Lylat Wiki:Template Standards

Shortcut: LW:TS

[ Articles | Sections | Lists | Tables | Templates | Images | Music & Videos | Categories ]

	General Pepper: Peppy, When you have a chance, please look at this policy. I would like your opinion on it. Peppy Hare: Right, I will place my feedback on the talk page.
	This draft policy is recommend by a member in accordance with LW:Draft. You are free to make small changes, as long as the original purpose of the policy is preserved. Any feedback should be provided on the talk page.

Templates are used to make it easier on a page to store information, as some of the information is stored elsewhere. Templates are used to make it easier on the editors, as to provide a common content and save time instead of placing the exact same content in different locations. Templates are also used as tools to help direct community involvement for the maintenance of an article. But what makes a "Good Template"?

While there will never be an absolute way to say "this is a good template", there are certain things we should expect from each template and there respective pages (such as documentation and usage information). Due to the nature and infinitely diverse uses of templates, having a common expectation for each page does help standardize the pages.

But please note:The following are not absolute rules. They are not binding in anyway. They instead should be interpreted on a case by case basis, where each each template's page should be best catered to explaining how the template works and how to use it.

Content

when a template is placed into another page, through a process called "transclusion", it should have one of two results:

1. it looks natural where it was place on the article; enhancing, rather than detracting from the receiving pages quality.
2. it brings the user of a page to the attention of something, such as someone believing that a article is inaccurate.

Sections

If a template generates a section breaker (through === Section headers ===), then that section header is not only subject to these guidelines, but also to the guidelines that the receiving page(s) are under.

For more, please see: Lylat Wiki:Section Standards.

Categories

Which category does this template belong to? Will it play well with similar templates, sorting itself into place?

Typically, one template will be a member of two templates, both of which are an area of the wiki. To help decide what the template should be sorted under, we've come up with the template: {{cat}}. With this template, a page automatically becomes a member of up to five categories, each one serving as the others sortkey. For more information, see Help:Categories.

Here are some examples of template categories you may consider putting your template under:

• Category:Article Templates
• Category:Category Templates
• Category:Character Templates
• Category:Color Templates
• Category:Company Templates
• Category:Discussion Templates
• Category:Featured Templates
• Category:File Templates
• Category:Infobox Templates
• Category:Notice Templates
• Category:Stage Templates

Documentation

Each template should have some kind of documentation telling you how to use it.

In order to generate a documentation page, place <noinclude>{{doc}}</noinclude> at the very bottom of the template, and a /doc red link will show up when you save. Click this link to go to the documentation subpage.

On the actual documentation page, we recommend you put the following:

• a Documentation Shell, which is intended to provide easier access to the template page, the name of the template, and related templates.
• The two sections: Purpose and Usage.

Documentation Shell

Title	sample	usage See #doc_1
documentation shell	{{documentation shell | name = | info = | see also = }}	Use this template for all characters.
Notes: Required Parameters are in bold, followed by explanation of usage. Italics parameters have a related behavior change, when you insert a certain value. Please Click the link to the template for more information

Sections

==Purpose==
==Usage==
===Example===
<pre>
{{Template Name
| param 1 =
| param 2 = 
| param 3 = 
}}
</pre> <!-- note: use an actual less than sign than the html equailavent &lt; -->

=== Parameters ===
{{Parameters-table-top}}
|-
| <!-- one row per parameter --> 
| 
| 
|-
| colspan=3 | none <!-- for no parameters -->
|-
{{parameters-table-bottom}}
|} 
<noinclude>[[Category:Documentation|{{PAGENAME}}]]</noinclude>