Wikipedia:Portal/Instructions

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This page gives instructions for the creation of new portals using the box portal layout.

Steps

To create a new portal on the topic "Topic" using the {{box portal skeleton}} template follow these steps:

1. Create a new page using [[Portal:Topic]] as the title of the page (where "Topic" is the subject of your portal) and enter the following text
{{subst:box portal skeleton}}

Save.

2. Create two subpages:
{{Portal:Box-header | title={{{1}}} 
|editpage={{{2}}} 
|border=#aaaaaa           <!-- This is the color of the borders around Box Sections -->
|titleforeground=white    <!-- This is the color of the Box Section Title Bar text -->
|titlebackground=#aaccff  <!-- This is the color of the Box Section Title Bar -->
|background=#f9f9ff       <!-- This is the color of the Box Section background -->
|foreground=black}}       <!-- This is the color of the Box Section text -->
{{Portal:box-footer | {{{1}}} }}
3. Return to your portal page Portal:Topic and begin editing (general instructions on editing a portal are below). Basically follow the red links to create sub-pages that will fill the boxes.
4. Place a link to your portal at the top of the appropriate article (of the same name) by placing a {{portal}} there, or place {{portalpar}} at other various pages.

For an explanation of how and why this format works go here.

5. List your new portal in the Directory of portals.
6. Announce your new portal on the community bulletin board.
At this point, you have created a Portal under construction. It is a framework with a lot of red links where content should go. A fair amount of work is still necessary to turn a skeleton portal into one ready for browsing.
7. Edit the portal. (See How to edit the portal below for instructions.)
8. When the portal is complete and of good quality:

Customisation and editing

The box portal allows you to edit the portal without editing the main portal page. Simply follow the red links to the sub pages and enter the information there. These sub-pages will be displayed on the main page.

Adding a section (box)

If you wish to add a section (box) using the regular codes, go to your portal page (e.g. [1]) and simply type in:

 {{/box-header| 1 | 2 }}
 {{   3   }}
 {{/box-footer| 4 }}

where

  • "1" is the box title
  • "2" is the article to be linked to. This will appear right under the title bar. You may omit this parameter if you don't want an edit link to appear, but you must not omit the pipe, for example:
    • {{/box-header | Selected article | Portal:Computer and video games/Selected}}
    • {{/box-header | Selected article | }} (no edit link param, note pipe still in place)
  • "3" is again the article to be linked to (this will appear as a red link until first edited), for example:
    • {{/Featured}}
  • "4" is a link that you'd like to display at the bottom-right corner of the box. You may omit this parameter if you don't want an edit link to appear, but you must not omit the pipe, for example:
    • {{/box-footer | [[Computer and video games|More about Computer and video games...]]}}
    • {{/box-footer | }} (no bottom-right param, note pipe still in place)

Example 1

The following code:

<div style="float:right; width:50%;">
{{/box-header|A random title|Portal:Test/Selected article}}
{{/Selected article}}
{{/box-footer|[[Lorem ipsum|More about Lorem ipsum...]]}}
</div>

results in:

edit

A random title

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.


Example 2

The following code:

<div style="float:right; width:50%;">
{{/box-header|A random title|}}
   The following text will appear in the [[box]]. This text can be placed on 
    the [[Wikipedia:Portal|portals]] main page and edited there.Or, 
    alternatly placed on a sub-page of the portal, which is explained below.
{{/box-footer|[[Lorem ipsum|More about Lorem ipsum...]]}}
</div>
edit

A random title

The following text will appear in the box. This text can be placed on the portals main page and edited there.Or, alternatly placed on a sub-page of the portal, which is explained below.

...will result in what is displayed to the immediate right.

The exact same code, used at other portals, will create a box with the exact same content, but the colors may be completely different. This is because each portal has templates at:

  1. "Portal:insertname/box-header" (e.g. [2])
  2. "Portal:insertname/box-footer" (e.g. [3])

that add color information, and the pass all the work along to the Portal:box-header and Portal:box-footer templates, which compose everything into a standards-compliant and cross-browser box.

Changing colors

The colors of the portal can be changed in the box-header subpage. A list of colors you can use is available at Web colors, List of colors, or Wikipedia talk:Colours.

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