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 box 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. Page creation is handled by the InputBox extension, or by the CreateBox extension. CreateBox takes mostly the same arguments as InputBox when used with type=create. Both check if a page already exists and display an error message if it does.

Type this:	To make this:
<inputbox> type=create </inputbox>

How do I add a search box to a page?

A search box provides an extra box for users to search your community, in addition to the one in the global navigation bar.

Type this:	To make this:
<inputbox> type=search </inputbox>

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 is the page where to start a new section header. If you use as type commenttitle instead of comment, the text typed in the box becomes the new section header, and is also used as the edit summary for the addition. In this case, you additionally need to define a pagename with the page parameter.

Type this:	To make this:
<inputbox> type = comment </inputbox>
<inputbox> type = commenttitle page = Help talk:Inputbox </inputbox>

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 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.

Placeholder

placeholder=any text

Define placeholder text that will display in the input box when it is empty.

Hide Box

hidden=yes

Removes the box and automatically goes to the page specified by default=.

Type this:	To make this:
<inputbox> type=create width=15 placeholder=Type here! buttonlabel=Click here! break=no </inputbox>

Type this:	To make this:
<inputbox> type=create width=15 default=Type here! hidden=yes buttonlabel=Click here! break=no </inputbox>

Using preloaded templates with an article creation box

See Help:Preloaded templates for more detail

If you want to use a standard article template, you can specify this in the form.

Preloaded text

preload=pagename

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

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.

Type this:	To make this:
<createbox> preload=Template:New_page editintro=Template:Welcome width=25 </createbox>	<createbox> preload=Template:New_page editintro=Template:Welcome width=25 </createbox>

See also

• Inputbox extension documentation on MediaWiki.org
• CreateBox extension documentation on MediaWiki.org

Further help and feedback

• Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
• Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
• Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article