Template talk:Infobox networking protocol

Seems limited!

I want to add an infobox to the AppleTalk article. But this is definitely not the right one... this is not a networking protocol infobox at all, this is really the "TCP application protocol" infobox. I need the one that talks about the general type of protocol, physical layers (lots of protocols were tightly tied to physical layers), performance, so things like speed and channel efficiency are not included. Nor is a logo, image or caption (are these inherited). Am I looking at the wrong infobox? Maury Markowitz (talk) 17:35, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

@Maury Markowitz: Hi.

What shortcomings do you sense? i.e. What fields do you need?

As for the image, logo and their related captioning fields, they are nice to have around, just in case.

Best regards,

Codename Lisa (talk) 13:43, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

So thinking over this, I see that there are at least two different templates that are needed. The first can be handled by expanding this template with some new fields:

• logo/image/captions
• Purpose - What is this for? File transfer? IP telephony? Text chat?
• Developer - person, company or group name if applicable
• Introduced - year/date of introduction
• Efficiency - channel efficiency under optimal conditions

But what I was originally looking for is not "networking protocol" but "networking stack". So that would be...

• logo/image/captions
• Purpose - Is this a LAN protocol? WAN? General purpose?
• Developer - person, company or group name if applicable
• Introduced - year/date of introduction
• Based on - many systems are based on others. XNS is the canonical example, spawning a half dozen other protocols
• Supported transports - what hardware the system normally wan on
• Associated hardware - this is a specialization of supported transports, listing the hardware most associated with this system. AppleTalk was normally used with LocalTalk or PhoneNet, for instance. ECONET used 1mbps RS-422. Etc.

That seems like the start anyway.

Maury Markowitz (talk) 14:08, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

@Maury Markowitz: Hi again. I've made a prototype in {{Infobox networking protocol/sandbox}} and set up a test case in Template:Infobox networking protocol/testcases. Please see the latter and give the former a whirl. Deploying it is a matter of a few clicks. I even implemented an |is stack= parameter that changes the subheader from "networking protocol" to "networking protocol stack".

However, you will realize that "Efficiency", "Supported transports" and "Associated hardware" aren't yet deployed. Well, that's because they need a bit of more deliberation. I am going to need actual example. I'd appreciate if you gave me some.

Best regards,

Codename Lisa (talk) 12:00, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

This is excellent. It appears "name" is not working though - it seems it is in the template page but not rendered beside it. As to the transports and hardware, is that best put in a different template, or do you think we can have a single one that supports both? I'm happy either way. To provide some context though, consider the template needed for the AppleTalk article and then the one needed for XMODEM. Can one template do both? If so, I'm all for it. Maury Markowitz (talk) 14:53, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

@Maury Markowitz: These questions are nice questions that are also my questions. I won't be able to answer them unless you give me real world examples for those fields. Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 16:40, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

Ok three examples:

purpose = protocol stack

name = AppleTalk

developer = Apple Inc.

introduced = 1987

associated hardware = LocalTalk

purpose = protocol stack

name = IPX/SPX

developer = Novell

purpose = file transfer prototcol

name = XMODEM

developer = Ward Christensen

introduced = 1977

efficiency = 92%

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Maury Markowitz (talk • contribs) 18:10, 17 January 2015‎ (UTC)

@Maury Markowitz: Do you have a source for efficiency = 92%? Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 01:49, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

Actually I pulled that out of my butt, it's simply a place holder. Channel efficiency is easy to calculate though, it's simply the number of data bytes divided by the total packet size in bytes. So XMODEM would be 128 / (3 + 128 + 1) = 97%. Perhaps packet size and overhead are better numbers to include, and then calculate the efficiency (can the template even do that?) Maury Markowitz (talk) 14:44, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

@Maury Markowitz: Deployment complete. Go get 'em! Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 14:44, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

@Codename Lisa: Working great, I've used it in about a dozen articles so far. Maury Markowitz (talk) 20:02, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

Needs Specification Links

Needs to specify direct links to publicly published specifications such as W3C standards such as https://www.w3.org/TR/websockets/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mrinal Kanti (talk • contribs) 21:16, 20 November 2022 (UTC)

ISO layer parameter

This template uses an osilayer parameter. However, it is used by protocols that are not OSI compliant, like the far majority of protocols. I think this parameter should be generalized. PhotographyEdits (talk) 14:54, 13 December 2022 (UTC)