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Wikipedia:Manual of Style (infoboxes)
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An infobox template is an infobox that uses the template software feature. They are a broad class of templates commonly used in articles to present certain summary or overview information about the subject. In theory, the fields in an infobox should be consistent across every article using it; in practice, however, this is rarely the case, for a number of reasons. When this occurs, the infobox templates should be designed to dynamically adapt themselves to the absence or presence of particular fields.
Like static infoboxes, they are designed to present summary information about an article's subject, such that similar subjects have a uniform look and in a common format. However, the template technique allows updates of style and of common text from a central place, the template page.
These boxes are designed to be placed into main articles related to the topic area, and are usually associated with on-going WikiProjects. They have parameters; to work properly, the parameter values have to be specified when the template is inserted in the page. This allows each infobox to show information relevant to the article subject, while requiring only a minimal amount of coding within each article.
Design and usage
The recommended process for creating an infobox template is to simply begin, and gather as many requirements as possible. Test the base format for a new template as a static table first, then once consensus is reached, migrate it into template format. The template should be reviewed before being used extensively in articles in case the template or defined parameters need modification to minimize re-works. If new fields and parameters are added, articles must be updated to reflect the new requirements. If parameters are renamed or removed, many articles will likely be unaffected, since extraneous parameters are ignored.
For consistency the following guidelines apply:
- Standard suggested width of 300 pixels or 25 ems (300px or 25em in CSS).
- Insert at the top of articles and right-align
- Using
class="infobox" is a good start.
- The top text line should be bold and contain the full (official) name of the item. This does not need to match the article's Wikipedia title. It should not contain a link. Avoid {{{PAGENAME}}} as pages may be moved for disambiguation.
- Name the template [[Template:Infobox Some subject]] (Somesubject should be in the singular and capitalized).
- Start words in parameter names with a small letter unless they are proper nouns.
When creating a new infobox template the content of Template:Infobox is a convenient starting point.
Parameters in infoboxes should be named, not numbered, to provide for future use. A parameter value can contain images (i.e. full image tags), or parameters for parts of an image tag such as the image name, size and caption. In the latter case, if an image is not applicable or available use a dummy image such as Image:No image.png.
If a parameter is not applicable, or no information is available, it must still be assigned a value. This can be the empty string, or if it is the only thing in a table cell use "some_field= ". The field will appear blank; the code is needed by some browsers for drawing the lines of the table itself properly.
There are alternative ways to make a template selectively hide information or provide default values if not defined. For an example and explanation of how these methods apply to infoboxes, see {{Infobox}}.
Causes of inconsistency
A number of factors can cause inconsistency in available summary information for a particular type of article:
- Historical incompleteness
- Certain desired information may simply have been lost over time. For example, an infobox describing a modern bank may provide certain financial information that would be unavailable for a medieval one.
- Hierarchical inconsistency
- Infoboxes that indicate hierarchical relationships may have subtly different requirements depending on where in the hierarchy the subject of the article is located. For example, an infobox for corporations will be different between an article describing a parent company and indicating its subsidiaries and an article describing a subsidiary and indicating its parent.
- Feature inconsistency
- Items within a single set may have optional features that would commonly be listed in an infobox. For example, an infobox for an article about a university may include a motto; but not all universities have them.
- Lack of information
- Some items in infoboxes may not be readily available or not available at all, such as the producers of an album or film. In these cases it is better to provide available information while concealing fields for which information may not be available.
Why dynamic templates?
While there are several alternatives to dynamic infoboxes, such as using multiple (forked) templates or leaving fields blank, they should be avoided, for a number of reasons:
- Readers greatly outnumber editors
- The most important group to consider are the casual readers of Wikipedia, who will never do any significant editing. Infobox templates that contain many blank fields, question marks, or "Unknown"s present an unprofessional appearance, diminishing Wikipedia's reputation as a high-quality encyclopedia.
- Article editors greatly outnumber template editors
- The average editor will merely use templates without making changes to them. To make things easier for them, we should aim to minimize the number of different templates they must be familiar with; creating multiple forks of templates is therefore undesirable.
General advice
The availability of optional fields does not mean that all fields should be made optional, however, nor that large numbers of rarely used fields should be added without regard for the overall layout and ease-of-use of the infobox template. In some cases, the markup for the field still needs to be downloaded even if it is not displayed. Creating overly long templates with a number of irrelevant fields is not recommended.
As you design an infobox template, consider the following questions:
- Is the field of value?
- How important is the field to the articles that will use the infobox? Is it summary information, or more extended detail that may be better placed within the body of an article?
- Will the field be relevant to many of the articles that will use the infobox?
- If the field is relevant to very few articles, it should probably not be included at all. Conversely, very common fields may be included—and made optional—even if they are not applicable to a few of the articles in question.
- How likely is the field to be empty?
- Any field that might reasonably be empty should probably be optional. However, a field that is usually empty may not be particularly useful or relevant.
Implementations
Conditional templates
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Special "templates" that selectively show or hide particular content (such as table rows) within an infobox based on the value of one or more template parameters.
<!--
-->{{#if:{{{party|}}}|<tr><th>Political party</th><td>{{{party|}}}</td></tr>|}}<!--
-->
Name-resolved meta-templates
Several sub-templates (or even independent templates) with a common name prefix. They are included in an infobox based on the value of a particular parameter, which acts as the name suffix. For example, we create {{Infobox Ship/Military}} and {{Infobox Ship/Civilian}} and use {{Infobox Ship/{{{type}}}}}. Using |type=Military in an article causes {{Infobox Ship/Military}} to be used.
Multi-part infoboxes
Rather than having each field correspond to a parameter on one template, the infobox consists of an individual sub-template for each field; see, for example, Template:Taxobox.
Interaction between multiple templates
Templates can be designed in a modular way, such that various combinations are possible. A combination may even appear on the page as a single infobox.
For example, if the WikiProject Saints group wanted to design a template based on their static Infobox, they could use Template:Infobox Biography, and design a project-specific template with only additional information, and the pages would render both "stacked" together.
List of templates
In many cases, to view a template properly, one has to look at the wikitext also. Therefore below the edit pages are linked. For viewing templates it is convenient to set the preferences to "Show preview on first edit".
The backlinks show the pages with the infobox.
Below, first the primary templates are listed; they are designed to provide high-level information appropriate to a broad subject area.
Anthropology and culture
Astronomy and space
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Biology
| Name |
Where to use |
Associated
WikiProject |
| Template:Animal (family) (talk, links, ) |
Taxonavigation box for animal families (first draft) |
None |
| Template:Infobox Cultivar (talk, links, ) |
Articles on plant cultivars |
Tree of Life |
| Template:Infobox Dogbreed (talk, links, ) |
Dog breeds |
Dog breeds |
| Template:Mycomorphbox (talk, links, ) |
Articles on species and well-defined genera of mushrooms |
none yet. |
| Template:Taxobox (talk, links, ) |
Articles on species and other groups of living things |
Tree of Life |
Chemistry
Education
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Fiction
| Name |
Where to use |
Associated
WikiProject |
| Template:Infobox animanga (talk, links, ) |
Anime and manga articles. |
Wikipedia:WikiProject Anime and manga |
| Template:ASUE character (talk, links, ) |
A Series of Unfortunate Events characters |
None / not known |
| Template:ASUE organisation (talk, links, ) |
A Series of Unfortunate Events organisations |
None / not known |
Template:Bondbook (talk, links, )
Template:BondInfo (talk, links, )
Template:James Bond Character (talk, links, ) |
James Bond books
James Bond movies
James Bond characters |
None / not known |
| Template:Infobox Buffyverse Character (talk, links, ) |
Buffyverse characters |
Wikipedia:WikiProject Buffyverse |
| Template:Infobox Digimon (talk, links, ) |
Digimons, especially notable ones |
WikiProject Digimon Systems Update |
| Template:Doctorwhocharacter (talk, links, ) |
Doctor Who characters |
Doctor Who |
| Template:Forgotten Realms Places (talk, links, ) |
Forgotten Realms places |
Forgotten Realms |
| Template:Hardy Boys Character (talk, links, ) |
Hardy Boys characters |
None / not known |
| Template:HP Character (talk, links, ) |
Harry Potter characters |
Template:HP Character Foreign Template:HP Forest Character Template:HP Elf Character |
| Template:MASH Character (talk, links, ) |
M*A*S*H characters |
Television? |
| Template:ST Character (talk, links, ) |
Star Trek characters |
Star Trek? |
| Template:Stargate character (talk, links, ) |
Stargate characters |
Stargate |
| Template:SW Character (talk, links, ) |
Star Wars characters |
None / not known |
| Template:Infobox Television episode (talk, links, ) |
pages on single episodes of television series |
Television episodes |
| Template:Transformers characters (talk, links, ) |
Transformers characters |
None / not known |
Geography
| Name |
Where to use |
Associated
WikiProject |
Template:Infobox Glacier (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox lake (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox Mountain (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox River (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox Waterfall (talk, links, ) |
Glacier articles
Lake articles
Mountain articles
River articles
Waterfall articles |
Glaciers
Lakes
Mountains
Rivers
Waterfalls |
| Template:Infobox protected area (talk, links, ) |
National parks and other protected places |
Protected areas |
Template:Infobox CDP (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox City (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox Town (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox County (talk, links, ) |
Census-designated place (CDP)
City articles
Town articles
County articles |
None
Cities
None
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Template:Infobox Country (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox Country Demographics (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox Former Country (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox Former Subdivision (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox Micronation (talk, links, ) |
Country and nation articles
Country and nation articles
Countries, colonies, etc. that no longer exist
Subdivisions of former countries
Micronations |
Countries
Countries
Former countries
Former countries
None |
| Template:Infobox Settlement (talk, links, ) |
Standardized infobox for any type of human settlement
city, town, village, etc |
WikiProject Cities |
Template:Infobox Australian Place (talk, links, )
Template:Australia state or territory (talk, links, ) |
Australian place articles
States and territories of Australia |
Australian places
Australian politics |
| Template:Infobox Dutch municipality 4 (talk, links, ) |
Dutch municipality articles |
Dutch municipalities |
| Template:Infobox GCC Governorate (talk, links, ) |
GCC Governorates |
None |
| Template:Infobox German Location (talk, links, ) |
German city articles |
None |
| Template:Infobox Pref GR (talk, links, ) |
Prefectures of Greece |
None |
| Template:Infobox Province of Cameroon (talk, links, ) |
Provinces of Cameroon |
None |
| Template:Peru region table (talk, links, ) |
Regions of Peru |
None |
| Template:Infobox Scottish island (talk, links, ) |
Scottish Islands |
Scottish Islands |
| Template:Infobox Ukrainian City (talk, links, ) |
Ukrainian city articles |
None |
| Template:Infobox UK place (talk, links, ) |
Any settlement in the UK |
None |
Template:Infobox U.S. County (talk, links, )
Template:Infobox U.S. state (talk, links, ) |
Counties of the United States
U.S. state articles |
None
U.S. States |
Template:VenezuelanState (talk, links, )
Template:VenezuelanState New (talk, links, ) |
Political Divisions of Venezuela; Venezuelan State
Political Divisions of Venezuela; Venezuelan State |
None |
Industry
| Name |
Where to use |
Associated
WikiProject |
|
| Template:Infobox Chain (talk, links, ) |
Chain stores |
Companies |
| Template:Infobox Company (talk, links, ) |
Business & organizations |
Companies |
| Template:Infobox Co-operative (talk, links, ) |
Co-operatives |
Companies |
| Template:Infobox Defunct Company (talk, links, ) |
Defunct organisations |
Companies |
| Template:Infobox Union (talk, links, ) |
Trade unions |
Organized Labour |
| Template:Infobox Union by Country (talk, links, ) |
Trade unions in country articles |
Organized Labour |
Media and journalism
| Name |
Where to use |
Associated
WikiProject |
| Template:Infobox Album (talk, links, ) |
Any article about a music album |
Albums |
| Template:Infobox Animanga (talk, links, ) |
Infobox for anime and/or manga |
Anime and manga |
| Template:Infobox Book (talk, links, ) |
Infobox for books |
Books &
Novels |
| Template:Infobox Broadcast (talk, links, ) |
Infobox for television stations |
Television Stations |
| Template:Infobox Film (talk, links, ) |
Movies and films |
Films |
| Template:Infobox Journal (talk, links, ) |
Journals |
|
| Template:Infobox Magazine (talk, links, ) |
Magazines |
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| Template:Infobox Music genre (talk, links, ) |
Musical genre articles |
Music genres |
| Template:Infobox Musical artist (talk, links, ) |
Musicians and musical groups |
Musicians |
| Template:Infobox Newspaper (talk, links, ) |
Newspaper |
|
| Template:Infobox Publisher (talk, links, ) |
Any magazine, periodical, book publisher |
Publisher |
| Template:Infobox Radio Show (talk, links, ) |
Radio show |
Radio |
| Template:Infobox Radio station (talk, links, ) |
Radio stations |
Radio Stations |
| Template:Infobox Single (talk, links, ) |
Songs released as singles |
Songs |
| Template:Infobox Song (talk, links, ) |
Songs not released as singles |
Songs |
| Template:Infobox Television (talk, links, ) |
Television series |
Television |
| Template:Infobox TV channel (talk, links, ) |
Infobox for television channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland |
British TV channels |
| Template:Infobox Venue (talk, links, ) |
Any type of non-stadium music venue or theatre |
|
| Template:Infobox Website (talk, links, ) |
Information box for articles about websites |
None |
Military
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People
- See also: Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Infoboxes and Category:People infobox templates
| Name |
Where to use |
Associated
WikiProject |
| Template:Infobox actor (talk, links, ) |
Actors |
Biography |
| Template:Infobox Artist (talk, links, ) |
Artists (painters, sculptors, illustrators, etc.) |
|
| Template:Infobox Ethnic group (talk, links, ) |
Ethnic groups |
Ethnic groups |
| Template:Infobox Military Person (talk, links, ) |
Soldiers, military leaders, etc. |
|
| Template:Infobox Monarch (talk, links, ) |
Monarchs, sultans, khans, etc. |
|
| Template:Infobox Officeholder (talk, links, ) |
Politicians, presidents, senators, etc. |
|
| Template:Infobox Person (talk, links, ) |
Articles describing people (living or deceased) |
Biography |
| Template:Infobox Playboy Playmate (talk, links, ) |
Playboy Playmates |
None |
| Template:Infobox Pope (talk, links, ) |
Popes |
None |
| Template:Infobox Scientist (talk, links, ) |
Scientists, engineers and mathematicians |
None |
| Template:Infobox Writer (talk, links, ) |
Writers, authors |
None |
Religion
Sports
| Name |
Where to use |
Associated
WikiProject |
| Template:Infobox Athlete (talk, links, ) |
Information about Athlete |
Athletics |
| Template:Infobox baseball player (talk, links, ) (deprecated?) |
Articles about professional baseball players |
Baseball players |
| Template:Infobox baseball team (talk, links, ) |
Information about baseball team |
Baseball |
| Template:Infobox Boxer (talk, links, ) |
Articles about professional Boxers |
Boxing |
| Template:Collegebowl (talk, links, ) |
Information about an American College Football bowl game |
College Football |
| Template:College coach infobox (talk, links, ) |
Information about a college sports coach |
College Football |
| Template:Infobox cricketer biography (talk, links, ) |
Information about a cricketer's career |
Cricket |
| Template:Infobox cricket ground (talk, links, ) |
Information about a cricket ground |
Cricket |
| Template:Infobox Cyclist (talk, links, ) |
Information about a cyclist |
Cycling |
| Template:Supplemental Cyclist infobox (talk, links, ) |
Information about a cyclist's second cycling discipline if any |
Cycling |
| Template:Infobox FIVB tournament (talk, links, ) |
Information about FIVB tournament |
Volleyball |
| Template:Infobox Football biography (talk, links, ) |
Data about football (soccer) player's and/or coach's career |
Football |
| Template:Infobox Football club (talk, links, ) |
Information about a football (soccer) team |
Football |
| Template:Infobox football league (talk, links, ) |
Information about a football (soccer) league |
Football |
| Template:Infobox Field Hockey Club (talk, links, ) |
Information about a Field Hockey team |
Field Hockey |
| Template:Infobox MLB player (talk, links, ) |
Newer version of above template |
Baseball players |
| Template:Infobox martial art (talk, links, ) |
Information about a martial art |
Martial Art |
| Template:Infobox MMA event (talk, links, ) |
Data about individual mixed martial arts events |
Mixed martial arts |
| Template:MMAstatsbox (talk, links, ) |
Stats on individual mixed martial arts fighters |
Mixed martial arts |
| Template:Infobox NBA Player (talk, links, ) |
Information about an NBA player. |
Wikipedia:WikiProject_National_Basketball_Association |
| Template:Infobox NCAA Athlete (talk, links, ) |
Information about an NCAA (college) athlete. |
College Football |
| Template:NCAAFootballSchool (talk, links, ) |
Information about a college football team, such as Oklahoma Sooners football. |
College Football |
| Template:NCAAFootballSingleGameHeader (talk, links, | |
