# Changing the Game Website


Evennia uses the [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/) 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  [Web-based Character view Tutorial](./Web-Character-View-Tutorial.md) 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.

## A Basic Overview

Django is a web framework. It gives you a set of development tools for building a website quickly and easily.

Django projects are split up into *apps* 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.

Each of these applications has a `urls.py` file, which specifies what [URL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_resource_locator)s are used by the app, a `views.py` file for the code that the URLs activate, a `templates` directory for displaying the results of that code in [HTML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html) for the user, and a `static` folder that holds assets like [CSS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS), [Javascript](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript), and Image files (You may note your mygame/web folder does not have a `static` or `template` folder. This is intended and explained further below). Django applications may also have a `models.py` file for storing information in the database. We will not change any models here, take a look at the  [New Models](../Concepts/Models.md) page (as well as the [Django docs](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/db/models/) on models) if you are interested.

There is also a root `urls.py` that determines the URL structure for the entire project. A starter `urls.py` is included in the default game template, and automatically imports all of Evennia's default URLs for you. This is located in `web/urls.py`.

## Changing the logo on the front page

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.

Django web apps all have _static assets_: 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 `static` folder and places it in the `STATIC_ROOT` defined in `settings.py`. By default, the Evennia `STATIC_ROOT` is in `web/static`.

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.

By default, Evennia is configured to pull files you put in the `mygame/web/static/` *after* all other static files. That means that files under `mygame/web/static/` folder will overwrite any previously loaded files *having the same path under its static folder*. This last part is important to repeat: To overload the static resource from a standard `evennia/web/static` folder you need to replicate the path of folders and file names under `mygame/web/static/`. 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 `mygame/web/static/website/`. Webclient would be `mygame/web/static/webclient` and so on.

Let's see how this works for our logo. The default web application is in the Evennia library itself, in `evennia/web/`. We can see that there is a `static` folder here. If we browse down, we'll eventually find the full path to the Evennia logo file: `evennia/web/static/website/images/evennia_logo.png`.

Put your own logo in the equivalent  place in your game folder: `mygame/web/static/website/images/evennia_logo.png`. 

To get this file pulled in, just change to your own game directory and reload the server:

```
evennia reload
```

This will reload the configuration and bring in the new static file(s). If you didn't want to reload the server you could instead use

```
evennia collectstatic
```

to only update the static files without any other changes.

> Evennia will collect static files automatically during startup. So if `evennia collectstatic` 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. 

> The asset collector is actually collecting all data into one place, in the hidden directory `mygame/server/.static/`. 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`mygame/server/.static/` and run `evennia collectstatic` anew.

## Changing the Front Page's Text

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.

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.

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  [Web-based Character view Tutorial](./Web-Character-View-Tutorial.md). For now, you should know that the template we want to change is stored in `evennia/web/website/templates/website/index.html`. 

To replace this template file, you will put your changed template inside `mygame/web/templates/`. 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 `index.html` file found in `evennia/web/templates/website/index.html`, copy it `mygame/web/templates/website/index.html` and customize it as you like. Just reload your server to see your new version.

## Further reading

For further hints on working with the web presence, you could now continue to the  [Web-based Character view Tutorial](./Web-Character-View-Tutorial.md) where you learn to make a web page that displays in-game character stats. You can also look at [Django's own tutorial](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/intro/tutorial01/) to get more insight in how Django works and what possibilities exist.