Forum:What is this function?

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So I've come accross a few fuctions that I can get my head around them and I can't find them by googling.

[[Title::{{{title}}}]] and

<ref></ref> and [[Gender::{{{sex|}}}]]

What does the double colon in general mean?

thanks in advance

Dem0n Hunter 09:32, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

Those are used in templates. For example, if [[File:{{imagename}}]] is included in a template, then it means that you can insert {{templatename|filename}} to insert a picture —Sam Wang 09:50, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

No no I mean the double colon part. Sorry if it was vague but I asked at the end. and do you know what <ref> is? I googled and it didn't find anything Dem0n Hunter 09:56, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

I'm not really sure of the double colon (it might be just a page name with two colons). For the <ref> & </ref> tags, they mean "reference" —Sam Wang 11:30, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

Yea, what confuses me is that I know we have [[File:filename]] for images but I don't know where [[Title::]] or [[Gender::]] came from which is weird.Dem0n Hunter 12:40, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Double colons are often used with various features of the Semantic MediaWiki extension. If you give a link to where you've seen them, I could tell you if it's indeed SMW that utilizes them there. — Sovq 14:33, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

That looks like code for a semantic template design. In SMW-wikis, [[Gender::{{{sex|}}}]] means that, for a specific page that uses our template, the Attribute:Gender is set with whatever is given with the "sex" parameter of the template call. Read up more on smw:Help:Semantic templates.--PedroM 17:13, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

Also, Help:Cite.--PedroM 21:51, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

I saw them in WoWwiki http://www.wowwiki.com/Template:Npcbox and sorry I still don't get what's going on. I read the article but it's so vague. Dem0n Hunter 22:23, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

The special notation tells the Semantic Media Wiki part of the wiki to store extra information with the page where the template is used. In the example given it associates pages where the template is used with specific NPC titles (like "Mining Supplies") or NPC gender (female/male) so the various pages can be listed based on those properties.

WoWWiki isn't a great example of SMW usage, because although it sets lots of properties, there are very few examples of where SMW features are actually used.

Maybe someone who has used SMW more deeply can explain more clearly. -- Fandyllic (talk · contr) 20 Apr 2012 4:38 PM Pacific

Honestly I doubt I'm gonna need the SMW features or w/e they are but I'd really like to understand how they work so maybe I can use them somewhere. I learn better using example instead of hard to understand words and definitions so if someone could show me a good example I'd appreciate it. Dem0n Hunter 01:16, April 21, 2012 (UTC)

SMW works with attributes. Attributes kinda work like categories, but every attribute has its own kind (numerical, string, date, etc.), and second, any page can have for any attribute its own individual value (eg, a string type attribute "Name" for a page can be set with any name of your liking). So in a SMW wiki you have lots of pages, each one with its individual set of individual attributes. Now you can make queries over all these pages, or maybe over the pages of a category, and ask for all of them that have one specific attribute set, like, all pages with a specific "year of birth" attribute ("1984"). These queries can be made on a special page or inserted into a normal wiki page. You may choose the format in which to show your query results (table, list) and also additional attributes to show for every of your results. You also can make intersecting/uniting queries (asking for multiple attributes) and ask for a whole range on an attribute ("all blonde male Anime characters with dead parents and short temper from series in the 90s").

So in short, SMW adds simple database functionality to your wiki (and also makes it slower).--PedroM 14:13, April 21, 2012 (UTC)