Template:Ambox

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This template is used on 300,000+ pages. To avoid any disruptions and to save server load, any changes should first be tested in this template's /sandbox or /testcases subpage, or in your own user space. The tested changes can then be added in one single edit to this template. As a courtesy to other users, please discuss any changes at Wikipedia talk:Article message boxes before implementing them.

This is the {{ambox}} or article message box meta-template.

It is used to build 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 uses the ambox CSS classes in MediaWiki:Common.css. The classes can also be used directly in a wikitable 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:Emblem-question-yellow.svg|40px]]
| style     = width: 400px; 
| textstyle = color: red; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
| text      = The message body text.
}}

Article message box types

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  = delete / content / style / notice / move / protection
| image = none / blank / [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| imageright = [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| style = CSS value
| textstyle = CSS value
| text  = The message body text. 
}}

type

If no type parameter is given the template defaults to type notice. That means it gets a blue side bar.

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. (Images over 52 pixels width will cause padding problems.) For example:

image = [[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. (Images over 52 pixels width will cause padding problems.) For example:

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

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

style

An optional CSS value used by the entire article message box table. Without quotation marks " ". For example:

style = margin-bottom: 0.5em;

textstyle

An optional CSS value used by the text cell. For example:

textstyle = text-align: center;

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 in MediaWiki:Common.css 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.

The default images for this meta-template are in png format instead of svg format. The main reason is that some older web browsers have trouble with the transparent background that MediaWiki renders for svg images. The png images here have hand optimised transparent background colour so they look good in all browsers. Note that svg icons only look somewhat bad in the old browsers, thus such hand optimisation is only worth the trouble for very widely used icons.

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

See also

There are several meta-templates in the mbox family:

• {{ambox}} – For article message boxes.
• {{tmbox}} – For talk page message boxes.
• {{imbox}} – For image page message boxes.
• {{cmbox}} – For category message boxes.
• {{ombox}} – For other pages message boxes.
• {{mbox}} – Has namespace detection, for message boxes that are used on several types of pages and thus need to change style depending on what page they are used on.

Other pages:

• 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.