All About Tags!
What are tags? In their simplest form, tags are a way to save some text for later, under a shorter title. Getting more complex, they can be used to create random choices, do calculations, process text, and more!
Every tag is either "local" or "global". A local tag is only available on the server you create it on (plus any servers that mirror that server; see Tag Mirrors below). A global tag is available on all servers (however, there is a higher wait-time between creating global tags, and global tags may be deleted without warning).
To use an existing tag, simply type %tag <tagname>, where <tagname> is the name of the tag. Note that the names are not case-sensitive, so it doesn't matter if you use the correct capitalization. Some tags use "tag arguments." This means that the tag changes when you include additional text after the tag name. For example, try %tag rate This tag. This will call the tag called "rate" with tag arguments of "This Tag".
To create a tag, use the %tag create command. To make a tag called cat that contains an image of a cat, you might use: %tag create cat http://www.findcatnames.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/453768-cats-cute.jpg. Note that tag names cannot include any spaces! Some additional script-esque elements are available to make your tags choose random choices or do calculations; see JagTag for all available elements. Also, see %tag help for a full list of tag commands.
If you are a moderator or admin on a server, you have the ability to override tags with the %tag override command. Overriding a tag is useful if someone creates a tag you don't want on the server, or if an existing tag doesn't match the purpose for the server. When you override a tag and include new contents, a local tag is created (or edited, if it already exists) and is now "owned" by the server (so only other moderators and admins can re-override it). When you override a tag and do not include contents, one of the following happens: If a local tag of the given name exists, that tag is deleted. If only the global version exists, a new local tag is created with a basic message saying that the tag has been overridden.
By default, the only local tags available on a server are ones created on that server. However, admins can set up "tag mirrors". If Server A sets up a mirror to Server B, all of Server B's local tags will also be available on Server A. Note that mirrors are one-way; If you want to have the same set of tags on all of your servers, make sure that all servers mirror all other servers. (If you are not an admin, ask an admin to set up a mirror for you).
Any tag can be "imported" so that it works as if it were a command. (So, instead of typing %tag 8ball, you can just type %8ball.) This is done with the %tag import and %tag unimport commands. Please see Creating a Custom Command (using Tags) and %tag import help for more info on this topic.
- JagTag notation is available on the JagTag page; the underlying parser is in Java, so regular expressions and other syntax are Java-based
- When any action is taken with a tag (deleting, editing, creating, etc), the tag found will always be the highest in this hierarchy: Local Tag > Local Tag from a Mirrored Server (in the order the mirrors appear in the list) > Global Tag > Not Found
- Since the creation of local tags, a migration occurred. Any tag overrides were converted to local tags owned by the server. Any user that only shares 1 server with Spectra also had their tags migrated to local tags for that server. It is recommended that admins set up tag mirrors as soon as possible, especially if they notice that they cannot find some tags.