Template:Taxobox

[edit] Template documentation

About this template

This template sets up a taxobox. Although the implementation is complicated, it is relatively simple to use. See taxobox usage for an explanation. For an example in practice, look at the edit page of Orca - [1]. Most parameters are optional, so if a particular entry is not relevant for your case, just leave it out.

Making changes

Before making any non-minor changes to this template, please make a copy of the whole template to your userspace and do tests there. This will avoid unnecessary load on the servers and prevent a large number of pages being screwed up. To edit and test the taxobox template in your userspace:

1. Copy the text in the large edit box of Template:Taxobox to User:YOUR USERNAME/taxobox. Copy the whole text so that you don't leave anything out.
2. Test the template with various taxonomies by copying the text of a plant/animal species or group to User:YOUR USERNAME/taxoboxtest.
3. Replace the |Taxobox|...}} template used by User:YOUR USERNAME/taxoboxtest with {{User:YOUR USERNAME/taxobox|...}}
4. If unsure, please check a few different animals and plants and groups
5. Check the Template:Taxobox history, in case changes have been made while you've been editing
6. Copy the whole text of User:YOUR USERNAME/taxobox back to {{Template:Taxobox}}
7. Check that plant and animal pages still work.
8. Request your userspace taxobox and taxoboxtest pages are deleted using {{db-userreq}}

Editing documentation and interwiki links

Add or edit the documentation and interwiki links for the Taxobox template via the Template:Taxobox/doc page. The /doc page is not protected.

Further documentation is found at:

• Wikipedia:How to read a taxobox
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/taxobox usage

Microformat

This template emits a "species" microformat, according to the current draft ("straw man") specification. This is recognised by the Operator extension for Firefox (using an add-in user script, itself in development).

Wikipedia editors are invited to comment on or contribute to the development of this microformat, via the above links, or the "microformats-new" mailing list.

The microformat is created by the use of class="biota" on the whole infobox, and classes for individual taxonomic ranks, such as class="domain" in a span around {{{domain}}}. Please do not change or remove those classes other than as part of development of the microformat. For background information, see microformats on Wikipedia.

The color tag should not be included as colors are assigned based on the table below.

This template employs intricate features of template syntax. You are encouraged to familiarise yourself with its setup and parser functions before editing the template. If your edit causes unexpected problems, please undo it quickly, as this template may appear on a large number of pages. Remember that you can conduct experiments, and should test all improvements, in either the local /sandbox or your user space before changing anything here.