Template:Factions/doc

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{{factions}} creates a small 30x30 clickable icon of a character's faction symbol to the right of the page title. Up to 10 icons can be created this way.[1]

Note: This template is based on an almost-identical template on Wookiepedia used to place "Era" icons in the titlebar.
{{factions
|autobot
|decepticon}}

Faction icon names

Faction names used by this template are lowercase. Any mis-typed text not recognized as the template will be rendered as text. (You will notice, it's hard to miss.)

To add additional names, first edit {{Factions/icons}} using the syntax described there, then add to this list.

FACTION NAME TEMPLATE TEXT ICON
Autobot autobot
Decepticon decepticon
Optimus optimus
Malignus malignus
Quintesson quintesson
War for Cybertron Quintesson quintessonwfc
Autobot Generation 2 autobotg2
Decepticon Generation 2 decepticong2
Cybertronian Generation 2 cybEmpireG2
Cybertron Alliance allianceg2
Maximal maximal
Predacon predacon
Maximal (Beast Machines) maximalbm
Vehicon vehicon
Dinobot dinobot
Mutant mutant
Wrecker wreckers
Mini-Con minicon
Unicron-allied unicron
Unicron (faction) unicronfact
Blentron sub-group blentron
Velocitron velocitron
Jungle Planet jungleplanet
Earth cybearth
Gigantion gigantion
Ultracon ultracon
Elite Guard eliteguard
Sector Seven sector7
Doctor Morocco drmorocco
Autobot (TransTech) ttautobot
Decepticon (TransTech) ttdecepticon
Autobot (Shattered Glass) sgAutobot
Decepticon (Shattered Glass) sgDecepticon
G.I. Joe gijoe
Cobra cobra
EDC edc
First Transformers 1stTF
Go-Bots go-bot1
Go-Bots go-bot2
Galactic Republic galacticrepublic
Rebel Alliance rebelalliance
Empire empire
NEST NEST
Unit:E unite
Kiss Players Autobot kiss
Kiss Players Decepticon kisscon
Protectors protectors
Hall of Fame inductees (real-life) hofgold
Hall of Fame inductees (characters) hofsilver
Star Seekers starseeker
Lightning Strike Coalition lightningstrike
Predacon (Prime) predaconprime
Rescue Bots rescuebot
Ammonite ammonite
KSI ksi
Autobird autobird
Deceptihog deceptihog
Functionist Council functionist
Animorph animorph
Toys"R"Us TRU
Cybertronian Knights knight
Combatron combatron
Offworlder Zone Security Administration ozsa
Team Stunticon teamstunticon
Stunticon (Prime) primestunticon
Ghostbusters ghostbusters
Mercenary mercenary
Primus Vanguard primusvanguard
Obsolete[2] autobotfilm
Obsolete[2] decepticonfilm

Custom faction icons

There are some characters who have their own faction symbol, (example: Moon) essentially used nowhere else. Rather than clutter the template with these, it is possible to declare a custom faction icon via the following format;

{{factions/icons
|custom=Moon symbol clean.png     -REQUIRED, filename of image
|cSize=30x30px     -Optional, maximum size of image.
|cLink=Celestial     -REQUIRED, Page the image links to.
|cPretty=Celestials     -Optional, mouseover text.  Will use the link if not supplied.
}}

This is, in turn, included along with the other non-custom tags.

{{factions
|{{factions/icons|custom=Moon symbol clean.png|cLink=Celestial|cPretty=Celestials}}
|maximal
}}

General considerations

As of this writing (Mar-28-19) this is the only template on TFWiki that requires Javascript to function. The icons in question are created within a non-rendering <div> tag, which is then copied into the titlebar when the page finishes loading. As a result, the

template doesn't HAVE to be at the page... but by convention it always should be. Between 0.5 - 1.0% of internet surfers have either disabled Javascript or access the internet in a way that does not support it. Those users will not be able to see these faction icons. These faction icons are intended to serve as a convenient visual shorthand for information already in the article, and are not a primary means of communicating that information. Any information presented by these icons should also be present in the article text.

Technical notes

  • The Javascript function associated with this template is called showFactions().
  • The non-rendering <div> has an id of "title-factionicons." There is a single CSS rule associated with this ID-- causing the <imagemap> <div>s to render inline rather than as blocks.
  • The "custom" imagemaps use "#tag: syntax" to allow parameters to be passed to them. (Don't think this will ever have to be edited.)
  • The icons themselves are generated by the "Template:Factions/icons" sub-page.

Trivia

  • The development process of this template included a truly spectacular recursion error that knocked the entire wiki offline as its stack overflowed, repeatedly and we think corrupted link-table entries that couldn't be resolved without deleting the whole thing and starting from scratch. That is why the current version of the template exists in a 'dumb' (non-recursive) form. Bad Derik!'

Footnotes

  1. 10 is an arbitrary number. Arbitrary-length MediaWiki templates like this are generally encouraged to have no more than 20 parameters though. And really... if a character has more than 10 factions, the icons cease to communicate information and simply become noise.
  2. 2.0 2.1 These template texts are obsolete. Please use the standard "autobot" and "decepticon" texts.