This template is used onapproximately ୧,୨୧,୦୦୦ pages. To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's/sandbox or/testcases subpages, or in your ownuser subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on thetalk page before implementing them.
This is the{{Documentation}} template used on almost everytemplate page to contain that template's documented instructions and information, including<templatedata>.
This template displays a green documentation 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 that aretranscluded onto other pages. It can be used in thetemplate namespace and most othernamespaces.
Use of this template allows templates to beprotected where necessary, while allowing anyone to edit the documentation and categories.
Normally this template is used without any parameters, placed at the bottom of the template or page being documented, within a<noinclude>...</noinclude> container:
<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>{{Documentation}}<!-- Add categories to the /doc subpage, interwikis to Wikidata, 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:Otherpage/doc}}</noinclude>
Note that when loading the documentation from a page other than the local /doc page it becomes tricky to handle the categories.
The content can also be fed directly as text. Like this:
<!--Last line of your template code--><noinclude>{{Documentation|content=(somedocumentation)}}</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:Anypage/doc|content={{Template:Anypage/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 thecontent 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.
This 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):
<noinclude>{{documentation}}</noinclude>
To automatically insert thenoinclude tags, the template call and the guiding comment, you can also use thissubstitution code shortcut:
If the documentation page contains<includeonly> or<noinclude> tags as part of the visible documentation text, replace the "<" with "<" or useTemplate:tag.
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 into the link box, by setting the|link box= parameter. For example:
|link box=This documentation is automatically generated by [[Template:Country showdata]]
If the documentation page does not exist, the [create] link includes apreload 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}}.
Terminology:Subject namespaces are the opposite oftalk 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 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 MediaWikisubpage 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.
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 pageTemplate:Edit protected, including showing the documentation fromTemplate:Edit protected/doc, linking toTemplate:Edit protected/sandbox, etc. This parameter is useful for testing and is used extensively on themodule testcases page.
