Template talk:Infobox book series/Archive 1

Archive 1

Books parameter

I wasn't following the process that redirected {{Infobox novel series}} to this template, but I notice that the "books" parameter (to list works in the series) does not appear in the documentation example code but is still functioning and in use by many (if not all) of the articles which use {{Infobox novel series}}. Is this an accidental omission in the documentation or has this parameter been deprecated?— TAnthony^Talk 17:22, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

A few changes

I like to make a change to added a "No. of books" parameter similar to the {{Infobox television}}'s List of episodes, change to use title instead of above for accessibility reasons and a clean up of the code. d'oh! _talk 07:26, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

I think such a change is a good idea, but do we want to do two params, one for num_books and an optional list_books for where the actual list of books in the series is on a separate page (though I'd think that would still be pretty rare right now)? I don't understand how changing to use "title" makes the infobox more accessible. There are several heavily used infoboxes, such as {{Infobox film}} and {{Infobox television}} which do not use title. I would think that if it were an accessibility issue, it would have been brought up on those by now. -- AnmaFinotera (talk ~ contribs) 13:15, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

I agree with you for the two params instead of one. The accessibility goes to what HTML code the infobox creates at the end. With "above" a normal row is used but with title the infobox uses <caption/> tag which helps accessibility software for disabled people and Google and others when crawling. It has come up a few times but nothing was done. d'oh! _talk 13:47, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

 Done, with some syntax and whitespace tweaks to bring it in line with the previous deployed code. Any problems, please let me know. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 08:50, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Italics

Could someone please add {{Italic title}} in the same way that it has been added at {{Infobox book}}? Mhiji (talk) 14:41, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

 Done — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:57, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Since Template:Infobox has now been changed so that it allows italics, could someone change the code to reflect this please rather than using {{Italic title infobox}} (similar to how its been implemented at {{Infobox book}}, {{Infobox album}}, {{Infobox newspaper}}, {{Infobox play}} etc etc.)? Mhiji (talk) 13:17, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

 Done — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:05, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Please take out {{italic title}}. {{Infobox book}} has italics because every article with it should be italicized; here many articles have titles which aren't actually book titles, and should be in Roman. I come here from Rick Brant, which is the name of a character, not the title of any of the novels about him.

{{Italic title}} can be added separately where needed. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 17:14, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Why doesn't Rick Brant use Template:Infobox character? Brant is not a book series, so his article should not use this infobox.

An alternative, if consensus supports de-italicization for this infobox, is to insert a parameter for italicizing the title (default on, probably, as it is used mostly on pages that should be italicized). /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 21:47, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure that's true. You would think that most series would be referred to as "Title series" or "Title trilogy" or the like rather than just by the title. I'd just remove it, though I'd like to see what Martin thinks before undoing his change. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 11:00, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

...That said, Martin is apparently on vacation right now.  Done for now as there looks to be a compelling argument for why this shouldn't be on by default. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 11:03, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Edit request from Rcsprinter123, 11 July 2011

I'd like to add a parameter for a website of some sort.

Rcsprinter (talk) 16:11, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Could I ask you to make the required changes to Template:Infobox book series/sandbox, wait a few days to see if there are comments from other editors forthcoming, and then reactivate the request? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 16:45, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

I have now made the change to the sandbox. Rcsprinter (talk) 15:40, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Reactivated request after a few days. Rcsprinter (talk) 11:42, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

I don't think that's gonna work. Why does it have example.com in it?--Closedmouth (talk) 13:22, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Think I fixed it. Please check and reactivate. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:02, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Checked and reactivating. Ready for main template. Rcsprinter (talk) 13:24, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

 Done (But I'd appreciate someone looking to make sure it is OK.)--SPhilbrickT 15:37, 30 July 2011 (UTC)

"Publisher" Wikilinked?

The word "Publisher" in this template links to Publishing, an article on the process of publishing and the publishing industry. Why? It seems unlikely to me that readers interested in The Lord of the Rings, Left Behind, Babar the Elephant, or indeed almost any of the articles that use the template, would be interested to read more about publishing as an industry. Am I alone in thinking this? Cnilep (talk) 04:16, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

Given the lack of replies to my comment above, I presume the following request is uncontroversial. Please change "label10 = [[Publisher]]" to "label10 = Publisher". Cnilep (talk) 04:15, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

• Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit protected}} template. I would like to see some consensus for this as I personally might be likely to follow a link to publishing for clarification. As far as getting no response above, try asking on a more frequented forum such as a Village Pump like the Idea lab or Proposals. Thank you. Technical 13 (talk) 13:54, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

I agree that the "Publisher" parameter does not need to be linked, and I'd be curious about the discussion that resulted in that. No other parameter names are linked and I'm not sure who, in that context, would follow the link. It's like linking "novel", another common term that everyone knows, especially if you're already on the article for a published novel.— TAnthony^Talk 00:56, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

• I have requested comments at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Novels#Infobox book series, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Literature#Infobox book series, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fictional characters#Infobox book series, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Children's literature#Infobox book series, and WikiProject Books (archived here). I received zero replies. I did not take up Technical 13's suggestion to discuss it at Village Pump. If editors with a professed interest in books aren't concerned about this change, I reckon editors with no such professed interest are even less likely to be. Cnilep (talk) 04:43, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Done --Redrose64 (talk) 11:00, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

"Edited by" and "genre" vs "discipline"

Many book series (especially academic ones) are edited by one or more persons, with each volume having different authors or (again) editors. Could a parameter "edited_by" be added?

For academic books, "genre" is not really appropriate. Could a parameter "discipline" be added that can optionally be used instead? Thanks! --Randykitty (talk) 10:38, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

• Not done: please make your requested changes to the template's sandbox first; see WP:TESTCASES. Technical 13 (talk) 04:11, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

• I'd be happy to do so, if I had the foggiest idea of how to edit a template. However, I've never done this and am completely helpless here. Sorry. --Randykitty (talk) 16:50, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

• I've added genre or discipline option to the Template:Infobox book series/sandbox and you can see the results on the Template:Infobox book series/testcases page. Is that what you are looking for? As far as your request to add |edited_by=, I'm going to need more details. Where in the box should this go? Under or in place of authors? Is it a "can be only one or the other" situation? Should it just be:

Edited by	Fred, Bob, and Sam

What do you think, how do you want it to look (feel free to adjust the wording of my example here → Technical 13 (talk) 18:47, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

• Thank you so much! Yes, the genre or discipline should indeed be mutually exclusive and this looks perfect. And indeed, the "edited_by" should be mutually exclusive with "author", I think. I understand that this template is often used for, say, series of novels where the individual volumes are mostly authored by the same person or persons, but in academic publishing there are often series of books where one or a few persons are the editors, who look for authors or volume-editors for the separate volumes. In those cases it would be impossible to list all authors, but the editors would be the most important people for the series. There is such an "edited by" line in {{Infobox journal}}, too, for example. Thanks again! --Randykitty (talk) 19:07, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

• Partly done: I've incorporated the Genre/Discipline edit into the main template, but am going to wait a few days before adding the Author/Editors (which is /sandbox and you can see the results on the /testcases of course) to make sure there is no opposition or anyone that wants to step forward with a good reason why they shouldn't be mutually exclusive. Happy editing! Technical 13 (talk) 19:58, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

• Done Randykitty, 7 days is more than the few days I said I would wait. Author/Editors is now pushed through as well. Technical 13 (talk) 05:22, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Add OCLC parameter

Some book series have OCLC numbers. Please copy the parameter from one of the other templates like {{Infobox magazine}}. The Laws of Pennsylvania article is waiting. Int21h (talk) 16:16, 5 April 2015 (UTC)

• @Int21h: Perhaps it would be better to use {{Infobox book}}? You don't appear to be needing the three series-specific parameters: books; number_of_books; and list_books. Alakzi (talk) 16:35, 5 April 2015 (UTC)
  • Except that it isn't a book, it's a series of books, many of which have different titles, different publishers, etc. Int21h (talk) 16:39, 5 April 2015 (UTC)
    • Done Alakzi (talk) 16:43, 5 April 2015 (UTC)