review Add-ons for Your World

1. In Community Creations, find your own published world.
2. Select Manage Add-ons.
3. Show starts on Needs Attention. Set each offer to Approved, Unreviewed or Declined. Mark Reviewed accepts a changed source and keeps your answer.
4. Select Save Changes.

How to Repair a Missing Source

1. In the World Editor, open the Test Bench's Issues list.
2. Select Check Sources.
3. For each copy with a missing source, pick Replace from Library, Unlink and Keep Content or Remove from World.
4. Select Apply on that copy.

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Words This Page Uses

Term	Meaning
Library item	One entity or dictionary in your library.
Linked copy	An entity or dictionary in a world that follows a library item.
Independent copy	A copy that follows nothing.
Local replacement	A linked copy of another author's item that you edited. No update overwrites it.
Source	The published listing a copy follows.
Add-on	A published entity or dictionary offered for a world, which a player downloads by choice.
Bundled content	The entities and dictionaries an imported world file carries whose library items are not on this machine.

Linked Copies

A linked copy follows a library item. When you save the library item, every linked copy of it receives the change the next time you open its world. An independent copy follows nothing.

How a Copy Becomes Linked

Action	Result
Save to Library	Saves the copy as a library item and links the copy to it.
Add From Library…	In the + menu on Entities and Dictionary. Adds a copy of a library item. Link to Library is on by default.
Import Entity…, Import Dictionary…	In the same + menu. Adds a copy from a file, with the same Link to Library choice.
Link to Library Item…	In an independent copy's menu. Links the copy to a library item you pick.

All four make the same link.

The Three Link States

A linked row carries a 🔗 marker in the list, and its footer button reads Open in Library. Point at either one to read the state and the name of what the copy follows, such as Linked · Sedge.

State	Meaning	Default in a review
Linked	The copy follows its library item. Updates replace its content. If the item is yours, saving the world writes your edits to it.	Update
Local replacement	You edited a copy of another author's item. No update overwrites it.	Keep Mine
Link pending save	You linked the copy in this editing session. The link is written when you save the world.

Editing a Linked Copy

Who owns the library item decides what an edit does.

The item is	An edit to the copy	On Save
Yours	Stays Linked.	Writes the edit to the library item. Every other world holding a copy receives it the next time you open that world. The last save wins.
Another author's	Makes the copy a Local replacement.	Writes nothing to the library. Their updates still reach you for review, where Keep Mine is the default.

Discard Changes writes nothing to the library. A copy you already made a local replacement stays one; Use Author's in a review makes it share edits again.

The Copy's Menu

Control	What it does
Open in Library	Opens the library item the copy follows.
Unlink	Turns the copy into an independent copy. The content stays as it is.
Save Connections…	Reopens Connect World References for this copy.
Check for Updates	Compares the library item against every world that holds a copy.

Connect World References

A library item names the Placeholder or location it needs by an id from its own world. That id means nothing in the world receiving it. When you add content that expects something this world does not already answer, a Connect World References step opens before the content goes in.

The step lists one row per open reference under Placeholders and Locations. Each row shows what the content expects and a selector of this world's own, plus Create New…. Connect & Add stays off until every row is answered. Back returns to the picker with your picks and your answers as you left them.

Each copy remembers what its references resolve to here. A later update from the source reaches the same Placeholders even when the source has renamed them. If you delete a Placeholder a copy is connected to, the World Doctor raises a warning that names the copy. Save Connections… in the copy's menu reopens the step, so you can point the reference somewhere else.

Updates

Update Available

Check for Updates sits on an entity or dictionary tile in your library, and in a linked copy's menu in the World Editor. It compares the library item against every world that holds a copy. If no world is behind it, Formamorph says the item is up to date and opens nothing.

If a world is behind it, Update Available lists one row per world, with the copy's state and an action.

Action	What it does	Default for
Update	Replaces the copy with the library item.	Linked
Use Author's	Replaces a local replacement with the library item. Your edits go.
Keep Mine	Keeps the copy as it is.	Local replacement
Unlink	Keeps the copy as it is and stops following the library item.

View Changes shows the changed fields with your value and the author's. A dictionary's changed, added, and removed entries are grouped, and unchanged content sits behind a disclosure.

Choosing an action changes nothing until Apply Updates. Cancel applies none of it. If one world fails, it keeps the content it had and offers Retry. Every other world's result stands.

Note

Keep Mine remembers the revision you answered for. That revision does not come back. The next revision of the library item asks again.

Update This World

Choosing Update an existing copy on a community world opens Update This World before anything is written. It lists the linked copies the update would change, each with the same four actions. A local replacement starts on Keep Mine, so your edits survive the update.

Section	What is in it	What Apply Updates does
Changed Content	Linked copies the update would change.	Runs the action you chose on each.
New Required Content	Sources the author now requires.	Downloads each one and links a copy to this world.
No Longer Required	Copies the author stopped requiring.	Keeps each copy as an independent copy.

Apply Updates runs the whole world in one write. Cancel applies none of it. A source that does not download leaves its copy on the content you already had, with Retry for that row, while the world and everything else updates. Download a copy never opens the review.

Publishing

Publishing a World

The publish dialog lists every library item the world's copies follow under Linked Content, each with Include as required.

Choice	What players download
Include as required checked	The source downloads and links with the world.
Unchecked	The content is published inside the world with no source to follow.

A source you own that has no listing yet reads Will publish with this world and carries a Public or Unlisted choice, set to Unlisted. Those sources publish first, and the world publishes only once every one of them exists. If one is refused, the world stays unpublished, the dialog names what failed, and Retry picks up where it stopped. Your own links are untouched.

A first publication checks every row. A later one checks what the listing already requires.

Publishing an Entity or a Dictionary

The publish dialog gains a Listing choice, Public or Unlisted, and a Compatible Worlds section that lists every published world of yours with a linked copy of it.

Check Offer as add-on for a world and publishing creates that offer. The world's author then reviews it, and the review state shows beside each world you have already offered it for.

An unlisted listing stays out of Community Creations and reaches players only inside a world that requires it. It cannot be an add-on, so choosing Unlisted turns the section off. If you unlink the copy a world held, that offer shows as a pending removal and publishing removes it.

Manage Add-ons

Your own published world card in Community Creations gains Manage Add-ons. It opens the offers other authors have made for your world. Each offer is in one of three states.

State	Where the add-on appears on your world's download
Approved	Under Approved Add-ons.
Unreviewed	Under Community Add-ons.
Declined	In neither tab. It stays downloadable from its own listing.

Show starts on Needs Attention: the unreviewed offers, and the ones whose source changed since you answered. A source that changed after your answer keeps that answer, gains Updated since review, and comes back to Needs Attention. Mark Reviewed accepts the change without changing your answer.

Every change waits as Pending change until Save Changes. Discard Changes puts it back.

Downloading

Downloading a World

A community world's details window lists what it brings under Linked Content, in three tabs.

Tab	Who chose it	You choose
Required	The world's author requires it.	No. It comes with the world.
Approved Add-ons	The world's author approved it.	Yes, one checkbox each.
Community Add-ons	Its own author offered it. The world's author has not reviewed it.	Yes, one checkbox each.

The download button counts what the press downloads, so it reads Download World + 3 Items. Downloading places every item in your library and links the world's own copies to them. Each copy opens in the World Editor as Linked with its source named.

A required item that does not download leaves the world out of your library and names what failed. Retry finishes it, and what already downloaded is kept. An add-on that does not download leaves the world ready and gets its own Retry.

A Listing's Compatible Worlds

An entity's or a dictionary's details window lists the worlds it is offered for under Compatible Worlds, in three groups: Approved, Unreviewed, and Declined by the world author. Only the entity's or dictionary's own author sees the declined group. Pressing a world opens that world's listing. Downloading the entity or dictionary gets only that item. Each world stays a download of its own.

Importing a World File

A world file bundles its entities and dictionaries, and records what each linked copy follows and which copies are local replacements.

Where you import it	What happens to the links
The machine that wrote it	Every link is restored.
Elsewhere, Link bundled content to my library checked	Each bundled item becomes a library item of yours, and the world's copies follow it.
Elsewhere, unchecked	The copies are embedded and follow nothing.

Note

The file's content always wins. A copy whose source you already have follows your own item and arrives as a local replacement.

Importing an Entity or Dictionary File

An entity or dictionary file carries the entity or dictionary and the worlds it is offered for. For the import steps, see How to Import an Entity and How to Import a Dictionary.

When you import one file that names worlds or a source, a review opens first, titled Import Entity or Import Dictionary. Select the worlds you want, then the Import Entity or Import Dictionary button. Cancel imports nothing.

Section	What it does
Add to Your Worlds	One checkbox per world you have. Each checked world gets a linked copy of the library item.
Worlds You Do Not Have	Open Listing opens that world in Community Creations, so you can download it. It needs a connection.

A file that names no worlds says so, and the import adds it to your library only.

If the file's source is already in your library, Update Available opens instead, with the file as the incoming revision. When you import several files at once, no review opens: each file goes into your library as it is.

Repairs

Check Sources

The Test Bench's Issues list gains Check Sources. It asks the server about every library item this world's copies follow. Formamorph asks only when you press it, so a downloaded world stays playable with no connection.

Result	Meaning
A source its author removed	The server reports the source as deleted.
Could not check	Any other failure. Carries Retry Check.

The Three Repairs

Each copy with a missing source gets its own repair, with one Apply per copy and nothing chosen to begin with.

Repair	Result
Replace from Library	The copy follows a different library item.
Unlink and Keep Content	The copy becomes an independent copy with its content untouched.
Remove from World	The copy is deleted from this world.

Warning

A republished source is a new listing. It never reconnects on its own. Replace from Library is the way back to it.

While a Source Is Missing

While a required source reads as removed, Enter World, Quick Start, and Publish World are off for that world. The reason names the source and carries Repair Sources to the editor. Edit World and Load Game stay open, because a game already under way keeps what it started with. Repairing the copy turns the other three back on.

Removing a Library Item

Deleting an item from your library leaves every world copy that followed it as an independent copy with its content untouched. Each world lets go of the item the next time you open it. No world breaks.