Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 July 8

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< July 7 << Jun | July | Aug >> July 9 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.


July 8[edit]

Looking for a similar template[edit]

Hello, I am looking for a template that produces something similar to the template found on this Italian Wikipedia article. The template is located directly below the image and contains a bulleted list. If anyone knows of a similar template on the English Wikipedia, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Ergo Sum 00:30, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In a quick look I can't find one. But ask at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Catholicism. StarryGrandma (talk) 02:58, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Where can I see template source code[edit]

I am looking for the source code of Template:Sidebar with collapsible lists, but am unable to find it, or the source code for any other protected template. I know this is a really simple question, but I just cannot figure it out. Can someone please help me out? Thanks in advance. Ergo Sum 04:31, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Click the "Edit" or "View source" tab to see the source code of the template page itself. The tab says "View source" if your account doesn't have permsision to edit the page. If the code starts like {{#invoke: Sidebar | ... then it means it uses Module:Sidebar. Modules use the Lua language which is completely different from the template language. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:10, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@PrimeHunter: Thank you. Seems obvious when you point it out. Ergo Sum 20:20, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Change in settings?[edit]

I went away for a few days and on my return found that my editing interface was different in several ways. I made no change in this time to my preference settings, but changes seem to have occurred, and some of them seem to be intermittent.

One example is what happens when I hover my cursor over a wikilink. I used to get some details about the size of the article, when it was last edited and the opening sentence. Now I get a small copy of the article's title and nothing else. But this is not consistent, and I currently have open in two tabs the same article Ikram Qureshi, and they respond to the cursor hovering in the two different ways. The only visual difference I can see is that the toolbar on the left displays "Page size" and "Highlight duplicate links" on the first and not on the second. I would appreciate some help in sorting this out. Thanks. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 10:09, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

All the mentioned features are made by JavaScript so the JavaScript in your account only works some of the time. This can for example happen if there is obsolete code somewhere and a random loading order determines what works. The hover feature is "Navigation popups" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. "Page size" and "Highlight duplicate links" are made by User:Cwmhiraeth/vector.js. You can try removing code you don't need. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:04, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. I am a bit dubious about mucking about with my preferences because I don't understand most of them, but perhaps it would be sensible to note down all the boxes that I currently have ticked and then restore the default settings. After that I can add back the ticks one by one to see if I need them. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 11:23, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Unverifiable additions to the Henry Abner page[edit]

Henry Abner (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

I'm don't use wikipedia much so I don't really know what to do with this problem.

On the page of dead author Henry Abner, a 'publisher' (which appears to be operating through a self-publisher, and only promotes a single book) keeps trying to add the one book that they publish, 'Relativity'. There's no reliable external source for this book having been the work of this author, and the author never worked in this genre (science fiction).

There appears to be a conflict of interest going on, as well as unverifiable information being added, but I don't really know how to take it from here. Would anyone be willing to help. 2A02:C7D:8E4E:2E00:108E:3F41:726:8219 (talk) 10:39, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Although the publisher (and it does appear to be them) should not be making 'spam' type additions to the page, what is it that makes you say that Abner was not the author? See Amazon link. Eagleash (talk) 10:49, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The 'Henry Abner' listed on amazon isn't the same as the Henry Abner the wiki page is about (there's no cross-over in the books, for example) for a start. Second, Amazon only repeat the information provided by the author/publisher to them, I think? There's no evidence that this is the same author that doesn't derive from this self-publisher, and there's no record or evidence of original Henry Abner writing science fiction, or of having written this book. 2A02:C7D:8E4E:2E00:108E:3F41:726:8219 (talk) 10:54, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I think I agree, the Amazon link to their Abner has a different set of books. I have left a welcome/warning message at the user's TP including in respect of their username. Will also add Abner page to my watchlist. Eagleash (talk) 11:38, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your help, I really didn't know where to start with this. Having looked around a bit it looks like the problems with the page might run even deeper. For example, I can't find any evidence of a Henry Abner having written a book called "Death Wears Yellow Garters", which is in the book in the lead for which he is supposed to be notable. The Chandler essay in the reference doesn't mention an Abner at all. This source suggests no such book exists, and it's just a parody title invented by Chandler, not a real book. 2A02:C7D:8E4E:2E00:EC91:50AD:8DD3:B74E (talk) 13:02, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Yes the whole thing seems fishy. The publisher account also edited an earlier post by another editor to try to hide any concerns. Yet another editor has now picked up on this and I think the best place to continue any discussions would be at the article talk page. Eagleash (talk) 13:23, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

ABC News American Broadcasting Co.[edit]

ABC News is listed as American Broadcasting Co. However ABC news is also came up through search as Austrian Broadcasting.

What up with that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.92.108.141 (talk) 12:21, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See the list at ABC#Broadcasting. -- Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 13:59, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Which page and which search are you referring to? The top of ABC News says:
That seems suitable to me. Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is an English name for ORF (broadcaster). It's not called ABC and I can find no sign it has something called ABC News. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:20, 9 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Questions about template syntax[edit]

Hello, I have a few questions about getting right the syntax for a template I'm creating. The template is found here, in my sandbox and is based on Template:Infobox.
1) I would like the data entries to appear in reverse order, i.e. I would like the data2 field, which includes the "bishop1" term to appear at the bottom of the template, then data3, including "bishop2," to appear second from the bottom, and so on.
2) My other question is how to make certain parameters required, i.e. the template will not render unless data is entered into them, the same way that a warning is prompted when certain fields are empty on Template:Citation.
If anyone can help with some or all of these questions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance for any help! Ergo Sum 18:26, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

1) data1, data2, ... are displayed in numerical order. Your infobox no longer uses different data numbers for different bishops but if you do and want bishop1, bishop2, ... to appear in reverse order then you can say data40={{{bishop1|}}, data39={{{bishop2|}}, ....
2) It's common for templates to still display as much as possible if a required parameter is missing. If you want to display nothing or only a warning then you can wrap the whole infobox in tests for parameters. If you want name and denomination to be required then you could make code like this:
{{#if:{{{name|}}}|
{{#if:{{{denomination|}}}|
{{Infobox|...normal full infobox code here...}}
|do nothing or say denomination is required
}}
|do nothing or say name is required
}}
PrimeHunter (talk) 08:07, 9 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter: Thanks so much, that helped a lot. You wouldn't also happen to know how to have all of my data fields left-align, would you? i.e., I'm trying to have {{{year}}} appear next to the second {{{name}}} and all be centeraligned. Ergo Sum 16:30, 9 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]