Template:Namespace detect/doc
This is a documentation subpage for
Template documentation[edit]
Template sandbox and testcases for TEMPLATE_NAME[edit]Overview[edit]This page provides a clean workflow to safely edit and validate TEMPLATE_NAME:
Use this page to:
Quick links[edit]
How to test[edit]1. Edit the sandbox at Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox. 2. Open this test page and click “Show preview” to render the sandbox with inputs below. 3. Verify each testcase: Does the “Actual output” match the “Expected output”? 4. If all pass, consider copying sandbox to live using an edit summary like: “Sync from /sandbox: passes all /testcases as of YYYY-MM-DD.” Previewing tips[edit]
Test harness[edit]The following sections render the sandbox template against curated inputs. Each testcase shows:
Testcase A: Minimal invocation[edit]Parameters: {{TEMPLATE_NAME}} Expected output: [Minimal successful output with defaults: e.g., a neutral message or basic box] Actual output (sandbox): Character and language test sandbox This sandbox is used to test how Template:TEMPLATE NAME behaves with special characters (such as Greek letters) and language-specific spans. Basic examples[edit]
Within the template[edit]Below are example calls of the template using these characters as parameters. {{TEMPLATE NAME | title = Greek test: α γ | summary = Demonstrating Greek letters: α, β, γ, and entities like γ. | attr1 = Direct Greek: α β γ δ | attr2 = Entity Greek: α β γ δ | attr3 = German label: <span lang="de">A</span>, English label: A }} Preview the page to check if:
Notes[edit]
Testcase B: Common parameters[edit]Parameters: {{TEMPLATE_NAME | param1 = Alpha | param2 = Beta | flag = yes }} Expected output: [Example: shows "Alpha" and "Beta" in designated slots; flag toggles enhanced styling] Actual output (sandbox): Character and language test sandbox This sandbox is used to test how Template:TEMPLATE NAME behaves with special characters (such as Greek letters) and language-specific spans. Basic examples[edit]
Within the template[edit]Below are example calls of the template using these characters as parameters. {{TEMPLATE NAME | title = Greek test: α γ | summary = Demonstrating Greek letters: α, β, γ, and entities like γ. | attr1 = Direct Greek: α β γ δ | attr2 = Entity Greek: α β γ δ | attr3 = German label: <span lang="de">A</span>, English label: A }} Preview the page to check if:
Notes[edit]
Testcase C: Edge values and escaping[edit]Parameters: {{TEMPLATE_NAME | param1 = [[Linked target|Visible text]] | param2 = {{subst:CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} | raw = <code><span class="x">escaped</span></code> }} Expected output: [Links render correctly; timestamp subst is literal in expected; raw shows escaped markup] Actual output (sandbox): Character and language test sandbox This sandbox is used to test how Template:TEMPLATE NAME behaves with special characters (such as Greek letters) and language-specific spans. Basic examples[edit]
Within the template[edit]Below are example calls of the template using these characters as parameters. {{TEMPLATE NAME | title = Greek test: α γ | summary = Demonstrating Greek letters: α, β, γ, and entities like γ. | attr1 = Direct Greek: α β γ δ | attr2 = Entity Greek: α β γ δ | attr3 = German label: <span lang="de">A</span>, English label: A }} Preview the page to check if:
Notes[edit]
Testcase D: Internationalization (i18n)[edit]Parameters: {{TEMPLATE_NAME | lang = ja | text = こんにちは世界 }} Expected output: [Text displays correctly for non-ASCII; applies lang attribute or rtl/ltr where applicable] Actual output (sandbox): Character and language test sandbox This sandbox is used to test how Template:TEMPLATE NAME behaves with special characters (such as Greek letters) and language-specific spans. Basic examples[edit]
Within the template[edit]Below are example calls of the template using these characters as parameters. {{TEMPLATE NAME | title = Greek test: α γ | summary = Demonstrating Greek letters: α, β, γ, and entities like γ. | attr1 = Direct Greek: α β γ δ | attr2 = Entity Greek: α β γ δ | attr3 = German label: <span lang="de">A</span>, English label: A }} Preview the page to check if:
Notes[edit]
Testcase E: Error handling[edit]Parameters: {{TEMPLATE_NAME | param1 = | required = <!-- intentionally omitted --> }} Expected output: [Shows a gentle error or maintenance category; does not break page layout] Actual output (sandbox): Character and language test sandbox This sandbox is used to test how Template:TEMPLATE NAME behaves with special characters (such as Greek letters) and language-specific spans. Basic examples[edit]
Within the template[edit]Below are example calls of the template using these characters as parameters. {{TEMPLATE NAME | title = Greek test: α γ | summary = Demonstrating Greek letters: α, β, γ, and entities like γ. | attr1 = Direct Greek: α β γ δ | attr2 = Entity Greek: α β γ δ | attr3 = German label: <span lang="de">A</span>, English label: A }} Preview the page to check if:
Notes[edit]
Maintenance[edit]
Categories[edit]Copy-paste skeletons[edit]Below are ready-to-use skeletons for the sandbox and testcases subpages. Skeleton: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox[edit]<!-- Sandbox for TEMPLATE_NAME --> <!-- Copy the entire template source here; edit safely. --> {{#if:{{{required|}}} | <!-- normal output --> <div class="tmpl"> <b>{{{param1|}}}</b> · <i>{{{param2|}}}</i> {{#if:{{{flag|}}}|<span class="flag">✓</span>|}} {{#if:{{{raw|}}}|<span class="raw">{{{raw}}}</span>|}} </div> | <!-- error / missing required --> <span class="error">TEMPLATE_NAME: missing required parameter</span> [[Category:Pages with TEMPLATE_NAME errors]] }} Skeleton: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/testcases[edit]<!-- Testcases for TEMPLATE_NAME; render against /sandbox --> ; Minimal : {{TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox}} ; Common params : {{TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox | param1 = Alpha | param2 = Beta | flag = yes }} ; Edge and escaping : {{TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox | param1 = [[Linked target|Visible text]] | param2 = 20250101T000000Z | raw = <code><span class="x">escaped</span></code> }} ; I18n : {{TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox | lang = ja | text = こんにちは世界 }} ; Error handling : {{TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox | required = }} Review checklist[edit]
Template:Terminate sentence ensures a sentence ends with a specified terminator (default: a period). It avoids adding duplicate terminators and can optionally trim trailing spaces. It attempts to ignore trailing closing quotes or brackets when deciding whether a terminator is already present. Usage[edit]Basic: {{Terminate sentence|This is a sentence}}
→ This is a sentence.
Named parameters: {{Terminate sentence
|text=He said "Hello"
|term=.
}}
→ He said "Hello".
Custom terminator: {{Terminate sentence|text=Warning|term=!}}
→ Warning!
Avoid duplicate terminator: {{Terminate sentence|text=Already done.|term=.}}
→ Already done.
Trim trailing spaces: {{Terminate sentence|text=Ends with space |trim=yes}}
→ Ends with space.
Skip processing: {{Terminate sentence|text=No changes here|skip=yes}}
→ No changes here
Append a note: {{Terminate sentence|text=Complete|note=(source: 2025)}}
→ Complete. (source: 2025)
Parameters[edit]
Behavior details[edit]
Examples[edit]
{{Terminate sentence|text=He whispered "hush"|term=.}}
→ He whispered "hush".
{{Terminate sentence|text=Complete (verified)|term=.}}
→ Complete (verified).
{{Terminate sentence|text=Alert|term=!}}
→ Alert!
{{Terminate sentence|text=Wait...|term=.|allowdup=yes}}
→ Wait.... Best practices[edit]
Lua-powered variant (optional)[edit]For more robust detection (including multilingual quotes and punctuation), create -- Module:TerminateUtil
local M = {}
local closing = {
[")"] = true, ["]"] = true, ["}"] = true,
['"'] = true, ["'"] = true, ["”"] = true, ["’"] = true, ["»"] = true, ["›"] = true
}
local function trimRight(s)
return (s:gsub("%s+$",""))
end
function M.lastVisibleChar(args)
local s = args.s or ""
s = trimRight(s)
local i = #s
while i > 0 do
local c = s:sub(i,i)
if closing[c] then
i = i - 1
else
return c
end
end
return ""
end
return M
Then update the template to call: {{#invoke:TerminateUtil|lastVisibleChar|s=text}}
This improves detection for closing quotes and brackets. See also[edit]It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page. |
| This template is used on 2,000,000+ pages. To avoid large-scale disruption and unnecessary server load, any changes to this template should first be tested in its /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can then be added to this page in one single edit. Please consider discussing any changes on the talk page before implementing them. |
This is the {{namespace detect}} meta-template.
It helps other templates detect what type of page they are on.
It detects and groups all the different namespaces used on Wikipedia into several types:
- main = Main/article space, as in normal Wikipedia articles.
- talk = Any talk space, such as page names that start with "Talk:", "User talk:", "File talk:" and so on.
- user, wikipedia, file, mediawiki, template, help, category, portal and book = The other namespaces except the talk pages.
- other = Any namespaces that were not specified as a parameter to the template. See explanation below.
For backwards compatibility this template also understands the old name image for file. But using image is now deprecated.
Note! For most usage cases it might be better to use the simpler namespace detection templates. (See the see also section below.) Since this template is more prone to human errors such as misspelling the parameter names.
Usage
[edit]This template takes one or more parameters named after the different page types as listed above. Like this:
{{namespace detect
| main = Article text
| talk = Talk page text
| other = Other pages text
}}
If the template is on a main (article) page, it will return this:
- Article text
If the template is on any other page than an article or a talk page it will return this:
- Other pages text
The example above made the template return something for all page types. But if we don't use the other parameter or leave it empty then it will not return anything for the other page types. Like this:
{{namespace detect
| file = File page text
| category = Category page text
| other =
}}
On any pages other than file and category pages the code above will render nothing.
By using an empty parameter you can make it so the template doesn't render anything for some specific page type. Like this:
{{namespace detect
| main =
| other = Other pages text
}}
The code above will render nothing when on mainspace (article) pages, but will return this when on other pages:
- Other pages text
Demospace and page
[edit]For testing and demonstration purposes this template can take two parameters named demospace and page.
Demospace understands any of the page type names used by this template, including the other type. It tells the template to behave like it is on some specific type of page. Like this:
{{namespace detect
| main = Article text
| other = Other pages text
| demospace = main
}}
No matter on what kind of page the code above is used it will return this:
- Article text
The page parameter instead takes a normal pagename. It makes this template behave exactly as if on that page. The pagename doesn't have to be an existing page. Like this:
{{namespace detect
| user = User page text
| other = Other pages text
| page = User:Example
}}
No matter on what kind of page the code above is used it will return this:
- User page text
It can be convenient to let your template understand the demospace and/or page parameter and send it on to the {{namespace detect}} template. Then do like this:
{{namespace detect
| main = Article text
| other = Other pages text
| demospace = {{{demospace|}}}
| page = {{{page|}}}
}}
If both the demospace and page parameters are empty or undefined then the template will detect page types as usual.
Parameters
[edit]List of all parameters:
{{namespace detect
| main =
...
| other =
| demospace = {{{demospace|}}} / main / talk / user /
wikipedia / file / mediawiki / template /
help / category / portal / book / other
| page = {{{page|}}} / User:Example
}}
Note: Empty values to the "main" ... "book" parameters have special meaning.
Technical details
[edit]Namespace "Image" was renamed to "File" on 11 December 2008. This template was updated to understand both names well before that, thus it still works fine. For backwards compatibility it still understands "image" both as a parameter name, such as "image = File page text", and as a value "demospace = image".
Namespace "Book" was added to the English Wikipedia on 28 December 2009. This template has been updated so it detects the "Book:" namespace as type book, and it already automatically detected "Book talk:" as type talk.
If you intend to feed tables as content to the numbered parameters of this template, then you need to know this:
Templates do have a problem to handle parameter data that contains pipes "|", unless the pipe is inside another template {{name|param1}} or inside a piped link [[Help:Template|help]]. Thus templates can not handle wikitables as input unless you escape them by using the {{!}} template. This makes it hard to use wikitables as parameters to templates. Instead the usual solution is to use "HTML wikimarkup" for the table code, which is more robust.
For more technical details such as about "copying to other projects" and "CSS based namespace detection" see {{main talk other}} and its talk page.