Modiwl:Message box/doc

This is a meta-module that implements the message box templates {{mbox}}, {{ambox}}, {{cmbox}}, {{fmbox}}, {{imbox}}, {{ombox}}, and {{tmbox}}. It is intended to be used from Lua modules, and should not be used directly from wiki pages. If you want to use this module's functionality from a wiki page, please use the individual message box templates instead.

This template is used on 6,323,224+ pages, and changes to it will be widely noticed. Please test any changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in a user subpage, and consider discussing changes at the talk page before implementing them.

This template is used in system messages. Changes to it can cause immediate changes to the Wikipedia user interface. To avoid large-scale disruption, any changes should first be tested in this template's /sandbox or /testcases subpage, or in your own user space. The tested changes can then be added in one single edit to this template. Please discuss any changes at the talk page before implementing them.

This module is subject to page protection. It is a highly visible module in use by a very large number of pages, or is substituted very frequently. Because vandalism or mistakes would affect many pages, and even trivial editing might cause substantial load on the servers, it is protected from editing.

Uses Lua: Module:Message box/configuration Module:No globals Module:Yesno Module:Arguments Module:Category handler

Usage

To use this module from another Lua module, first you need to load it.

local messageBox = require('Module:Message box')

To create a message box, use the main function. It takes two parameters: the first is the box type (as a string), and the second is a table containing the message box parameters.

local box = messageBox.main( boxType, {
    param1 = param1,
    param2 = param2,
    -- More parameters...
})

There are seven available box types:

Box type	Template	Purpose
mbox	{{mbox}}	For message boxes to be used in multiple namespaces
ambox	{{ambox}}	For article message boxes
cmbox	{{cmbox}}	For category message boxes
fmbox	{{fmbox}}	For interface message boxes
imbox	{{imbox}}	For file namespace message boxes
tmbox	{{tmbox}}	For talk page message boxes
ombox	{{ombox}}	For message boxes in other namespaces

See the template page of each box type for the available parameters.

Usage from #invoke

As well as the main function, this module has separate functions for each box type. They are accessed using the code {{#invoke:Message box|mbox|...}}, {{#invoke:Message box|ambox|...}}, etc. These will work when called from other modules, but they access code used to process arguments passed from #invoke, and so calling them will be less efficient than calling main.

Technical details

The module uses the same basic code for each of the templates listed above; the differences between each of them are configured using the data at Module:Message box/configuration. Here are the various configuration options and what they mean:

• types – a table containing data used by the type parameter of the message box. The table keys are the values that can be passed to the type parameter, and the table values are tables containing the class and the image used by that type.
• default – the type to use if no value was passed to the type parameter, or if an invalid value was specified.
• showInvalidTypeError – whether to show an error if the value passed to the type parameter was invalid.
• allowBlankParams – usually blank values are stripped from parameters passed to the module. However, whitespace is preserved for the parameters included in the allowBlankParams table.
• allowSmall – whether a small version of the message box can be produced with "small=yes".
• smallParam – a custom name for the small parameter. For example, if set to "left" you can produce a small message box using "small=left".
• smallClass – the class to use for small message boxes.
• substCheck – whether to perform a subst check or not.
• classes – an array of classes to use with the message box.
• imageEmptyCell – whether to use an empty <td>...</td> cell if there is no image set. This is used to preserve spacing for message boxes with a width of less than 100% of the screen.
• imageEmptyCellStyle – whether empty image cells should be styled.
• imageCheckBlank – whether "image=blank" results in no image being displayed.
• imageSmallSize – usually, images used in small message boxes are set to 30x30px. This sets a custom size.
• imageCellDiv – whether to enclose the image in a div enforcing a maximum image size.
• useCollapsibleTextFields – whether to use text fields that can be collapsed, i.e. "issue", "fix", "talk", etc. Currently only used in ambox.
• imageRightNone – whether imageright=none results in no image being displayed on the right-hand side of the message box.
• sectionDefault – the default name for the "section" parameter. Depends on useCollapsibleTextFields.
• allowMainspaceCategories – allow categorisation in the main namespace.
• templateCategory – the name of a category to be placed on the template page.
• templateCategoryRequireName – whether the name parameter is required to display the template category.
• templateErrorCategory – the name of the error category to be used on the template page.
• templateErrorParamsToCheck – an array of parameter names to check. If any are absent, the templateErrorCategory is applied to the template page.