Template:Infobox too large/doc

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This is a documentation subpage for Template:Infobox too large.
It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

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Rationale for usage

This template is designed to identify articles that potentially feature an infobox containing an excessive amount of indiscriminate data or an unnecessary abundance of imagery, leading to their elongation or widening beyond what is considered optimal. Such instances can raise concerns regarding the fulfilling of the infobox's intended purpose or may pose challenges in terms of accessibility for readers. When articles are flagged by this template for having an overly indulgent infobox, it generally implies that the content within the box has superseded the recommended limits, resulting in an imbalanced presentation that could hinder the overall user experience, as outlined below.

Policies and guidelines

Shortcut:
WP:INFOBOXTOOLARGE

Infoboxes should contain a summary of key facts as highlighted in the article body that are sourced, and images should be selected with care not overwhelm the lead with decorative imagery. Infobox designs should avoid sandwiching of text due to length or width; as outlined below.

Data

MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE – The purpose of an infobox is to summarize, but not supplant, the key facts that appear in an article. The less information that an infobox contains, the more effectively it serves its purpose, allowing readers to identify key facts at a glance.
MOS:INFOBOXDESIGN – Creating overly long templates with a number of irrelevant fields is not recommended. How important is the field to the articles that will use the infobox? Is it summary information, or more extended detail that may be better placed within the body of an article?
WP:UNDUE – Undue weight can be given in several ways, including but not limited to... the prominence of placement.
MOS:SANDWICH – due to lead length recommendations, long infoboxes may intrude into multiple subsections – Avoid sandwiching text between images, infoboxes, or similar templates horizontally opposite each other.
WP:NOTDATABASE – Statistics that lack context or explanation can reduce readability and may be confusing.
WP:NOTDIRECTORY – Wikipedia is not a directory of everything in the universe that exists or has existed.

Imagery

MOS:LEADIMAGE – Avoid lead images that readers would not expect to see there....lead images should be selected with care.
WP:GALLERY – Wikipedia is not an image repository. A gallery is not a tool to shoehorn images into an article. Be aware different screen size and browsers may affect accessibility for some readers even with a well-crafted gallery.
MOS:IMAGEREL – Not every article needs images, and too many can be distracting or cause undue weight: usually, less is more.
MOS:SECTIONLOC – An image should generally be placed in the most relevant article section – long infoboxes may intrude into sections beyond the lead forcing images in other sections to appear below the text /section they are meant to compliment.
WP:UNDUE – Undue weight can be given in several ways, including but not limited to the... use of imagery.
MOS:INFOBOXUSE – Like navigation templates, infoboxes should generally not contain flag icons. For more information about flag icons, and exceptions to the general guideline, see MOS:FLAG.

Width

MOS:INFOBOXSTYLE – Most infoboxes default width is 22em.
WP:IMGSIZELEAD – The lead image in an infobox should generally not exceed the default size of the infobox. Therefore, it should be no wider than upright 0.9 (equivalent to 228px for most infoboxes, which use the default width of 22em).
WP:IMAGESIZE – Lead images should usually use upright 1.2 at most (300px for lead images)
MOS:SANDWICH – Sandwiching of text can also occur when image size is set too high.

Help page (how-to guide)

Help:What infoboxes do – They quickly summarize important points in an easy-to-read format. However, they are not "statistics" tables in that they (generally) only summarize material from an article—the information should still be present in the main text
Help:What should an infobox contain? – Infoboxes, like the introduction to the article, should primarily contain material that is expanded on and supported by citations to reliable sources elsewhere in the article.
Help:What should an infobox not contain? – A common problem is including material in the infobox which is trivial and would not otherwise be included in the article body...Infobox templates should not be used for details that are too trivial to include in the article body (there are some exceptions, such as chemical properties)

Placement in articles

Examples:

Generic

{{Infobox too large|date=October 2026}}

Output:

With rationale

{{Infobox too large|reason=rationale for usage|date=October 2026}}

Output:

Categorization

This template will categorize tagged articles into


Category Pages with an infobox that contains too much information not found

Usage

This template can be used to make a standard navigation box. It is intended for use within another template that standardises the title and contents of the box (see Template:ShipNavbox). This template SHOULD NOT be used directly within articles, as it creates a maintenance burden to do so whenever the contents of the box have to be updated.

The purpose of this template is to standardise the attributes of all navigation boxes, for example, their colours and other CSS attributes. The template is fairly simple, and could be extended to add other features in the future. Using this template allows changes to be implemented much quicker and easier than editing each template separately.

Syntax

{{navbox
|state      = uncollapsed, collapsed, plain, autocollapse (default)
|name       = mandatory - name of the template
|style      = optional - style for the whole table
|title      = mandatory - navbox header
|gtitleN    = optional - title of N-th group of items
|styleN     = optional - style for groupN; i.e. text-align
|groupN     = mandatory - list of groups of items
|fstyle     = optional - style for footer ; i.e. text-align
|footer     = optional - navbox footer
}}

Groups: Currently there is no technical limit to the maximum number of groups.
- Groups of items can be added as parameters: group1, group2, group3, ... up to groupN.
Group title: Each group has its own title parameter: gtitle1, gtitle2, gtitle3, ... up to gtitleN. Note that the default width for the first column is 15%.
Group style: Style may also be customised to each group in: style1, style2, style3, ... up to styleN.
- Note that neither the title nor the items have any wiki-links built into the template. As a result, users of the template are free to use wiki-links as they wish.
Line breaks: Line-breaks (<br />) are unnecessary, as text wrapping is done automatically by the template. This also includes links and text in gtitleN and groupN.
Bullets: Create unordered lists with lines beginning with *.
Pipe links: Because of the nature of template syntax, it may be necessary to use Template:! ({{!}}).

States

Autocollapse: By default, the state of a navbox is "autocollapsed". This means that if the number of navboxes in a page exceeds the maximum allocation of the collapsible navboxes, then the remaining navboxes are collapsed automatically. For more information (or to change the setting), see MediaWiki:Common.js.
- Currently, the autocollapse allocation is 2 (see MediaWiki:Common.js). This means that if there are 3 navboxes in a page, the third and subsequent navboxes will be collapsed automatically.
Uncollapsed: Forces the navbox to be displayed.
- All of the navboxes in this documentation are in the uncollapsed state.
Collapsed: The reverse of uncollapsed. Forces the navbox to be hidden instead.
- Navboxes with a height of more than 300 pixels will also be collapsed automatically. For more information (or to change the setting), see MediaWiki:Common.js.
Plain: Removes the "show/hide" link.

Sub-groups

For larger navboxes, it may be necessary to include sub-groups within a particular group of items. It is also possible to collapsible navboxes within the parent navbox, see Collapsible sub-groups.
To create sub-groups within {{navbox}}, certain parameters are to be included:
- The parent navbox group (i.e. group2 in the example below) requires the type parameter (gtype2 = Subgroup).
- The nested navbox (sub-group) requires the inclusion of the sub-group parameter (subgroup = yes). This enables the template to differentiate between the sub-group and the parent navbox.

{{navbox
|name    =
|title   =
|gtitle1 =
|group1  =
|gtitle2 =  
|gtype2  = Subgroup (mandatory)
|group2  = 
  {{navbox
  |subgroup = yes (mandatory)
  |gtitle1  = 
  |group1   =
  |gtitle2  = 
  |group2   = 
  }}
}}

Collapsible sub-groups

For extremely long navboxes, it is recommended to use collapsible navboxes within the parent navbox. Further sub-groups can then be added to these collapsible navboxes.
To create collapsible sub-groups within {{navbox}}, these parameters need to be included:
- The parent navbox is almost always uncollapsed (state=uncollapsed).
- The parent navbox group (i.e. group1 in the example below) requires the type parameter (gtype1 = Subgroup).
- The nested collapsible navbox requires the inclusion of the collapsible parameter (collapsible = yes). This enables the template to differentiate between the collapsible navbox and the parent navbox.
- The nested collapsible navbox is forcefully collapsed (state=collapsed).

{{navbox
|state  = uncollapsed
|name   = 
|gtype1 = Subgroup
|group1 = 
  {{navbox
  |collapsible = yes
  |state   = collapsed
  |title   = 
  |gtitle1 = 
  |group1  = 
  |gtitle2 = 
  |group2  = 
  }}
}}

Use of images

The use of images in navboxes is permitted, but please resize the images to keep them small. Inventory-sized images (25-30 pixels) are recommended.
Please use {{t|plink}} to create links with images. Use {{t|plink}} for any case where text is not desired after the link. It functions the same as {{t|plink}}, but it does not produce a wikilink in text. Use {{t|chatl}} to link chatheads. These templates create links for both the image and text (except for {{t|plink}}) using far less wikicode than the standard syntax.

Link and file share the same name

{{plink|Item}}

File name differs from the link

{{plink|Item|File}}

Link and file share the same name, but different text is desired to display

{{plink|Item|alt=Text}}

File name differs from the link and different text is desired to display

{{plink|Item|File|alt=Text}}

Categorising

Navboxes are very useful for transcluding categories onto a large number of pages that share both a trait and the navigation box. For example: Template:ShipNavbox transcludes Category:Ships onto every page that uses it.

There are 2 methods of categorising pages with navboxes:

The first way is with {{t|Ctg}}. This is the preferred method, and can be used in most cases. The rules and operations for the Category handler template are very simple; however, they are enough to produce the desired results on most pages.

Categorisation should only be used on a template for large-scale addition. It is unhelpful, for example, to use a rule that only applies to 1 page.

Examples

To see the following navboxes in action, see Template:Navbox.

Single line navbox with centered list

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  =
}}

Navbox with standard footer

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = 
|group1  = 
|footer  = Centered footer
}}

Navbox with styled footer

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = 
|group1  = 
|fstyle  = text-align:right
|footer  = Right-aligned footer
}}

Multiple line navbox

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = Group title 1
|group1  = 
|gtitle2 = Group title 2
|group2  = 
|gtitle3 = Group title 3
|group3  = 
}}

Collapsed navbox

{{navbox
|state   = collapsed
|name    = 
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  = 
}}

Plain navbox with Tnavbar

{{navbox
|state   = plain
|name    = 
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  = 
}}

Plain navbox without Tnavbar

{{navbox
|state   = plain
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  = 
}}

Complicated navbox

{{navbox
|state   = uncollapsed
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = Level 1 Title 1
|group1  = 
|gtitle2 = Level 1 Title 2
|group2  = 
|gtitle3 = Level 1 Title 3
|group3  = 
|gtitle4 = Level 1 Title 4
|group4  = 
|gtitle5 = Level 1 Title 5
|gtype5  = Subgroup
|group5  = 
  {{navbox
  |subgroup = Yes
  |gtitle1  = Level 2 Title 1
  |group1   =
  |gtitle2  = Level 2 Title 2
  |group2   =
  |gtitle3  = Level 2 Title 3
  |gtype3   = Subgroup
  |group3   = 
    {{navbox
    |subgroup = Yes
    |gtitle1  = Level 3 Title 1
    |group1   =
    |gtitle2  = Level 3 Title 2
    |group2   =
    }}
  |gtitle4  = Level 2 Title 4
  |group4   = 
  }}
|gtitle6 = Level 1 Title 6
|group6  = 
|gtitle7 = Level 1 Title 7
|group7  = 
|fstyle  = 
|footer  = 
}}

Preventing unwanted documentation

The Navbox template's documentation is automatically transcluded under the navbox on any Template namespace page. It is not transcluded when used as a sub-group or collapsible sub-group template (subgroup= yes or collapsible=yes).

Should the documentation appear when it is unwanted, it can be hidden by setting the doc parameter doc=no on the template. In most cases, the doc parameter is NOT used and the parameter is removed completely.