Wikipedia:VisualEditor/TemplateData

Template:Pp-vandalism Template:Infobox scientist

Arto K. Salomaa (born 6 June 1934) is a Finnish mathematician and computer scientist. His research career, which spans over forty years, is focused on formal languages and automata theory.

VisualEditor and TemplateData

TemplateData is a system used to describe how templates such as {{Infobox scientist}} should appear and behave inside VisualEditor. Instead of editing raw wikitext, users can fill in labelled fields for parameters like name, birth_date, or fields.^[1]

For an infobox like the one above, TemplateData can specify:

which parameters are required (for example, name);
how they are described in the VisualEditor interface;
what data type they use (plain text, dates, wiki-page names, URLs, etc.);
whether a parameter can be repeated (lists of doctoral students or workplaces);
default values and aliases.

In the case of Arto Salomaa, parameters such as:

fields → Mathematics and Computer science;
birth_place → Turku, Finland;
workplaces → Turun Yliopisto;

would be displayed as link-type fields in VisualEditor, making it easier to insert correct internal links without memorising exact page titles.^[2]

Advantages

When templates are documented with TemplateData:

New editors can understand which fields are available without reading the template source.
VisualEditor can provide context-sensitive hints, drop‑down menus, and validation.
Bots and tools can parse template usage more reliably, since parameters and their meanings are recorded in a machine-readable form.^[3]

For complex templates such as scientific infoboxes, this makes editing biographical data (degrees, positions, awards) significantly more approachable.

VisualEditor and TemplateData

Advantages

See also