Template:Factions/doc

{{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.

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.)

FACTION NAME	TEMPLATE TEXT	ICON
Autobot	autobot
Decepticon	decepticon
Optimus	optimus
Malignus	malignus
Quintesson	quintesson
Autobot Generation 2	autobotg2
Decepticon Generation 2	decepticong2
Cybertronian Generation 2	cybEmpireG2
Maximal	maximal
Predacon	predacon
Maximal (Beast Machines)	maximalbm
Vehicon	vehicon
Dinobot	dinobot
Mutant	mutant
Predacon (Robots in Disguise)	predaconrid
Wreckers	wreckers
Mini-Con	minicon
Unicron-allied	unicron
Unicron (faction)	unicronfact
Blendtron sub-group	blendtron	blendtron
Velocitron	velocitron
Jungle Planet	jungleplanet
Gigantion	gigantion
Ultracon	ultracon
Cybertron Elite Guard	eliteguard
Sector Seven	sector7
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
Playskool Go-Bots	gogogobot	gogogobot
Galactic Republic	galacticrepublic
Rebel Alliance	rebelalliance
Empire	empire

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^(Jan-16-09), 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!'