Template:documentation

Template documentation

This is the {{documentation}} template.

For most of the instructions about how and when to use this template, see enwiki: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, categories, and interwiki links.

Usage

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

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>

{{documentation}}
<!-- Add categories and interwikis to the /doc subpage, not here! -->
</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}}
</noinclude>

Note that when loading the documentation from another page than the local /doc page it becomes tricky to handle the categories and interwiki links.

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

<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>

{{documentation
| content = Some documentation text.
}}
</noinclude>

When the content parameter is used the doc box normally doesn't 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.

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

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

See also

• {{documentation}} – Placed on templates and other pages to document them.