Template:Metabox/doc

Metabox is so named because it is intended to be the foundation for all message box templates on The Sims Wiki. This template is being designed as the direct successor template to Parthenon. The primary goal of this project is to create a versatile message box that keeps certain 'types' of message boxes (e.g. administrative notices, featured page headers, or information boxes) organized by color, while offering advanced customization to able users.


 * Main parameters

- This is the main text of the template itself. This is the only absolutely mandatory parameter.

- This parameter adds text to the header bar. This parameter is optional, but the header bar will remain even if no parameter is specified.

- This parameter adds an image to the left side of the template. The image is resized to 60px automatically for the standard template, and 45px for small-sized templates. The File: prefix and brackets should not be included
 * This automatic resize can be overriden by adding the desired size in the  parameter (raw number only, no 'px' needed)
 * This image can be set to link to a page by filling the  parameter

- This parameter sets the color of the template's background and header. There are six general types that can be applied:
 * produces a green metabox. This type is intended to be used for "official" notices or administrative messages.
 * produces a blue metabox. This type is meant to be used for general information or notification messages.
 * produces a red metabox. This type is reserved for "urgent" notices or warning header messages.
 * produces a yellow metabox. This type of box is for use by the various featured templates, such as Feat art.
 * produces a violet metabox. This color is reserved for templates dealing with page merges, deletes, moves, etc.
 * produces an orange metabox. This color is reserved for cleanup templates, templates dealing with style issues, etc.

If the  parameter isn't specified or isn't specified correctly, the template will display with generic colors. The template can still be used in this way, but it's recommended to choose a type to display the box as.

Custom colors can be chosen, by specifying a color in the  and   parameters; colors need to be in "hex triplet" format (e.g., #FFFFFF for white), but should exclude the number sign/hashtag.

- If this parameter is set so that, the template will display as a smaller, left-aligned box rather than the large, center-aligned standard template.

- Use this parameter with any input for templates that are normally transcluded to other templates, such as Experimental or Under construction, so that the templates that are using it will not be categorized as Category:Templates using Metabox.

If Metabox is used as the foundation for a template, individual editors can be allowed to control the way the template appears on individual pages, so long as the parameter is carried over to templates based off this template. For example, Cleanup has an optional parameter,, which is carried over from Metabox, since the Cleanup template is set up to allow the specification of a size parameter.
 * Note on parameters


 * Syntax
 * Color examples

This template was developed with code from its predecessor, Template:Parthenon; Template:Parthenon's revision history is visible here. This template was developed and refined on The Sims Wiki; the template's revision history and list of contributors is available here. The new Metabox was designed to be backward compatible with the old Metabox.
 * Change log
 * 5 September 2013 - Template created. It is not ready to be used on mainspace articles yet.
 * 5 September 2013 (2) - Template now accepts  and   parameters, which override the colors set by the chosen type (or give colors if no type is selected). Another parameter, , can be used to adjust the width of the space around the chosen image. The default setting on standard-sized templates is 60px, and 50px on small-sized templates. These new parameters are all optional.
 * 5 September 2013 (3) - Template can be used to automatically categorize a page that uses a template derived from Metabox. The Metabox-based template needs to have parameter  set with the name of the category that pages will be sorted into. If a particular order for sorting is needed,   can be filled; otherwise, it will sort by  . Templates using Metabox will need to be categorized the old fashioned way, at least for now.
 * 9 September 2013 - New 'type' and type colors has been added. Delete/Move/Merge is now violet, and Cleanup/style issues are orange.
 * 2 September 2014 - New  parameter was added.
 * 4 April 2015 - Metabox was redesigned, as discussed in this forum thread. A new template, Template:Metabox2, was developed and merged into the main Metabox template. The history for the Metabox2 template is visible here.
 * Attribution and Credit

''The text of this template is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 (CC-by-SA) license. Please review the CC-by-SA license text for more information.''