Template:Ambox/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Ambox (see that page for the template itself).
It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This is the {{Ambox}} or article message box meta-template.

It is used to build article message box templates such as {{Wikify}} etc. It offers several different colours, uses default images if no image parameter is given and it has some other features.

This meta-template uses the ambox CSS classes in MediaWiki:Common.css. The classes can also be used directly in a wikitable if special functionality is needed. See the how-to guide for that.

Usage

Simple usage example:

{{ambox | text = Some text.}}

Some text.

Complex example:

{{ambox
| type      = style
| image     = [[Image:Question_book-new.gif|40px]]
| style     = width: 400px; 
| textstyle = color: red; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
| text      = The message body text.
}}

The message body text.

Article message box types

The following examples use different type parameters but use no image parameters thus they use the default images for each type.

type=speedy – Speedy deletion issues, such as {{Db-g1}} and {{Db-g3}}.

type=delete – Deletion issues, such as {{Afd}} and {{Prod}}.

type=content – Content issues, such as {{POV}} and {{Globalize}}.

type=boobs – Boobs measurement issues, such as {{Boobref}}.

type=style – Style issues, such as {{Cleanup}} and {{Wikify}}.

type=notice – Article notices, such as {{Current}} and {{Inuse}}.

type=move – Merge, split and transwiki proposals, such as {{Split}} and {{Copy to wiktionary}}.

type=protection – Protection notices, such as {{Pp-vandalism}} and {{Pp-semi-protected}}.

Other images

The default images shown above are mostly for convenience. In many cases it is more appropriate to use more specific images. These examples use the image parameter to specify an image other than the default images.

type = move image = [[Image:Merge-arrows.gif|50px]] This image is used for {{Merge}} etc.

Special

Some other parameter combinations.

No type and no image given (default)

No type and image=blank – Causes a blank area the same size as a default image. Makes the text line up well with other message boxes.

No type and image=none – No image is used and the text uses the whole message box area.

Parameters

List of all parameters:

{{ambox
| type  = delete / content / style / notice / move / protection
| image = none / blank / [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| imageright = [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| style = CSS value
| textstyle = CSS value
| text  = The message body text. 
}}

type

If no type parameter is given the template defaults to type notice. That means it gets a blue side bar.

image

No parameter = If no image parameter is given the template uses a default image. Which default image it uses depends on the type parameter.

An image = Should be an image with usual wiki notation. 40px - 50px width are usually about right depending on the image height to width ratio. (Images over 52 pixels width will cause padding problems.) For example:

image = [[Image:Unbalanced scales.svg|40px]]

none = Means that no image is used.

blank = Means that no image is used but an empty area the same size as a default image is used, which means that text in the message box gets aligned well with other article message boxes. (See the "special" examples above.)

imageright

No parameter = If no imageright parameter is given then no image is shown on the right side.

An image = Should be an image with usual wiki notation. 40px - 50px width are usually about right depending on the image height to width ratio. (Images over 52 pixels width will cause padding problems.) For example:

imageright = [[Image:Nuvola apps bookcase.png|40px]]

Anything = Any other object that you want to show on the right side.

style

An optional CSS value used by the entire article message box table. Without quotation marks " ". For example:

style = margin-bottom: 0.5em;

textstyle

An optional CSS value used by the text cell. For example:

textstyle = text-align: center;

text

The message body text.

Technical details

If you need to use special characters in the text parameter then you need to escape them like this:

{{ambox
| text  = <div>
Equal sign = and a start and end brace { } work fine as they are. 
But here is a pipe {{!}} and two end braces <nowiki>}}</nowiki>. 
And now a pipe and end braces <nowiki>|}}</nowiki>.
</div>
}}

Equal sign = and a start and end brace { } work fine as they are. But here is a pipe | and two end braces }}. And now a pipe and end braces |}}.

This template uses CSS classes for most of its looks, thus it is fully skinnable.

Internally this meta-template uses HTML markup instead of wiki markup for the table code. That is the usual way we make meta-templates since wiki markup has several drawbacks. For instance it makes it harder to use parser functions and special characters in parameters.

For more technical details see the talk page and the "See also" links below.