Preserve project.json properties created by WE

[RuinTD]

WE creates multiple properties in project.json that you should be able to specify in the Vite plugin. These include:

{
	"contentrating" : "Everyone",
	"description" : "Kawase blur & domain warping",
	"preview" : "preview.jpg",
	"ratingsex" : "none",
	"ratingviolence" : "none",
	"snapshotformat" : -1,
	"snapshotoverlay" : "",
	"tags" : [ "Abstract" ],
	"version" : 1,
	"visibility" : "public",
	"workshopid" : "3775904129",
	"workshopurl" : "steam://url/CommunityFilePage/3775904129"
}

(btw, i published my first wallpaper using this package :D )

[ShadowNineX]

Thanks. I'll take a look at all those tomorrow or when I get new energy again hehe.

[TailsProwerWorks]

I dug into this a bit further. This looks like both a useful enhancement and a preservation bug in the current build flow.

Wallpaper Engine adds publishing/Workshop data to project.json, while the Vite plugin currently reconstructs that file on every build. A later build can therefore erase fields written by Wallpaper Engine, including the identity of an already-published Workshop item.

Author-configurable metadata

These make sense as typed plugin options:

• description
• preview
• tags
• contentrating
• ratingsex
• ratingviolence
• visibility

Wallpaper Engine-managed state

These should normally be preserved from an existing/template project.json, rather than exposed as ordinary configuration knobs:

• workshopid
• workshopurl
• version
• snapshotformat
• snapshotoverlay
• approved
• monetization
• Any other unknown top-level fields added by Wallpaper Engine now or in the future

version does not appear to be a fixed schema version: published projects in the wild contain values such as 1, 7, and 40. snapshotformat also appears related to preview capture (-1 is seen with JPEG previews and 1 with GIF previews), but its numeric values are not documented clearly enough to make it a friendly typed setting yet.

Suggested merge behavior

1. Existing/template project.json
2. Explicit author metadata from the Vite plugin
3. Generated core fields: file, title, type, and general

That keeps generated core fields authoritative while preserving Workshop-managed and future unknown fields.

One implementation trap: Vite's emptyOutDir may remove the previous project.json and preview before generateBundle runs. Preservation therefore needs to read/cache the existing output before cleanup, or accept a canonical source/template file outside the output directory.

Official references:

• https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/web/first/gettingstarted.html
• https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/scene/first/publishing.html

Examples of published project files with additional/stateful fields:

• https://github.com/OriginalCube/Bocchi-Wallpaper/blob/main/public/project.json
• https://github.com/IPdotSetAF/NeoMatrix/blob/master/project.json

So my recommendation is to scope this as: support publishing metadata and preserve Wallpaper Engine/Workshop state.

[RuinTD]

My suggestion would be to put all the additional properties in a separate metadata.json next to package.json and vite.config.ts, so they can be put into version control. Before cleaning up, grab any additional properties and write / merge them into metadata.json for preservation, then at built-time merge metadata.json into project.json

[ShadowNineX]

My suggestion would be to put all the additional properties in a separate metadata.json next to package.json and vite.config.ts, so they can be put into version control. Before cleaning up, grab any additional properties and write / merge them into metadata.json for preservation, then at built-time merge metadata.json into project.json

Good idea. I'll keep that in mind

[RuinTD]

On that note, I don't think the project.json minifying actually does anything in the long run, since WE re-formats package.json when it bumps the version number before publishing.

EDIT: forgot the word minifying

[ShadowNineX]

On that note, I don't think the project.json minifying actually does anything in the long run, since WE re-formats package.json when it bumps the version number before publishing.

EDIT: forgot the word minifying

I mean it just saves some disk space that's all

Ahh it re-format? I'll take a look at that behavior too

[RuinTD]

I mean it just saves some disk space that's all

I assumed it was for light obfuscation. The JSON file is only going to be a few KB anyways, so minifying it doesn't really make sense to me.

[ShadowNineX]

Yeah I'll think about it and the design around that