Templates are a way of reusing pieces of content in Knowledge Base articles. Instead of writing a set of instructions multiple times, you can create and update it in one place, and then refer to it in other pages. The other pages will stay up-to-date with changes to the Template automatically!
Table of Contents
What are Templates
A Template is just a special wiki page whose name starts with "Template:". It has all the features of a wiki page: it can be localized, it has a history, it understands wiki markup.
How to make a Template
- Create a new KB article. Try it out by creating a new KB article on our test server.
- Make sure the name begins with "Template:" - for example, Template:aboutconfig.
- Set the Category to "Template".
- Continue writing the Template the same way you would any other Knowledge Base article.
How to include a Template in an Article
To use a template in a wiki page, all you have to do is "link" to the template.
For example:
[[Template:Some Template]]
or
[[T:Some Template]]
Instead of creating a link, the content of Template:Some Template will be included into the current page. Any wiki markup in the template will be rendered.
Templates and numbered lists
For most purposes, using a numbered list in a template works exactly the same way as it does in any other Knowledge Base document. There is one important exception — if your template is a numbered list that will be used as part of a larger numbered list, the numbering will break.
Workaround:
Don't use "#" on any of the steps and Do add <li> </li> around the second and subsequent steps, like this:
This is the first step in your list
<li>This is the second step</li>
<li>This is the third step</li>
Then, when adding the template to an article, add the "#" before the template:
#[[T:List]]
#This is another step that's not part of the template
It will look like this:
- This is the first step in your list
- This is the second step
- This is the third step
- This is another step that's not part of the template
Another important piece - you can't use block level {for} in these templates. For example:
Bad:
{for not fx10}
First step - Firefox 9 and lower
{/for}
{for fx10}
First step - Firefox 10 and higher
{/for}
<li>This is the second step</li>
Good:
{for not fx10}First step - Firefox 9 and lower{/for}{for fx10}
First step - Firefox 10 and higher{/for}
<li>This is the second step</li>
Using arguments with a Template
Templates support passing in arguments, to let you reuse content that is almost the same.
Say, for example, you had a standard notice that told users that a document only applied to Firefox 4, and another version that said it only applied to Firefox 3.6. The text of those notices might be identical except for the Firefox version: a perfect time to use a template!
Template:OnlyVersionX:
{note}This document or section only applies to '''Firefox {{{1}}}'''!{/note}
Then, in one wiki page, you could do this:
[[Template:OnlyVersionX|4]]
And in another page, you could do:
[[Template:OnlyVersionX|3.6]]
You can use multiple arguments or the same argument twice, too!
Template:XLikesY:
# {{{2}}} likes {{{1}}}. # {{{3}}} likes {{{2}}}. # Class! Nobody likes {{{2}}}!
Then to use it:
[[Template:XLikesY|Lisa|Milhouse|Janey]]
This would result in:
- Milhouse likes Lisa.
- Janey likes Milhouse.
- Class! Nobody likes Milhouse!
Keeping track of all those numbers can get confusing, so you can also name arguments to a template:
Template:XPrecededY:
First comes {{{first}}}, then comes {{{second}}}.
And using it:
[[Template:XPrecededY|first=love|second=marriage]]
With named arguments, you don't need to worry about the order when you use the template:
[[Template:XPrecededY|second=marriage|first=love]]
Both examples of using Template:XPrecededY will have the same result.
Knowledge Base guidelines
To see more guidelines on Knowledge Base contribution, click here.