Wikipedia talk:List of infoboxes/Proposed/Infobox window covering

Infobox name

Is this to be termed "Infobox Mini blind" or was "Mini blind" just an example of its use (in which case what name should the infobox have) ? David Ruben ^Talk 01:50, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I was thinking it should be called Window Covering with Mini Blind as an example. I don’t know what the angle brackets are for. I want it to show the example, so I guess I should edit it. --Chuck Marean 02:30, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Given generally only 1st word capitalise, then template would be [[Template:Infobox window covering]] David Ruben ^Talk 00:56, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Comment

There seems little need for a taxonomic info-box for mini blinds. These are window coverings, not drosophila. --ZimZalaBim ^talk 02:26, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Some Window Coverings are drapery, etc. --Chuck Marean 02:34, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

This is not an infobox - yet

This should never have been moved to make live, I've moved it back to proposal page, for else it would have been nominated for speedy deletion.

Chuck Marean several problems need sorting out before making it live:

1. Firstly it is not yet an infobox ! Infoboxes are used on multiple pages and will show information specific to the topic of the relevant page. To do this they use parameters to pass values across to the infobox, and so far there are no parameters (these are named or numbered and indicated by triple curley brackets, eg {{{Subgroup}}}). Next decission needs be made about what to do if a parameter is not defined - generally displaying "?" or "unknown" is seen as unprofessional look for wikipedia, so either leave blank, or should the whole row be hidden ?
2. Instructions to editors that appear at [[Template:Infobox xxx]] must be hidden using <noinclude></noinclude> tags, so that they do not appear within the main space articles.
3. Then there is the major issue as to what the infobox is for - I have really no idea as to the scope of topics it covers (ie which articles you ar esuggesting would use it), yes miniblinds, but what else ? And for these other articles, does the heirachy of the parameter names mean anything to the average reader (eg what is "subclass" supposed to mean ?).

So back to proposal page where this can be worked on, without other editors (or myself) nominating for WP:TfD. Have a play with the current coding and ask if you need any help or guidence, but as a suggestion, place all the instructions in a /doc subpage from where the template can be called as a working example, this leaves the template itself just the coding for teh infobox itself - eg see Template:Birth control methods_infobox and Template:Birth control methods_infobox/doc. David Ruben ^Talk 00:38, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

This is the way I had it: 11:43, October 12, 2007. I had it shaped like a window with curtains and raised blinds. The fill in parts are: Mini Blind, the Window blind, horizontal slats, raisable, mini and also the picture and the caption. The box is for various Window Coverings. If it shows a shade or a verticle blind or a kind of curtain the picture would be of that and it's name and subclass, etc. would be different. I'm not sure what you mean by paramiters. What people would fill in are after the caption, and after the colons and the title. Maybe the title on the green valence is confusing and unneeded. I don't understand the examples you gave. What are the equals signs and how would they make the box shaped like a room's window? --Chuck Marean 03:53, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

The point of templates is that they are resused on many different pages, Wikipedia:Navigational templates remain static and show the same collection of links on each page (eg see Template:Birth control methods), whereas infoboxes show specific details to the relevant article that they are used in. The "specific details" that the infobox needs to display in a given article are transfered to the infobox template using parameters (aka variables). But the template layout will not change for a unique layout to each article, hence there would not be a [+] shape for windows nor ||| for vertical blinds.

The infobox template itself is, as you largely correctly set up, just a table. Variable data placeholders are given by use of a parameter name enclosed in triple curley brackets. In the article calling the infobox template, each parameter is asigned a value.

The /doc subpage is only used to give the instructions to editors on how to use the infobox, the relevant <noinclude></noinclude> tags prevent any of the instructions from being shown when the template is called from an article.

As examples

	object’s name
	A mini blind has 1 inch slats

{{Infobox window covering
|class   =Window Covering
|subclass=Window Blind
|group   =Horizontal slats
|subgroup=mini
|type    =Raisable
|image   =Mini blind.jpg
|caption =A mini blind has 1 inch slats
}}

Gives:

	object’s name

Whilst:

{{Infobox window covering
|class   =Window Covering
|subclass=Ventician blind
|group   =Horizontal slats
|subgroup=mini
|type    =Rotation
|image   =
|caption =
}}

Gives:

Finally I've simplified the coding with wide green coloured border, rather than in-filled side columns, and put a conditional test on the image (so that if not defined then nothing shown, rather than error link of [[Image{{{image}}}]]) David Ruben ^Talk 23:04, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

parameter names

Parameters - I still don't understand what the parameter names mean in the context of other articles where the infobox might get used. For example, on curtain, what does a "group" mean. I think the parameters need to be better termed (eg rather than "type" have "opening movement" or something similarly more self-explanatory). David Ruben ^Talk 02:33, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I changed it to:

|name = |purpose = |location = |method = |structure= |opened by= |image = |caption =

--Chuck Marean 02:55, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Much better :-) David Ruben ^Talk 20:42, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Colours

Infoboxes should have one fixed colour scheme for consistency across a group of articles. The only occasion an exception thought appropriate, was for sports teams to follow the club's colours.David Ruben ^Talk 11:07, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Help:Infobox said, "You can use . . . a system of coloration (for example, the organism taxobox has different colors for each of the kingdoms)."--Chuck Marean 19:18, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

True, and I missed that sentance trying to look up guidelines for this. But note the importance of there being a "system" of colours - that means preset and defined set of colours. So internal and external window coverings might have a different colour, but not a free range for each article to have a idiosyncratically chosen colour by that article's editor. There should be a described list of colours to be selected from in the infobox's description (ie in the /doc), or the colour to be set on the basis of one of the given parameter values (either "purpose" or "location" values) ? David Ruben ^Talk 22:01, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Fancy image, not an infobox

Sorry, but this merely looks like a fancy framing for an image & caption, and not an actual Infobox (which is supposed to provide a "consistently-formatted table which is present in articles with a common subject to provide summary information consistently between articles or improve navigation to closely related articles in that subject"). --ZimZalaBim ^talk 16:16, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

This hasn't been addressed, so I've nominated it for deletion here: Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:List of infoboxes/Proposed/Infobox window covering. --ZimZalaBim ^talk 14:31, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

I disagree. This “fancy framing for an image & caption” is an an actual Infobox. It does provide a "consistently-formatted table which is present in articles with a common subject to provide summary information consistently between articles or improve navigation to closely related articles in that subject." It provides name, image and caption. That is summary information. It’s consistently-formatted. It’s a table. It’s for articles with a common subject, window coverings. The way it provides the information is consistent between articles: name of object, view of object, and capiton about object. Also, an infobox is not called a tablebox. Yet, this is not only a table, it’s two tables. The “name of object” parameter goes in a table within the main table, and it does provide info. Chuck Marean 00:16, 14 November 2007 (UTC)