WikiIslam:Templates

In a wiki website, templates are an effective way to save time by reusing content. They are like regular pages except that their page name begins with the keyword "Template:" (e.g. Template:Stub)

A Stub template can be included on a stub page (a page that needs more content) by simply inserting {{stub}} on the page. Notice that the keyword (Template:) has been left out and the name of the template page has been surrounded with double curly brackets. Mediawiki calls this a transclusion (more info).

Editors can practice including templates on a page by using the Sandbox (insert {{stub}} in the page and save or preview it). Templates can also be flexible when they use variables. For example writing {{Quran|2|131}} will use the two variables to make a link to that part of the Qur'an. The result is this: Quran 2:131. Another example of a templates that uses variables: Muhammad and History's 100 Most Influential People. Here the box at the right uses a template. The code for that box can be seen by clicking edit.

Templates can be used to produce small pieces of text like Quran 2:131 or a large piece of content such as the Index table for the Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars pages. If a page contains templates, clicking the Edit link will show a list of all templates used on that page at the bottom of the editing interface.

Like a regular page, links to a template page (like the ones on this page) can be made using square brackets, for example [[Template:Stub]] produces: Template:Stub

Templates with Variables

Templates that accept variables are a great way to let the software take care of formatting issues. For example if you're putting in a reference to a website, you can use the Cite web template. Just enter the URL, URL Title, author, publisher and archive URL and it will know how to format the output. So for example you wont have to worry about whether the author is mentioned first in that reference.

Using variables also makes sure that formatting remains consistent in all those occurrences of cite web. Otherwise if you do it manually, sometimes you may mention the author at the end of the rereference and at other times it may be in the beginning. Templates will make sure the output is consistent.

They also enable us to make system wide changes easily. The Quran template also uses variables and has been updated multiple times when source websites had to be updated. System wide changes were made instantly which would be almost impossible to make if a template had not been used.

Any time you're formatting text in a certain way (for example: "date, author - URL (website title)"), that means it can usually be done through templates.

For an example of a template that uses a simple type of input and produces a different output, see: Template:Tabari

Here are some templates that can be used on the website.

Articles that Need Attention

• Template:Stub - for short articles that need expansion
• Template:Underconstruction - page under construction
• Template:Quality control - articles that do not meet our quality standards (content, style etc)

Misc Templates

• Template:Essay - for putting an essay box at the top right of a page. This is used for pages
• Template:Essay - as the template box says, this is for op-ed type pages that contain personal opinions
• Flag: Produces a little flag icon for a country.
• Template:Spaces - insert blank spaces in text
• Template:Small - small text
• Template:Fontcolor - used to change font color when needed
• Template:New - produces a little "new" icon/image
• Template:Page title - used to change the heading of a page, since page names should ideally not contain brackets, commas and some other characters. Some websites and forums break links with these characters in them. With this template you can have a 'safe' URL with any page heading.
• For Templates relating to Islamic texts see WikiIslam:Standardization

Reference

• Template:Reflist - produces a Reference list at the bottom of an article when references (<ref> tags) are used in an article
• Template:Reference archive - used for links to WebCitation.org, which is used for preserving links in the long term

Books and People

• Template:Infobox Book - for pages that are about books
• Template:Infobox Person - for pages that are about a person

Links and Navigation

• Plainlink: This makes a plain link to a site with out having that little arrow graphic ( )  in the way.
• Template:Wikipedia - link to a named Wikipedia article
• Template:Pagetop - makes a link to the top of a page

Communicating with Users

Welcoming new members

Click on a new member's talk page and it will prompt you for creating a new page. Place this in the edit box and save the page:

{{subst:New Member}}

This will place (substitute) a welcome template on their talk page with your username. The template used here is Template:New Member.

Users with IP addresses

• Template:Unsigned - for IP address users who did not sign their comment on a talk page.

Writing Templates

Wikipedia has many templates that can be used here. Templates can be written using the page title format Template:My template. This template can then be used on a page using this notation: {{My template}}

Documentation: As on Wikipedia, documentation for templates can be written on the page: Template:My template/doc, if the code {{Documentation}} has been included in the template.

Programming in Templates

• Qif: A template which allows you to make IF statements, similar to how they're used in programming languages.
• Template:Loop - From Wikipedia, "This template is used to produce a simple loop that can repeat up to 150 times. It is not a real loop; it works by conditionally repeating the string."
• Template:Pipe - used inside a template to produce a pipe: |
• Wikipedia:Anatomy of a template

See Also

• Full list of all templates (system generated; Note that many templates are used for very specific group of articles and some templates have more complex uses)