Template:Ambox/doc

This is the ambox or article message box meta template.

It is used to create article message box templates such as {{wikify}} etc. It offers several different colours, uses default images if no image parameter is given and it has some other features.

This meta template is just a thin wrapper for the ambox CSS classes in MediaWiki:Common.css. The classes can also be used directly in a wikitable, especially if special functionality is needed. See the how-to guide for that.

Usage

Simple usage example:

{{ambox | text = Some text.}}

Complex example:

{{ambox
| type  = style
| image = [[Image:Icon apps query.svg|38px]]
| style = width: 400px; color: red; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic
| text  = The message body text.
}}

Default images

The following examples use different type parameters but use no image parameters thus they use the default images for each type.

Other images

The default images shown above are mostly for convenience. In many cases it is more appropriate to use more specific images. These examples use the image parameter to specify an image other than the default images.

Special

Some other parameter combinations.

Parameters

List of all parameters:

{{ambox
| type  = serious / content / style / merge / growth / notice
| image = none / blank / [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| imageright = [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| style = Cascading Style Sheets value
| text  = The message body text. 
}}

type

If no type parameter is given the template defaults to type notice which is used for "article notices". That means it gets a blue side bar like in the simple usage example above.

image

No parameter = If no image parameter is given the template uses a default image. Which default image it uses depends on the type parameter.

An image = Should be an image with usual wiki notation. 40px - 50px width are usually about right depending on the image height to width ratio. For example:

[[Image:Unbalanced scales.svg|40px]]

none = Means that no image is used.

blank = Means that no image is used but an empty area the same size as a default image is used, which means that text in the message box gets aligned well with other article message boxes. (See the "special" examples above.)

imageright

No parameter = If no imageright parameter is given then no image is shown on the right side.

An image = Should be an image with usual wiki notation. 40px - 50px width are usually about right depending on the image height to width ratio. For example:

[[Image:Nuvola apps bookcase.png|40px]]

Anything = Any other object that you want to show on the right side.

style

An optional Cascading Style Sheets value used by article message box enclosing HTML:

<table style="Template:(({style|Template:))}" class="..."> ... </table>

text

The message body text.

Technical details

If you need to use special characters in the text parameter then you need to escape them like this:

{{ambox
| text  = <div>
Equal sign = and a start and end brace { } work fine as they are. 
But here is a pipe {{!}} and two end braces <nowiki>}}</nowiki>. 
And now a pipe and end braces <nowiki>|}}</nowiki>.
</div>
}}

This template uses CSS classes for most of its looks, thus it is fully skinnable.

Internally this meta template uses HTML markup instead of wiki markup for the table code. That is the usual way we make meta templates since wiki markup has several drawbacks. For instance it makes it harder to use parser functions and special characters in parameters.

For more technical details see the talk page and the "See also" links below.

See also

• Wikipedia:Ambox CSS classes – Describes how to use the ambox CSS classes directly in wikitables and HTML tables.
• Wikipedia:Article message boxes - The style guideline for creating article message boxes.
• Wikipedia talk:Article message boxes - For discussion about these matters.