Templates

## General Information

Templates are useful for creating consistent styling, adding design elements to the page, or infoboxes to neatly display common information. Wiki templates provide a means to insert the same content over and over in different (or the same) pages. This saves editors the hassle of duplicating the same text again and again, and also helps ensure consistency.

**Template classification** is the act of **assigning your templates a type** that then determines how that template will appear on mobile web. Types also make your wiki smarter and your templates easier to manage. Templates are generally shown with the format required to use the template (e.g. `{{delete}}`). Clicking the template name takes you to the template's page, where you can see what it looks like and how it is used.

## Notes

Sometimes explanations or examples are needed on a template page to explain how a template works or is organized. When adding categories or explanations/examples to templates, you need to use the transclusion modifier tags. There are 3 different tags which you can use as needed.

* noinclude - Content enclosed with this tag is not included when the template is used. In other words, the enclosed content is for the template page itself and nowhere else.
* includeonly - Content enclosed with this tag is for other pages only. In other words, it is not for the template page itself.
* onlyinclude - Content excluded by this tag is not included when the template is used. In other words, only the enclosed content is used by other pages.

Any content not outside an onlyinclude tag and also not within either a noinclude or includeonly tag is used on both the template page itself as well as pages where the template is used.

### Documentation

It is helpful to include documentation in every template page using the above tags.

This template is used to insert descriptions on template pages. Template:Documentation

## Types and uses

See Help: Template Types for more detailed information about Template types.

### **Infobox**

*"Displays the most essential information about an article in a box at the top of the page, usually to the right side."*

The are currently only three infoboxes used on the wiki:

* **Hostile colonies -** For use on Hostile Colonies
	+ Template:Hostile Colonies

* **PA Creatures -** For use on Creature pages
	+ Template:PA Creatures

* **Staff List -** For use on the Wiki Staff page.
	+ Template:StaffList

### **Navbox**

*"Displays a list of organized links in a box for readers to navigate to related articles, usually at the bottom of the page."*

* This template is used on all Creature pages.
	+ Creature Navbox

* This template is used on all Black Ant Colony related pages.
	+ Colony Anthill Navbox

* This template is only used on the Main Page.
	+ Main Page Navbox

* This template is used on all Event pages.
	+ Event Navbox

### **Notice**

*"Also known as tophats or alerts, these templates notify the reader the status of the article itself, such as stub, disambiguation, or spoiler."*

* MessageBox
	+ example for how this is used.

* Cleanup
* Delete
* Outdated
* Stub
* Work in Progress

### **Context-link**

*"Suggests another page to readers that is related to the current page or section. Usually these include "Main Article" or "See also" and display as italicized text."*

These templates are commonly used phrases. They are designed to create consistency in wording and design among all pages.

* Template:Main Article This is used to direct people to a main article from a similar article. It has two editable parts.
	+ *For general information about **templates** see Main Article: **Templates***

* Template:Main This is a shorter version of Main Article, to direct people to a main article.
	+ Main article: **Templates**

* Template:See Also (There are two 'See Also' templates so use the one with all capital letters)
	+ *See Also: **Templates***
* Template:Further Further is used when there are more than one main articles or similar articles that need to be referenced.
	+ Further information: **Templates**

* Template:Nextupdate Nextupdate is used on Update pages to make moving between them easier.
	+ *Previous: Pocket Ants Wiki **<-------->** Next: **Templates***

* Template:SpecialVariant SpecialVariant has two options and is used on Creature pages to reference the normal or special variant.
	+ *For the special variants, see Ghost Mantis and Orchid Mantis.*
	+ *For the normal variant, see Praying Mantis.*
* Template:Normal Normal template is used on Special Creature pages to reference the normal variant.(Replaced with the new SpecialVariant template)
	+ *For the normal variant, see Creatures*
* Template:OtherSpecial OtherSpecial is used on pages of Special Creatures with more than one Special variant to reference the other special variant.
	+ *For the first Special variant of the Normal Creature, see Special Creatures*

### **Infoicon**

*"Used for creating a link with a small icon."*

These are all the info-icons currently in use. They should be added to all tables except for single item tables like the Shop pages where it would be redundant to add. They can also be added in-line to highlight times when resources will be needed.

* Fungus
* Leaves
* Seeds
* Body Parts
* Honeydew
* Pheromones
* Resin
* Gems
* Battle Tokens
* Water

### Design

*"Used to design or structure article pages."*

#### Creature pages

These templates are for the Creatures page:

* Template:Legendary Legendary colored text

* Template:Rare Rare or Special colored text

* Template:Uncommon Uncommon colored text

* Template:Common Common colored text

#### Wiki Staff

These templates are for the Wiki Staff List:

* Template:Inactive Inactive users colored text

* Template:PAWikiStaff Staff members who don't have a Fandom account

#### Main page

These templates are for the Main Page:

* This template is for the Headers above each section.
	+ Template:Header

* This template is for the Community section.
	+ Template:MainCommunity

* This template is for the Did You Know section.
	+ Template:DidYouKnow

* This template is for the event Countdown.
	+ Template:Countdown

* This template is for the Featured Articles Slider.
	+ Template:MainSliderArticle

#### Other

* Template:Roundy Roundy template is used to create a border around a div section.

### **Non-article**

"This template is not for article pages."

* These templates are the /doc templates that provide Template data. See: *Category:Template documentation*

### **Unknown**

"Used when there is know specific information or detail that is suitable for the other templates."

* This template adds a purge button to a page or template to refresh the page's contents for all viewers.
	+ Template:PurgeButton
* Community Buttons exists but isn't used at the moment.
	+ Template:Community Buttons

## Unused templates

These types of templates are not currently being used on the wiki.

### **Quote**

*"Highlights notable snippets of text such as lyrics, book passages, or spoken dialog. Can contain dialog between one person or multiple people."*

* **None in use.**

### **Scrollbox**

*"Displays content in box which you can scroll in."*

* **None in use.**

### **Citation**

"Also known as reference this template organizes and standardizes how sources of content on an article page are annotated."

* **None in use.**

### **Media**

*"Used to standardize or modify the display of one or more images or videos."*

* **None in use.**

### **Data**

*"Used to display data on an article page."*

* **None in use.**

### **Navigation**

Used for Navigation.

* **None in use.**

## References

Here are useful links to explain templates further:

* Carnage's Guide to Templates: Navboxes.
* Understanding template classification

* Special:PrefixIndex/Template: