Forum:Problem with my new Infobox

Hello, I've been busy making a new infobox for 'my' wiki, but I've run into some problems. I copied it from Wookieepedia and also copied the related common.css text but it still doesn't work as it should.

This is my new infobox.

And this is my old one.

Here is an example of how it looks when used.

The problems I can´t seem to solve are:
 * the  thing doesn't change. I can´t write down a name.
 * Letters move over the infobox.
 * As you can see in the old infobox 'Ranks and Titles' is collapsible, but I have no idea to implement such a thing in this new infobox.

I hope someone can help me with this issues. --- Zantam03 ( Talk ) 09:43, September 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * Why change from one that worked to a new one from another web site that is far more complex and is missing related templates (needs some sub templates - Eras and Rb) looking at your test page. It also uses poorly named parameters for the inputs as they use a mixed case were as 'normal' practice and your original version use lower case only for input variable's. Every item in the 'input list' that goes in the article should have a matching variable in the actual template's code i.e | name= should have a item in the template code.


 * Infoboxes are far simpler if they use a 'meta' infobox template that contains most of the complex code and then use that as the basis for the various Infobox character-xyz templates that wikia require, so they just contain a list of custom headings, labels and data items with any custom header & background colours as generally used for most wikipedia infoboxes now. see Here for example. (note does not have a collapsible section in it)


 * Also note that changing templates means you will need to re-do every page it was used on if they have different names and input variable's. Modifying the existing may be a simpler solution than fixing the new one or swaping to a Meta Infobox based one. What is it the new one has / does that the original did not have / do? A link to the Wookipedia one would have helped to show up the differences perhaps. (i'm not familiar with the Wookipedia one but it looks to have a block of code similar to other Fanon wiki templates i've seen, but i'm not familiar with what it is actually for, but it may be to do with some of the database extensions they use. So i'm not going to try and actually fix your template). - BulldozerD11 11:46, September 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the reply. When I first saw the Wookiee Infobox I just really liked how it looked. I like it that the picture is on top instead of the title. I like the smaller fonts and the round corners. I guess I also kinda like the IF-stuff. I'm not really an expert at this textual editting. I try though, but I find it extremely hard to master. That's why I prefer to copy rather then edit what I have. But you have a good point when you say it's better to edit because of all the replacing I have to do later on. I guess I'll try to edit again. -- Zantam03 ( Talk ) 12:01, September 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm no expert I've got a whole stack of ideas i started to create and not finished were i found an Idea on another wiki I liked and tried to create something myself similar, but only got so far then found the coding of nested logic stuff too complex to understand to make my idea work. Were i tried to copy some complex code early on i soon discovered a lot of it was not just the normal wikicode but also all that div and span stuff so i dropped the ideas and went back to adding content to the wiki, and picking up tips here on the forum. I also had a spell of adding loads of wikipedia templates but once i got some help getting the main ones working on wikia, I found its easier to adapt a existing one in stages than try to create them from scratch or copy ones from other wikia as they are often built totally differently, as some wikis have various extension added which give them extra functions as well.


 * Your existing Infobox as it works can probably have the layout updated/ rearranged by moving the sections round, to put an image above the Header. The box shape, colours and fonts can probably be be adjusted by one of the css/skin experts relatively easily as well. The colour codes are listed at web colors - BulldozerD11 00:04, September 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * I see you have moved the image above the header label in your version. The rounded bottom in the Wookieepedia one is added by the Template:Rb (which you were missing in your copy) and some css code that defines the radius bits in the footer. The footer of the template also uses another template for a backlink to the template and has the colasible button. My std infobox (from wikipedia's version) has a backlink to the template and its talk page provided by  which uses the versatile wikipedia:template:navbar (also used in navigation box templates to create the V.D.E. links). - BulldozerD11 01:24, September 15, 2010 (UTC)