Help:InputBox

An inputbox allows you to put a box on any page, which has a text field for users to fill and a customizable button for launching the action.

There are three types: the article creation box, the search box, and the comment box. The default width for all boxes is 50 characters.



How do I add an article creation box to a page?
An article creation inputbox places a box on the page that lets the user create a new page by entering the page title. A new page will be opened at the title the user types in. The inputbox will check whether a page already exists and displays an error message if it does.

To change the text on all Create buttons on your site, edit the MediaWiki message "MediaWiki:Createarticle" on your Wikia.



How do I add a search box to a page?
A search box provides an extra box for users to search Wikia, in addition to the one in the sidebar.

To change the text on all Search buttons on your site, edit the MediaWiki messages "MediaWiki:Tryexact" and "MediaWiki:Searchfulltext" on your Wikia.



How do I add a comment box to a page?
This box adds a section to an existing page -- this can be helpful in adding a new discussion to a talk page, or new items to a news page.

The text typed in the box becomes the new section header, and is also used as the edit summary for the addition.

To change the text on all Comment buttons on your site, edit the MediaWiki message "MediaWiki:Postcomment" on your Wikia.



How can I customize the inputboxes?
There are several parameters you can use to customize the display of the inputboxes.

Background color:
 * bgcolor=#FFFFFF
 * Sets the background color using HTML color values. Do not use quotes.  Make this the same as the page color (as specified in the skin) to make the background disappear.

Width:
 * width=##
 * Sets width of input field, where ## is a number of characters. (The default is 50.)

Default text:
 * default=any text
 * Default text to put in the inputbox, such as "enter page title here"

Button label:
 * buttonlabel=any text
 * This label will be used for the main button of the form.

Search button label:
 * searchbuttonlabel=any text
 * This label will be used for the "Search full text" button of the search form.

Line break:
 * break=no
 * Removes the default line break between the input box and the button(s), displaying them side by side.

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Using preloaded templates with an article creation box
If you want to use a standard article template, you can specify this in the form.

Preloaded text: preload=pagename</tt> For comment and create boxes, the text of the page under pagename will be preloaded (see below) into the blank editbox when a new page is created.


 * Example: By specifying "preload=Template:New_page", the content of "Template:New page" will be loaded into the edit box for the new article.

Edit introduction: editintro=pagename</tt> For comment and create boxes, the text of the page under pagename will be added, as instructions, before the submission form for new pages. It is displayed instead of the text of MediaWiki:Newarticletext


 * Example: By specifying "editintro=Template:Welcome", the content of Template:Welcome will be shown above the article.

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Article creation links
You can also create links that make use of the inputbox feature without inserting the box itself onto a page.

For example, http://www.wikia.com/index.php?title=Test_Page&preload=Events&action=edit will open a new page at "Test Page" and preload it with the text from the "Events" page.

You can also open a new page for editing with a custom message at the top. For example, http://www.wikia.com/index.php?title=Test_Page&editintro=Template:Policies&action=edit will load a blank page, with the wikia:Template:Policies displayed above the editing box.

You can combine these two, to give a page that opens with the "wikia:Template:Policies" message at the top, and the content of "Events" loaded into the edit box. http://www.wikia.com/index.php?title=Test_Page&preload=Events&action=edit&editintro=Template:Policies

See Help:Preloaded template for more information.

Credits
Algorithm's actionCreate modification was added to this extension so the Inputbox could check whether a page already exists and displays an error message if it does.