Battlestar Wiki:Template List/XML Templates/Instructions

This article is actively undergoing a major edit for 'Typing Intructions'. As a courtesy, please do not edit this article while this message is displayed. The person who added this notice is Shane.

To help you through the editing of this process this page breaks down the sections of the XML document, and how everything should be formated.

The XML Document

The XML document holds all the templates, sections (catagories), and any addistionial values that many be needed for the website in question, however there are only so many options that the Wikipedia Toolbar can handle.

First of all, the XML document always starts with this line:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

Secondly, everything is always encompassed by:

<site>
    ....Everything else....
</site>

With these basic elements, you can start putting the basic settings in the XML document.

Basic Setup

The first "block" that every XML document must have is the overview block.

	<overall>
		<name>Battlestar Wiki</name>
		<type>mediawiki</type>
		<icon>bsgicon.png</icon>
		<lang>en</lang>
	</overall>

• Name - The full name of the wiki
• Type - The type of wiki that it operates.
• Icon - For future
• Lang - The lanagues installed. Seperated by comma's (,).

Lang Setup

Each language has their own block.

	<en>
            ... Data ...
	</en>

The "overall" block for each langauge is as follows:

	<en>
		<settings>
			<fullname>English</fullname>
			<loc>http://www.battlestarwiki.org/en</loc>
		</settings>
                ... Template & Category Value ...
	</en>

If the host (i.e. http://www.battlestarwiki.org) is not unique for each language when viewing the Wiki, you must enter the "edit" url. For this wiki, and for the English side, the url is located above.

Sections

To have different sections withing the "popup" menu, follow this format:

		<sections>
			<section>
				<label>Citations</label>
				<area>cit</area>
			</section>
			<section>
				<label>Endnote/Footnote References</label>
				<area>endfoot</area>
				<parent>cit</parent>
			</section>
                        .... More Sections Here ....
		</sections>

• Label - Short Label of the Section
• Area - A unique ID for this section.
• Parent - Optionial; If this is set, this must equal something to area and must be placed after the orginal section is placed. (as shown above).

Templates

The accual templates is where it gets tricky, and where there can be many options to deal with.

This is the first type of template.

		<templates>
			<template>
				<id>rdmblog</id>
				<label>From RDM Blog</label>
				<text>{{From RDM blog}}</text>
				<cat>cit</cat>
				<tooltip>Used to cite RDM's blog.</tooltip>
			</template>
                        ... Insert More Template Blocks ...
		</templates>

• ID - Must be a unique ID within the "templates" section..
• Label - A short label.
• Text - The template itself.
• Cat - Optionial; What section it falls under. If this is not put in, it goes in the upper level section that holds the catagories in the first place.
• Tooltip - Optionial; What tooltip will shopw up if you hover your mouse over the template label.

Another type of template settings are possaible.

This next one is one that has required varabile to fill in.

		<templates>
			<template>
				<id>tldemo</id>
				<label>Template Insert Example</label>
				<text>{{tl|%templatecode}}</text>
				<cat>dem</cat>
				<tooltip>This is meant to print pseudo syntax...</tooltip>
				<templatecode>Insert the template name only.|r</templatecode>
			</template>
                        ... Insert More Template Blocks ...
		</templates>

• Templatecode - The text that will be displayed in the input box that will popup telling the user, what to enter. The |{r|o} at the end stands for either r(equired) or o(ptionial) to tell the system on how this varabile can be treated. If this is missing, it is assumed that it is optionial.

Having one "var" in the template creates a unique check system. If text is selected when selecting this template, that selected text will replace the var with no dialog poping up. If there is no text selected, a dialog would popup asking you to input text.