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Wikipedia:VisualEditor/TemplateData

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What is TemplateData?

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TemplateData is the standardized description of a template, used by the default VisualEditor, the optional 2017 wikitext editor and other tools to improve the template-editing experience for the user. Both VisualEditor and the 2017 wikitext editor include a wizard to edit templates, but for the wizard to be most useful, it needs to present specific information to the user about each template, such as a short description of the template's purpose and its parameters. This information is codified formally (by any wiki editor) using TemplateData.

Editing without TemplateData

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Without TemplateData, each parameter needs to be added manually when inserting a new template.

No information is provided about what the value of the parameter should be.

Editing with TemplateData

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With TemplateData, a list of supported parameters (and their description) is provided for the template.

TemplateData provides context for each parameter, and makes it much easier for users to modify templates.

Adding TemplateData

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Anyone can help by adding TemplateData to templates (particularly high-profile ones, such as infoboxes) so that they are easier to edit in VisualEditor. The following is a minimal example, placed on a template's documentation page:

<templatedata>{
  "description": "insert description here",
  "params": {
    "first parameter": {
      "label": "x",
      "description": "x",
      "type": "string",
      "default": "default value",
      "required": false
    }
  }
}</templatedata>

You can also add or edit TemplateData using a GUI, by pressing the following button which appears at the top of the edit page: Manage TemplateData

The TemplateData tutorial explains in detail how to add TemplateData information to a template.

Used templates

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See also

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