Template:Hatnote/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Hatnote.
It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template is used in system messages, and on approximately 658,000 pages, or roughly 1% of all pages.
Changes to it can cause immediate changes to the Wikipedia user interface.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Please discuss changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Redirect

{{Dablink}}

This template uses Lua:

Module:Hatnote (sandbox)

This template produces formatted text, following the guideline for a Wikipedia hatnote:

{{Hatnote|Example hatnote text.}} →

Broadly speaking, a hatnote should answer a reader's question (maybe preemptively): Am I on the right page?

Function

This template is primarily used to add a correctly formatted hatnote to a page. Often, but not always, this is a disambiguation link at the top of article pages. It places an HTML div- / div block around the text entered as its only argument, which provides standardized formatting (contents are indented and italicized in most displays); it also isolates the contained code to make sure that it is interpreted correctly.

This template is also used as the "meta-template" for additional specialized disambiguation link templates; see Category:Hatnote templates for a list.

The template does not automatically create links of any kind. Links and other desired formatting must be explicitly added, using normal Wikipedia markup.

Usage

Basic usage: {{hatnote|text}}

All parameters: {{hatnote|text|extraclasses=extra classes|selfref=yes|category=no}}

Parameters

This template accepts the following parameters:

1 – the hatnote text (required)
extraclasses – any extra CSS classes to be added, for example, the {{see also}} template adds the classes "|extraclasses=boilerplate seealso".
selfref – If set to "yes", "y", "true" or "1", adds the CSS class "selfref". This is used to denote self-references to Wikipedia. See Template:Selfref for more information.
category – If set to "no", "n", "false", or "0", suppresses the error tracking category (Category:Hatnote templates with errors). This has an effect only if the leftmost parameter (the hatnote text) is omitted.

Example

{{hatnote|Example hatnote text}} →

Errors

If no hatnote text is supplied, the template will output the following message:

Error: no text specified (help).

If you see this error message, it is for one of four reasons:

No parameters were specified (the template code was {{hatnote}}). Please use {{hatnote|text}} instead.
Some parameters were specified, but the hatnote text wasn't included. For example, the template text {{hatnote|extraclasses=seealso}} will produce this error. Please use (for example) {{hatnote|text|extraclasses=seealso}} instead.
The hatnote text was specified, but that text contains an equals sign ("="). The equals sign has a special meaning in template code, and because of this it cannot be used in template parameters that do not specify a parameter name. For example, the template code {{hatnote|2+2=4}} will produce this error. To work around this, you can specify the parameter name explicitly by using 1= before the hatnote text, like this: {{hatnote|1=2+2=4}}.
You tried to access Module:Hatnote directly by using {{#invoke:hatnote|hatnote|text}}. Use of #invoke in this way has been disabled for performance reasons. Please use {{hatnote|text}} instead.

If you see this error message and are unsure of what to do, please post a message on Template talk:Hatnote, and someone should be able to help you.

Pages that contain this error message are tracked in Category:Hatnote templates with errors.

Technical details

The HTML code produced by this template looks like this:

<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">hatnote text</div>

The code is produced by Module:Hatnote.

Template parameters
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Text	`1`	This field should contain the text that will be displayed in the hatnote.	String	required
Extra classes	`extraclasses`	Extra CSS classes to be added to the <div> tags surrounding the hatnote text.	Line	optional
Self reference	`selfref`	Set to "yes" if the hatnote text is a self-reference to Wikipedia that would not make sense on mirrors or forks of the Wikipedia site. (E.g. "For the Wikipedia Sandbox, see [[WP:SAND]]".)	Line	optional
Category	`category`	Set to "no", "n", "false", or "0" to suppresses the error tracking category (Category:Hatnote templates with errors). This only has an effect if the hatnote text is omitted.	Unknown	optional

v t e Hatnote templates
Wikipedia:Hatnote Wikipedia:Disambiguation Wikipedia:Redirect
Generic	{{Hatnote}} {{Hatnote group}} {{Self-reference}}
For and about	{{For}} {{For-text}} (for custom text) {{For-multi}} (for multiple uses) {{About}} Variations: {{Other uses}} {{Other uses of}} {{Redirect-distinguish-for}} {{About-distinguish}} {{About-distinguish-text}}
Other topics	{{Other people}} {{About other people}} (adds "about" description) {{Similar names}} {{Other storms}} {{Other places}} {{Other ships}}
Redirect	{{Redirect}} {{Redirect2}} (for two redirects) {{Redirect-multi}} (for multiple redirects) {{Redirect-several}} (for several redirects, without listing each) {{Redirect-synonym}} {{Redirect-distinguish}} {{Redirect-distinguish-text}} {{Redirect-distinguish-for}} {{Technical reasons}}
Distinguish	{{Distinguish}} (supports custom text) {{About-distinguish}} {{About-distinguish-text}} (for custom text) {{Redirect-distinguish}} {{Redirect-distinguish-text}} (for custom text) {{Redirect-distinguish-for}}
For use in sections	{{Main}} {{Main if exists}} {{Main list}} {{Further}} {{Further-text}} (for custom text) {{Further interlanguage link}} {{See also}} {{See also if exists}} {{See also-text}} (for custom text) {{For outline}} {{For timeline}}
Special	{{Broader}} {{For introduction}} {{See Wiktionary}} {{Transcluding article}} {{Transcluded section}}
Subject specific	{{About year}} {{Highway detail hatnote}} {{For LMST}} {{WikiIPA}}
Category:Hatnote templates modules for [family] names for lists hatnote templates for category pages