Template:Documentation/doc

This is the {{documentation}} template.

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

This template displays a 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 which are transcluded onto other pages. It can be used in template space and most other namespaces.

Normal /doc

Normally this template is used without any parameters and placed at the bottom of the template or page being documented, in a <noinclude> section. Like this:

<!--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.

Any /doc page

This template can be told to load the content from any other page. Like this:

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

{{documentation|Template:Other page/doc}}
</noinclude>

But when doing so it becomes tricky to handle the categories and interwiki links.

In-line content

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

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

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

In-line content with [edit][purge] links

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

{{documentation
| 1 = Template:Any page/doc
| content = {{Template:Any page/doc| parameters }}
}}
</noinclude>

Best practice

The code should be added at the bottom of the template code, with no extra 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 /doc subpage, inside <includeonly></includeonly> tags. For more complex cases, see 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 "<".

The heading

When in Template space this template shows this heading:

Template documentation

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

Documentation

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

Summary

Overrides exist to customize the output in special cases:

• {{documentation| heading = ...}} − change the text of the "documentation" heading. If this is set to blank, the entire heading line (including the first [edit] link) will also disappear.

Automatic functions

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

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

If the documentation page doesn't exist, the "edit" link includes a preload parameter so that clicking it will pre-fill the edit form with the basic documentation page format.

Rationale

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