Adding Symbols (Letters)

The following assumes that you are already familiar with the Admin interface. If not then please read The Admin Interface first.

The DigiPal database contains a large number of fields, many of which are very specific and most of which are not necessary for basic use of the framework. The documentation here describes only the essential fields, so any boxes on forms which are not described can be safely ignored.

Before you can do any annotation, you must have at least one Ontograph, Character and Allograph for every symbol (letter, punctuation etc.) in your writing system. Adding these is a somewhat laborious task but should only need to be done once to get started. After this you may need to add the occasional further symbol but this should be relatively infrequent. You can also start with a fairly simple setup, for instance with no Components or Features and only one Allograph per Character, and then add further details as you go. New Graphs are added automatically as part of The Annotation Process, and idiographs are not generally used in the current format of the DigiPal framework.

Adding New Symbols (Ontographs, Characters and Allographs)

As usual, new symbols are added through the Edit form of the Admin Interface. Select the relevant entry from the left-hand menu or the Dashboard, then click the relevant Add button in the top right side of the screen. (E.g. click on 'Ontographs', then 'Add ontograph' etc.) It is probably easiest to start by entering all Ontographs, then work down adding all Characters and then Allographs in that order. The fields in the respective forms are described below.

Ontographs

Name: The name of this ontograph. It may simply be the letter ('A') or it may be spelled out ('THORN'). Note that at present Ontographs do not appear anywhere on the public interface so the name is only for internal purposes.

Type: You may categorise your ontographs by type, for instance letters and punctuation.

Sort Order: This defines the order in which your Ontographs will be displayed, allowing different orderings depending on your writing system. It is generally easiest to leave this as the default value at first ('0') and then change it from the Change List view.

Characters: If you are working in the order described above, from Ontograph down, then leave this blank. Otherwise, if you have already created the relevant Character(s) then enter them here.

Characters

Name: This may be the same as the Ontograph. If there is more than one Character per Ontograph then the relevant character should be entered here (e.g. 'C' for one Character and 'c' for another, both associated with the same Ontograph called 'C').

Unicode Point (optional): If you wish then you may enter the Unicode point for your character here. This currently is not used but could be helpful particularly in older browsers and servers which do not implement Unicode fully. It can also be useful to resolve ambiguities in characters that look very similar.

Form: This is effectively a way of classifying Characters, similar to Ontograph Type. In practice it is usually used to distinguish between majuscule/capital/upper case, minuscule/lower case, and other/not applicable.

Ontograph: Enter the corresponding Ontograph here.

Components: You may enter the relevant components here, although this is currently not used in practice (Components are normally associated with Allographs, for which see below).

Allographs

If you plan to use Components from the beginning then it is easiest to add these now, before you create Allographs. Otherwise don't worry as you can still add the Components to your Allographs later.

Name: Provide a name for your Allograph. Note that this is always displayed along with the Character name so should not repeat it (e.g. the Allograph name should not be 'Caroline a' but simply 'Caroline'). [In practice this can cause difficulties if you have only one allograph for a given Character, in which case a generic name needs to be found.]

Character: Select the corresponding Character here.

Allograph Components: If you have Components then enter as many of them as is appropriate for your Allograph. Ignore the Features list here: it is not used.

Components and Features

Components and Features are found under 'Descriptor' in the left-hand Mezzanine menu or on the Dashboard.

Components and Features both consist simply of a 'Name' field. You should enter each Component and Feature, one at a time, using the 'Add Component' and 'Add Feature' buttons from the relevant Change List as usual.

Before you can use Features, you must specify which Features can apply to which Components. In order to do this, you must create sets of Component-Feature pairs, which can be done from 'Component features' (under 'Descriptor' in the Mezzanine list). This should include all possible Component-Feature pairs. For example, if the 'Ascender' Component could have the feature 'Wedged', then you should create a Component-Feature where the Component is 'Ascender' and the Feature is 'Wedged'.

Note that you can add new Components or Features from the Component Feature Edit form by clicking on the blue '+' by the relevant drop-down list, as usual.

If you have already created your Allographs then you can go back and add the appropriate Components using the Allograph Edit Form as described above.