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Archive 1 | Archive 2 | Archive 3 | Archive 4 | Archive 5 | Archive 6 | → | Archive 10 |
Some infoboxes have started to use a generic blank map with a superimposed red dot to show the location of a city, circumventing the need for location map images for every city. Over on the German wiki, someone has come up with a neat way to achieve this, a way that I have not seen on the English wiki. The template de:Vorlage:Infobox Ort in Deutschland makes use of a standard blank map of Germany and requires only the city's geographical co-ordinates to present the final map. This is achieved by an internal template which performs all the necessary calculations to place the dot in the right place. Pretty clever, I thought.
I have put up an English version of this infobox at {{ Infobox German Location}}, which also refers to this internal template, known as {{ Lageplan}} (directly copied from the German wiki). The reason for a separate infobox for German cities comes from the desire to directly import infobox data from entries on the German wiki (which is why most variables still have German names) - but I have added a few extra features and changed the appearance to something more like Infobox City. For example, see Cologne.
Perhaps something like this could be used in this infobox. For this, the user would need to pick a map from a set of default images. And the Lageplan template would need to be generalised. Worth a thought. - 52 Pickup 18:49, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
The flag image appears to have automatic text caption of the form "Flag of {the page name}", even if the image exists and has a different title. What is the purpose of this bit of text? Same for the seal. First noticed on Providence, Rhode Island, but it appears to be consistent(ly weird) on many pages. DMacks 20:00, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
|flag_link=
|shield_link=
|logo_link=
|seal_link=
Just so everyone is aware, the concept of adding automatic unit conversion from metric to imperial has been proposed as a feature request for the wikimedia software. The feature discussion would benefit from participation. Alan.ca 12:57, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
For the area, population density and elevation fields, values can be converted and even placed in an order. For example many pages only have the metric values entered, automatic conversion will calculate the corresponding imperial values and display them in the infobox. The reverse is also true. Many U.S. pages only have the imperial values entered, automatic conversion will calculate the corresponding metric values and display them too. The calculations will work as long as the values are raw numbers only; no commas or spaces or reference tags. Editor notes (<!--Ed note:-->) are ok. The template will format the numbers displayed in the infobox. There are reference fields (area_footnotes & population_footnotes) if a reference is available; use the <ref name=>Your reference here </ref> tags. If both metric and imperial fields such as area_total =259 and TotalArea_sq_mi = 100 are filled in then both values will be displayed regardless if they are correct or not. This overrides the automatic conversion and can be helpful if the value is a range (see next section).
If one value in one of the elevation fields is entered correctly then automatic conversion will convert it and display it. However, if a range is entered such as elevation_ft= 33–330 '''or''' elevation_ft= 33-330 then automatic conversion will try to convert it but will either generate an Expression Error or will convert it incorrectly base on the - (minus sign). So in this example above:
When an editor wants to display an elevation range for a city then they must enter the ranges in both the fields like this elevation =10–100 elevation_ft=33–330 . This will over-ride the automatic conversion and display the fields correctly in the infobox.
Cities in the United States that have the United States (or some variation of the name) in the field subdivision_name=, will automatically have the unit order switched to imperial first then metric in parenthesis as suggested by 52 Pickup below . However, not all pages have the country name in the subdivision_name field (sometimes it was state name or county). Therefore, if a page is metric first and an editor would like imperial first then metric, they can add unit_pref=Imperial (or English, etc) and the units will flip-flop. Leaving unit_pref blank or entering Metric (or SI) will display the metric units first if the subdivision name is not United States.
I hope that was clear, but any question or errors happen this is the place to post 'em. — MJCdetroit 03:32, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I have tried to use {{ Location map}} in this template but have not been able to. Could someone correct this? -- Eleassar my talk 16:06, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Due to popular demand, I've prototyped some changes to this template to enable support for the {{ Location map}} template. I've encapsulated the {{ Location map}} template within the {{ Infobox City}} template, and exposed two new parameters pushpin_map and pushpin_position which provide the map name and label position configuration for the location map, along with the existing mapsize, map_caption and latitude and longitude parameters of this template. You can see and test the prototype at {{ Infobox City Maptest}}. An example of it in use is shown here: Template talk:Infobox City Maptest. The location map will only be displayed if the pushpin_map parameter is specified, and the existing image_map parameter continues to function as before. Please post your feedback here about these proposed changes... ( Caniago 18:21, 23 January 2007 (UTC))
Hi! We're discussing the best way we can add the Current City Time CCT to articles. One of our suggestions is to have a main site where the time would be purged and updated. I had a suggestions where it places a link to the category:UTC-1 or whatever the UTC is and then we could link those categories to the articles UTC-1, UTC+0, etc... Any other sugestions. -- CyclePat 20:48, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
This template creates a white space in first line of articles, see Ahvaz for example. Anyone know how to fix this? Khoi khoi 06:33, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't know if this is even possible or not, not knowing the internals of this thing, but I have a request: would it be possible to change the template so that either metric or non-metric units would appear first (say, total area), depending on which one was specified first? As it stands now, the default is to display metric units first. This is inappropriate for US cities, where US readers would normally expect to see areas displayed in square miles, not square kilometers.
Any chance of this happening? I understand it may not be technically possible, but it would be a nice amenity, as well as a recognition that the whole world doesn't measure in metric units. + ILike2BeAnonymous 05:05, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
Hope a third time is a charm! I like to know if it's possible to globally change the width, border and background color of this template? I'm trying to match the border and background color to the city colors, and want to adjust the width of rows and columns, too. Doing so manually would be frightful to those who don't engage in web design. Is this template so hardcoded to not pass a simple style="" override? FResearcher 23:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
When you try to put a reference within the infobox, it doesn't work. Although it shows up in the references section, there is a mess of code in the infobox where the ref should be. For example, Federal Way, Washington. Any way to solve this problem? -- Schzmo 00:37, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
Why does this template put emphasis for area on the metric system? It looks odd to see the area listed as kilometers, while miles is stuck in parentheses. Shouldn't there be an option to have it the other way around? TJ Spyke 09:30, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
When there is no population as of parameter, footnotes are not shown. Rich Farmbrough, 10:35 14 February 2007 (GMT).
I have a problem with the image description of the seal of Athens since the template automatically uses input from the first parameter as part of the file name. Would it be possible to include a line to allow a manual input of the article name? One of the other infoboxes has this feature, but I can't remembed which one. If this is done, this possibility should exist for article names for both seals, flags and coats of arms. Valentinian T / C 00:21, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
Some time ago I created a geography related infobox framework with a few templates (e.g. Geobox River, Geobox Mountain Range) built from scratch. They have certain features such as consistent look, logically named fields, fully automated unit conversion, automated linking and also a version of automated location maps.
I've tried to design a template for Cities/Towns etc. using this system. Having been designed from cratch too it has somewhat more consistently named fields. However, for backward compatibility it also accepts (hopefully) all fields from the existing Infobox City template. So in most situations it can be applied simply by changing the template name to Geobox Town (or Geobox City, which is just an alias). I've started working on this template some time ago, in the meantime some of the issues it deals with have been solved in Infobox City independently too. More info at User:Caroig/Geobox_Town.
You can see the new template at Sandbox:Town. These are copied from existing pages using Infobox City, only the template name has been changed and commas from figures removed and when two values were present, either metric or imperial ones have been removed. If you're interested, you can try it out by simply changing the template name in any existing page (and possibly removing commas from all figures, which is being done on all pages anyway) and post any comments on Geobox Town. – Caroig 16:37, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
{{
Merge|Geobox Town}}
I would suggest that we merge the two so that they don't compete against each other.—
MJCdetroit 01:59, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Well, yesterday I removed all support for the field names from Infobox City as there seemed no interest in that. Its much easier to maintain the code now. Geobox City is a part of a larger series of coherently named and formatted "Infoboxes".
To be sincere I started Template:Geobox Town as I was unhappy with the situation around Infobox City. As I wrote some time before, I stopped using this template some time ago when someone complete reworked its code (I probably wouldn't find the edit now, it was when someone replaced the wiki table syntax with the classic HTML tags), broke the layout and reintroduce too many bugs or issues that had already been solved. And people still keep adding haphazardly named fields which often broke other things. Sorry MJCdetroit, I see you're trying hard to bring some other here but others do their changes too and not always to the best.
To put it in a nutshell, all Geoboxes use the same field names and internal logic, there's always a fieldname which can have modifiers attached. All unit related fields can have _imperial and _unit and _round attached, some fields (where it makes sense) have _type to change the default label (there's always one default value so there's no need to define the label, take mayor – most towns cities in Europe have just mayors, so I don't need to define that, the same applies for coutry, region, postal code etc. but if you need you can still "retype" the label). Most fields have also _note, a field for various notes, references etc. Not only this is easier for a user, there's no need to include those additional fields in a blank template and some day, hopefully, more advanced syntax will be introduced to the Mediawiki software enabling much easier code – there would be a subtemplate which would have the name of basic field as a parameter and the rest will be done automatically. Well, this could be achieved even today but with the current syntax it doesn't seem that useful. The Geoboxes have also a flexible location map system, which allows input data in either the classic way (deg, min, sec) or just positive/negative decimal numbers, the placement of the locator dot can be achieved in two ways, either fully automatically based on coordinates or seme-automatically using relative coordinates of the dot when the former is from various reasons not possible (conical projection, map with an inset).
You can see all the various Geoboxes e.g. here:
The Geoboxes series is just something new, with a new approach. They offer very consistent sytem of template for geography related "Infoboxes". They offer quite a few new things, their biggest disadvantage being they are not compatible with most existing "Infoboxes" – Caroig 08:56, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Many European countries specify location in car number plates (See European vehicle registration plates). For example, German number plates starting with "M" come from Munich, while Spanish ones starting with "M" are from Madrid.
Would it be possible to introduce such a field to this template? At the moment, Athens, which uses this template, has the licence plate code in the footnotes field. If this feature were to be added, more European locations could be better served with this template, making it more reasonable to use this template instead of creating more country-specific ones. - 52 Pickup 15:45, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
It is possible that the infoboxes used for Dutch locations will be converted to Infobox City. One thing that the Dutch template has that this one does not is a separate field for the mayor's political party. Separating this from the name of the mayor would be very useful since then you could remove the need to wikilink the name - and set the template to check instead if an entry exists under this name. This would remove a few red links.
To help in this, I've been working on a new template {{
Polparty}} where you enter the name of the country and the politcal party, and it gives you the correct abbreviation that links to the entry on that party. For example {{Polparty|USA|D}} = [[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]. To test it, I have modified the entry for
Chicago. If the list of countries/parties is expanded in Polparty, this might make it a little easier to have the right political information. What do you think? -
52 Pickup 19:34, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
There are over 3000 pages using this template. Is it time for full protection? -- Rick Block ( talk) 04:23, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
This edit adds parameters for flag_link, seal_link, shield_link, and logo_link (presumably to avoid red links where these articles don't exist). Requiring an explicit link parameter for these articles makes it completely unambiguous whether there's a link or not, and removes any forced association between the name of the city article and the name of the article about the flag (or seal or ...). Unfortunately, it also breaks every link that did exist (like some of the "Flag of" articles here). Another way to do this would be to make these links conditional on the existence of the article (the way the "leader" links are handled, above). Unlike in the leader case, I think it's actually appropriate to automatically link these (if the article exists). These are articles with names like Flag of Denver, Colorado, which are extremely unlikely to need disambiguation. I really think it would be a good idea for folks to start discussing changes to this template before making them. -- Rick Block ( talk) 05:04, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
Why is the nickname just floating between the location map and the flag and seal images now? That seems to be an odd place for it. Kaldari 19:46, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
I've been thinking in merging {{Geolinks-cityscale}} and Establishment date categories into this template, please tell me what do you think. Thanks. --– Emperor Walt e r Humala · ( shout! · sign? ) 21:46, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
Does anyone have, know someone who has, or can tell me where I can find databases with all information needed to create infoboxes for every single city and town in the United States? I'm looking to do this in the next few months, but can't find a single source with all the needed data. Right now I'm considering writing a bot to read through every US town/city article and extract the data, but it would much better if I could just find a set master tables (ideally from government databases sitting out there somewhere). I'll also take any information available on counties, census designated places, and any other geographic division that might require infoboxing.
The information I would need is: Town/City name, County, State, population total, population density (per sq mi and per sq km), population date, area total (sq mi and sq km), area water (sq mi and sq km), area land (sq mi and sq km), elevation (ft and m), coordinates, time zone, summer time zone, zip code(s), and area code(s). Optional data would include nickname, motto, type of government, leader type, leader name, website, and any other important notes.
Please let me know if you have anything, and I'll be happy to start compiling it all into a giant Excel spreadsheet for future processing into infoboxes.
Note that this will only be done for cities and towns that currently lack infoboxes (though I could theoretically use it to fill in missing information in cities/towns already having infoboxes).
Thanks, -- CapitalR 14:55, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
In Havířov article it shows up "Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character" sentence in area parameter. - Darwinek 22:48, 6 March 2007 (UTC) It also shows up in the density field, see Frederiksberg for example. -- Darwinek 00:14, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
I don't really like the "colored" infobox header version. A graphic designer would be horrified. Please someone revert!.--(( F3rn4nd0 )) (BLA BLA BLA) 07:20, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
I prefer the old color. This way the color is easy out of tune with the top image. Maybe you can make the coloring of the background optional, as in Template:Infobox Actor? – Ilse @ 13:14, 7 April 2007 (UTC) (post moved by User:MJCdetroit)
Actually, there isn't really a "section". It is just kind of there with the subdivision and the established dates. Therefore, I am going to separate it with a line and give it a section heading like Area and Population have. I think it will make the template look better, but if it makes you puke (like the name color) then feel free to revert it. Also, how about some blank fields for each section and the template? — MJCdetroit 02:27, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
Hello, for those interested, a short update on the recent development of this template:
Is there a reason (technical or otherwise) to not to support geographical coordinates where only degrees are listed? {{
GR|1}}
provides coordinates in decimalized degrees, without minutes and seconds. It make sense to enter this information directly without requiring a calculation that can introduce error or rounding that reduces accuracy.
David H. Flint 07:19, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
For reference, on the technical side, it seems that the relevant change could be to replace
<tr class="mergedbottomrow"> <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller; padding-bottom: 0.7em;">Coordinates: {{#if:{{{lats|}}} | {{coor dms|{{{latd}}}|{{{latm}}}|{{{lats|0}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longm}}}|{{{longs|0}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}} | {{coor dm|{{{latd}}}|{{{latm}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longm}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}}}}</th> </tr>
with
<tr class="mergedbottomrow"> <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller; padding-bottom: 0.7em;">Coordinates: {{ #if:{{{lats|}}} | {{coor dms|{{{latd}}}|{{{latm}}}|{{{lats|0}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longm}}}|{{{longs|0}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}} | {{#if:{{{latm|}}} | {{coor dm|{{{latd}}}|{{{latm}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longm}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}} | {{coor d|{{{latd}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}} }}</th> </tr>
I'd prefer not to make such a change myself, as I do not know the reasons for why it is the way it is now or what could break. David H. Flint 07:50, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
I've spent a while compiling a giant database of information on US census division statistics, and I'm nearly ready to request permission to use a bot to add this template to all 41,903 articles that I have information on. However, a serious discussion will need to take place first to determine if this is the correct template to use, and what kind of modifications need to be made to it before its usage jumps from 4100 to 45000 articles. Thus, I will start that discussion here, so please add your comments. I haven't applied for a bot account yet, and will only do so when/if a consensus is reached here that adding this template to the articles is the right thing to do.
My database, which I compiled from many government databases, contains the following information. These are nearly all articles added by User:Ram-Man and User:rambot, but there are about 5000 that are missing (and which I will add in the style of the rambot). The percentage refers to the number of records, out of 41,903, that I have that information on:
Information I can't find in public databases (if you know where to find an item, let me know):
Note that I will not overwrite information in articles that already have an infobox, but I will add missing information (though I will record all information already in infoboxes, so I can later examine if it is accurate, and replace it later on if it is not accurate). Also, I do not plan on using the bot to edit the largest 200 cities or so, and these articles will be edited by hand to add the information.
The new maps will only be used on articles that contain no map, or contain one of the simple red-dot maps. Articles with more sophisticated maps will not have their maps modified. However, the maps for all locations will be uploaded, even if it is not used in the infobox, so someone can manually add the new map to an article later on if they choose.
Certain states, such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire already have most of their cities/towns/etc using this template; this project would just be a continuation of this process to extend the templates to all cities/towns in every state.
I have a few requests/suggestions for changes to be made to the template before this huge-scale use:
So, please add any questions and comments about this proposed use of the template below. -- CapitalR 10:55, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
This is not directly connected with your suggestion yet let me point out the existence of {{ Geobox Town}} (or if you wish {{ Geobox City}} which is just its alias). It was nor originally designed for US cities but as of its current version it can easily accommmodate all its fields from Infobox City and it provides much more functionality in a cleaner design. The fully consistent field names are also useful for any import/export to/from a database.
As of your three issues with Infobox City:
Additionaly, there are two fields for a map, both of which can make use of an automated locator dot placement (given a calibartion template exists for the given map), then there's no need for a special map for each and every place. Of course, plain maps can be used as well. The use of two maps (state map and the location of the state within the USA) is recommendable as non-US readers are usually not familiar with the location of US states.
Some users tried to use this template for US places, see e.g. Springfield, Illinois or West Chester, Pennsylvania. – Caroig 12:17, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
Would it make sense to rename this template to Infobox Settlement instead of the current Infobox City? This template is now designed to be used by any settlement type instead of just cities, and I want to make sure that people aren't confused when they see this template in an article that isn't about a city. For example, when I added this template to the 301 Massachusetts towns, some people reverted the changes on the basis that a town isn't a city (it was very irritating to have to go fix these and explain that this template is for more than just cities). I know that Infobox Town redirects here and I could have just used that instead, but I still think that the master template should be named Infobox Settlement, and the Infobox City, Infobox Town, Infobox County, Infobox Township, etc, should all redirect to the master. Just some thoughts to consider, -- CapitalR 12:14, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
The parameter names have been (or will be) changed so that they are a little more consistent with each other. Infobox City/Test has already been changed. It has side by side infobox comparisons —which look the exact same. It also has a table showing the new field names and the deprecated (old) names. After the new names are implemented in the template, the old names will still work and we can get a bot to switch all the pages using this template to use the new names. Please see Infobox City/Test. — MJCdetroit 01:06, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
Edit conflict...I made the change to the live template so that it will accept the new names. The documentation on the main template page has been updated to reflected this change. There is also a table to help explain the template a little better. The only article that I changed to the new names was San Jose, California. We can get a bot to change the rest. In the future, articles should only use the new parameter names. — MJCdetroit 16:34, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 | Archive 2 | Archive 3 | Archive 4 | Archive 5 | Archive 6 | → | Archive 10 |
Some infoboxes have started to use a generic blank map with a superimposed red dot to show the location of a city, circumventing the need for location map images for every city. Over on the German wiki, someone has come up with a neat way to achieve this, a way that I have not seen on the English wiki. The template de:Vorlage:Infobox Ort in Deutschland makes use of a standard blank map of Germany and requires only the city's geographical co-ordinates to present the final map. This is achieved by an internal template which performs all the necessary calculations to place the dot in the right place. Pretty clever, I thought.
I have put up an English version of this infobox at {{ Infobox German Location}}, which also refers to this internal template, known as {{ Lageplan}} (directly copied from the German wiki). The reason for a separate infobox for German cities comes from the desire to directly import infobox data from entries on the German wiki (which is why most variables still have German names) - but I have added a few extra features and changed the appearance to something more like Infobox City. For example, see Cologne.
Perhaps something like this could be used in this infobox. For this, the user would need to pick a map from a set of default images. And the Lageplan template would need to be generalised. Worth a thought. - 52 Pickup 18:49, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
The flag image appears to have automatic text caption of the form "Flag of {the page name}", even if the image exists and has a different title. What is the purpose of this bit of text? Same for the seal. First noticed on Providence, Rhode Island, but it appears to be consistent(ly weird) on many pages. DMacks 20:00, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
|flag_link=
|shield_link=
|logo_link=
|seal_link=
Just so everyone is aware, the concept of adding automatic unit conversion from metric to imperial has been proposed as a feature request for the wikimedia software. The feature discussion would benefit from participation. Alan.ca 12:57, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
For the area, population density and elevation fields, values can be converted and even placed in an order. For example many pages only have the metric values entered, automatic conversion will calculate the corresponding imperial values and display them in the infobox. The reverse is also true. Many U.S. pages only have the imperial values entered, automatic conversion will calculate the corresponding metric values and display them too. The calculations will work as long as the values are raw numbers only; no commas or spaces or reference tags. Editor notes (<!--Ed note:-->) are ok. The template will format the numbers displayed in the infobox. There are reference fields (area_footnotes & population_footnotes) if a reference is available; use the <ref name=>Your reference here </ref> tags. If both metric and imperial fields such as area_total =259 and TotalArea_sq_mi = 100 are filled in then both values will be displayed regardless if they are correct or not. This overrides the automatic conversion and can be helpful if the value is a range (see next section).
If one value in one of the elevation fields is entered correctly then automatic conversion will convert it and display it. However, if a range is entered such as elevation_ft= 33–330 '''or''' elevation_ft= 33-330 then automatic conversion will try to convert it but will either generate an Expression Error or will convert it incorrectly base on the - (minus sign). So in this example above:
When an editor wants to display an elevation range for a city then they must enter the ranges in both the fields like this elevation =10–100 elevation_ft=33–330 . This will over-ride the automatic conversion and display the fields correctly in the infobox.
Cities in the United States that have the United States (or some variation of the name) in the field subdivision_name=, will automatically have the unit order switched to imperial first then metric in parenthesis as suggested by 52 Pickup below . However, not all pages have the country name in the subdivision_name field (sometimes it was state name or county). Therefore, if a page is metric first and an editor would like imperial first then metric, they can add unit_pref=Imperial (or English, etc) and the units will flip-flop. Leaving unit_pref blank or entering Metric (or SI) will display the metric units first if the subdivision name is not United States.
I hope that was clear, but any question or errors happen this is the place to post 'em. — MJCdetroit 03:32, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I have tried to use {{ Location map}} in this template but have not been able to. Could someone correct this? -- Eleassar my talk 16:06, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Due to popular demand, I've prototyped some changes to this template to enable support for the {{ Location map}} template. I've encapsulated the {{ Location map}} template within the {{ Infobox City}} template, and exposed two new parameters pushpin_map and pushpin_position which provide the map name and label position configuration for the location map, along with the existing mapsize, map_caption and latitude and longitude parameters of this template. You can see and test the prototype at {{ Infobox City Maptest}}. An example of it in use is shown here: Template talk:Infobox City Maptest. The location map will only be displayed if the pushpin_map parameter is specified, and the existing image_map parameter continues to function as before. Please post your feedback here about these proposed changes... ( Caniago 18:21, 23 January 2007 (UTC))
Hi! We're discussing the best way we can add the Current City Time CCT to articles. One of our suggestions is to have a main site where the time would be purged and updated. I had a suggestions where it places a link to the category:UTC-1 or whatever the UTC is and then we could link those categories to the articles UTC-1, UTC+0, etc... Any other sugestions. -- CyclePat 20:48, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
This template creates a white space in first line of articles, see Ahvaz for example. Anyone know how to fix this? Khoi khoi 06:33, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't know if this is even possible or not, not knowing the internals of this thing, but I have a request: would it be possible to change the template so that either metric or non-metric units would appear first (say, total area), depending on which one was specified first? As it stands now, the default is to display metric units first. This is inappropriate for US cities, where US readers would normally expect to see areas displayed in square miles, not square kilometers.
Any chance of this happening? I understand it may not be technically possible, but it would be a nice amenity, as well as a recognition that the whole world doesn't measure in metric units. + ILike2BeAnonymous 05:05, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
Hope a third time is a charm! I like to know if it's possible to globally change the width, border and background color of this template? I'm trying to match the border and background color to the city colors, and want to adjust the width of rows and columns, too. Doing so manually would be frightful to those who don't engage in web design. Is this template so hardcoded to not pass a simple style="" override? FResearcher 23:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
When you try to put a reference within the infobox, it doesn't work. Although it shows up in the references section, there is a mess of code in the infobox where the ref should be. For example, Federal Way, Washington. Any way to solve this problem? -- Schzmo 00:37, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
Why does this template put emphasis for area on the metric system? It looks odd to see the area listed as kilometers, while miles is stuck in parentheses. Shouldn't there be an option to have it the other way around? TJ Spyke 09:30, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
When there is no population as of parameter, footnotes are not shown. Rich Farmbrough, 10:35 14 February 2007 (GMT).
I have a problem with the image description of the seal of Athens since the template automatically uses input from the first parameter as part of the file name. Would it be possible to include a line to allow a manual input of the article name? One of the other infoboxes has this feature, but I can't remembed which one. If this is done, this possibility should exist for article names for both seals, flags and coats of arms. Valentinian T / C 00:21, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
Some time ago I created a geography related infobox framework with a few templates (e.g. Geobox River, Geobox Mountain Range) built from scratch. They have certain features such as consistent look, logically named fields, fully automated unit conversion, automated linking and also a version of automated location maps.
I've tried to design a template for Cities/Towns etc. using this system. Having been designed from cratch too it has somewhat more consistently named fields. However, for backward compatibility it also accepts (hopefully) all fields from the existing Infobox City template. So in most situations it can be applied simply by changing the template name to Geobox Town (or Geobox City, which is just an alias). I've started working on this template some time ago, in the meantime some of the issues it deals with have been solved in Infobox City independently too. More info at User:Caroig/Geobox_Town.
You can see the new template at Sandbox:Town. These are copied from existing pages using Infobox City, only the template name has been changed and commas from figures removed and when two values were present, either metric or imperial ones have been removed. If you're interested, you can try it out by simply changing the template name in any existing page (and possibly removing commas from all figures, which is being done on all pages anyway) and post any comments on Geobox Town. – Caroig 16:37, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
{{
Merge|Geobox Town}}
I would suggest that we merge the two so that they don't compete against each other.—
MJCdetroit 01:59, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Well, yesterday I removed all support for the field names from Infobox City as there seemed no interest in that. Its much easier to maintain the code now. Geobox City is a part of a larger series of coherently named and formatted "Infoboxes".
To be sincere I started Template:Geobox Town as I was unhappy with the situation around Infobox City. As I wrote some time before, I stopped using this template some time ago when someone complete reworked its code (I probably wouldn't find the edit now, it was when someone replaced the wiki table syntax with the classic HTML tags), broke the layout and reintroduce too many bugs or issues that had already been solved. And people still keep adding haphazardly named fields which often broke other things. Sorry MJCdetroit, I see you're trying hard to bring some other here but others do their changes too and not always to the best.
To put it in a nutshell, all Geoboxes use the same field names and internal logic, there's always a fieldname which can have modifiers attached. All unit related fields can have _imperial and _unit and _round attached, some fields (where it makes sense) have _type to change the default label (there's always one default value so there's no need to define the label, take mayor – most towns cities in Europe have just mayors, so I don't need to define that, the same applies for coutry, region, postal code etc. but if you need you can still "retype" the label). Most fields have also _note, a field for various notes, references etc. Not only this is easier for a user, there's no need to include those additional fields in a blank template and some day, hopefully, more advanced syntax will be introduced to the Mediawiki software enabling much easier code – there would be a subtemplate which would have the name of basic field as a parameter and the rest will be done automatically. Well, this could be achieved even today but with the current syntax it doesn't seem that useful. The Geoboxes have also a flexible location map system, which allows input data in either the classic way (deg, min, sec) or just positive/negative decimal numbers, the placement of the locator dot can be achieved in two ways, either fully automatically based on coordinates or seme-automatically using relative coordinates of the dot when the former is from various reasons not possible (conical projection, map with an inset).
You can see all the various Geoboxes e.g. here:
The Geoboxes series is just something new, with a new approach. They offer very consistent sytem of template for geography related "Infoboxes". They offer quite a few new things, their biggest disadvantage being they are not compatible with most existing "Infoboxes" – Caroig 08:56, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Many European countries specify location in car number plates (See European vehicle registration plates). For example, German number plates starting with "M" come from Munich, while Spanish ones starting with "M" are from Madrid.
Would it be possible to introduce such a field to this template? At the moment, Athens, which uses this template, has the licence plate code in the footnotes field. If this feature were to be added, more European locations could be better served with this template, making it more reasonable to use this template instead of creating more country-specific ones. - 52 Pickup 15:45, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
It is possible that the infoboxes used for Dutch locations will be converted to Infobox City. One thing that the Dutch template has that this one does not is a separate field for the mayor's political party. Separating this from the name of the mayor would be very useful since then you could remove the need to wikilink the name - and set the template to check instead if an entry exists under this name. This would remove a few red links.
To help in this, I've been working on a new template {{
Polparty}} where you enter the name of the country and the politcal party, and it gives you the correct abbreviation that links to the entry on that party. For example {{Polparty|USA|D}} = [[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]. To test it, I have modified the entry for
Chicago. If the list of countries/parties is expanded in Polparty, this might make it a little easier to have the right political information. What do you think? -
52 Pickup 19:34, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
There are over 3000 pages using this template. Is it time for full protection? -- Rick Block ( talk) 04:23, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
This edit adds parameters for flag_link, seal_link, shield_link, and logo_link (presumably to avoid red links where these articles don't exist). Requiring an explicit link parameter for these articles makes it completely unambiguous whether there's a link or not, and removes any forced association between the name of the city article and the name of the article about the flag (or seal or ...). Unfortunately, it also breaks every link that did exist (like some of the "Flag of" articles here). Another way to do this would be to make these links conditional on the existence of the article (the way the "leader" links are handled, above). Unlike in the leader case, I think it's actually appropriate to automatically link these (if the article exists). These are articles with names like Flag of Denver, Colorado, which are extremely unlikely to need disambiguation. I really think it would be a good idea for folks to start discussing changes to this template before making them. -- Rick Block ( talk) 05:04, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
Why is the nickname just floating between the location map and the flag and seal images now? That seems to be an odd place for it. Kaldari 19:46, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
I've been thinking in merging {{Geolinks-cityscale}} and Establishment date categories into this template, please tell me what do you think. Thanks. --– Emperor Walt e r Humala · ( shout! · sign? ) 21:46, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
Does anyone have, know someone who has, or can tell me where I can find databases with all information needed to create infoboxes for every single city and town in the United States? I'm looking to do this in the next few months, but can't find a single source with all the needed data. Right now I'm considering writing a bot to read through every US town/city article and extract the data, but it would much better if I could just find a set master tables (ideally from government databases sitting out there somewhere). I'll also take any information available on counties, census designated places, and any other geographic division that might require infoboxing.
The information I would need is: Town/City name, County, State, population total, population density (per sq mi and per sq km), population date, area total (sq mi and sq km), area water (sq mi and sq km), area land (sq mi and sq km), elevation (ft and m), coordinates, time zone, summer time zone, zip code(s), and area code(s). Optional data would include nickname, motto, type of government, leader type, leader name, website, and any other important notes.
Please let me know if you have anything, and I'll be happy to start compiling it all into a giant Excel spreadsheet for future processing into infoboxes.
Note that this will only be done for cities and towns that currently lack infoboxes (though I could theoretically use it to fill in missing information in cities/towns already having infoboxes).
Thanks, -- CapitalR 14:55, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
In Havířov article it shows up "Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character" sentence in area parameter. - Darwinek 22:48, 6 March 2007 (UTC) It also shows up in the density field, see Frederiksberg for example. -- Darwinek 00:14, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
I don't really like the "colored" infobox header version. A graphic designer would be horrified. Please someone revert!.--(( F3rn4nd0 )) (BLA BLA BLA) 07:20, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
I prefer the old color. This way the color is easy out of tune with the top image. Maybe you can make the coloring of the background optional, as in Template:Infobox Actor? – Ilse @ 13:14, 7 April 2007 (UTC) (post moved by User:MJCdetroit)
Actually, there isn't really a "section". It is just kind of there with the subdivision and the established dates. Therefore, I am going to separate it with a line and give it a section heading like Area and Population have. I think it will make the template look better, but if it makes you puke (like the name color) then feel free to revert it. Also, how about some blank fields for each section and the template? — MJCdetroit 02:27, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
Hello, for those interested, a short update on the recent development of this template:
Is there a reason (technical or otherwise) to not to support geographical coordinates where only degrees are listed? {{
GR|1}}
provides coordinates in decimalized degrees, without minutes and seconds. It make sense to enter this information directly without requiring a calculation that can introduce error or rounding that reduces accuracy.
David H. Flint 07:19, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
For reference, on the technical side, it seems that the relevant change could be to replace
<tr class="mergedbottomrow"> <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller; padding-bottom: 0.7em;">Coordinates: {{#if:{{{lats|}}} | {{coor dms|{{{latd}}}|{{{latm}}}|{{{lats|0}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longm}}}|{{{longs|0}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}} | {{coor dm|{{{latd}}}|{{{latm}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longm}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}}}}</th> </tr>
with
<tr class="mergedbottomrow"> <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller; padding-bottom: 0.7em;">Coordinates: {{ #if:{{{lats|}}} | {{coor dms|{{{latd}}}|{{{latm}}}|{{{lats|0}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longm}}}|{{{longs|0}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}} | {{#if:{{{latm|}}} | {{coor dm|{{{latd}}}|{{{latm}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longm}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}} | {{coor d|{{{latd}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}} }}</th> </tr>
I'd prefer not to make such a change myself, as I do not know the reasons for why it is the way it is now or what could break. David H. Flint 07:50, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
I've spent a while compiling a giant database of information on US census division statistics, and I'm nearly ready to request permission to use a bot to add this template to all 41,903 articles that I have information on. However, a serious discussion will need to take place first to determine if this is the correct template to use, and what kind of modifications need to be made to it before its usage jumps from 4100 to 45000 articles. Thus, I will start that discussion here, so please add your comments. I haven't applied for a bot account yet, and will only do so when/if a consensus is reached here that adding this template to the articles is the right thing to do.
My database, which I compiled from many government databases, contains the following information. These are nearly all articles added by User:Ram-Man and User:rambot, but there are about 5000 that are missing (and which I will add in the style of the rambot). The percentage refers to the number of records, out of 41,903, that I have that information on:
Information I can't find in public databases (if you know where to find an item, let me know):
Note that I will not overwrite information in articles that already have an infobox, but I will add missing information (though I will record all information already in infoboxes, so I can later examine if it is accurate, and replace it later on if it is not accurate). Also, I do not plan on using the bot to edit the largest 200 cities or so, and these articles will be edited by hand to add the information.
The new maps will only be used on articles that contain no map, or contain one of the simple red-dot maps. Articles with more sophisticated maps will not have their maps modified. However, the maps for all locations will be uploaded, even if it is not used in the infobox, so someone can manually add the new map to an article later on if they choose.
Certain states, such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire already have most of their cities/towns/etc using this template; this project would just be a continuation of this process to extend the templates to all cities/towns in every state.
I have a few requests/suggestions for changes to be made to the template before this huge-scale use:
So, please add any questions and comments about this proposed use of the template below. -- CapitalR 10:55, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
This is not directly connected with your suggestion yet let me point out the existence of {{ Geobox Town}} (or if you wish {{ Geobox City}} which is just its alias). It was nor originally designed for US cities but as of its current version it can easily accommmodate all its fields from Infobox City and it provides much more functionality in a cleaner design. The fully consistent field names are also useful for any import/export to/from a database.
As of your three issues with Infobox City:
Additionaly, there are two fields for a map, both of which can make use of an automated locator dot placement (given a calibartion template exists for the given map), then there's no need for a special map for each and every place. Of course, plain maps can be used as well. The use of two maps (state map and the location of the state within the USA) is recommendable as non-US readers are usually not familiar with the location of US states.
Some users tried to use this template for US places, see e.g. Springfield, Illinois or West Chester, Pennsylvania. – Caroig 12:17, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
Would it make sense to rename this template to Infobox Settlement instead of the current Infobox City? This template is now designed to be used by any settlement type instead of just cities, and I want to make sure that people aren't confused when they see this template in an article that isn't about a city. For example, when I added this template to the 301 Massachusetts towns, some people reverted the changes on the basis that a town isn't a city (it was very irritating to have to go fix these and explain that this template is for more than just cities). I know that Infobox Town redirects here and I could have just used that instead, but I still think that the master template should be named Infobox Settlement, and the Infobox City, Infobox Town, Infobox County, Infobox Township, etc, should all redirect to the master. Just some thoughts to consider, -- CapitalR 12:14, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
The parameter names have been (or will be) changed so that they are a little more consistent with each other. Infobox City/Test has already been changed. It has side by side infobox comparisons —which look the exact same. It also has a table showing the new field names and the deprecated (old) names. After the new names are implemented in the template, the old names will still work and we can get a bot to switch all the pages using this template to use the new names. Please see Infobox City/Test. — MJCdetroit 01:06, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
Edit conflict...I made the change to the live template so that it will accept the new names. The documentation on the main template page has been updated to reflected this change. There is also a table to help explain the template a little better. The only article that I changed to the new names was San Jose, California. We can get a bot to change the rest. In the future, articles should only use the new parameter names. — MJCdetroit 16:34, 23 March 2007 (UTC)