Template talk:AF Cite Book

Needed?

is this really needed? why not use Template:Cite Book?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.39.191.193 (talk) 01:28, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

It is easier than re-entering all of the information like ISBN's and dates, etc. And it does use {{cite book}}. LegoK^ontribsT^alkM 18:18, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Just used it. I found it most useful. HairyWombat 16:08, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

"editor" and "accessdate"

I have been tidying up the template, and noticed that the parameters |editor= and |accessdate= in {{cite book}} are included. (Note that parameter |accessdate= is for an online copy of the book, and is useless without an accompanying |url= parameter.) Are these actually used anywhere? If not then they should be dumped to make the template simpler. HairyWombat 17:01, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Later. Done. HairyWombat 17:19, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

Some improvements

This template needs some work. I suggest the following changes:

1. Zap parameters |editor= and |accessdate=, as described above.
2. Use variable {{PAGENAME}} and additional logic to insert links to the novels (or not); this will solve the problem of ugly bold non-functioning links.
3. Fix parameter |origmonth=; this does not exist in template {{cite book}}.
4. Select parameter |page= or |pages= in template {{cite book}}, depending on an empty or non-empty |endpage= parameter.
5. Add parameter |oclc= to template {{cite book}}.
6. Ignore parameter |pages= in template {{AF Cite Book}} as it is redundant; instead, use a non-empty |startpage= parameter.
7. In doc, add template to Category:Artemis Fowl.
8. In doc, add link to Artemis Fowl:The Graphic Novel.
9. In doc, add new sections "Usage" and "Examples" (the former is standard and the latter will be useful for testing using Show preview).

I will implement these changes in the next few days unless there are objections. HairyWombat 22:06, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Looks fine. I guess {{cite book}} has changed since I first made this. LegoK^ontribsT^alkM 01:14, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

All done. I replaced both parameters |origmonth= and |year= with the single parameter |date=. Also, the template now has both sandbox and testcases pages.

If I was starting from scratch then I would write the template to accept parameters |page=, |pages= and |chapter=, and blindly pass these through to the template {{cite book}}. To see how this would work, see the template {{Cite MAG}} which I created last night. The problem with doing this now is that someone would need to change all existing uses of the template, and I can't be arsed. HairyWombat 17:15, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Further improvements

I have recently removed startpage and endpage from {{Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae}} and the same thing is being done with {{London Gazette}}. The reasoning behind this is that the documentation can link to help:CS1 help:cs1, and as editors are already familiar with page and pages, this is what they will tend to remember rather than the non-standard startpage endpage pair. -- PBS (talk) 14:02, 14 May 2017 (UTC)