Template:ReleaseVersionParameters/doc

This template is used to store WikiProject-specific configuration settings for the TechInfoDepot Release Version Tools. WikiProjects sign up for these tools by placing their top-level assessment categories into Category:TechInfoDepot 1.0 assessments. For example, TechInfoDepot:WikiProject Computing has Category:Computing articles by quality and Category:Computing articles by importance.

This ReleaseVersionParameters template should be placed in each project's top-level quality category (for example, Category:Computing articles by quality). Only one instance of the template should be placed on each such category.

Formatting the parameters
Each configuration setting is called a parameter. Unlike most templates, the arguments to this template must be parsed both by the wiki and by an external bot process. Therefore the parameters must be carefully formatted, and formatting and spacing is important.

Each parameter has a name (such as homepage) and a value (such as TechInfoDepot:WikiProject Ships). These are separated with an equals sign and no extra whitespace (homepage=TechInfoDepot:WikiProject Ships), and a pipe character is added at the front (|homepage=TechInfoDepot:WikiProject Ships).

In order to set all the necessary configuration data, several parameters may be used. Each parameter must be on its own line, and not on the same line as the opening . The correct synax is shown in the example code below.

Basic parameters
The most important parameter is homepage, which tells the system the main page for the project. For WikiProjects this will probably be the WikiProject's page; for task forces, it will be the task force's homepage. The syntax for setting just this parameter is:

A second basic parameter, "shortname", tells the bot a shorter "nickname" that can be used when displaying the name of the project. This is useful for projects that have extra terms such as "work group" or "related" in the title, and which don't wish to see these extra terms in the web output. The syntax to set the homepage and shortname for a project is:

The final "basic" argument is "hidden". Setting this argument causes the template to suppress its output on the category page. Some projects may prefer to set this parameter if they already have a preferred layout for their category pages. An example using this parameter is:

Extra quality and importance ratings
Many projects have quality or importance ratings that were not supported by the WP 1.0 bot. For example, some projects have used a "Future-Class" quality rating, and some have used a "Bottom-Class" importance rating. These ratings are all supported by the next bot. They are configured using parameters to the this ReleaseVersionParameters template.

How to configure a new rating
In this section, "rating" means a quality or importance rating such as "Bottom-Class". There are four parameters that must be set for each rating, and one optional parameter. The required parameters are: <ul> <li> title</tt>: the name of the template on the wiki that corresponds to the rating. For example, Template:Bottom-Class corresponds to title=Bottom-Class</tt> </li> <li> type</tt> is either quality</tt> or importance</tt> </li> <li> category</tt> is the category containing the talk pages that have this rating. For example, Bplus-Class mathematics articles are in Category:Bplus-Class mathematics articles and so the parameter is category=Bplus-Class mathematics articles</tt>. Notice that the word "Category:" is not included in the parameter. </li> <li> ranking</tt> is a natural number between 0 and 500. This number controls both where the new rating will appear among the other ratings in the summary table, and the quality points for the article's release version score. The values for the standard ratings are shown in the following table. Each rating should have a different numeric value.

</li> </ul>

Once you have the values for the title</tt>, type</tt>, category</tt>, and ranking</tt>parameters, you need to give them a prefix that groups them together into one rating. For the first extra rating, the prefix is extra1-</tt>. For the second, the prefix is extra2-</tt>.

The optional parameter is replaces</tt>. This specifies a rating on the default scale that is "close enough" to the custom rating. For example, the Bplus-quality rating might set replaces=B-Class</tt>. This parameter is used when generating the global statistics table; the pages with the custom rating are conted in that table as if they had the <tt>replaces</tt> rating instead.

For example, the following code will add a Bplus quality rating for the mathematics project:

The next example adds a NA importance rating to the Drug Policy project.

Here, the <tt>replaces</tt> parameter is not set because non-article pages do not appear in the overall statistics table anyway.

The next example adds two extra ratings to the Lancashire and Cumbria project: NA-Class as a quality rating and NA-Class as an importance rating.