Forum:What is a nosubst template?

What is a nosubst template? I want to know because I was asking my friend how to make it so when you edit a page with my signature on it in source mode my signature shows up as instead of all my signature code, and he said to use a nosubst template. May StarClan light your path,  Random  Kitten   22:19, July 31, 2012 (UTC)


 * The simplest way to fix that is to go into your user preferences, go to the signature box and change it to . I assume you've currently got something like: , just remove the 'subst:' part to stop substituting the template. Lunarity 01:57, August 1, 2012 (UTC)

Note: Lunarity's suggestion is not possible on Wikia, because if you try to save a parser function or template in your preferences for your signature, it will automatically SUBST it. The common work around on Wikia is to use 2 templates:
 * 1) Put your signature code into a template in your user space.
 * 2) Create a "dummy" template that contains the other template.
 * 3) Then, in your preferences, you substitute the "dummy" template, which will include the original template that has your actual signature code.

Here is a very basic walkthrough to creating a templated signature on Wikia:

Step 1) Copy/paste your current signature code into User:RandomKitten/SigReal

Step 2) Create a "dummy" template called User:RandomKitten/Sig, and what you put on that page is:

Step 3) In Special:Preferences where you specify your signature, put the following:

What this will do: everytime you sign your post, the User:RandomKitten/Sig template will be substituted. But, since that template contains another template, what will actually be put on the page when you publish is.

That's the very basics behind the trick. There are more things you can do besides this, but that's the basics of it.
 * A lengthier explanation of this "template call" approach to signatures is available at tardis:Help:Signature.  16:06: Thu 02 Aug 2012
 * Hmm. I had been wondering about why people were doing that. Is there a particular reason for that behaviour, or is it just an internal glitch with template processing? The signature text is basically just defining a template which is subst: for the magic string; it seems rather pointless to subst: the templates in the template since you could add subst: manually if that's what you actually wanted. Lunarity 14:44, August 3, 2012 (UTC)