Only show the play online button when a URL has a valid file extension

[curiousdannii]

Discussion: https://intfiction.org/t/how-do-you-prevent-ifdbs-play-on-line-button-to-z-code-games-hosted-on-itch-io/60960

It's quite common to put, for example, an itch URL as the download location for a Z-Code or Glulx game. But they don't have direct download links, so you can only link to the game's page. IFDB should exclude URLs that don't have a valid storyfile extension from being considered for the play online button because Parchment won't play them anyway.

[erkyrath]

Storyfile extensions aren't entirely consistent, but this is still a good idea.

(Include dat, zlb, glb as acceptable extensions.)

(What about zip? Someone building original ZIL source with Infocom's toolchain might wind up with a story file called game.zip. We won't have any of those on ifarchive.org, I hope, so at least it won't confuse Unbox...)

[dfabulich]

Discussion continues on intfiction.org, but I'm extremely skeptical of this. My general thinking is that we want the user editing the link to be in control of whether the "Play On-line" button appears, based on whether the "playable game" box is checked or not.

[curiousdannii]

Being able to control it would be great. But this would be a quicker immediate solution.

Parchment doesn't support .dat at present. Are there any .dat Z-code files in IFDB?

[dfabulich]

To be clear, my claim is that editing users can already control this with the "playable game" checkbox.

IFDB has only 25 .dat links. The vast majority of them are Alan 2 games, and none of any major importance.

list of `.dat` files in IFDB

MariaDB [ifdb]> select gameid, games.title, system, numRatingsInAvg, starsort, url from gamelinks l join games on gameid = games.id join gameRatingsSandbox0 using (gameid) where lower(url) like '%.dat' order by starsort desc \G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
         gameid: zpjzp8drlwozs0j0
          title: The Chasing
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 8
       starsort: 3.1099638722346996
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2001/alan/chasing/chasing.dat
*************************** 2. row ***************************
         gameid: xtjl0qi2ek8gxdoi
          title: On the Farm
         system: TADS 2
numRatingsInAvg: 14
       starsort: 2.8400452314290647
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition99/tads/otf/trcolor.dat
*************************** 3. row ***************************
         gameid: v5xsbaedcb9p29bq
          title: Busted!
         system: AdvSys, Inform 5
numRatingsInAvg: 4
       starsort: 2.788531170056884
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/advsys/busted.dat
*************************** 4. row ***************************
         gameid: sjcl3dxizsq4nxkv
          title: The HeBGB Horror!
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 6
       starsort: 2.691920231427209
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition99/alan/hebgb/hebgb.dat
*************************** 5. row ***************************
         gameid: 4x0u04kk511t2s0w
          title: The Land Beyond the Picket Fence
         system: Pascal
numRatingsInAvg: 2
       starsort: 2.612033189389102
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition96/picket/picket.dat
*************************** 6. row ***************************
         gameid: s4yn55ghi2vfc8lt
          title: The Isolato Incident
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 3
       starsort: 2.5905731655445012
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2001/alan/isolato/isolato.dat
*************************** 7. row ***************************
         gameid: f7u68nd9cquz72br
          title: Sardoria
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 6
       starsort: 2.57491490281072
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2003/alan/sardoria/sardoria.dat
*************************** 8. row ***************************
         gameid: cago048gdg3n9ssu
          title: The Adventures of the President of the United States
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 10
       starsort: 2.5217510200506346
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2003/alan/apus/apus.dat
*************************** 9. row ***************************
         gameid: s4girkccjl8mtwh4
          title: Puddles on the Path
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 3
       starsort: 2.483742690100144
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/springthing/2003/puddles/puddles.dat
*************************** 10. row ***************************
         gameid: xt96319ebnlsh0l2
          title: Lunatix - The Insanity Circle
         system: QuickBASIC
numRatingsInAvg: 3
       starsort: 2.348352202908475
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition99/msdos/lunatix/lunatix1.dat
*************************** 11. row ***************************
         gameid: xt96319ebnlsh0l2
          title: Lunatix - The Insanity Circle
         system: QuickBASIC
numRatingsInAvg: 3
       starsort: 2.348352202908475
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition99/msdos/lunatix/lunatix2.dat
*************************** 12. row ***************************
         gameid: qd5ptmk64s4l3ku2
          title: Out of the Study
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 3
       starsort: 2.326390320734626
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2002/alan/study/study.dat
*************************** 13. row ***************************
         gameid: rt6brl1fmmjf0y7u
          title: Chaos
         system: TADS 2
numRatingsInAvg: 4
       starsort: 2.3149647726886977
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition99/tads/chaos/chaos.dat
*************************** 14. row ***************************
         gameid: p8vmhhkmzp5qsnlr
          title: SNOSAE
         system: BASIC
numRatingsInAvg: 2
       starsort: 2.3027477399884244
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition99/msdos/snosae/setup.dat
*************************** 15. row ***************************
         gameid: 58b0tx19wzbuwlpr
          title: CC
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 3
       starsort: 2.233742690100144
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition98/alan/cc/cc.dat
*************************** 16. row ***************************
         gameid: mt1zi26l1zejnsxy
          title: The Key to Time
         system: AdvSys
numRatingsInAvg: 1
       starsort: 2.1948824399784836
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/advsys/key.dat
*************************** 17. row ***************************
         gameid: gbum4w6lvn57h9ps
          title: King Arthur's Night Out
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 2
       starsort: 2.1306226350972404
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition99/alan/arthur/arthur.dat
*************************** 18. row ***************************
         gameid: x86e78uzy380fdot
          title: Leaves
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 2
       starsort: 2.1306226350972404
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition97/alan/leaves/leaves.dat
*************************** 19. row ***************************
         gameid: cbesz0xvi20n6w38
          title: To Otherwhere and Back
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 1
       starsort: 1.995340407336458
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2001/alan/toab/toab.dat
*************************** 20. row ***************************
         gameid: erw51whzgx8217hx
          title: Don't Be Late
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 2
       starsort: 1.9062978502050951
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition96/dbl/dbl.dat
*************************** 21. row ***************************
         gameid: 73syu23qk6x3qeh5
          title: Zero One
         system: Alan 2
numRatingsInAvg: 6
       starsort: 1.8159138048906276
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2004/alan/01/01.dat
*************************** 22. row ***************************
         gameid: rq7505rd58zsd82x
          title: R (Pron: Arrr...)
         system: Visionary
numRatingsInAvg: 11
       starsort: 1.7915318825633757
            url: http://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2010/windows/r/R_Game_Data_File/r.dat
*************************** 23. row ***************************
         gameid: rwyd3yl4ax18hsck
          title: SURREAL
         system: GAGS
numRatingsInAvg: 1
       starsort: 1.7369969851246208
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2001/msdos/surreal/SURREAL.DAT
*************************** 24. row ***************************
         gameid: 0lqt3nkfvztvgrov
          title: My First Stupid Game
         system: AGT
numRatingsInAvg: 2
       starsort: 1.5545194630759813
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition96/first/source/first.dat
*************************** 25. row ***************************
         gameid: i5z59kqmokg226d1
          title: Rape, Pillage, Galore!
         system: NULL
numRatingsInAvg: 5
       starsort: 1.5400000000000005
            url: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2003/windows/pig-rpg/pig-rpg.dat
25 rows in set (0.174 sec)

[curiousdannii]

What would be the downside to doing this as an extra safety check? And the lack of a play online button might alert editors to the fact that they need a specific url for a storyfile for online play to work.