Wikipedia:Automated taxobox system/changing a taxonomy

Documentation for the automated taxobox system

This is a draft.

Principles

The automated taxobox system relies on a clear relationship existing between the name of a taxon, the title of the corresponding taxonomy template, and the wikilink set in that taxonomy template.

If the taxon has the scientific name TAXNAME:

• the taxonomy template must be called "Template:Taxonomy/TAXNAME" (or in special cases, "Template:Taxonomy/TAXNAME/QUALIFIER").
• in the taxonomy template, the link field must be either |link=TAXNAME or, if the article has a different page name, e.g. the English name, |link=PAGENAME|TAXNAME.

It follows that taxonomy templates should not be moved and redirected since this will destroy the required relationship, which allows the automated taxonomy system to generate the taxonomy template name from the taxon name, and also carry out consistency checks (failures populate subcategories of Category:Taxobox cleanup).

Making changes

So how do you change a taxonomic hierarchy in the automated taxobox system?

Inserting a new taxon at an extra level is generally straightforward: create the new taxonomy template, and change |parent= in all the taxonomy templates which should now be children of the newly added taxon to the taxon name in the new taxonomy template.

A slightly more difficult case is when the scientific name of a group is changed. Consider the following hypothetical example. The animal family Xidae has a taxonomy template at "Template:Taxonomy/Xidae" with |rank=familia. Reliable sources agree that the family should be reduced to the subfamily Xinae. So you want all taxoboxes that previously showed "Family: Xidae" to show "Subfamily: Xinae".

The steps involved are:

1. First create a new taxonomy template at "Template:Taxonomy/Xinae" with |rank=subfamilia and one or more values for |refs= to support its placement in its parent family. Do not move or in any way alter the taxonomy template at "Template:Taxonomy/Xidae".
2. Now you can move the article at "Xidae" to "Xinae" with appropriate changes and refs, revising its automatic taxobox to have |taxon=Xinae, which means it will pick up the new taxonomy template at "Template:Taxonomy/Xinae". (At this point, |link=Xidae at "Template:Taxonomy/Xidae" could be revised to |link=Xinae|Xidae if the text of "Xinae" is clear that it is derived from "Xidae" so that readers get an explanation.)
3. Find all the taxonomy templates] that have |parent=Xidae (see below for how to do this) and change them to have |parent=Xinae, fixing any values in |refs= to support the new placement. For example, "Template:Taxonomy/Y" for the genus Y might previously have had |parent=Xidae. Change this to |parent=Xinae. You will need to check all the articles corresponding to these changed taxonomy templates to make sure that the text of the article is updated if it says anything about family Xidae.
4. When there are no uses of "Template:Taxonomy/Xidae" and if you are sure it won't ever be needed again, then you can blank it, replacing all the content by "Category:Unnecessary taxonomy templates". (Admins occasionally delete the contents of this category.)

Finding child taxonomy templates

How do you find all the taxonomy templates that have a given taxonomy template as their parent?

Consider, as an example, finding all taxonomy templates that have Template:Taxonomy/Mustelidae as their immediate parent. If you put exactly Template:Taxonomy/ "parent Mustelidae" into the Wikipedia search box, it will display them all, as here.

***TO BE COMPLETED – use the Taxonomy browser tool – instructions??***