Help:Navigation template

A navigation template is a tool used to connect related articles together in a way that is easy to update across all the articles. Since it is a template, when it is updated, the changes will be reflected across all of the pages that call that template. Wikipedia makes extensive use of navigation templates through an elegant template structure called Template:Navbox (See Wikipedia's page about them).

Saintapedia and navigation templates

As of November 2010, Saintapedia has working parser functions, but not all of the style sheets are installed and a complete list of required templates to bring over from Wikipedia does not yet exist. An interim solution is at Template:ManNav. Please make sure to keep the categories and banners so users are aware your template is an interim solution that will eventually be replaced with Navbox. See Category:Manual Navigation Templates for a list of templates that use this interim structure and Category:Articles with Manual Navigation Templates for a list of pages that include these templates.

Historic

Key elements needed to get infobox and navbox templates working

1. Parser functions (done)
2. Identify and document all the templates used in infobox and navbox and bring them into Saintapedia with appropriate attribution
3. Identify and document styles used by these templates, get them from Wikipedia's style sheets, and bring them into Saintapedia.
4. all templates that are Category:Manual Navigation Templates need to be updated to the navbox template.

Helpful aids and tips and tricks

• See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:User_style for information about how "skins" (style sheets) are handled in MediaWiki
• The default css is MediaWiki:Common.css and should be used where ever possible as the other skins build from this
  • Wikipedia:Help:Table#Style_classes discusses how these styles work.
  • The Infobox Documentation on Wikipedia talks about there being both CSS and HTML classes.
  • The skins we need to make sure works in Saintapedia is the Monobook skin, which can be found here: MediaWiki:Monobook.css and then the Vector theme which is coming online within the next two weeks.
• To see what templates are called from a page, go into edit mode (or view source mode if locked) and a list of templates will be shown at the bottom of the page.
• We will know we are finished when the tree structure below is all blue and the example templates look correct.
• When you think it's been fully imported successfully, put the word Done.

Sorting through templates

General MUST HAVE Templates

You need these for everything.

• Template:Template Other - this helps other templates detect if they are on a "Template:" page or some "other" type of page
• Template:Purge - This formats a link that can be placed on any page and which when clicked will force the browser to refresh its cache from the server
• Template:Fmbox - footer & header message box template
• template:Mbox - multi namespace message box meta-template
• Template:Tl - Tl stands for Template Link. It is a simple macro template used to display a template name as a link surrounded by braces, thus showing how the template name would be used in code.
  • Template:Template should redirect to Template:Tl
• template:Tlc - When a template name with braces is to be shown in documentation, the braces have to be escaped in some way so it doesn't become an actual call to the template. Instead of using "nowiki" tags you can write it more simply and concisely by using TLC, TLF, and TLD.
• template:Tlf - This template works almost exactly like TLC
• template:Tld - Works like TLC
• Template:Tlx - Stands for 'Template list expanded'. It takes another template-name and some associated numbered parameters and aggregates them into an 'example demonstration' of how the template-name template might be used. It's primary use is in instruction and documentation.
• Template:Transclude - This template resolves page names as they would be handled by MediaWiki's template-transclusion process. It thereby removes ambiguity when doing other things with template pagenames, e.g. linking.
• Template:Namespace detect
• Template:Namespace detect see also - Easy to use namespace-detection templates, currently mostly empty
• Template:! - an auxiliary template allowing the encoding of "|" within template parameters.
• Template:Tn
• Template:Clear
• Template:Nowrap
• Template:Para
• Template:Ombox for banners
• Template:Ombox/core - for ombox

Documentation

100% COMPLETE AS OF 12/6 Used for virtually all templates we are calling. This is a good place to start.

• Template:Documentation -- when the template "documentation" is called at the end of any template, it automatically calls for the template's /doc file and loads it. if the /doc file doesn't exist, it just makes a red link to file, making it easy to create a corresponding /doc page.
  • Template:Documentation subpage +doc
  • Template:Documentation/docspace +doc
  • Template:Documentation/end box +doc
  • Template:Documentation/end box2 +doc
  • Template:Documentation/start box +doc
  • Template:Documentation/start box2+doc
  • Template:Documentation/template page +doc
  • Template:Documentation/core2+doc
  • template:Documentation/core+doc
  • Template:Documentation/see also +doc

You also need:

• Template:Fmbox
• Template:Para
• Template:Purge
• Template:Template other
• Template:Tl
• Template:Tlf (all included in the list above)

Navbar

Makes the little nav bar:

• Template:Navbar +doc

You also need:

• Template:Dot
• Template:Fmbox
• Template:Navbar
• Template:Navbar/doc
• Template:Navigational templates
• Template:No
• Template:Purge
• Template:Template other
• Template:Tl
• Template:Tlx
• Template:Transclude
• Template:Yes
• Template:Yes2
• Template:·

Navbox

This requires everything above AND:

• Template:Navbox
• Template:Navbox suite - this creates a small box linking to the main types of navboxes

You also need:

• Template:-
• Template:Main
• Template:Navbar
• Template:Navigation templates
• Template:Spaces
• Template:·

Navbox styles

Copied from wikipedia, common.css - this alone does NOT allow collapsible tables. That code is in the Common.js (java).

Infobox templates

This required everything above AND

• Template:Infobox
• Template:Infobox/row

Related

• Category:Core wiki templates
• Saintapedia:Maintenance