Template talk:WikiInstructions

Purpose of the WikiInstructions Template

Each project has instructions tailored to its own project, but aside from differences in the name of the project, the name of the project's category, and the addresses for the mailing list and the subscribe list, the instructions are identical.

The WikiInstructions Template allows us to keep the instructions perfectly consistent, without having to go into each instance and making the same changes. It also cleans up the code behind individual project pages.

A secondary purpose is that it acts as a test for whether something is a project or not. If these instructions can go on the section's main page, then it's probably a project! ;-)

How to add the WikiInstructions Template

If you look at the code used in the page OpenOffice.org Art Project, you will see how it is used. It is fairly straightforward:

{{WikiInstructions|PROJECTNAME=Art|MAILINGLISTADDRESS=art@marketing.openoffice.org|MAILINGLISTSUBSCRIBEADDRESS=art-subscribe@marketing.openoffice.org|CATEGORYNAME=Art}}

Just copy that line (yes, it's long), and replace the values as appropriate.

How it works

• WikiInstructions is the name of the template.
• PROJECTNAME is the name of the project (It will show up as "The PROJECTNAME Project" in most cases.
• MAILINGLISTADDRESS is the e-mail address for the mailing list (I could have had it so that you didn't have to write the @marketing.openoffice.org, but I left it open in case a future project uses a different mailing address)
• MAILINGLISTSUBSCRIBEADDRESS is the e-mail address to send subscribe notifications for.
• CATEGORYNAME is the EXACT name of the category associated with the project. This will be used to create a direct link to the category list, so must be exact!
• The vertical lines (pipes) separate the different elements.

--RealGrouchy 08:31, 25 February 2006 (CET)