Template:Documentation/testcases

by Walter Scott

{{Documentation}}

{{Documentation}}

{{Documentation}}

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

This is the {{Documentation}} template.

For most of the instructions about how and when to use this template, see w:Wikipedia:Template documentation.

This template displays a green doc box like you are seeing now, and automatically loads the content from a /doc subpage. It can also load the content from other places if instructed to.

This template is intended for documenting templates and other pages which are transcluded onto other pages. It can be used in template space and most other namespaces.

Use of this template allows templates to be protected where necessary, while allowing anyone to edit the documentation and categories.

Usage

Normally this template is used without any parameters, placed at the bottom of the template or page being documented, within <noinclude> tags:

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>
{{Documentation}}

<!-- Categories go on the /doc subpage, and interwikis go on Wikidata. -->
</noinclude>

Then this template automatically loads the content from the /doc subpage of the template it is used on.

This template can also load the content from any other page. Like this:

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>
{{Documentation |Template:Other page/doc}}

<!-- Categories go on the /doc subpage, and interwikis go on Wikidata. -->
</noinclude>

Note that when loading the documentation from a page other than the local /doc page it becomes tricky to handle categories.

The content can also be fed directly as text. Like this:

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>
{{Documentation |content=
Some documentation text.
}}

<!-- Categories go on the /doc subpage, and interwikis go on Wikidata. -->
</noinclude>

When the |content= parameter is used, the doc box normally does not show the [edit] [purge] links in the top right corner. Note that if the /doc page exists a link to it is still shown in the link box below the doc box.

Parameter |1= and the |content= parameter can also be combined, like this:

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>
{{Documentation
|1=Template:Any page/doc
|content=
{{Template:Any page/doc |parameters}}
}}

<!-- Categories go on the /doc subpage, and interwikis go on Wikidata. -->
</noinclude>

Then the pagename fed as parameter 1 is used for the [edit] [purge] links and for the /doc link in the link box below the doc box. But the content parameter is used for the content shown in the doc box. The above code means that the content is transcluded as {{Template:Any page/doc|parameters}}. In this example a parameter is also fed to the /doc page being loaded.

Best practice

The code should be added at the bottom of the template code, with no space before <noinclude> (which would cause extra space on pages where the template is used).

Categories that apply to the template itself should be added to the bottom of the /doc subpage, inside <includeonly> tags. For more complex cases, see w:Wikipedia:Template documentation#Categories and interwiki links. Interwiki links ahould be added on WikiData.

If the documentation page contains <includeonly> or <noinclude> tags as part of the visible documentation text, replace the "<" with "<".

The heading

When in the Template namespace, this template shows this heading:

Template documentation

In most other namespaces, such as "Wikisource:", it shows this heading:

Documentation

But when on File (image) pages it shows this heading:

Summary

The heading parameter can be used to set the heading to something else. Like this:

{{Documentation |heading=Infobox documentation}}

If the heading parameter is empty but defined, no heading is shown and no [edit] [purge] links are shown. Like this:

{{Documentation |heading=}}

The heading-style parameter can be fed optional CSS values. Without quotation marks " " but with the ending semicolons ;. For example:

heading-style = color: red; font-size: 150%;

The link box

Below the big doc box is a small link box that shows some meta-data about the documentation. The link box shows different things depending on what parameters are fed to this template, and in which namespace it is used. In some cases the link box is not shown at all.

To hide the link box, add the parameter |link box=off.

You can also insert customised text in the link box, by defining the |link box= parameter. For example: |link box=This documentation is automatically generated by [[Template:Country showdata]]

Automatic functions

If the documentation page does not exist, the [create] link includes a preload page so that clicking it will pre-fill the edit form with the basic documentation page format. Preload text is also used for the /sandbox and /testcases (create) links.

When this template is on a protected template page it now automatically adds {{pp-template}} which shows the grey or red padlock in the top right corner. So no need to manually add {{pp-template}} to templates that use {{Documentation}}.

When this template is on a /sandbox subpage it automatically adds the {{Template sandbox notice}}.

Subject namespaces vs. talk namespaces

Terminology: Subject namespaces are the opposite of talk namespaces. For instance "Template:" is the subject space of "Template talk:".

This template is usually placed in a subject namespace, within <noinclude> tags. But in some cases this template needs to be on the talk page:

• In the Mediawiki namespace, since <noinclude> often does not work in system messages, and since the Mediawiki namespace needs to be kept clean for performance reasons.

When placed on talk pages, this template usually is placed near the top of the page and without <noinclude></noinclude>tags.

The /doc, /sandbox and /testcases pages should normally be in the subject namespace, except in the namespaces that do not have the MediaWiki subpage feature enabled: Main, File, Mediawiki and Category. (But currently we only show the /sandbox and /testcases links from User, User talk, Template and Template talk namespaces.) There are also a whole bunch of other technical reasons why the /doc page must be stored under the talk page for those (but only those) namespaces.

This template automatically points its [create] links for the /doc, /sandbox and /testcases to the right namespace.

Testing

You can simulate the output for a given page by using the |page= parameter. For example, if you use the code |page=Template:Edit protected, the template will behave exactly as if it were on the page Template:Edit protected, including showing the documentation from Template:Edit protected/doc, linking to Template:Edit protected/sandbox, etc. This parameter is useful for testing, and is used extensively on the module test cases page.

Technical details

This template calls {{Documentation/start box2}} and {{Documentation/end box2}} which in turn call {{Documentation/start box}} and {{documentation/end box}}. The /start box (and /end box) hold most of the code, while this template and /start box2 (and /end box2) do parameter preprocessing.

The preload page for the /doc [create] link is Template:Documentation/preload. The preload pages for the /sandbox and /testcases [create] links are Template:Documentation/preload-sandbox and Template:Documentation/preload-testcases.

For more technical details see the talk page.

See also

• {{Documentation}} – Placed on templates and other pages to document them.
• {{Documentation subpage}} – Used at the top of /doc subpages to explain what they are and to link back to the page they document.
• {{Documentation/color scheme}} - color scheme for related background colors (green border, etc.)
• w:Wikipedia:Template documentation – The how-to guide about template documentation.
• w:Wikipedia:Template test cases – How to use /sandbox and /testcases subpages and more about template testing.

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Documentation/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.

{{Documentation/sandbox}}

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

This is the {{Documentation}} template.

For most of the instructions about how and when to use this template, see w:Wikipedia:Template documentation.

This template displays a green doc box like you are seeing now, and automatically loads the content from a /doc subpage. It can also load the content from other places if instructed to.

This template is intended for documenting templates and other pages which are transcluded onto other pages. It can be used in template space and most other namespaces.

Use of this template allows templates to be protected where necessary, while allowing anyone to edit the documentation and categories.

Usage

Normally this template is used without any parameters, placed at the bottom of the template or page being documented, within <noinclude> tags:

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>
{{Documentation}}

<!-- Categories go on the /doc subpage, and interwikis go on Wikidata. -->
</noinclude>

Then this template automatically loads the content from the /doc subpage of the template it is used on.

This template can also load the content from any other page. Like this:

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>
{{Documentation |Template:Other page/doc}}

<!-- Categories go on the /doc subpage, and interwikis go on Wikidata. -->
</noinclude>

Note that when loading the documentation from a page other than the local /doc page it becomes tricky to handle categories.

The content can also be fed directly as text. Like this:

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>
{{Documentation |content=
Some documentation text.
}}

<!-- Categories go on the /doc subpage, and interwikis go on Wikidata. -->
</noinclude>

When the |content= parameter is used, the doc box normally does not show the [edit] [purge] links in the top right corner. Note that if the /doc page exists a link to it is still shown in the link box below the doc box.

Parameter |1= and the |content= parameter can also be combined, like this:

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>
{{Documentation
|1=Template:Any page/doc
|content=
{{Template:Any page/doc |parameters}}
}}

<!-- Categories go on the /doc subpage, and interwikis go on Wikidata. -->
</noinclude>

Then the pagename fed as parameter 1 is used for the [edit] [purge] links and for the /doc link in the link box below the doc box. But the content parameter is used for the content shown in the doc box. The above code means that the content is transcluded as {{Template:Any page/doc|parameters}}. In this example a parameter is also fed to the /doc page being loaded.

Best practice

The code should be added at the bottom of the template code, with no space before <noinclude> (which would cause extra space on pages where the template is used).

Categories that apply to the template itself should be added to the bottom of the /doc subpage, inside <includeonly> tags. For more complex cases, see w:Wikipedia:Template documentation#Categories and interwiki links. Interwiki links ahould be added on WikiData.

If the documentation page contains <includeonly> or <noinclude> tags as part of the visible documentation text, replace the "<" with "<".

The heading

When in the Template namespace, this template shows this heading:

Template documentation

In most other namespaces, such as "Wikisource:", it shows this heading:

Documentation

But when on File (image) pages it shows this heading:

Summary

The heading parameter can be used to set the heading to something else. Like this:

{{Documentation |heading=Infobox documentation}}

If the heading parameter is empty but defined, no heading is shown and no [edit] [purge] links are shown. Like this:

{{Documentation |heading=}}

The heading-style parameter can be fed optional CSS values. Without quotation marks " " but with the ending semicolons ;. For example:

heading-style = color: red; font-size: 150%;

The link box

Below the big doc box is a small link box that shows some meta-data about the documentation. The link box shows different things depending on what parameters are fed to this template, and in which namespace it is used. In some cases the link box is not shown at all.

To hide the link box, add the parameter |link box=off.

You can also insert customised text in the link box, by defining the |link box= parameter. For example: |link box=This documentation is automatically generated by [[Template:Country showdata]]

Automatic functions

If the documentation page does not exist, the [create] link includes a preload page so that clicking it will pre-fill the edit form with the basic documentation page format. Preload text is also used for the /sandbox and /testcases (create) links.

When this template is on a protected template page it now automatically adds {{pp-template}} which shows the grey or red padlock in the top right corner. So no need to manually add {{pp-template}} to templates that use {{Documentation}}.

When this template is on a /sandbox subpage it automatically adds the {{Template sandbox notice}}.

Subject namespaces vs. talk namespaces

Terminology: Subject namespaces are the opposite of talk namespaces. For instance "Template:" is the subject space of "Template talk:".

This template is usually placed in a subject namespace, within <noinclude> tags. But in some cases this template needs to be on the talk page:

• In the Mediawiki namespace, since <noinclude> often does not work in system messages, and since the Mediawiki namespace needs to be kept clean for performance reasons.

When placed on talk pages, this template usually is placed near the top of the page and without <noinclude></noinclude>tags.

The /doc, /sandbox and /testcases pages should normally be in the subject namespace, except in the namespaces that do not have the MediaWiki subpage feature enabled: Main, File, Mediawiki and Category. (But currently we only show the /sandbox and /testcases links from User, User talk, Template and Template talk namespaces.) There are also a whole bunch of other technical reasons why the /doc page must be stored under the talk page for those (but only those) namespaces.

This template automatically points its [create] links for the /doc, /sandbox and /testcases to the right namespace.

Testing

You can simulate the output for a given page by using the |page= parameter. For example, if you use the code |page=Template:Edit protected, the template will behave exactly as if it were on the page Template:Edit protected, including showing the documentation from Template:Edit protected/doc, linking to Template:Edit protected/sandbox, etc. This parameter is useful for testing, and is used extensively on the module test cases page.

Technical details

This template calls {{Documentation/start box2}} and {{Documentation/end box2}} which in turn call {{Documentation/start box}} and {{documentation/end box}}. The /start box (and /end box) hold most of the code, while this template and /start box2 (and /end box2) do parameter preprocessing.

The preload page for the /doc [create] link is Template:Documentation/preload. The preload pages for the /sandbox and /testcases [create] links are Template:Documentation/preload-sandbox and Template:Documentation/preload-testcases.

For more technical details see the talk page.

See also

• {{Documentation}} – Placed on templates and other pages to document them.
• {{Documentation subpage}} – Used at the top of /doc subpages to explain what they are and to link back to the page they document.
• {{Documentation/color scheme}} - color scheme for related background colors (green border, etc.)
• w:Wikipedia:Template documentation – The how-to guide about template documentation.
• w:Wikipedia:Template test cases – How to use /sandbox and /testcases subpages and more about template testing.

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Documentation/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.

{{Documentation}}

{{Documentation|Template:Header/doc}}

{{Documentation}}

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

This template can be preloaded via the Gadgets, alternatively, one can preload Template:Documentation/preload.

{{header
 | title       = 
 | author      = 
 | translator  = 
 | section     = 
 | previous    = 
 | next        = 
 | year        = 
 | notes       = 
}}

This template is meant to be used at the top of a work^{[notes 1]} in the main namespace and its subsections. Fill in any relevant information, and leave unknown or inapplicable parameters empty. For easy use, see also the header preloading script gadget in your preferences.

Documentation

Parameters

Standard

• title = title of the work, for subpage use relative links (mandatory)
• author = name of author (automatically wikilinks)
  • use author-display to change how author displays
  • where control of linking is required use author-nolink, and leave the field empty
• section = name of subdivision of work, usually used on subpages, typically text without additional formatting
• previous = name of previous part of work; relative links on subpages, full links otherwise
• next = name of next part of work, relative links on subpages, full links otherwise
• notes = notes to explain the work, to add context, or to impart concise information that adds value to the reader; for example, use of {{listen}}

Optional

• Parameters modifying author
  • author-display, used to change how author displays.

    By default, | author = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill will produce the link Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, and | author = Winston Churchill (1871-1947) will produce the link Winston Churchill, but | author = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill | author-display = Winston Churchill will produce the link Winston Churchill.

  • author-nolink, which disables automatic linking of the author parameter if true.

    | author = the [[Portal:United States Congress|United States Congress]] | author-nolink = true will display the author as "the United States Congress".

  • section-author = name of the author of this section, if not the same as author the overall work; or synonym contributor.
  • author2, author2-display, section-author2, section-author2-display, etc. for additional authors. For example, | author1 = Winston Churchill (1871-1947) | author2 = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill | author2-display = Winston Churchill will display as "Winston Churchill and Winston Churchill".
  • override-author = legacy parameter for unusual cases. When using this, please leave the author field empty. It is not possible to have more than one override-author parameter.
• All attribution parameters have the same behavior as author w.r.t. -display, -nolink, section- and additional values.
  • author
  • attributed-to
  • adapter
  • abridger
  • illustrator
  • director
  • lyricist
  • librettist
  • book-by
  • composer
  • arranger
  • translator
  • editor
  • compiler
• year = year of publication, adds work to the category for the year, see Category:Works by year.

  Enter "?" for a work with no known publication year, and leave blank if you simply don't have this information.

  Do not use AD or CE for any Anno Domini/Current Era works (year 1 to the present). Use BCE (do not use BC) for all years before year 1; leave a space between the number and the letters (e.g. 150 BCE).

  Approximate dates can be entered in one of the following ways:

  1. Decades, centuries or periods can be used instead of a year (e.g. 1060s, 11th century or Medieval).
  2. To use a year in the circa format, enter it as "c/Y" (e.g. c/1066 or c/150 BCE). (The use of "ca" or "circa" instead of "c" will also be recognised.) This will display as, for example, "c. 1066".
  3. To use a approximate choice of two years, enter it as "Y/Y" (e.g. 1066/1067). This will display as it is written.

  The behaviour of this parameter can be further modified by:

  • noyear = will prevent the year being displayed in the header but will still add the work to the category for the year. For use in cases where the year is already included in the title of the work. Any use of this parameter, even without text, will work. Example: | noyear = yes. All pages with this parameter will be added to Category:Pages with noyear for tracking its usage.
  • noyearcat = will display the year but in the header but will not add the work to the category for the year. For use in cases where a specific subcategory exists for the type of work to avoid flooding the main category for the year. As above, any use of the parameter will trigger this action. Pages will be added to the tracking category Category:Pages with noyearcat.
  • nolanguagecat = will prevent the header from categorizing by language. Pages will be added to the tracking category Category:Pages with nolanguagecat.

• edition = true to refer to further information on the work's talk page.
• shortcut = The shortcut to this page, if it exists. This is normally reserved for very large reference works (e.g. EB11)
• cover = The image used as a cover for the book when exported. Do not include the "File:" prefix, e.g. Foobar.jpg. You can use a page of a multi-page file using Foobar.djvu/7.
• sortkey, defaultsort: For sorting purposes the template will move the articles "a", "an" and "the" to the end of the title, on the root page and all its subpages; for example, The Times/1854/News/The Charge of the Light Brigade will be sorted as "Times, The/1854/News/Charge of the Light Brigade, The". To override this, set sortkey to the desired sort key, e.g. sortkey = Charge of the Light Brigade, The.
• language = ISO code of the language in which the work was originally written (find the ISO code here—be sure to use the first one listed); adds work to the category for the original language; see Category:Translations. Use with {{translation header}} and {{translations}}.
• nocat = true to turn off automatic categorization (except for tracking categories)
• See Sister, related author, and portal wiki links
  • portal
  • related-author
• Sister wiki links are now typically now provided through Wikidata linking, which manages link rot issues. So while the parameters are shown here for fullness of scope, such usage would be used to override automated linking rather than as a primary use.

All parameters

{{header
 | title          = 
 | author         = 
 | author-display = 
 | section        = 
 | previous       = 
 | next           = 
 | notes          = 
<!-- optional from here -->
 | year                = 
 | edition             =
 | translator          = 
 | translator-display  = 
 | related-author      = 
 | portal              = 
 | contributor         =
 | editor              =
 | cover               = 
 | shortcut            =
<!-- modifying "year" behaviour; use one of -->
 | noyear              = 
 | noyearcat           =
<!-- modifying sorting behaviour -->
 | sortkey = 
<!-- provided through wikidata, can be used to override wikidata -->
 | wikipedia    = 
 | commons      = 
 | commonscat   = 
 | wikiquote    = 
 | wikinews     = 
 | wiktionary   = 
 | wikibooks    = 
 | wikiversity  = 
 | wikispecies  = 
 | wikivoyage   = 
 | meta         = 
}}

Relative links

With lengthy, multi-page works, using relative links is highly recommended. This shortens the code and ensures that a work remains linked together even if it is moved or reorganised. The three formats are [[/subpage]] (subpage), [[../]] (parent), and [[../sibling]] (sibling)^[1]; see the example usage below. Note that [[../]] will expand to the title of the parent page, which is ideal if the work is renamed at a later time.

This depends on a page conforming to the page title standards in the Style guide, with works in the form [[Work title]] and [[Work title/Subpage]].

1. The specific form [[../sibling/]] can be used on a sibling to provide both a relative link, and the link label to a sibling page.

Chapter titles

In general, include chapter titles in the "section" field, but avoid including them in the "previous" and "next" fields. For example:

Example

{{header
 | title       = [[../|The Book of Scottish Song]]
 | author      = 
 | editor      = Alexander Whitelaw
 | translator  = 
 | section     = Jock o' Hazeldean
 | contributor = Walter Scott
 | previous    = [[../Sing on, sing on/]]
 | next        = [[../The Laird o' Cockpen/]]
 | year        = 1843
 | notes       = 
}}

Usage examples

Normal

Example

{{header
 | title    = [[../]]
 | author   = Lewis Carroll
 | section  = Chapter 3: A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
 | previous = [[../Chapter 2/]]
 | next     = [[../Chapter 4/]]
 | notes    =
}}

No author link

Example

{{header
 | title    = Peerage Act 1963
 | author   = the [[Portal:Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament of the United Kingdom]] | author-nolink = true
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     = 
 | year     = 1963 | noyear = true
 | notes    =
}}

Translation

Example

{{header
 | title    = Fables
 | author   = Jean de La Fontaine
 | translator = Elizur Wright
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
}}

Example

{{header
 | title    = Pantagruel
 | author   = François Rabelais
 | translator1 = Thomas Urquhart
 | translator2 = Peter Antony Motteux
 | section-translator = unknown
 | section  = Example
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
}}

Categories

 | categories = 1st category / 2nd category

Note: that use of this methodology excludes further editing by use of the HotCat tool, so this form should only be used where the categories are unlikely to need to be altered

Sister, related author, and portal wiki links

You can link to Wikisource portals and other WMF projects using the optional wiki links parameters where required to override the data provided from Wikidata. These are:

• portal, related-author
• wikipedia, wikispecies, commons, commonscat, wikiquote, wikinews, wiktionary, wikibooks, wikiversity, meta are typically applied from Wikidata data through interwiki links, or through linking of main subject (P921) so should only be used to override the default

For portal this would generally be added to the root page of a work, rather than added repeatedly for each subpage. Usage on a subpage would be useful where the subpage alone has a relationship with the specified portal, whereas the parent work does not have that relationship.

These links are generated using {{plain sister}}

Example

{{header
 | title    = Kinematics of Machinery
 | author   = Franz Reuleaux
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
 | portal1  = Technology
 | portal2  = Germany
 | wikipedia = Kinematics of Machinery
 | related-author = Albert Einstein
}}

List

• wikipedia
• commons
• commonscat
• wikiquote
• wikinews
• wiktionary
• wikibooks
• wikiversity
• wikispecies
• wikivoyage
• wikidata
• meta

Shortcuts

If a work has a shortcut, you can add it using the shortcut field. This should be in accordance with the shortcut guidelines, and shortcuts should not be used for every work.

Example

{{header
 | title    = 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
 | author   = 
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
 | shortcut = [[EB1911]]
}}

Advanced manipulation

Alternative headers

1. Certain projects have customised versions of {{header}} that are used to present these works, eg. {{DNB00}} is used for the project involved with Dictionary of National Biography. For these works it is permissible and recommended that these variations are used. New alternatives to {{header}} should be discussed on the talk page, and consequentially listed on each project's pages.

JavaScript extraction

The header values can be extracted using JavaScript by accessing the text values of their span wrappers:

value	wrapper id
title	header-title-text
author	header-author-text
translator	header-translator-text
previous	headerprevious
next	headernext
notes	none

Microformat

The HTML markup produced by this template includes an hCard microformat, which makes the person's details parsable by computers, either acting automatically to catalogue articles across Wikipedia or via a browser tool operated by a reader, to (for example) add the subject to an address book or database. For more information about the use of microformats on Wikimedia projects, please see Wikipedia's microformat project.

Sub-templates

To include a URL, use {{URL}}.

Please do not remove instances of these sub-templates.

Classes

hCard uses HTML classes including:

• adr
• agent
• bday
• birthplace
• category
• country-name
• deathdate
• deathplace
• extended-address
• family-name
• fn (required)
• given-name
• honorific-prefix
• honorific-suffix
• label
• locality
• n
• nickname
• note
• org
• role
• url
• vcard

Please do not rename or remove these classes; nor collapse nested elements which use them.

Technical

This template delegates some logic to Lua modules and uses sub templates to divide up the structural code:

• Module:Header the main logic for parameter handling

Tracking categories

This template uses categories to track maintenance tasks, errors, and feature usage, which are grouped in Category:Header tracking categories.

See also

• MediaWiki:Proofreadpage header template for the auto-generated header available with <pages header=1/>
• {{textinfo}} for recording information on work's talk page
• {{translation header}} for template header used in Translation: namespace
• {{versions}} and {{translations}} which also use {{#invoke:Header|header}}
• {{author}} for template header used in Author: namespace
• {{process header}} for template header used in Wikisource: namespace
• {{portal header}} for template header used in Portal: namespace
• {{RunningHeader}} for the headers to be used in source texts
• Derived templates leveraging Template:Documentation

Templates called by this template:

• {{plain sister}}
• {{shortcut}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Header/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Subpages of this template.

{{Documentation/sandbox}}

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

This template can be preloaded via the Gadgets, alternatively, one can preload Template:Documentation/preload.

{{header
 | title       = 
 | author      = 
 | translator  = 
 | section     = 
 | previous    = 
 | next        = 
 | year        = 
 | notes       = 
}}

This template is meant to be used at the top of a work^{[notes 1]} in the main namespace and its subsections. Fill in any relevant information, and leave unknown or inapplicable parameters empty. For easy use, see also the header preloading script gadget in your preferences.

Documentation

Parameters

Standard

• title = title of the work, for subpage use relative links (mandatory)
• author = name of author (automatically wikilinks)
  • use author-display to change how author displays
  • where control of linking is required use author-nolink, and leave the field empty
• section = name of subdivision of work, usually used on subpages, typically text without additional formatting
• previous = name of previous part of work; relative links on subpages, full links otherwise
• next = name of next part of work, relative links on subpages, full links otherwise
• notes = notes to explain the work, to add context, or to impart concise information that adds value to the reader; for example, use of {{listen}}

Optional

• Parameters modifying author
  • author-display, used to change how author displays.

    By default, | author = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill will produce the link Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, and | author = Winston Churchill (1871-1947) will produce the link Winston Churchill, but | author = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill | author-display = Winston Churchill will produce the link Winston Churchill.

  • author-nolink, which disables automatic linking of the author parameter if true.

    | author = the [[Portal:United States Congress|United States Congress]] | author-nolink = true will display the author as "the United States Congress".

  • section-author = name of the author of this section, if not the same as author the overall work; or synonym contributor.
  • author2, author2-display, section-author2, section-author2-display, etc. for additional authors. For example, | author1 = Winston Churchill (1871-1947) | author2 = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill | author2-display = Winston Churchill will display as "Winston Churchill and Winston Churchill".
  • override-author = legacy parameter for unusual cases. When using this, please leave the author field empty. It is not possible to have more than one override-author parameter.
• All attribution parameters have the same behavior as author w.r.t. -display, -nolink, section- and additional values.
  • author
  • attributed-to
  • adapter
  • abridger
  • illustrator
  • director
  • lyricist
  • librettist
  • book-by
  • composer
  • arranger
  • translator
  • editor
  • compiler
• year = year of publication, adds work to the category for the year, see Category:Works by year.

  Enter "?" for a work with no known publication year, and leave blank if you simply don't have this information.

  Do not use AD or CE for any Anno Domini/Current Era works (year 1 to the present). Use BCE (do not use BC) for all years before year 1; leave a space between the number and the letters (e.g. 150 BCE).

  Approximate dates can be entered in one of the following ways:

  1. Decades, centuries or periods can be used instead of a year (e.g. 1060s, 11th century or Medieval).
  2. To use a year in the circa format, enter it as "c/Y" (e.g. c/1066 or c/150 BCE). (The use of "ca" or "circa" instead of "c" will also be recognised.) This will display as, for example, "c. 1066".
  3. To use a approximate choice of two years, enter it as "Y/Y" (e.g. 1066/1067). This will display as it is written.

  The behaviour of this parameter can be further modified by:

  • noyear = will prevent the year being displayed in the header but will still add the work to the category for the year. For use in cases where the year is already included in the title of the work. Any use of this parameter, even without text, will work. Example: | noyear = yes. All pages with this parameter will be added to Category:Pages with noyear for tracking its usage.
  • noyearcat = will display the year but in the header but will not add the work to the category for the year. For use in cases where a specific subcategory exists for the type of work to avoid flooding the main category for the year. As above, any use of the parameter will trigger this action. Pages will be added to the tracking category Category:Pages with noyearcat.
  • nolanguagecat = will prevent the header from categorizing by language. Pages will be added to the tracking category Category:Pages with nolanguagecat.

• edition = true to refer to further information on the work's talk page.
• shortcut = The shortcut to this page, if it exists. This is normally reserved for very large reference works (e.g. EB11)
• cover = The image used as a cover for the book when exported. Do not include the "File:" prefix, e.g. Foobar.jpg. You can use a page of a multi-page file using Foobar.djvu/7.
• sortkey, defaultsort: For sorting purposes the template will move the articles "a", "an" and "the" to the end of the title, on the root page and all its subpages; for example, The Times/1854/News/The Charge of the Light Brigade will be sorted as "Times, The/1854/News/Charge of the Light Brigade, The". To override this, set sortkey to the desired sort key, e.g. sortkey = Charge of the Light Brigade, The.
• language = ISO code of the language in which the work was originally written (find the ISO code here—be sure to use the first one listed); adds work to the category for the original language; see Category:Translations. Use with {{translation header}} and {{translations}}.
• nocat = true to turn off automatic categorization (except for tracking categories)
• See Sister, related author, and portal wiki links
  • portal
  • related-author
• Sister wiki links are now typically now provided through Wikidata linking, which manages link rot issues. So while the parameters are shown here for fullness of scope, such usage would be used to override automated linking rather than as a primary use.

All parameters

{{header
 | title          = 
 | author         = 
 | author-display = 
 | section        = 
 | previous       = 
 | next           = 
 | notes          = 
<!-- optional from here -->
 | year                = 
 | edition             =
 | translator          = 
 | translator-display  = 
 | related-author      = 
 | portal              = 
 | contributor         =
 | editor              =
 | cover               = 
 | shortcut            =
<!-- modifying "year" behaviour; use one of -->
 | noyear              = 
 | noyearcat           =
<!-- modifying sorting behaviour -->
 | sortkey = 
<!-- provided through wikidata, can be used to override wikidata -->
 | wikipedia    = 
 | commons      = 
 | commonscat   = 
 | wikiquote    = 
 | wikinews     = 
 | wiktionary   = 
 | wikibooks    = 
 | wikiversity  = 
 | wikispecies  = 
 | wikivoyage   = 
 | meta         = 
}}

Relative links

With lengthy, multi-page works, using relative links is highly recommended. This shortens the code and ensures that a work remains linked together even if it is moved or reorganised. The three formats are [[/subpage]] (subpage), [[../]] (parent), and [[../sibling]] (sibling)^[1]; see the example usage below. Note that [[../]] will expand to the title of the parent page, which is ideal if the work is renamed at a later time.

This depends on a page conforming to the page title standards in the Style guide, with works in the form [[Work title]] and [[Work title/Subpage]].

1. The specific form [[../sibling/]] can be used on a sibling to provide both a relative link, and the link label to a sibling page.

Chapter titles

In general, include chapter titles in the "section" field, but avoid including them in the "previous" and "next" fields. For example:

Example

{{header
 | title       = [[../|The Book of Scottish Song]]
 | author      = 
 | editor      = Alexander Whitelaw
 | translator  = 
 | section     = Jock o' Hazeldean
 | contributor = Walter Scott
 | previous    = [[../Sing on, sing on/]]
 | next        = [[../The Laird o' Cockpen/]]
 | year        = 1843
 | notes       = 
}}

Usage examples

Normal

Example

{{header
 | title    = [[../]]
 | author   = Lewis Carroll
 | section  = Chapter 3: A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
 | previous = [[../Chapter 2/]]
 | next     = [[../Chapter 4/]]
 | notes    =
}}

No author link

Example

{{header
 | title    = Peerage Act 1963
 | author   = the [[Portal:Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament of the United Kingdom]] | author-nolink = true
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     = 
 | year     = 1963 | noyear = true
 | notes    =
}}

Translation

Example

{{header
 | title    = Fables
 | author   = Jean de La Fontaine
 | translator = Elizur Wright
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
}}

Example

{{header
 | title    = Pantagruel
 | author   = François Rabelais
 | translator1 = Thomas Urquhart
 | translator2 = Peter Antony Motteux
 | section-translator = unknown
 | section  = Example
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
}}

Categories

 | categories = 1st category / 2nd category

Note: that use of this methodology excludes further editing by use of the HotCat tool, so this form should only be used where the categories are unlikely to need to be altered

Sister, related author, and portal wiki links

You can link to Wikisource portals and other WMF projects using the optional wiki links parameters where required to override the data provided from Wikidata. These are:

• portal, related-author
• wikipedia, wikispecies, commons, commonscat, wikiquote, wikinews, wiktionary, wikibooks, wikiversity, meta are typically applied from Wikidata data through interwiki links, or through linking of main subject (P921) so should only be used to override the default

For portal this would generally be added to the root page of a work, rather than added repeatedly for each subpage. Usage on a subpage would be useful where the subpage alone has a relationship with the specified portal, whereas the parent work does not have that relationship.

These links are generated using {{plain sister}}

Example

{{header
 | title    = Kinematics of Machinery
 | author   = Franz Reuleaux
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
 | portal1  = Technology
 | portal2  = Germany
 | wikipedia = Kinematics of Machinery
 | related-author = Albert Einstein
}}

List

• wikipedia
• commons
• commonscat
• wikiquote
• wikinews
• wiktionary
• wikibooks
• wikiversity
• wikispecies
• wikivoyage
• wikidata
• meta

Shortcuts

If a work has a shortcut, you can add it using the shortcut field. This should be in accordance with the shortcut guidelines, and shortcuts should not be used for every work.

Example

{{header
 | title    = 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
 | author   = 
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
 | shortcut = [[EB1911]]
}}

Advanced manipulation

Alternative headers

1. Certain projects have customised versions of {{header}} that are used to present these works, eg. {{DNB00}} is used for the project involved with Dictionary of National Biography. For these works it is permissible and recommended that these variations are used. New alternatives to {{header}} should be discussed on the talk page, and consequentially listed on each project's pages.

JavaScript extraction

The header values can be extracted using JavaScript by accessing the text values of their span wrappers:

value	wrapper id
title	header-title-text
author	header-author-text
translator	header-translator-text
previous	headerprevious
next	headernext
notes	none

Microformat

The HTML markup produced by this template includes an hCard microformat, which makes the person's details parsable by computers, either acting automatically to catalogue articles across Wikipedia or via a browser tool operated by a reader, to (for example) add the subject to an address book or database. For more information about the use of microformats on Wikimedia projects, please see Wikipedia's microformat project.

Sub-templates

To include a URL, use {{URL}}.

Please do not remove instances of these sub-templates.

Classes

hCard uses HTML classes including:

• adr
• agent
• bday
• birthplace
• category
• country-name
• deathdate
• deathplace
• extended-address
• family-name
• fn (required)
• given-name
• honorific-prefix
• honorific-suffix
• label
• locality
• n
• nickname
• note
• org
• role
• url
• vcard

Please do not rename or remove these classes; nor collapse nested elements which use them.

Technical

This template delegates some logic to Lua modules and uses sub templates to divide up the structural code:

• Module:Header the main logic for parameter handling

Tracking categories

This template uses categories to track maintenance tasks, errors, and feature usage, which are grouped in Category:Header tracking categories.

See also

• MediaWiki:Proofreadpage header template for the auto-generated header available with <pages header=1/>
• {{textinfo}} for recording information on work's talk page
• {{translation header}} for template header used in Translation: namespace
• {{versions}} and {{translations}} which also use {{#invoke:Header|header}}
• {{author}} for template header used in Author: namespace
• {{process header}} for template header used in Wikisource: namespace
• {{portal header}} for template header used in Portal: namespace
• {{RunningHeader}} for the headers to be used in source texts
• Derived templates leveraging Template:Documentation

Templates called by this template:

• {{plain sister}}
• {{shortcut}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Header/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Subpages of this template.

{{Documentation}}

{{Documentation|content=Some documentation text.}}

{{Documentation}}

Template documentation

Some documentation text.

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Documentation/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Subpages of this template.

{{Documentation/sandbox}}

Template documentation

Some documentation text.

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Documentation/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Subpages of this template.

{{Documentation}}

{{Documentation
|1=Template:Header/doc
|content={{Template:Header/doc}}
}}

{{Documentation}}

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

This template can be preloaded via the Gadgets, alternatively, one can preload Template:Documentation/preload.

{{header
 | title       = 
 | author      = 
 | translator  = 
 | section     = 
 | previous    = 
 | next        = 
 | year        = 
 | notes       = 
}}

This template is meant to be used at the top of a work^{[notes 1]} in the main namespace and its subsections. Fill in any relevant information, and leave unknown or inapplicable parameters empty. For easy use, see also the header preloading script gadget in your preferences.

Documentation

Parameters

Standard

• title = title of the work, for subpage use relative links (mandatory)
• author = name of author (automatically wikilinks)
  • use author-display to change how author displays
  • where control of linking is required use author-nolink, and leave the field empty
• section = name of subdivision of work, usually used on subpages, typically text without additional formatting
• previous = name of previous part of work; relative links on subpages, full links otherwise
• next = name of next part of work, relative links on subpages, full links otherwise
• notes = notes to explain the work, to add context, or to impart concise information that adds value to the reader; for example, use of {{listen}}

Optional

• Parameters modifying author
  • author-display, used to change how author displays.

    By default, | author = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill will produce the link Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, and | author = Winston Churchill (1871-1947) will produce the link Winston Churchill, but | author = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill | author-display = Winston Churchill will produce the link Winston Churchill.

  • author-nolink, which disables automatic linking of the author parameter if true.

    | author = the [[Portal:United States Congress|United States Congress]] | author-nolink = true will display the author as "the United States Congress".

  • section-author = name of the author of this section, if not the same as author the overall work; or synonym contributor.
  • author2, author2-display, section-author2, section-author2-display, etc. for additional authors. For example, | author1 = Winston Churchill (1871-1947) | author2 = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill | author2-display = Winston Churchill will display as "Winston Churchill and Winston Churchill".
  • override-author = legacy parameter for unusual cases. When using this, please leave the author field empty. It is not possible to have more than one override-author parameter.
• All attribution parameters have the same behavior as author w.r.t. -display, -nolink, section- and additional values.
  • author
  • attributed-to
  • adapter
  • abridger
  • illustrator
  • director
  • lyricist
  • librettist
  • book-by
  • composer
  • arranger
  • translator
  • editor
  • compiler
• year = year of publication, adds work to the category for the year, see Category:Works by year.

  Enter "?" for a work with no known publication year, and leave blank if you simply don't have this information.

  Do not use AD or CE for any Anno Domini/Current Era works (year 1 to the present). Use BCE (do not use BC) for all years before year 1; leave a space between the number and the letters (e.g. 150 BCE).

  Approximate dates can be entered in one of the following ways:

  1. Decades, centuries or periods can be used instead of a year (e.g. 1060s, 11th century or Medieval).
  2. To use a year in the circa format, enter it as "c/Y" (e.g. c/1066 or c/150 BCE). (The use of "ca" or "circa" instead of "c" will also be recognised.) This will display as, for example, "c. 1066".
  3. To use a approximate choice of two years, enter it as "Y/Y" (e.g. 1066/1067). This will display as it is written.

  The behaviour of this parameter can be further modified by:

  • noyear = will prevent the year being displayed in the header but will still add the work to the category for the year. For use in cases where the year is already included in the title of the work. Any use of this parameter, even without text, will work. Example: | noyear = yes. All pages with this parameter will be added to Category:Pages with noyear for tracking its usage.
  • noyearcat = will display the year but in the header but will not add the work to the category for the year. For use in cases where a specific subcategory exists for the type of work to avoid flooding the main category for the year. As above, any use of the parameter will trigger this action. Pages will be added to the tracking category Category:Pages with noyearcat.
  • nolanguagecat = will prevent the header from categorizing by language. Pages will be added to the tracking category Category:Pages with nolanguagecat.

• edition = true to refer to further information on the work's talk page.
• shortcut = The shortcut to this page, if it exists. This is normally reserved for very large reference works (e.g. EB11)
• cover = The image used as a cover for the book when exported. Do not include the "File:" prefix, e.g. Foobar.jpg. You can use a page of a multi-page file using Foobar.djvu/7.
• sortkey, defaultsort: For sorting purposes the template will move the articles "a", "an" and "the" to the end of the title, on the root page and all its subpages; for example, The Times/1854/News/The Charge of the Light Brigade will be sorted as "Times, The/1854/News/Charge of the Light Brigade, The". To override this, set sortkey to the desired sort key, e.g. sortkey = Charge of the Light Brigade, The.
• language = ISO code of the language in which the work was originally written (find the ISO code here—be sure to use the first one listed); adds work to the category for the original language; see Category:Translations. Use with {{translation header}} and {{translations}}.
• nocat = true to turn off automatic categorization (except for tracking categories)
• See Sister, related author, and portal wiki links
  • portal
  • related-author
• Sister wiki links are now typically now provided through Wikidata linking, which manages link rot issues. So while the parameters are shown here for fullness of scope, such usage would be used to override automated linking rather than as a primary use.

All parameters

{{header
 | title          = 
 | author         = 
 | author-display = 
 | section        = 
 | previous       = 
 | next           = 
 | notes          = 
<!-- optional from here -->
 | year                = 
 | edition             =
 | translator          = 
 | translator-display  = 
 | related-author      = 
 | portal              = 
 | contributor         =
 | editor              =
 | cover               = 
 | shortcut            =
<!-- modifying "year" behaviour; use one of -->
 | noyear              = 
 | noyearcat           =
<!-- modifying sorting behaviour -->
 | sortkey = 
<!-- provided through wikidata, can be used to override wikidata -->
 | wikipedia    = 
 | commons      = 
 | commonscat   = 
 | wikiquote    = 
 | wikinews     = 
 | wiktionary   = 
 | wikibooks    = 
 | wikiversity  = 
 | wikispecies  = 
 | wikivoyage   = 
 | meta         = 
}}

Relative links

With lengthy, multi-page works, using relative links is highly recommended. This shortens the code and ensures that a work remains linked together even if it is moved or reorganised. The three formats are [[/subpage]] (subpage), [[../]] (parent), and [[../sibling]] (sibling)^[1]; see the example usage below. Note that [[../]] will expand to the title of the parent page, which is ideal if the work is renamed at a later time.

This depends on a page conforming to the page title standards in the Style guide, with works in the form [[Work title]] and [[Work title/Subpage]].

1. The specific form [[../sibling/]] can be used on a sibling to provide both a relative link, and the link label to a sibling page.

Chapter titles

In general, include chapter titles in the "section" field, but avoid including them in the "previous" and "next" fields. For example:

Example

{{header
 | title       = [[../|The Book of Scottish Song]]
 | author      = 
 | editor      = Alexander Whitelaw
 | translator  = 
 | section     = Jock o' Hazeldean
 | contributor = Walter Scott
 | previous    = [[../Sing on, sing on/]]
 | next        = [[../The Laird o' Cockpen/]]
 | year        = 1843
 | notes       = 
}}

Usage examples

Normal

Example

{{header
 | title    = [[../]]
 | author   = Lewis Carroll
 | section  = Chapter 3: A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
 | previous = [[../Chapter 2/]]
 | next     = [[../Chapter 4/]]
 | notes    =
}}

No author link

Example

{{header
 | title    = Peerage Act 1963
 | author   = the [[Portal:Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament of the United Kingdom]] | author-nolink = true
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     = 
 | year     = 1963 | noyear = true
 | notes    =
}}

Translation

Example

{{header
 | title    = Fables
 | author   = Jean de La Fontaine
 | translator = Elizur Wright
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
}}

Example

{{header
 | title    = Pantagruel
 | author   = François Rabelais
 | translator1 = Thomas Urquhart
 | translator2 = Peter Antony Motteux
 | section-translator = unknown
 | section  = Example
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
}}

Categories

 | categories = 1st category / 2nd category

Note: that use of this methodology excludes further editing by use of the HotCat tool, so this form should only be used where the categories are unlikely to need to be altered

Sister, related author, and portal wiki links

You can link to Wikisource portals and other WMF projects using the optional wiki links parameters where required to override the data provided from Wikidata. These are:

• portal, related-author
• wikipedia, wikispecies, commons, commonscat, wikiquote, wikinews, wiktionary, wikibooks, wikiversity, meta are typically applied from Wikidata data through interwiki links, or through linking of main subject (P921) so should only be used to override the default

For portal this would generally be added to the root page of a work, rather than added repeatedly for each subpage. Usage on a subpage would be useful where the subpage alone has a relationship with the specified portal, whereas the parent work does not have that relationship.

These links are generated using {{plain sister}}

Example

{{header
 | title    = Kinematics of Machinery
 | author   = Franz Reuleaux
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
 | portal1  = Technology
 | portal2  = Germany
 | wikipedia = Kinematics of Machinery
 | related-author = Albert Einstein
}}

List

• wikipedia
• commons
• commonscat
• wikiquote
• wikinews
• wiktionary
• wikibooks
• wikiversity
• wikispecies
• wikivoyage
• wikidata
• meta

Shortcuts

If a work has a shortcut, you can add it using the shortcut field. This should be in accordance with the shortcut guidelines, and shortcuts should not be used for every work.

Example

{{header
 | title    = 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
 | author   = 
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
 | shortcut = [[EB1911]]
}}

Advanced manipulation

Alternative headers

1. Certain projects have customised versions of {{header}} that are used to present these works, eg. {{DNB00}} is used for the project involved with Dictionary of National Biography. For these works it is permissible and recommended that these variations are used. New alternatives to {{header}} should be discussed on the talk page, and consequentially listed on each project's pages.

JavaScript extraction

The header values can be extracted using JavaScript by accessing the text values of their span wrappers:

value	wrapper id
title	header-title-text
author	header-author-text
translator	header-translator-text
previous	headerprevious
next	headernext
notes	none

Microformat

The HTML markup produced by this template includes an hCard microformat, which makes the person's details parsable by computers, either acting automatically to catalogue articles across Wikipedia or via a browser tool operated by a reader, to (for example) add the subject to an address book or database. For more information about the use of microformats on Wikimedia projects, please see Wikipedia's microformat project.

Sub-templates

To include a URL, use {{URL}}.

Please do not remove instances of these sub-templates.

Classes

hCard uses HTML classes including:

• adr
• agent
• bday
• birthplace
• category
• country-name
• deathdate
• deathplace
• extended-address
• family-name
• fn (required)
• given-name
• honorific-prefix
• honorific-suffix
• label
• locality
• n
• nickname
• note
• org
• role
• url
• vcard

Please do not rename or remove these classes; nor collapse nested elements which use them.

Technical

This template delegates some logic to Lua modules and uses sub templates to divide up the structural code:

• Module:Header the main logic for parameter handling

Tracking categories

This template uses categories to track maintenance tasks, errors, and feature usage, which are grouped in Category:Header tracking categories.

See also

• MediaWiki:Proofreadpage header template for the auto-generated header available with <pages header=1/>
• {{textinfo}} for recording information on work's talk page
• {{translation header}} for template header used in Translation: namespace
• {{versions}} and {{translations}} which also use {{#invoke:Header|header}}
• {{author}} for template header used in Author: namespace
• {{process header}} for template header used in Wikisource: namespace
• {{portal header}} for template header used in Portal: namespace
• {{RunningHeader}} for the headers to be used in source texts
• Derived templates leveraging Template:Documentation

Templates called by this template:

• {{plain sister}}
• {{shortcut}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Header/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Subpages of this template.

{{Documentation/sandbox}}

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

This template can be preloaded via the Gadgets, alternatively, one can preload Template:Documentation/preload.

{{header
 | title       = 
 | author      = 
 | translator  = 
 | section     = 
 | previous    = 
 | next        = 
 | year        = 
 | notes       = 
}}

This template is meant to be used at the top of a work^{[notes 1]} in the main namespace and its subsections. Fill in any relevant information, and leave unknown or inapplicable parameters empty. For easy use, see also the header preloading script gadget in your preferences.

Documentation

Parameters

Standard

• title = title of the work, for subpage use relative links (mandatory)
• author = name of author (automatically wikilinks)
  • use author-display to change how author displays
  • where control of linking is required use author-nolink, and leave the field empty
• section = name of subdivision of work, usually used on subpages, typically text without additional formatting
• previous = name of previous part of work; relative links on subpages, full links otherwise
• next = name of next part of work, relative links on subpages, full links otherwise
• notes = notes to explain the work, to add context, or to impart concise information that adds value to the reader; for example, use of {{listen}}

Optional

• Parameters modifying author
  • author-display, used to change how author displays.

    By default, | author = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill will produce the link Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, and | author = Winston Churchill (1871-1947) will produce the link Winston Churchill, but | author = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill | author-display = Winston Churchill will produce the link Winston Churchill.

  • author-nolink, which disables automatic linking of the author parameter if true.

    | author = the [[Portal:United States Congress|United States Congress]] | author-nolink = true will display the author as "the United States Congress".

  • section-author = name of the author of this section, if not the same as author the overall work; or synonym contributor.
  • author2, author2-display, section-author2, section-author2-display, etc. for additional authors. For example, | author1 = Winston Churchill (1871-1947) | author2 = Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill | author2-display = Winston Churchill will display as "Winston Churchill and Winston Churchill".
  • override-author = legacy parameter for unusual cases. When using this, please leave the author field empty. It is not possible to have more than one override-author parameter.
• All attribution parameters have the same behavior as author w.r.t. -display, -nolink, section- and additional values.
  • author
  • attributed-to
  • adapter
  • abridger
  • illustrator
  • director
  • lyricist
  • librettist
  • book-by
  • composer
  • arranger
  • translator
  • editor
  • compiler
• year = year of publication, adds work to the category for the year, see Category:Works by year.

  Enter "?" for a work with no known publication year, and leave blank if you simply don't have this information.

  Do not use AD or CE for any Anno Domini/Current Era works (year 1 to the present). Use BCE (do not use BC) for all years before year 1; leave a space between the number and the letters (e.g. 150 BCE).

  Approximate dates can be entered in one of the following ways:

  1. Decades, centuries or periods can be used instead of a year (e.g. 1060s, 11th century or Medieval).
  2. To use a year in the circa format, enter it as "c/Y" (e.g. c/1066 or c/150 BCE). (The use of "ca" or "circa" instead of "c" will also be recognised.) This will display as, for example, "c. 1066".
  3. To use a approximate choice of two years, enter it as "Y/Y" (e.g. 1066/1067). This will display as it is written.

  The behaviour of this parameter can be further modified by:

  • noyear = will prevent the year being displayed in the header but will still add the work to the category for the year. For use in cases where the year is already included in the title of the work. Any use of this parameter, even without text, will work. Example: | noyear = yes. All pages with this parameter will be added to Category:Pages with noyear for tracking its usage.
  • noyearcat = will display the year but in the header but will not add the work to the category for the year. For use in cases where a specific subcategory exists for the type of work to avoid flooding the main category for the year. As above, any use of the parameter will trigger this action. Pages will be added to the tracking category Category:Pages with noyearcat.
  • nolanguagecat = will prevent the header from categorizing by language. Pages will be added to the tracking category Category:Pages with nolanguagecat.

• edition = true to refer to further information on the work's talk page.
• shortcut = The shortcut to this page, if it exists. This is normally reserved for very large reference works (e.g. EB11)
• cover = The image used as a cover for the book when exported. Do not include the "File:" prefix, e.g. Foobar.jpg. You can use a page of a multi-page file using Foobar.djvu/7.
• sortkey, defaultsort: For sorting purposes the template will move the articles "a", "an" and "the" to the end of the title, on the root page and all its subpages; for example, The Times/1854/News/The Charge of the Light Brigade will be sorted as "Times, The/1854/News/Charge of the Light Brigade, The". To override this, set sortkey to the desired sort key, e.g. sortkey = Charge of the Light Brigade, The.
• language = ISO code of the language in which the work was originally written (find the ISO code here—be sure to use the first one listed); adds work to the category for the original language; see Category:Translations. Use with {{translation header}} and {{translations}}.
• nocat = true to turn off automatic categorization (except for tracking categories)
• See Sister, related author, and portal wiki links
  • portal
  • related-author
• Sister wiki links are now typically now provided through Wikidata linking, which manages link rot issues. So while the parameters are shown here for fullness of scope, such usage would be used to override automated linking rather than as a primary use.

All parameters

{{header
 | title          = 
 | author         = 
 | author-display = 
 | section        = 
 | previous       = 
 | next           = 
 | notes          = 
<!-- optional from here -->
 | year                = 
 | edition             =
 | translator          = 
 | translator-display  = 
 | related-author      = 
 | portal              = 
 | contributor         =
 | editor              =
 | cover               = 
 | shortcut            =
<!-- modifying "year" behaviour; use one of -->
 | noyear              = 
 | noyearcat           =
<!-- modifying sorting behaviour -->
 | sortkey = 
<!-- provided through wikidata, can be used to override wikidata -->
 | wikipedia    = 
 | commons      = 
 | commonscat   = 
 | wikiquote    = 
 | wikinews     = 
 | wiktionary   = 
 | wikibooks    = 
 | wikiversity  = 
 | wikispecies  = 
 | wikivoyage   = 
 | meta         = 
}}

Relative links

With lengthy, multi-page works, using relative links is highly recommended. This shortens the code and ensures that a work remains linked together even if it is moved or reorganised. The three formats are [[/subpage]] (subpage), [[../]] (parent), and [[../sibling]] (sibling)^[1]; see the example usage below. Note that [[../]] will expand to the title of the parent page, which is ideal if the work is renamed at a later time.

This depends on a page conforming to the page title standards in the Style guide, with works in the form [[Work title]] and [[Work title/Subpage]].

1. The specific form [[../sibling/]] can be used on a sibling to provide both a relative link, and the link label to a sibling page.

Chapter titles

In general, include chapter titles in the "section" field, but avoid including them in the "previous" and "next" fields. For example:

Example

{{header
 | title       = [[../|The Book of Scottish Song]]
 | author      = 
 | editor      = Alexander Whitelaw
 | translator  = 
 | section     = Jock o' Hazeldean
 | contributor = Walter Scott
 | previous    = [[../Sing on, sing on/]]
 | next        = [[../The Laird o' Cockpen/]]
 | year        = 1843
 | notes       = 
}}

Usage examples

Normal

Example

{{header
 | title    = [[../]]
 | author   = Lewis Carroll
 | section  = Chapter 3: A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
 | previous = [[../Chapter 2/]]
 | next     = [[../Chapter 4/]]
 | notes    =
}}

No author link

Example

{{header
 | title    = Peerage Act 1963
 | author   = the [[Portal:Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament of the United Kingdom]] | author-nolink = true
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     = 
 | year     = 1963 | noyear = true
 | notes    =
}}

Translation

Example

{{header
 | title    = Fables
 | author   = Jean de La Fontaine
 | translator = Elizur Wright
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
}}

Example

{{header
 | title    = Pantagruel
 | author   = François Rabelais
 | translator1 = Thomas Urquhart
 | translator2 = Peter Antony Motteux
 | section-translator = unknown
 | section  = Example
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
}}

Categories

 | categories = 1st category / 2nd category

Note: that use of this methodology excludes further editing by use of the HotCat tool, so this form should only be used where the categories are unlikely to need to be altered

Sister, related author, and portal wiki links

You can link to Wikisource portals and other WMF projects using the optional wiki links parameters where required to override the data provided from Wikidata. These are:

• portal, related-author
• wikipedia, wikispecies, commons, commonscat, wikiquote, wikinews, wiktionary, wikibooks, wikiversity, meta are typically applied from Wikidata data through interwiki links, or through linking of main subject (P921) so should only be used to override the default

For portal this would generally be added to the root page of a work, rather than added repeatedly for each subpage. Usage on a subpage would be useful where the subpage alone has a relationship with the specified portal, whereas the parent work does not have that relationship.

These links are generated using {{plain sister}}

Example

{{header
 | title    = Kinematics of Machinery
 | author   = Franz Reuleaux
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
 | portal1  = Technology
 | portal2  = Germany
 | wikipedia = Kinematics of Machinery
 | related-author = Albert Einstein
}}

List

• wikipedia
• commons
• commonscat
• wikiquote
• wikinews
• wiktionary
• wikibooks
• wikiversity
• wikispecies
• wikivoyage
• wikidata
• meta

Shortcuts

If a work has a shortcut, you can add it using the shortcut field. This should be in accordance with the shortcut guidelines, and shortcuts should not be used for every work.

Example

{{header
 | title    = 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
 | author   = 
 | section  =
 | previous =
 | next     =
 | notes    =
 | shortcut = [[EB1911]]
}}

Advanced manipulation

Alternative headers

1. Certain projects have customised versions of {{header}} that are used to present these works, eg. {{DNB00}} is used for the project involved with Dictionary of National Biography. For these works it is permissible and recommended that these variations are used. New alternatives to {{header}} should be discussed on the talk page, and consequentially listed on each project's pages.

JavaScript extraction

The header values can be extracted using JavaScript by accessing the text values of their span wrappers:

value	wrapper id
title	header-title-text
author	header-author-text
translator	header-translator-text
previous	headerprevious
next	headernext
notes	none

Microformat

The HTML markup produced by this template includes an hCard microformat, which makes the person's details parsable by computers, either acting automatically to catalogue articles across Wikipedia or via a browser tool operated by a reader, to (for example) add the subject to an address book or database. For more information about the use of microformats on Wikimedia projects, please see Wikipedia's microformat project.

Sub-templates

To include a URL, use {{URL}}.

Please do not remove instances of these sub-templates.

Classes

hCard uses HTML classes including:

• adr
• agent
• bday
• birthplace
• category
• country-name
• deathdate
• deathplace
• extended-address
• family-name
• fn (required)
• given-name
• honorific-prefix
• honorific-suffix
• label
• locality
• n
• nickname
• note
• org
• role
• url
• vcard

Please do not rename or remove these classes; nor collapse nested elements which use them.

Technical

This template delegates some logic to Lua modules and uses sub templates to divide up the structural code:

• Module:Header the main logic for parameter handling

Tracking categories

This template uses categories to track maintenance tasks, errors, and feature usage, which are grouped in Category:Header tracking categories.

See also

• MediaWiki:Proofreadpage header template for the auto-generated header available with <pages header=1/>
• {{textinfo}} for recording information on work's talk page
• {{translation header}} for template header used in Translation: namespace
• {{versions}} and {{translations}} which also use {{#invoke:Header|header}}
• {{author}} for template header used in Author: namespace
• {{process header}} for template header used in Wikisource: namespace
• {{portal header}} for template header used in Portal: namespace
• {{RunningHeader}} for the headers to be used in source texts
• Derived templates leveraging Template:Documentation

Templates called by this template:

• {{plain sister}}
• {{shortcut}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Header/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Subpages of this template.