Template talk:Characterbox

Cleanup

The code for this template is completely fubared. [[User:Aggelakis/example|Here was an example page.]] Someone needs to clean it up before anyone is capable of using it. I have no idea how to do that. There's way too much garbage in there for me to weed through. :/ -- Agge (talk) 16:23, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Wow. That really is a mess, isn't it? I'm in the process of tinkering with it a bit to see if I can clean it up any. Already found a couple of places where there should be a <td> but it was left out. After I get it a little cleaner, then maybe we can look at changing those HTML table format tags to wiki markup. --Eabrace 20:08, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

OK, it's marginally functional now. I'm not entirely certain why the Origin, Archetype, etc. are showing up bold, but it's a start. --Eabrace 21:55, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

That's cos "!" is the wiki equivalent of "make this whole line bold", sorta. And since pipes can't be used inside #if templates, gotta use {{!}} to "fake" them. :D

I did some twiddling and it looks basically complete now. Onlyinclude'd the code, and noinclude'd the documentation type stuff, categorized, etc. -- Agge (talk) 22:22, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

*facepalm* That's what I was thinking of. "{{!}}", not "!". Looks much better now, though. --Eabrace 23:19, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

For some reason, it's not floating to the right, allowing text to go down the left side next to it. I can't find the reason. -- Agge (talk) 16:40, 3 June 2009 (UTC) Fixed it... O.o?

Classified vs. Empty

I've modified this template to distinguish between things that are "Classified", vs. just being empty. For some reason, an empty battlecry leaves a closing curly brace, which I can't figure out how to remove without completely destroying the formatting =/  FW (talk · contrib)  22:58, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

The reason it was done that way was so that people didn't have to fill out the sections that they don't want to fill out and it would be auto-filled. Instead of changing it for ALL of them, we could change it for just the battle cry. Or we could summon Sekoia to figure out why an empty battle cry leaves a curly brace. :D

Though honestly, I had "Other Details" instead of "Battle Cry" and thought that worked much better. Don't really know why we need to know the battle cry right off the bat. (I think only like two of my chars have a battle cry... -- Agge _(talk) 04:05, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Looks like I found the issue. In the line where it was trying to close the table, it was reading {{!}}}}} and parsing it as {{!}} }} } so that it closed the IF statement first and then finished closing the table. What we really wanted was for the line to be read as {{!}}} }} so that it would close the second table and then close the IF statement. I forced the interpretation by inserting the space manually to keep the parser from getting confused. --Eabrace 05:15, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

I brought it back to not having to input the extra fields. Now it has two trailing braces and the battle cry is missing entirely. The point of the exercise is to make it so someone doesn't have to fill out the extra fields...so this is what we have to edit, not FW's...and this one is the broken one. :x -- Agge _(talk) 05:43, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

I totally fubar'd that one beyond anything I've ever done before (yay wiki code), so I just rolled it back. I'm tossing my hands up - I want to go back to where you don't have to input anything for "Classified" to come out (versus FW's requirement to put Classified as a parameter to get "Classified" to result) - but it's too late for me to be screwing with wiki code that I'm not sure about in the first place. :p -- Agge _(talk) 06:06, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Do you mean like I just did with the Origin field? --Eabrace 12:38, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Yes, like that. So that any field left empty automatically results in "Classified". -- Agge _(talk) 14:22, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

OK. Tinkering with it a bit now to see if I can get it all working. --Eabrace 14:59, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

How's that look? --Eabrace 15:20, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Perfect! No trailing widgets, and battlecry is hidden if there's nothing in it...brilliant. Thanks, Eabrace :D -- Agge _(talk) 01:01, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

The reason I wanted an empty parameter to omit the row, was "classified" might not apply to all characters (like... mine, when I was modifying the template). Saying something is classified gives a different connotation from it just being blank or not there at all. With the defaulting to Classified, not even setting the text to a space will take an element out.

For example, all of my characters that I've put on the wiki except Anscillect, their hero/villain name is their "formal name", and I don't think listing it twice looks good. I would truly like to have a way to omit any given row from the display.

Perhaps something like checking if the value is "_omit"? Underscores can't be used in character name unless you're a Paragon Studios employee...  FW (talk · contrib)  17:01, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

The simplest way is to perform a check to see if any value has been defined for each element. (Similar to the Battle Cry logic.) If no value is defined for an element, the element is simply not displayed. This would allow for quite a bit of flexibility in the template. --Eabrace 17:47, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Instead, how about we check whether "omit" is defined. If "omit" is defined, hide line. If nothing is defined, show "classified." If something else is defined, show defined text. The main thing is, "classified" should show as default. Hiding the line should not be default. ~ AGGE talk/cons 18:17, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

"IF" statements in Mediawiki are one level of complexity. "IF/ELSE" is another layer. "IF/ELSE IF/ELSE" is yet another layer. I don't find that Mediawiki logical condition statements are all that easy to maintain even at low complexity, so I would really prefer to keep the level of complexity as low as possible. Anyone who wants to see "classified", could still see "classified" by entering that as a value for display. No matter how we do this, one group or another is going to have to work around the default value definitions. But the method we choose to implement this will have a major impact on how easy/difficult it will be to make any further modifications to this template without breaking it. (I had to pull all of the logic out of the template and edit it externally with tabbing to try to wrap my head around it last time and it still took me a couple of tries to figure it out.) --Eabrace 18:56, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Two templates. Then we can make {{Characterbox2}} and have it hide the empty lines, and keep this one showing classified on empty lines. ~ AGGE talk/cons 19:07, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Is that my shadow over there?! I think I'm going to run off and hide in my hole for the next six weeks. :) --Eabrace 19:14, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Background Color

That color is absolutely awful. AGGE talk/cons 04:09, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

The blue, red, and/or grey? - OldeWolf 12:08, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Blue, mostly, but the red isn't wonderful either. Honestly, IMO there doesn't need to be a background, or there needs to be an option where you can specify none. AGGE talk/cons 17:11, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

CIT line

I'm trying to get it so the CIT info line appears at the bottom like it is now, but in the lighter color (not the same as the outline). But I seem to have the midas touch of shit when I mess with most wikicodes, so I'll just leave that suggestion hanging around here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Piemanmoo (talk • contribs) 20:45, August 3, 2009

I tried that but came up empty. The best I could do was as an "add on" to the upper lightest pane. - OldeWolf 00:20, 4 August 2009 (UTC)