Wikipedia talk:Template sandbox and test cases

Template notices

Template:Template test cases notice and Template:Template sandbox notice should be updated for nonstandard test case locations, additionally, test case notice template needs to be updated of nonstandard sandbox location that the sandbox notice template already supports. 76.66.196.229 (talk) 09:38, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Many other templates, like for instance {{documentation}}, and most experienced template coders expect the standard names /sandbox and /testcases. So a better approach is to move your non-standard pages to the standard names. If you have a /testcases page that is used for several templates, then you can redirect the /testcases pages of the other templates to the main /testcases page.

--David Göthberg (talk) 15:25, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

((test-mode))

We now have the {{test-mode}} template for advanced testing. It provides a test-mode where the test version of a template is shown in the articles instead of the normal version. It is especially useful for testing meta-templates and sub-templates that might be several steps away from the templates placed on the pages, so we can't call the test versions directly.

The test-mode should only be used after the normal testing in the /sandbox and /testcases pages has been done.

--David Göthberg (talk) 15:31, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Parameter test categories

I've followed the procedure for testing changes to a template (I'm updating the use of two parameters to be in line with other templates), and the results are fine: most examples work exactly the same as before, current parameter use doesn't break my proposed version (though they don't benefit from the "italics" fields anymore unless edited), and new parameters work exactly as I want in the new version.

But my question is this: before introducing it, I'd like to find all current uses of the parameters that I'm changing ("preceded_by_italics"/"followed_by_italics") to make sure I can update them. The simplest way I can think of is to make a temporary edit to the template, so that use of these parameters adds the articles to a specific category (e.g. {{#if:{{{preceded_by_italics|}}}|[[Category:Articles with short story infobox italics]]}}); would this temporary testing be allowed (it seems in line with Template:Test-mode editing, for example)? If not, what's the best way to find all the instances where this parameter is used, without trawling through every article that has the template? --xensyria^T 20:35, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Why the documentation too ?

Uh, “copy[ing] the entire contents of the main template, including <noinclude> tags and the {{documentation}} template and past[ing] it into the /sandbox subpage” pollutes the relevant template categories with all the /sandbox entries… For example, i am now in the process of cleaning up Category:Citation and verifiability maintenance templates of all the sandboxes crap --Jerome Potts (talk) 10:27, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

@Jerome Charles Potts: If you don't copy everything to the sandbox, it is very easy to forget to include the documentation when copying the sandbox back to the main template. (I have made this mistake more than once myself.) Template editors already have a lot to think about when updating templates - adding the documentation to that list makes things even more error-prone. And the problem of polluting categories can be solved in other ways. Lately the following code is added to new documentation pages by default:

<includeonly>{{sandbox other||
<!-- Categories below this line, please; interwikis at Wikidata -->

}}</includeonly>

If the categories are put in the designated space, they will be displayed on the main template but not the sandbox, meaning that the template categories are not polluted even when the documentation is copied as well. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 05:48, 15 October 2017 (UTC)

Confusing...

In the section How to create /sandbox and /testcases subpages it states...

Suppose your template is named Template:X. Create a subpage with the name Template:X/sandbox. If the main template

What if the "main template" doesn't exist yet? The Help:Designing infoboxes page suggests a method to build one in your own userspace, but those instructions return an error. I believe we need clear and working instructions on the precise steps needed to accomplish these two tasks. Maury Markowitz (talk) 12:06, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

I have replied to you on the other page. If the template does not exist yet, then it is okay just to create a new template. The sandbox is only needed to test new features on a template which is already in use. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:10, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

So why doesn't it say that?! Well, it will now... Maury Markowitz (talk) 14:06, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Should sandboxes and testcases be protected?

I think template sandboxes and testcases should not be protected because it does not restrict the ability to test templates. Thingofme (talk) 09:43, 19 June 2022 (UTC)

Bold Rickey710206 (talk) 04:54, 3 December 2023 (UTC)