Suggestion Fully formatted JSON Data Files on Save

[Mouradif]

Preliminary context
I'll deviate a tiny bit from the template to give some context. As you all know, when using Git as a VCS, for every modified file, the differences between versions are computed line-by-line. Currently when pressing the Save button (or Ctrl/Cmd + S) on the RPG Maker editor, the database elements and maps are saved into their dedicated JSON files in an almost minified form. In map files for example, all tiles data are saved in a single line. So after changing one tile in a map, the diff on Git well show the whole line that contains all tiles data as changed making diffs (1) bigger and (2) harder to understand. In case two contributors in the same RPG game made changes in the same map where one person changed the sprite of an event and one person corrected a typo in a message box from that event's instruction list, Git will detect a merge conflict because both contributors have changed the same line. This could be easily avoided with this feature.

Description of the Feature:

• Save the JSON data files in a fully prettified version
• Only minify the JSONs when building the final game

Mockups:
Nothing visually changes on the editor but then for example, System.json would look like this:

{
  "advanced": {
    "gameId": 32917713,
    "screenWidth": 816,
    "screenHeight": 624,
    "uiAreaWidth": 816,
    "uiAreaHeight": 624,
    "numberFontFilename": "mplus-2p-bold-sub.woff",
    "fallbackFonts": "Verdana, sans-serif",
    "fontSize": 16,
    "mainFontFilename": "Berry Rotunda.woff",
    "windowOpacity": 192,
    "screenScale": 1
  },
  "airship": {
    "bgm": {
      "name": "Ship3",
      "pan": 0,
      "pitch": 100,
      "volume": 90
    },
    "characterIndex": 3,
    "characterName": "Vehicle",
    "startMapId": 0,
    "startX": 0,
    "...": "..."

}

Why is this feature good?
This feature is great because of the following:

• Makes it easier to work with GIT
• The Data files are even more human-readable

Possible issues with this feature?
Issues that might arise from this feature:

• Slightly more storage used in the project file (Tested in a game with 98 maps: 11.1MB minified VS 12.6MB Formatted)

 

[caethyril]

Related:

Automatically pretty JSON files for clean git commit diffs using git hooks

(This tutorial and others are available in their original format here) Background: Git is a powerful Version Control System that keeps track of differences in files as well as facilitating collaboration between team members. This isn't a git tutorial, but a tutorial to address an annoyance...

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