Talk: Infoboxes

Ugly and inadequate documentation

The concept for info box tags seems like a start, but boy are they ugly. There definitely needs to be much more styling flexibility. Also, the documentation for these tags is woefully, horribly inadequate. There is no way I'm going to dredge through comment replies to a blog post to figure out how this works. -- Fandyllic (talk · contr) 21 Jul 2015 6:57 PM Pacific

In what way are they ugly? What kind of things do you think are missing from the documentation? This is not exactly a short help page :) What kind of styling flexibility is missing? You can set a custom class on infoboxes (and even a custom class based on a variable), which should allow a fair amount of styling targeting - described further in the 'Custom theming' section. Kirkburn talk contr 16:22, July 22, 2015 (UTC)

Contributors aren't used to adding complicated tags to a document, especially some that depend on each other and have a clear hierarchy. The biggest limitation of this help page is that it just jumps into talking about tags,css and xml and so forth assuming that a wikian would actually know what it all means. There isn't any clear example about how exactly the styles are applied to css page to make the potbox change appearance.

Although the portboxbuilder will likely change impressions once it is added. Advanced users will still want to have an idea about how it all works.

As far as the ugliness is concerned, as I noted in the potbox discussion thread, the problem is that the default theme is just too bland. A person with an "amazing" styling on an original infobox will simply be disappointed by an infobox that just looks plain, especially if they don't understand css well enough. That's why I suggested that the default one should look a bit better so users aren't immediately disappointed, or at least it should be easy to change to another "cute" one without fighting with css and stylesheets and stuff.

The ugly response that Wikia Staff are getting is just a result of user ignorance (relating to css styling).

Dessamator (talk) 19:28, July 23, 2015 (UTC)

Collapsibility

Can we add a basic collapsibility function with CSS class mw-collapsible? FishTank (wall/email) 03:47, July 30, 2015 (UTC)

I second this motion. Would love to make certain groups collapsible. 'ᴥ' Zergrinch 02:17, September 2, 2015 (UTC)

Multiple classes?

Is it possible to have two or more classes on the infobox? Ex:

<infobox layout="stacked" theme="class_number_one class_number_two">
    ...
</infobox>

I would like to have a master theme for all infoboxes that are then modified by a second theme. I realize I can modify the core infobox css but I don't want all the infoboxes to look like the "master" theme. So you would have vanilla, master and then secondary themes.

--FireDart (talk) 04:16, July 31, 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand the two levels you want - but there have been tweaks to how styling works since you asked this question (see Help:PortableInfoboxes/CSS. If you still desire this, let us know. Kirkburn talk contr 12:26, September 3, 2015 (UTC)

How do you revert this back into the classic infobox. and i cant make any empty info invisible - Spirits of nature (talk) 02:17, August 22, 2015 (UTC)

Why would you want to revert? Empty info being invisible is one of the core features of portable infoboxes. Kirkburn talk contr 12:26, September 3, 2015 (UTC)

This page has been made technically useful

I hope you weren't thinking of copying this page over the previous one, because it seemed like a really poor fork of Help:Infoboxes with minimal information. I have not touched the coding parts but I have added a lot of useful information for the coding-inclined users who actually maintain these templates and want to make sure they still work; but have no idea how this relates to the current state of affairs. That is now what the current intro describes. Apologies in advance if it inconveniences you (not really) – but it seems like the decision to spread this around the community has not been prepared for very well. Techhead7890^{Talk Contribs} 06:28, September 2, 2015 (UTC)

I made some more tweaks based on your edits. This page will very likely go through some more revisions before it replaces Help:Infoboxes, especially to integrate any info it's skipping over. Kirkburn talk contr 12:23, September 3, 2015 (UTC)

Wut?

I honneslty have no clue what's happening right now.

I'm trying to get this page to have an info box. I've copy/pasted all the coding crap in and filled it in with my own stuff, but nothing's happening. I can only get the title to appear.

There should just be an option to make an infobox and to edit all the details and such without having to go into a source code for it.

Cool2001 (talk) 10:50, September 3, 2015 (UTC)cool2001

A template is made up of two parts: the template itself, and then how it is used on an article. You've only dealt with the second part. This page describes in detail how to do the first part: you need to create a new character infobox for your characters, using the new code.

The reason you saw anything appear on your article is because Template:Infobox already exists, using the older style of infobox code - but it is not appropriate for your character.

I hope this helps! Kirkburn talk contr 12:22, September 3, 2015 (UTC)

Migrate this infobox

Is there another, more elegant way to get rid of the "Migrate this infobox" message than this:

 <!--Suppress the annoying "Migrate this infobox" message-->
 {{#vardefine:spam|<infobox></infobox>}}

Documentalist (talk) 09:13, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

You should be able to click the 'This is not an infobox' link at the bottom of the module. Is this not working for you? Kirkburn talk contr 16:08, October 15, 2015 (UTC)

This helps only once. Every next edit, even a null-edit, makes the message reappear. I miss the 'This is not an infobox and don't ask again' link.Documentalist (talk) 08:07, October 18, 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, it should not be coming back like that. I'll make sure it's the team's radar to fix. Kirkburn talk contr 20:17, October 19, 2015 (UTC)

The magic behind

Could somebody tell me the origin of these infoboxes? Is it extension, MW update, MW fork… what? Трамвай Ядерный (talk) 13:39, October 31, 2015 (UTC)

It's a MediaWiki extension.

骑士盔甲 13:48, October 31, 2015 (UTC)

And one specifically written for Wikia, by Wikia. You won't find it elsewhere. Kirkburn talk contr 21:57, November 2, 2015 (UTC)

I already linked you to the code on Russian Help talk page. Wild 22:05, November 2, 2015 (UTC)

Parser functions

Can I use the if function? XP Mai (talk) 10:42, November 17, 2015 (UTC)

Yup! See Help:Infoboxes#Parser functions. Kirkburn talk contr 15:07, November 17, 2015 (UTC)

How to control image size?

This is the syntax for old infobox:

{{#if: {{{image|}}} |
        {{!}} class="wikia-infobox-image" colspan="2" {{!}} [[File:{{{image}}}|{{{imagewidth|210}}}px|{{{imagecaption|}}}]]
        | }}

What about the new one?

Tried this but doesn't work:

<image source="image" width="210px"/>

XP Mai (talk) 11:37, November 20, 2015 (UTC)

Portable infoboxes do not include a specific image width option at the moment, as it's designed to scale images for you. For what kind of reasons would you need this option? Kirkburn talk contr 12:55, November 20, 2015 (UTC)

What? Hey! This is my template: http://nationsgame.wikia.com/wiki/Template:Nation_Infobox/Draft Imagine if flag of every nation are of different size, how disorganised would it be? Some big, some small. I NEED FIXED SIZE! I love the new infobox syntax, but I NEED FLEXIBILITY! XP Mai (talk) 13:05, November 20, 2015 (UTC)

That's why they scale to fit the width of the infobox - to be consistent (width-wise). Is your concern about the height being different between flags as a result? Otherwise, I'm not quite sure of the visual issue. Kirkburn talk contr 16:22, November 20, 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, my concern is height difference too... XP Mai (talk) 17:49, November 20, 2015 (UTC)

Hrm, that's an interesting concern, and one that we don't really have a solution for at the moment. That said - I do personally feel that a consistent width + variable height would be less jarring than a consistent height + variable width, since the width is what 'fits' it into the infobox space. If you have some particular examples we can look at, could you possibly send them in to Special:Contact/feedback? We can get them passed on to the development team. Thanks! Kirkburn talk contr 19:14, November 20, 2015 (UTC)

I don't like to submit feedback because I always don't get replies so I'm discouraged. Anyway, I've submitted now. XP Mai (talk) 21:45, November 20, 2015 (UTC)

It is extremely rare that we don't answer a Special:Contact ticket, so I'm not sure why you'd have that impression. I see the ticket you send in about this - we'll try and get it answered soon. Kirkburn talk contr 17:17, November 23, 2015 (UTC)

Category links

I've been having trouble getting category links to work based on the help examples.

This format works for me.

<format>{{{sourcename}}}</format>

This format works for me.

<format>[[{{{sourcename}}}]]</format>

This format does not work and the row will disappear from my infobox.

<format>[[Category:{{{sourcename}}}]]</format>

Jimmayjr (talk) 20:03, January 8, 2016 (UTC)

The reason is because ONLY the Category does not produce rendered text. It puts the article in a given category. If you're linking to the Category, prefix that with a colon. (e.g. [[:Category). FishTank (wall) 22:10, January 8, 2016 (UTC)

Functions in <default> vs. <format>

I’m having some trouble understanding the proper use of <default> and <format>. This Help page currently has this example:

Template code

Output

<data source="level">
  <label>Rank</label>
  <default>Orc {{#switch:{{{level}}}|1=peon|2=grunt|#default=grunt}}</default>
</data>

Shouldn’t this be more like this?

Template code

Output

<data source="level">
  <label>Rank</label>
  <default>2</default>
  <format>Orc {{#switch:{{{level}}}|1=peon|2|#default=grunt}}</format>
</data>

That means, authors only need to enter ‘1’ or ‘2’ and the infobox code will display that as ‘Orc peon’ or ‘Orc grunt’. I also wish I could provide a list of or type or pattern format for suggested or acceptable values. Crissov (talk) 10:22, March 13, 2016 (UTC)

<default> is what's shown if the "source" parameter is blank or absent; <format> is used to do some processing on the value of the "source" parameter when it does have some value. The example currently used doesn't really help explain things, though, since (if I understand the behavior of Portable Infoboxes correctly) if "level" has some value, that value will be shown literally, and otherwise "Orc grunt" will be shown. A better example might be as follows:

Template code

Output

<data source="level">
  <label>Rank</label>
  <format>Orc {{#switch:{{{level}}}|1=peon|2=grunt|#default=grunt}}</format>
  <default>Orc grunt</default>
</data>

「ディノ奴千？！」^{? · ☎ Dinoguy1000} 16:27, March 13, 2016 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. I thought the content of <default> would actually be available as value of the parameter in @source, e.g. {{{level}}}, and thus could be used in other <data> elements. That would have been useful. Crissov (talk) 21:03, March 13, 2016 (UTC)

It is possible it will work the way you thought; the best way to find out would be to just try it and see where you get. =) 「ディノ奴千？！」^{? · ☎ Dinoguy1000} 22:34, March 13, 2016 (UTC)

Semantic Mediawiki (SMW)

Can I use infoboxes to populate SMW properties – or how can I find out whether I can at a certain Wikia site? If that’s in fact possible, I assume I could then use inline queries with the {{#ask:}} and {{#show:}} parser functions. Crissov (talk) 21:11, March 13, 2016 (UTC)

Semantic MediaWiki is not available on Wikia, except on the few wiki's where it was enabled many years ago. Unless this is for a wiki where SMW is present, then you would probably be better off asking over at SMW's forums. --Sajuuk ^{talk | contribs | Channel} 21:14, March 13, 2016 (UTC)

Impossible to enlarge picture from mobile devices and caption missing

I have a complaint about the recent update made to the portable infoboxes. Some days ago, if you were seeing from mobile devices an infobox with a single image (i.e. no gallery or tabber) and a caption, the caption was shown below the image, and if you clicked the image, it would enlarge to its full size. Now, the caption is missing, and the image is no longer clickable, so it's impossible to see its full size and only the square thumbnail is shown. I don't understand why these two functions were removed, but the infoboxes are definitely less useful as a result. Please restore the caption and the option to enlarge the picture.--Manuel de la Fuente (talk) 17:03, May 13, 2016 (UTC)

No mention of infobox builder

Strangely enough there is neither any mention of the portable infobox builder, nor does it have any other help page. Is this feature still in beta despite being deployed everywhere?

Dessamator (talk) 14:11, May 23, 2016 (UTC)

Two questions...

Question 1: How do I add new categories to an infobox that I already created?

I forgot to add another section to the infobox I made, but I DON'T KNOW ANY WAY! I googled my question and nothing useful came up. I seem to be the only one and I feel like such an idiotic stupid noob...

Question 2: How do I remove an infobox from a page?

I can't find a "delete" button ANYWHERE! I wanted to either edit another category to an infobox or do this so I can add the other infobox, but I CAN'T FIND A WAY! I feel so stupid... Even Google isn't helpful enough.

Mika-Miku (talk) 16:22, July 24, 2016 (UTC)A Lane Boy fan |-/

Although this is technically a good place to ask your question, I still recommend asking on the forums instead. More users will read your question there, and hopefully someone will be able to answer! You can also reach Wikia staff under Special:Contact, if the forums don't help. Mira Laime (help forum | blog) 16:44, July 25, 2016 (UTC)