Experimental plugins
These plugins are being or have been considered, often as alternatives to one another. The present editor may not have properly learned them before moving in a different direction, so take these assessments with a grain of salt.
They all relate to data, both in improving its display and collecting it from the wiki editors as they enter pages. This will be of particular importance when the HârnWorld sections of the wiki are created and really filled out. Indeed, the direction of the data entry may flow from an external database to the wiki first in order to automate the initial page creation. More thoughts on this data can be found here.
database2 plugin
Under construction
This plugin is not currently installed. Links below purporting to provide examples don't.This creates an interface between a database and a wiki page. One can have the table shown on one page, and subsets of the data shown on other pages related to views within the database. For instance, the table displayed in sites can be queried, as in Map square J5. As such, it is an alternative to the DataTables and searchtablejs/sortablejs plugins.
At the moment, this seems like the best way to handle HârnWorld settlement data and the only way to handle people data. The downside is that there would then be two points of data entry that would need to be kept in sync. It may be cumbersome for editors to enter data into it directly. Therefore, an alternative would be database-assisted page creation with a db that is not afterward associated with the live wiki. DokuWiki itself does not have a central database, so a sort of page-as-display-form model isn't naturally doable.
It is an old plugin that may no longer be in active development. It worked reasonably well in the previous version of DokuWiki (Hogfather), so one hopes that it still may work now. Other options for a plugin like this are limited and often even older.
It seems a bit finicky, but someone comfortable with working with databases can get a good deal out of it, if not always by the easiest way. For instance, it seems that that individual views need to be created within the db and accessed as if they were tables in order for further filtration on the page to work properly. It is uncertain if parameters can be sent to these views, so they may have to be proliferated by brute force. Still, the parameters (grid squares, hundreds, shires) are finite and known now.
searchtablejs plugin
This allows the user to search within a table for rows containing a given value. It can be used in conjunction with the sortablejs plugin to provide a sort function as well. The combination would serve as an alternative to the DataTables plugin.
sortablejs plugin
This allows the user to sort a table by column. It can be used in conjunction with the searchtablejs plugin to provide a search function as well. The combination would serve as an alternative to the DataTables plugin.
One feature that this may do better is that there is a third position to the sort of each column: in addition to Ascending and Descending sorts, it is possible to return the table to it's initial sort. This could be useful on tables that are not originally sorted in any particular way. Unfortunately, the present editor could not get this to work, though that is apparently a trap that others have fallen into and may possibly escape.
sqlite plugin
This is a helper plugin required by other data plugins: in our case this means Struct and Structured Data, which in turn enable more sophisticated use of the RefNotes plugin.
It requires PHP options being available from the webhost, particularly pdo-sqlite. That in place, sqlite is a simple, lightweight database platform that doesn't need any more than a db file in the wiki's data folder.
strata plugin
This is an alternative to Struct and Structured Data. It is no longer in development, and the present editor had trouble comprehending it.
At this time, the plugin manual has been given a page here.
struct plugin
This places structured data within a given wiki page that is aggregated to a central sqlite db. Both this and the Structured Data plugin are maintained by the lead maintainer of DokuWiki itself, so they should stay up to date in the foreseeable future. Either one would allow more sophisticated use of the RefNotes plugin. The sqlite plugin is required for it to work. Another alternative is the strata plugin.
Though perhaps a good solution for citations, it seems cumbersome for entering data on HârnWorld people. Basically, what would be a row in a database table requires that its own wiki page be created. If the page is going to be there already, as with a Work, then adding a data block is fine. But creating a page for a marriage to which to link the page for the bride and the page for the groom and possibly pages for each child seems like a pain.
Structured Data plugin
This places structured data within a given wiki page that is aggregated to a central sqlite db. Both this and the struct plugin are maintained by the lead maintainer of DokuWiki itself, so they should stay up to date in the foreseeable future. Either one would allow more sophisticated use of the RefNotes plugin. The sqlite plugin is required for it to work. Another alternative is the strata plugin.
The present editor has not yet tried it. It seems like it may be more quick for an editor to use, especially of the data block can be set up in a page template. However, the data isn't validated as with Struct, so there could be downstream issues resulting from that.