Template talk:OCLC

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Don't put any spaces after pipe symbol

I have found that you must not put any spaces after the pipe symbol, or it doesn't work. (It duplicates the number, and doesn't create a link). If I knew more about templates, perhaps I could diagnose this. The following works correctly: {{OCLC|3185581}} giving OCLC 3185581 while the following fails: {{OCLC| 3185581}} giving OCLC 3185581 EdJohnston 02:43, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

It's because of how external links are sensitive to spaces. Let me see if I can hackaround to fix it. JesseW, the juggling janitor 09:33, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, that seems to fix it! As you see, the example that I typed in above doesn't fail any more. EdJohnston 21:08, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cite book

I've inserted this template into {{cite book}} to add an explicit oclc=... field instead of id={{oclc|...}}, but, because of Bugzilla: 8446: Don't show conditionally included links on Whatlinkshere unless they're actually included, the What links here for Template:OCLC is useless. So I'm going to substitute it.

If you update this template, please also update {{cite book}} in the same way. — Omegatron 15:26, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Heh

OCLC 52075003 — Omegatron 00:45, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

I wonder if Wikipedia should apply for its own ISSN. OCLC thinks we are published in Cambridge, MA but they are not sure. EdJohnston 03:59, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
Woot!. OCLC tells me that if ever wikipedia goes down, I can trust that I go down to either University of Queensland or University of South Australia to find a copy. Both are a decent drive away, but at least Australia has two copies of this wonderful resource. John Vandenberg 04:45, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
Apparently, "The Encyclopedia is the most popular biographical on the Network". — Omegatron 03:22, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Template improvement (esthetical)

What do you think of improving the model as it is on the French Wikipedia (see fr:Modèle:OCLC) ?

It allows the OCLC ref to look like that:

  • Morón Villarreal, Jesus ; Gutiérrez and Magee, Tex-Mex heroes ; Houston, Tex. : J. Morón Villarreal, 1995. (OCLC 39126265)

rather than:

  • Morón Villarreal, Jesus ; Gutiérrez and Magee, Tex-Mex heroes ; Houston, Tex. : J. Morón Villarreal, 1995. OCLC 39126265

SalomonCeb (talk) 08:36, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation

{{editprotected}} What about disambiguating "OCLC" to "Online Computer Library Center"? — Cheers, JackLee –talk– 00:47, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

OCLC, as an article name, is currently a redirect to the fully-spelled-out name of the center, so no disambiguation is needed or even possible. The *template* {{OCLC}} is intended for use in reference lists, and needs to be compact. If {{OCLC}} were to expand out to 'Online Computer Library Center' on each occasion of its use, it would blow up the size of reference lists unnecessarily. Can you say more about what you have in mind? EdJohnston (talk) 01:43, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm suggesting that the template be linked to "Online Computer Library Center" instead of "OCLC" to avoid the redirect. Isn't it generally the practice to avoid redirects? Your explanation is reasonable enough, but this is only an issue if the template is meant to be substituted and there are no instructions on the template page advising editors to do so. — Cheers, JackLee –talk– 02:11, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't quite see how your proposal would work. We *want* the occurrence of the template to present the redirect 'OCLC' in the visible reference list. To do that it has to stay as it is. If you edit the template to spell out 'Online Computer Library Center' then every single reference list will show that as fully spelled-out.
As a test, edit the page we are in now and type {{OCLC|3185581}}. Then hit the 'Preview' button, and tell me what you see. You ought to see is OCLC 3188581. What you see (if your change is adopted) will be Online Computer Library Center 3188581 if I've figured it out correctly. That is the expanded form that would show up in every reference list (that uses this template) if your proposal were adopted. I believe that subst will make no difference in what appears. If you disagree with this prediction, please create a test version of the template (with the change made), instantiate it, and see what it gives you. EdJohnston (talk) 02:52, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

I think we're misunderstanding each other. I'm not suggesting that "OCLC" be spelt out in full in the template, just that the abbreviation is linked to the article "Online Computer Library Center" rather than the redirect "OCLC". The simple solution is to use a piped link, like this: "[[Online Computer Library Center|OCLC]]", which simply renders "OCLC". This will reduce server load as it is then not necessary to go through the "OCLC" redirect. — Cheers, JackLee –talk– 03:31, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

N Not done, per WP:R2D - don't fix redirect links that aren't broken. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 06:48, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
It seems to be a reasonable request. Users curious about what OCLC stands for might hover over the link to see what article it links to, only to discover that it stands for, oh, OCLC. Neither of the arguments against disambiguating presented in the R2D guideline seems to apply cleanly here: if the OCLC page is indeed turned into an actual article or disambig page, we shouldn't be linking to it from this template, and the readability of articles while editing will not be altered by a slight change to a template. Removing the redirect won't have a significant impact on server load (unless you count the short term job queue), but will benefit readers' understanding. – Luna Santin (talk) 06:58, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Use of {{Documentation}} template

{{editprotected}} Instead of transcluding the documentation page on to the template page using {{/doc}}, please use {{Documentation}} instead as this looks tidier, indicates to editors how they may edit the documentation, and is becoming the norm in Wikipedia. — Cheers, JackLee –talk– 20:19, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Can you give examples of any other templates where this change has already been made? I tried to test your proposed change but realized I didn't understand it well enough to know whether it was working right. This template is transcluded between 500 and 1000 times, and I didn't want to make a mistake. EdJohnston (talk) 21:15, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Y Done I also added {{pp-template}} Happy‑melon 21:29, 28 March 2008 (UTC)