Help:Template
| Summary |
|---|
| A basic introduction to using and creating templates. |
A template is a piece of predefined wikitext that can be inserted into an article. Templates are primarily used to aid in formatting content.
Visit Category:Template for a listing of all available templates.
1 Usage
Templates are used by adding the following markup to an article:
{{Template Name}}
Most templates take additional arguments, such as Template:Note:
{{Note|This text should be noted.}}
which produces:
Some templates use named parameters, such as Template:Hc:
{{Hc|head=/etc/rc.local|output=exit 0}}
which produces:
/etc/rc.local
exit 0
The general format is:
{{Template Name|param1|param2|...|paramN}}
See each templates' page for specific usage instructions.
1.1 Escape template-breaking characters
There are some characters that, if used inside a template, will break its output: most frequently this happens with = (the equal sign) and | (the pipe sign).
The easiest and most effective solutions to this problem are:
- Using numbered parameters like in:
{{Note|1=This method is effective only with = and is very useful with query strings in URLs, e.g. http://parabolagnulinux.org/?foo=bar}}
- Replacing the offending characters with their respective HTML entities, like in:
{{Note|This method supports all kinds of characters, including =, | and }} ( http://parabolagnulinux.org/?foo=bar )}}
- Enclosing the offending characters in <nowiki> tags, like in:
{{Note|<nowiki>This method displays all kinds of characters ( = | }} ), but completely prevents the wiki engine from processing text markup or markdown, like links ( http://parabolagnulinux.org/ ) and other templates ( {{ic|foo}} ).</nowiki>}}
2 Creation
{{Note|
- Only create relevant templates. If you are attempting to create a very specialized template that will likely only ever be used on a few articles, please do not bother, avoid cluttering up the templates namespace.
- Only create concise templates. Remember: Keep It Simple, Stupid!
The following template should be used when creating new templates to ensure that the template is a member of Category:Template and to facilitate usage and editing:
<noinclude>{{Template}}
'''A brief description of the template'''
====Usage====
{{ic|<nowiki>{{Template Name|param1|param2|...|paramN}}</nowiki>}}
====Example====
{{Template Name|param1|param2|...|paramN}}</noinclude><includeonly>Template code goes here...</includeonly>
To begin the creation process, simply visit Template:Template Name (substituting Template Name with the desired name of the template), edit, and add the relevant wikitext.
