Template talk:Navbox

Width
I'm changing to default width to 80%, and making it as a parameter. I see no reason for individual navboxes to have to define their own widths. Happypal 12:24, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

Horizontal line
I had brought this up on Wynthyst's page, but I'm bringing it here. I must say I am not a fan of the horizontal lines between each navboxes

With Lines
BLABLABALBLA 



Without Lines
BLABLABLABLA

More discussion
So yeah, I find the lines to bring clutter more than anything. I would be against a single horizontal line before the navboxes, but not 1 between each box. Happypal 07:30, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Agreed Vissith 07:31, 25 May 2011 (UTC
 * I concur. Sathka 17:45, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

Line breaks in navboxes
In the ore-type navboxes I've been working on, I've been including some linebreaks, but I don't like this. However, if I take them out, page links tend to wrap on whitespace so you'll often get like "Iron Armor" split across two lines, which is gross. I noticed that Wikipedia's navbox does not linebreak page links, but their template is so hairy I have no idea how they're accomplishing it, or if there is some sort of "nonbreaking spaces in links" server setting. Whatever the solution is, I'd like to take the breaks out without making the navboxes ugly. Any ideas? Vissith 20:10, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I think we may need to set up subsections for those navboxes. Ore/Bar/Coin; Tools/Weapons; Accessories. Or something along that line, where each line would be a sub section. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  20:43, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Do you mean something like this? They're pretty wiki-common. Sathka 21:23, 25 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah, it is pretty wiki-common, but writing the template is quite a job (99% of the time, it is a wikipedia import). Such an import requires a ton of templates, plus css support of several features. I wouldn't be against an import, but I'd require Wynthyst's explicit support before doing it. Happypal 21:29, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Navboxes of this type won't be too numerous. I don't think manual maintenance of them is out of the question.  (That's me volunteering, btw.) Sathka 21:31, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * We have no need to import anything, or write any css support. The example that Sathka provided is pretty much exactly what I mean, though using the already established Terraria class can simplify the coding a bit. Simply use that style on the Gold/Silver/Iron/Copper nav boxes using the appropriate sub categories. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  21:35, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Or, since their numbers are limited, writing them by hand would be the best solution, I agree. I tend to want everything templatized... BTW, I prefer the text with left alignment, rather then right. Happypal 21:41, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Good point, I'm not sure why I didn't try out the terraria class. I'll leave this table here for a half-day or so, make any changes you like and then I'll make the rest of the templates.  Sathka 22:31, 25 May 2011 (UTC)


 * I think Vissith has it under control. The nav boxes are already there, they just need to be modified. It's only for the specific ore related nav boxes that he created. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  22:35, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I thought the idea was to remove the specific ore navboxes in favor of a tool one and a materials one? (Or a weapon and materials one). Sathka 22:44, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * No it was to find a way to best present the ore-type nav boxes. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  22:49, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I sub-templatized the left "v.d.e" of the navbox in template:navbar/left, so you can use them in your hand written navboxes. Incorporating in above box for display. Happypal 07:23, 26 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Aha, I was struggling to figure out what to do next, as I discovered that I could not put a table in the Navbar body (why is that? I searched for an answer and came up empty), and a Terraria class table didn't behave like a Navbar. I think this covers it. However, there are some glitches in your template, see Template Talk:Navbar/left :) Vissith 08:44, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

“ •  “ vs. “&amp;nbsp;• ”
I think using Template:• is better, because it can be styled and the spacing can be adjusted. We should encourage it’s use.

Furthermore i propose it to be colored in a e.g. light blue. – Flying sheep 12:25, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
 * If you volunteer for the work, I'm all for it. That said, I find that using black contrasts well with the text. happypal (talk &bull; contribs) 08:04, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Automatic Navboxes
I had an idea to make the navboxes at the bottom of pages less error prone so that you don't have to edit two pages every time you modify a navbox template. Over at User:RestfulMonad/AutoNavbox I have a Navbox-based template that accepts a list of items instead of just a block of body text. The entire navbox is shown/hidden based on whether or not the page shows up in the list inside the navbox. It currently joins up to 30 items into a • separated list for the navbox contents, but I imagine with some additional conditionals you could add custom linebreaks. If we switched all the existing navboxes to this format you could make one mega-template that's just a list of all the navboxes we have on the wiki and each page would just have to stick on the bottom and any navbox that lists the page will show up at the bottom. That way you only have to edit the navbox itself to add/remove pages and the pages themselves will get updated too. Thoughts? -- RestfulMonad 05:08, 29 June 2011 (UTC)
 * What do you mean "error prone"? Never seen anywone mess up using a navbox.
 * "Mega" has always been problematic on wikis
 * High use pages: Usually leads to protection, stalling the wiki's evolution
 * Hard to use and scary: Only the wiki gurus tend to touch these mega pages
 * Heavy on the servers
 * While I do like your approach, I'm think it is better to have a simple "every one can edit" approach. happypal (talk &bull; contribs) 08:02, 29 June 2011 (UTC)
 * As I'm typing this response I'm starting to think I need to just do a demo instead!
 * Putting the navbox on the page isn't the part you can easily mess up. But leaving one off is, especially if you're making a new navbox since you have to go touch every page the box refers to. If the navboxes are 'smart' and all the navboxes that can take you to the page show up at the bottom of that page automatically then you can't possibly leave one out. Plus a new navbox is two edits: one for the navbox and one to add it to the list. Nice and clean.
 * As far as the arguments against the mega-template (which is really just a big list of ):
 * I agree that a high use page like that could lead to protections. But given that it only needs to be touched when someone adds a new navbox, not when an existing navbox gets updated, I don't think that's a big problem.
 * Updating the mega-template is as simple as adding your new navbox to the list. Using it is really a one-time thing - just put at the bottom of the page once.
 * This one I'm not experienced enough with MediaWiki to know.
 * I think the 'smart navbox' approach makes things easier to edit. The icons on the navboxes themselves let you jump right to editing the lists in the box and as long as you don't touch the at the bottom it all works. And if for some reason you do clip off the  and replace it with a list of navboxes all you lose is the smartness. -- RestfulMonad 08:32, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Grouping Constructs
Aside from template hair, was there any objection to a group-based navbox template for general use? I can see it being useful to organize boxes like Template:Slimes organizing the slimes by layer/biome or Template:Iron by breaking the things you can craft into categories. -- RestfulMonad 05:08, 29 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I think the conclusion is that no navbox had really required it yet, and nobody really pushed for them. As for "template hair", the conclusion (I think) was that a hand written navboxes are fine. I can see what you mean by "organize", but keep in mind that a navbox is not meant to organize anything: It is meant to jump from one page to the next, in the most intuitive way possible. Sometimes, this does warrant sections, sometimes it doesn't. Anyways, if you write something, and the community likes it, then we'll adopt it. happypal (talk &bull; contribs) 08:10, 29 June 2011 (UTC)
 * By organize I mean show the links in the navbox in an organized fashion instead of just a cloud of links. I'll poke around with turning the grouping style above into a template and change Slimes and the Copper/Iron/etc. navboxes over to show you what I mean if I think it looks better. -- RestfulMonad 08:32, 29 June 2011 (UTC)