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Template sandbox and testcases for TEMPLATE_NAME

Overview

This page provides a clean workflow to safely edit and validate TEMPLATE_NAME:

Sandbox: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox — a working copy where you make changes.
Testcases: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/testcases — inputs that exercise typical and edge cases.
Live: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME — the production version. Do not edit directly without review.

Use this page to:

Preview sandbox output against fixed testcases without touching the live template.
Compare actual vs expected output for each testcase.
Track recent changes and invite reviewers.

Quick links

Live template: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME
Sandbox: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox
Testcases: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/testcases
Documentation: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/doc (optional)
Talk page: Template talk:TEMPLATE_NAME

How to test

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

Use “Preview page with this template” gadget or the built-in preview.
Check parser output in different skins and mobile view.
Validate accessibility: headings order, link text, ARIA where applicable.
Internationalization: test with non-ASCII parameters and RTL where relevant.

Test harness

The following sections render the sandbox template against curated inputs. Each testcase shows:

Parameters passed to the template
Expected output (as plain wikitext target)
Actual output (rendered via sandbox transclusion)

Testcase A: Minimal invocation

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

Greek letter (direct character): α
Greek letter (HTML entity): γ
German span example: A

Within the template

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: A, English label: A }}

Preview the page to check if:

Greek characters (α, β, γ, δ) display correctly.
HTML entities (α, β, γ, δ) render as the expected symbols.
The A is kept as a German-language span and does not break the layout.

Notes

Use this sandbox to experiment with different scripts (Greek, Cyrillic, etc.).
Test right-to-left scripts by adding spans with lang="ar" or lang="he".
If the template trims or escapes some of these, adjust the template code accordingly.

Testcase B: Common parameters

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

Greek letter (direct character): α
Greek letter (HTML entity): γ
German span example: A

Within the template

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: A, English label: A }}

Preview the page to check if:

Greek characters (α, β, γ, δ) display correctly.
HTML entities (α, β, γ, δ) render as the expected symbols.
The A is kept as a German-language span and does not break the layout.

Notes

Use this sandbox to experiment with different scripts (Greek, Cyrillic, etc.).
Test right-to-left scripts by adding spans with lang="ar" or lang="he".
If the template trims or escapes some of these, adjust the template code accordingly.

Testcase C: Edge values and escaping

Parameters: {{TEMPLATE_NAME | param1 = [[Linked target|Visible text]] | param2 = {{subst:CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} | raw = <code>escaped</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

Greek letter (direct character): α
Greek letter (HTML entity): γ
German span example: A

Within the template

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: A, English label: A }}

Preview the page to check if:

Greek characters (α, β, γ, δ) display correctly.
HTML entities (α, β, γ, δ) render as the expected symbols.
The A is kept as a German-language span and does not break the layout.

Notes

Use this sandbox to experiment with different scripts (Greek, Cyrillic, etc.).
Test right-to-left scripts by adding spans with lang="ar" or lang="he".
If the template trims or escapes some of these, adjust the template code accordingly.

Testcase D: Internationalization (i18n)

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

Greek letter (direct character): α
Greek letter (HTML entity): γ
German span example: A

Within the template

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: A, English label: A }}

Preview the page to check if:

Greek characters (α, β, γ, δ) display correctly.
HTML entities (α, β, γ, δ) render as the expected symbols.
The A is kept as a German-language span and does not break the layout.

Notes

Use this sandbox to experiment with different scripts (Greek, Cyrillic, etc.).
Test right-to-left scripts by adding spans with lang="ar" or lang="he".
If the template trims or escapes some of these, adjust the template code accordingly.

Testcase E: Error handling

Parameters: {{TEMPLATE_NAME | param1 = | required =  }}

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

Greek letter (direct character): α
Greek letter (HTML entity): γ
German span example: A

Within the template

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: A, English label: A }}

Preview the page to check if:

Greek characters (α, β, γ, δ) display correctly.
HTML entities (α, β, γ, δ) render as the expected symbols.
The A is kept as a German-language span and does not break the layout.

Notes

Use this sandbox to experiment with different scripts (Greek, Cyrillic, etc.).
Test right-to-left scripts by adding spans with lang="ar" or lang="he".
If the template trims or escapes some of these, adjust the template code accordingly.

Maintenance

Add new testcases when introducing features or fixing bugs.
Keep “Expected output” updated; include rationale in edit summaries.
When deprecating parameters, add tests demonstrating legacy behavior and warnings.

Copy-paste skeletons

Below are ready-to-use skeletons for the sandbox and testcases subpages.

Skeleton: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox

{{#if:{{{required|}}} |  <div class="tmpl"> {{{param1|}}} · {{{param2|}}} {{#if:{{{flag|}}}|✓|}} {{#if:{{{raw|}}}|{{{raw}}}|}} </div> |  TEMPLATE_NAME: missing required parameter [[Category:Pages with TEMPLATE_NAME errors]] }}

Skeleton: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/testcases

; 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>escaped</code> }} ; I18n : {{TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox | lang = ja | text = こんにちは世界 }} ; Error handling : {{TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox | required = }}

Review checklist

Output is stable across re-parses; no expensive parser functions without need.
No unexpected categorization in mainspace; errors go to maintenance cats.
Template is documented at Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/doc with parameters, examples, and tracking.
Style is minimal; avoid inline CSS unless necessary; consider using existing module or template styles.

This box: view • talk • 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

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

1 / text: The input text to terminate.
term: The terminator to enforce at the end. Default is .. Common choices: !, ?.
trim: If yes/true/1, strips trailing spaces before checking.
skip: If yes/true/1, returns text unchanged (still appends note if provided).
allowdup: If yes/true/1, allows duplicate terminators (e.g., ellipses). Default disallows duplicates.
note: Optional text appended after a space, unaffected by termination logic.

Behavior details

Terminator detection attempts to ignore trailing closing quotes/brackets (", ', ”, ), ], }).
If the last visible character equals term, no extra terminator is added unless allowdup=yes.
If trim=yes, trailing spaces are removed before detection.
If note is present, it is added with a leading space after the final text.

Examples

Quotes:

{{Terminate sentence|text=He whispered "hush"|term=.}}

 → He whispered "hush".

Parentheses:

{{Terminate sentence|text=Complete (verified)|term=.}}

 → Complete (verified).

Exclamation:

{{Terminate sentence|text=Alert|term=!}}

 → Alert!

Ellipsis (allow duplicates):

{{Terminate sentence|text=Wait...|term=.|allowdup=yes}}

 → Wait....

Best practices

Prefer using term that matches the sentence intent (., !, ?).
For complex punctuation, consider the Lua-powered variant below.
Document usage in your template’s /doc page where you incorporate this helper.

Lua-powered variant (optional)

For more robust detection (including multilingual quotes and punctuation), create Module:TerminateUtil with:

-- 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.

Introduction

As noted above, this template should be used for message boxes that are not articles, talk pages, image pages or category pages. Some message boxes for other pages may incorrectly use one of those four mentioned. Feel free to convert any message boxes used on "other pages" to use this meta-template. If you find any tricky cases then list them on the talk page of this template and you'll get help.

When this template is used to build other pages message boxes those boxes should contain explanatory texts just like before. (The same texts as before or new improved texts.) If there are more specific images in the boxes or you know a better image, then use them instead of the default images shown here.

Usage

Simple usage example:

{{ombox | text = Some text.}}

Some text.

Complex example:

{{ombox
| type      = style
| image     = [[Image:Emblem-question-yellow.svg|40px]]
| style     = width: 400px; 
| textstyle = color: red; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
| text      = The message body text.
}}

The message body text.

Other pages message box types

The following examples use different type parameters but use no image parameters; thus, they use the default images for each type.

type=speedy – Speedy deletion templates.

type=delete – Deletion templates.

type=content – Major warnings and problems, such as {{high-risk}}.

type=style – Minor warnings and problems. {{intricate}} should perhaps use this type.

type=notice – Notices and messages of any kind, both permanent and temporary. Such as {{guideline}} and {{Wikipedia how to}}.

type=move – Merge, split, rename and transwiki messages and proposals.

type=protection – Protection templates such as {{pp-protected}} when shown on "other pages".

Examples

Some examples using the "notice" style:

No type and no image given (default)

No type and image=none – No image is used and the text uses the whole message box area.

image = [[Image:Gnome globe current event.svg|42px]]
imageright = [[Image:Nuvola apps bookcase.svg|40px]]

This page documents an English Wikipedia guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should follow, though it should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss on the talk page.

Shortcut

Wikipedia:SHORT

This page in a nutshell: This template is used to build message boxes for all pages that are not articles, talk pages, image pages or category pages.

Parameters

List of all parameters:

{{ombox
| type  = speedy / delete / content / style / notice / move / protection
| image = none / [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| imageright = [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| style = CSS values
| textstyle = CSS values
| text  = The message body text. 
| small = {{{small|}}} / yes
| smallimage = none / [[Image:Some image.svg|30px]]
| smallimageright = none / [[Image:Some image.svg|30px]]
| smalltext  = A shorter message body text.
}}

type

If no type parameter is given the template defaults to type notice. That means it gets a gray border.

image

No parameter = If no image parameter is given the template uses a default image. Which default image it uses depends on the type parameter.

An image = Should be an image with usual wiki notation. 40px - 50px width are usually about right depending on the image height to width ratio. (But the message box can handle images of any size.) For example:

image = [[Image:Crystal package settings.png|40px]]

none = Means that no image is used.

imageright

No parameter = If no imageright parameter is given then no image is shown on the right side.

An image = Should be an image with usual wiki notation. 40px - 50px width are usually about right depending on the image height to width ratio. (But the message box can handle images of any size.) For example:

imageright = [[Image:Nuvola apps bookcase.png|40px]]

Anything = Any other object that you want to show on the right side.

style

Optional CSS values used by the entire message box table. Without quotation marks " " but with the ending semicolons ;. For example:

style = margin-bottom: 0.5em;

textstyle

Optional CSS values used by the text cell. For example:

textstyle = text-align: center;

text

The message body text.

The small parameters

small = yes

type = style
small = yes

small

yes = Makes it a smaller right floating message box. This also makes the default images smaller. Note that any data fed to the smallimage, smallimageright and smalltext parameters is only used if "small=yes". To make it so your template also understands the small parameter you can use this code:

small = {{{small|}}}

small = yes
image = [[Image:Replacement filing cabinet.svg|50px]]
smallimage = [[Image:Replacement filing cabinet.svg|32px]]

smallimage

No parameter = If no smallimage parameter is given then this template falls back to use the image parameter. If the image parameter also is empty then a small default image is used.

An image = Should be an image with usual wiki notation. 30px width is usually about right. For example:

smallimage = [[Image:Replacement filing cabinet.svg|30px]]

none = Means that no image is used. This overrides any image fed to image, when "small=yes".

small = yes
imageright = [[Image:Nuvola apps bookcase.png|50px]]
smallimageright = none

smallimageright

No parameter = If no smallimageright parameter is given then this template falls back to use the imageright parameter. If the imageright parameter also is empty then no image is shown on the right side.

An image = Should be an image with usual wiki notation. 30px width is usually about right. For example:

smallimageright = [[Image:Nuvola apps bookcase.png|30px]]

Anything = Any other object that you want to show on the right side.

none = Means that no right side image is used. This overrides any image fed to imageright, when "small=yes".

smalltext

A shorter version of the message body text. If no smalltext parameter is given then this template falls back to use the text parameter.

Technical details

If you need to use special characters in the text parameter then you need to escape them like this:

{{ombox
| text  = <div>
Equal sign = and a start and end brace { } work fine as they are. 
But here is a pipe {{!}} and two end braces <nowiki>}}</nowiki>. 
And now a pipe and end braces <nowiki>|}}</nowiki>.
</div>
}}

Equal sign = and a start and end brace { } work fine as they are. But here is a pipe | and two end braces }}. And now a pipe and end braces |}}.

This template uses the ombox CSS classes in MediaWiki:Common.css for most of its looks, thus it is fully skinnable.

This template calls {{ombox/core}} which holds most of the code for {{ombox}}, while {{ombox}} itself does parameter preprocessing.

Internally this meta-template uses HTML markup instead of wiki markup for the table code. That is the usual way we make meta-templates since wiki markup has several drawbacks. For instance it makes it harder to use parser functions and special characters in parameters.

The default images for this meta-template are in png format instead of svg format. The main reason is that some older web browsers have trouble with the transparent background that MediaWiki renders for svg images. The png images here have hand optimised transparent background colour so they look good in all browsers. Note that svg icons only look somewhat bad in the old browsers, thus such hand optimisation is only worth the trouble for very widely used icons.

For more technical details see the talk page. Since this template works almost exactly like {{ambox}}, {{tmbox}}, {{imbox}} and {{cmbox}} their talk pages and related pages might also contain more details.

Message box meta-templates
`{{ambox}}` (t) `{{cmbox}}` (t) `{{imbox}}` (t) `{{mbox}}` (t) `{{ombox}}` (t) `{{tmbox}}` (t) `{{asbox}}` (t) `{{dmbox}}` (t) `{{fmbox}}` (t)
v t e

Template documentation

Template sandbox and testcases for TEMPLATE_NAME

Overview

Quick links

How to test

Previewing tips

Test harness

Testcase A: Minimal invocation

Basic examples

Within the template

Notes

Testcase B: Common parameters

Basic examples

Within the template

Notes

Testcase C: Edge values and escaping

Basic examples

Within the template

Notes

Testcase D: Internationalization (i18n)

Basic examples

Within the template

Notes

Testcase E: Error handling

Basic examples

Within the template

Notes

Maintenance

Categories

Copy-paste skeletons

Skeleton: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/sandbox

Skeleton: Template:TEMPLATE_NAME/testcases

Review checklist

Usage

Parameters

Behavior details

Examples

Best practices

Lua-powered variant (optional)

See also

Introduction

Usage

Other pages message box types

Examples

Parameters

The small parameters

Technical details

See also