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Template:Archives/doc

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Places an archive box flush right (default) or a wide archive banner containing links to archive pages and a search box to search them. A summary of the archive bot config appears below the search box.

Usage

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{{Archives}}
{{Archives|banner=yes}}
{{Archives|nobot=yes}}

When to use

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You may use this template to generate a boxed Archive list and search box when there is no Talk page header box at the top of the page, or when the Talk page header does not emit an archive box as part of the Talk header.

Another reason to use template {{Archive box}} is for an article having archives with both standard as well as non-standard names for the archives. This sometimes occurs for older articles that were created before the archiving system became standardized, and have both ad hoc archive names as well as standard ones,[a] or having both standard archives as well as topically-named archives out of the main numerical sequence.[b] In cases like these, you can include both the {{Talk header}} box with no params at the top of the page to pick up all the standard archive names, as well as {{Archives}} with the |list= parameter to pick up all the non-standard names.

Another reason might be to link standard archive names with other display text,[c] or to add annotations next to the linked archive name, even if they are linked using the standard names.[d]

When not to use

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When you add this template to a talk page with the {{Talk header}} template, by default each one will display the same archive list and search box. In order to avoid such duplication, either don't use the {{Archives}} template, or turn off archive search box display in the {{Talk header}} template. It is possible to search for Talk pages that have both templates, in order to search for anomalies that may need attention.[e]

Where to place

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Place the template last among the header material at the top of a talk page, and before the first section heading.

Parameters

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There is one positional parameter, and 27 named parameters; all are optional. With no parameters, the template displays a rectangular box entitled "Archives" flush-right on the page, with links to every archive page that exists (as long as they have the standard naming scheme), an input box to enter search terms, a search button to search the archives, and a bot notice at the bottom summarizing the configuration parameters for the archive bot.

Descriptions of the parameters below are grouped into five functional areas (see § Descriptions ).

Full list

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Vertically

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{{Archives
| 1                   = <!-- unnamed param 1: like param 'list' but may be combined with 'auto' -->
| banner              = <!-- "yes" switches from small, flush-right box to wide centered banner; alias: 'large' -->
| collapsed           = <!-- "yes" or omit -->
| collapsible         = <!-- "yes" or omit -->
| box-width           = <!-- deprecated, use 'style' -->
| style               = 
| search              = <!-- "no" hides the search box; default: "yes" -->
| age                 = 
| target              = 
| image               = 
| alt                 = 
| link                = 
| image-size          = 
| title               = <!-- box top caption; default: "Archives" -->
| list                = <!-- for nonstandard archive names, list them manually; disables param 'auto' -->
| auto                = <!-- set auto=short or auto=no; default: "long" -->
| index               = <!-- Index subpage name, e.g. "Archive index" or "none" if not wanted -->
| archivelist         = <!-- /archivelist -->
| root                = 
| prefix              = 
| start               = <!-- Archive number to start from; default: 1 -->
| search-break        = <!-- default: "no" -->
| search-width        = <!-- default: "22" -->
| search-button-label = <!-- text on button; default: "Search archives"; alias: 'button-label'.  -->
| units               = <!-- bot archiving interval units; default is "day" or "days"; deprecated. (automatic) -->
| bot                 = <!-- name of archiving bot; deprecated (determined automatically) -->
| minthreadsleft      = <!-- bot archiving config param; deprecated. (determined automatically) -->
| editbox             = <!-- "yes" or "no" -->
}}

Horizontally

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{{Archives |1= |banner= |collapsed= |collapsible= |box-width= |style= |search= |age= |target= |image= |alt= |link= |image-size= |title= |list= |auto= |index= |archivelist= |root= |prefix= |start= |search-break= |search-width= |search-button-label= |units= |bot= |minthreadsleft= | editbox= }}

Alphabetically

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{{Archives |1= |age= |alt= |archivelist= |auto= |banner= |bot= |box-width= |collapsed= |collapsible= |editbox= |image= |image-size= |index= |link= |list= |minthreadsleft= |prefix= |root= |search= |search-break= |search-button-label= |search-width= |start= |style= |target= |title= |units= }}

Descriptions

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Parameters described below are grouped into functional areas:

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No parameters are necessary for detection of numbered archive pages in the standard format Archive_1, Archive_2, and so on. These are detected automatically. Talk page archives having non-standard naming schemes can also be listed, but you have to specify them.

(1st unnamed parameter) or 1=

Inline list of manually maintained archives. For example: "list=[[Archive of 2017]], [[Archive of 2018-19]], [[Archive of 2020]]". No subpages are assumed unless specified (e.g. "list=[[/Archives/2017]]" and so on). Using this parameter disables automatic detection, but this detection can be re-enabled with auto=long or auto=short, making the template display both manual and automatic archives. This is usually done when other related archives are linked, such as when using centralized talk pages or adding links to archives of alternative accounts.[f]

list

The same as the unnamed parameter, except the disabling of automatic detection cannot be re-enabled. In other words, using |list= instead of |1= makes the template ignore the |auto= parameter's secondary function of forcing auto-detection.

auto= <short|long|no>

Specifies the format of the auto-generated archive list and forces automatic detection. If left unspecified, the default is "long", meaning links to archives are spelled out ("Archive 42"); any other word (except "no") will result in "short", resulting in shorter links (e.g. "42"; see Example #2), and "no" will disable auto-detection, meaning that even if there are archives following the {{PAGENAME}}/Archive # format they will not be displayed automatically. Auto-detection is also disabled if a manual list is supplied. However, if this list is supplied by the 1st unnamed parameter rather than the list parameter, auto-detection can be re-enabled by overriding the default by using auto=long or auto=short.

index

Links the "Archives" title to a specified subpage that should be the subject index page for all archived discussions, such as "Archive index". The slash "/" is not used for this parameter. Legobot may be used to create and maintain such an index. To link to a different subpage, only use the subpage name and don't add the slash "/". For example, to link to the Talk:Example/Page Index subpage, use |index=Page Index. |index=none disables this feature.

archivelist

In conjunction with this parameter you are able to create a whole page where you can customize your archive list. The parameter specifies a link to this page, which should be a subpage that contains the archive list. The name of this page is commonly simply "archivelist", i.e. the same name as its parameter. This is also the default assumption, see notes below. The slash "/" is used for this parameter. As an example of real usage: |archivelist=Wikipedia:Media copyright questions/Archivelist. As you can see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions/Archivelist is set up to be used by the Archives box on its respective page.

Icon image

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image

An alternate image to be used, defaults to "Replacement filing cabinet.svg". May also use image-size. none results in no image.

alt

Alt text for the image, for visually impaired readers. See WP:ALT. This defaults to empty. If a nonempty value is specified for link, alt should be nonempty too, and should indicate what will happen if the user clicks on the image.

link

Link for the image. This normally defaults to empty, which means no link. However, if alt is nonempty, it defaults to the image's file page.

The link and alt parameters only take effect if the image is changed from the default.

Search box and button

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search

Default: yes. If no, removes the search box.

root

Specifies a different base than {{FULLPAGENAME}}/. Useful for when this template is located on a different page than the page being archived. Use prefix, if the addition of a trailing slash is not desired. The archive wikilinks generated are of the form root + / + Archive #.

prefix

Similar to root, but does not automatically add a trailing slash.

search-break

Inserts a newline between the search bar and search button preventing them from being on the same line. Default: no if in banner format yes otherwise

search-width

Default: 22

search-button-label

Default: Search archives. "button-label" is an alias.

Archive bot config

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Automated archiving settings are defined by {{User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis} if using User:ClueBot III or {{User:MiszaBot/config}} if using User:Lowercase sigmabot III. {{Archives}} will automatically extract these settings and display them at the bottom of the archive box (or banner) unless suppressed with |nobot=. The parameters formerly used to state settings for the bot notice (before automatic extraction was introduced) are deprecated and grayed out below.

nobot

Set |nobot=yes to suppress the bot notice normally displayed below the search box.

target

The title of the page (just the name, no link syntax) that threads are currently being archived to, for manual archiving.

bot (deprecated)

If specified, a note about automatic archiving will be shown.

age (deprecated)

If specified, this will be displayed as the archiving delay.

units (deprecated)

If specified, this will display units for the archiving delay. The default is "day" or "days".

minthreadsleft (deprecated)

If specified, this will display a note explaining the page won't be emptied out. Not to be confused with User:MiszaBot/config's minthreadsleft parameter, which is not deprecated.

Box style and title

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banner

"yes" converts the box design of the template into a talk page banner style of template, with the archives listed in a horizontal row above the search bar, and the bot config notice listed below it.

large

alias of 'banner'.

collapsible

If yes, makes the list collapsible.

collapsed

If yes, makes the list collapsed.

style

An arbitrary string of CSS can be applied to the box (use with care).

title

An alternative title, defaults to "Archives". The title is automatically linked to the /archivelist subpage, if it exists. If another link is desired, a wikilink may be inserted here.

editbox

If yes or omitted, includes a button to edit the archive box's sub-page /archivelist.

Further details

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The {{Archives}} template may be used to add a box containing page links to archived discussions. It will automatically detect archived pages by default, if they follow the format {{PAGENAME}}/Archive #, eliminating the need to manually update the box each time a new archive page is created. However, if a list of archives is given manually through the first unnamed parameter, then it does not check for archives automatically. Instead, auto=long or auto=short has to be added, if both manual and automatic lists are used.

This page is intended to explain the details of template usage. For a general guide to archiving, see: Help:Archiving a talk page, which includes more information on using this template and others. With no explicit parameters, the archive list presented in the box is determined automatically. If a subpage called "{{PAGENAME}}/archivelist" exists, it will be used as the central content of the box.

If no archive list subpage is detected, numbered archive subpages will be listed in long format. Such pages must be named as "/Archive #" in order to be automatically detected. No other naming styles will be auto-detected. The "long" auto format (the default) indicates "Archive 1", "Archive 2", and so on. The "short" auto format indicates only the archive number.

An additional list of archives can be passed in the first unnamed parameter, avoiding the need to set up an archivelist subpage.

Using "auto=no" will disable archive auto-detection. Manually specified archives will still be shown. [The archive box will also contain an "Edit" link, targeted at the archive list subpage, which can then be used to begin manually populating the list, if desired. This seems broken.] This may be desirable, if the archive list is given in the title parameter.

The "auto" and "archivelist" parameters are not intended to be used together. (Doing so does not use the specified archive list page.)

The auto-generated archive list requires subpages to use the common naming convention. That is, "{{PAGENAME}}/Archive 1", "{{PAGENAME}}/Archive 2", and so on. The letter "A" must be capitalized, there must be a single space between the word "Archive" and the number, and there must be no leading zeros. If archive subpages do not conform to this convention, they can be renamed to conform, or a manual list can be maintained.

Examples

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Default

{{archives}}

Short, index, collapsible

{{archives |auto=short |index=/Archive index |collapsible=yes}}


Notes

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  1. ^ An example of an older article with both types is Talk:Abortion, with standard names Talk:Abortion/Archive 1, Talk:Abortion/Archive 2, Talk:Abortion/Archive 3, and so on, as well as older, non-standard names like Talk:Abortion/Lead 2007-10.
  2. ^ Topically-named archives: as at Talk:Hezbollah or Talk:Armenian genocide.
  3. ^ Standard archive names linked with other display text: see Talk:Rorschach test.
  4. ^ Examples of annotated archive names: see Talk:Speed of light, and Talk:List of states with limited recognition.
  5. ^ This advanced search query will list Talk pages that have both a {{Talk page header}} as well as an {{Archives}} box on the page, and may be useful for finding Talk pages where the parameters of the {{Talk page header}} or the {{Archives}} box need adjustment because of duplicate information. There are some additional search terms in the query in an attempt to prune the list, but there are legitimate use cases for having both templates on the page (see § When to use), so this list may have a lot of false positives.
  6. ^ For an example having several sections including headers and links, see Talk:United Kingdom.

TemplateData

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This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Archives in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Archives

Box to list archived discussions on talk pages

Template parameters

ParameterDescriptionTypeStatus
List of manual archives1 list

Inline list of manually maintained archives

Example
[[/Archive 1]], [[/Archive 2]]
Contentoptional
Demospace parameter for boxdemospace

Demospace parameter for {{talk other}}

Suggested values
talk other
Default
talk
Unknownoptional
Large box banner optionbanner large

"yes" converts the box design of the template into a talk page banner style of template, with the archives listed in a horizontal row above the search bar.

Default
no
Example
yes
Booleanoptional
Collapsible?collapsible

Whether or not the list should be collapsible

Default
no
Example
yes
Booleanoptional
Collapsed?collapsed

Whether or not the list is pre-collapsed. If set to yes, will also force the list to be collapsible regardless of the value of the collapsible parameter.

Default
no
Example
yes
Booleanoptional
box-widthbox-width

no description

Unknowndeprecated
classclass

Add additional CSS classes

Stringoptional
stylestyle

Arbitrary custom CSS styling

Stringoptional
targettarget

no description

Unknownoptional
Icon imageimage

The image to be used for the icon. Set to "none" to remove the icon.

Default
Replacement filing cabinet.svg
Fileoptional
Icon alt textalt

Icon alt text, for accessibility

Stringoptional
Icon linklink

Page that the icon links to when clicked

Page nameoptional
Icon sizeimage-size

Size of the icon

Default
40px
Stringoptional
Titletitle

An alternative title.

Default
Archives
Lineoptional
Automatic detectionauto

Whether to spell out archive names (long), only list numbers (short), or disable automatic detection entirely

Suggested values
short long no
Default
long
Unknownoptional
Archive index pageindex

Links the 'Archives' title to a specified subpage that should be the subject index page for all archived discussions. Set index=none to disable.

Unknownoptional
Start indexstart

Starting index for list of archives

Default
1
Unknownoptional
Archive list pagearchivelist

In conjunction with this parameter you are able to create a whole page where you can customize your archive list. The parameter specifies a link to this page, which should be a subpage that contains the archive list.

Example
Wikipedia:Media copyright questions/Archivelist
Page nameoptional
Archive page rootroot

What should be prepended to the archive name (trailing slash automatically added)

Default
{{FULLPAGENAME}}
Page nameoptional
Archive page prefixprefix searchprefix

What should be prepended to the archive name (trailing slash not automatically added)

Default
{{FULLPAGENAME}}/
Unknownoptional
Search bar?search

Set to "no" to disable the search bar

Default
yes
Example
no
Unknownoptional
Insert newline between search bar and button?search-break

Inserts a newline between the search bar and search button preventing them from being on the same line. Defaults to no if in banner format, yes otherwise

Booleanoptional
Search bar widthsearch-width

Width of the search bar

Default
22
Numberoptional
Search button labelsearch-button-label button-label

Label for the search button

Default
Search achives
Stringoptional
Archiving delayage archive_age

Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, this will be displayed as the archiving delay.

Numberdeprecated
Archiving delay unitunits archive_units

Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, this will display units for the archiving delay. The default is "day" or "days".

Suggested values
days weeks months
Default
days
Stringdeprecated
Name of bot that does auto archivingbot archive_bot

Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, a note about automatic archiving will be shown.

Userdeprecated
The minimum number of threads that the archiving bot will leave on the pageminthreadsleft

Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, this will display a note explaining the page won't be emptied out

Numberdeprecated
Include a button to edit the archivelist?editbox

If yes or omitted, includes a button to edit the archive box's sub-page /archivelist.

Suggested values
yes no
Default
yes
Unknownoptional

Redirects

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