Template talk:NBA game

Program design

I have a couple of problems with the current design:

1. The ymd parameter is split into two. Because they are already together in the URL, this results in an unnecessary concatenation.
2. All the parameters except for id are lowercased, and default to {{PAGENAMEE}}. Lowercasing numbers do nothing but increase the workload, and the page name is useless in a box score.

Therefore, I am proposing to change it to any of the following:

• [http://www.nba.com/games/{{{1}}}/{{uc:{{{2}}}}}/boxscore.html {{{3}}}–{{{4}}}]

  This is the least intuitive, but it saves space.

• [http://www.nba.com/games/{{{date}}}/{{uc:{{{id}}}}}/boxscore.html {{{away}}}–{{{home}}}]
• [http://www.nba.com/games/{{{date}}}/{{uc:{{{id}}}}}/boxscore.html {{{pf}}}–{{{pa}}}]

  where pf stands for "points for" and pa for "points against".

This would require change to the articles that transclude the template, but since their number is low (currently less than 50), I can probably get it all done within a time span of 10 minutes. Any problems or comments? —LOL ^T/_C 23:00, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

I think it should be switched to [http://www.nba.com/games/{{{date}}}/{{uc:{{{id}}}}}/boxscore.html {{{pf}}}–{{{pa}}}]. BlueRed 04:42, 5 November 2008 (UTC) Moved from User:LOL's talk page.[1]

Cool template, very useful, but there needs to be some documentation on what goes where. I also would like it to be in the format: "[WL] <winning team score>-<losing team score>". That's currently impossible the way the template is now. The 'W' or 'L' gives the reader a quick way to see if the team has won or lost. You can't rely on the row highlighting to do that. — X96lee15 (talk) 14:58, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Is it possible to put (OT) after the scores when the game is an overtime game? Like in Template:2007–08 Boston Celtics season game log --Arnold Go (talk) 11:29, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Broken Template

Hey all, it looks like NBA changed their database structure. It looks something like this now: NBA.com/Stats. I believe all the scores using this current template are broken.

I logged a more detailed claim here: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_National_Basketball_Association#Template:NBA_game_not_working_all_the_time chsh (talk) 20150123152235 15:22, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Documentation

While preparing the TemplateData for this template, I encountered some of the below problems:

1. Since not everybody is familiar with NBA or any other sport, I think the parameter "pf" and "pa" need more clarification.
2. The "id" parameter does not clarify anything related to the teams.
3. The format of "date" is missing. It is YYYY-MM-DD.
   

Suggestion: A few examples on the Documentation subpage should solve the problems. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wassan.anmol (talk • contribs) 07:32, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

2018

Just a notice to anyone using this, the template is still very much broken as of August 2018. The link that gets created by this template goes to a deadlink for everything. Not sure if there is a a good way to fix this template as the various seasons may be different types of links. Yosemiter (talk) 13:38, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

@Yosemiter: It can easily be fixed. I already experimented with that, but that would require going through many pages to change the ID numbers and I am not willing to do that. It would be best if the link in the template would lead the reader to an appropriate match in here (Heat vs. Spurs). – Sabbatino (talk) 14:27, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

@Sabbatino: Considering it has been broken since 2015 (see others editor's comments above), it seems to be unimportant as a template since no one fixed it then. No one seemed interested in fixing it or discussing it in August on the main NBA project page either. I am just saying it should not be used until it fixed or not at all, since as you just linked, it is just as easy to write 100–104, which is exactly what I suggested in the archived talk page. Yosemiter (talk) 14:41, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

@Yosemiter: I agree that this template is obsolete since it does not work for any games that were played before October 2012. Since I intend to edit the 2018–19 Brooklyn Nets' page, I will use the method that you insisted on using In addition, I believe the fate of this template should be asked at WT:NBA, but since nobody answered when you asked, it can just be nominated for deletion and then we would see if people are interested. I will try to start a discussion and see if people react to it. – Sabbatino (talk) 08:25, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

@Sabbatino: I wouldn't say I "insisted" on using anything, I am pointing out external link-based templates are inherently problematic. If it can be fixed (I am not a good enough template editor to answer that), then by all means use it. I just came across a bunch of these broken ones in the 2017–18 and 2018–19 season pages while cleaning up after a certain Phoenix Suns editor. Yosemiter (talk) 12:39, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

@Yosemiter: It appears no other project uses similar templates when linking the score. I started a new discussion at WT:NBA. – Sabbatino (talk) 08:08, 3 October 2018 (UTC)