Template:Main other/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Main other (see that page for the template itself).
It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template is used on 2,000,000+ pages.
To avoid large-scale disruption and unnecessary server load, any changes to this template should first be tested in its /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can then be added to this page in one single edit. Please consider discussing any changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Shortcut {{ns0}}

This is the {{main other}} meta-template.

This template helps other templates detect if they are on a main space (article) page or some "other" type of page.

Basic usage

This template usually takes two parameters, like this:

{{main other |result if in mainspace |result if elsewhere}}

If the template is on a main space (article) page, it will return this:

result if in mainspace

If the template is on any other page, it will return this:

result if elsewhere

A typical usage case could be to make it so that a template only adds a category when on an article. Thus not adding other pages that just show the template. Like this:

Note that guidelines do not support categorization in templates.

Or to warn that a template should not be used on other pages:

Note that in the first case above the "other" parameter was not used, and in the second example the "main" parameter was left empty.

Demospace

For testing and demonstration purposes, this template can take a parameter named demospace.

If it has the value main it returns the article text.
It if has the value other or any other value such as the name of some other namespace it returns the other pages text.
If the parameter is empty or undefined, the actual page type determines the result.

Like this:

{{main other |result if in mainspace |result if elsewhere |demospace=main}}

No matter on what kind of page the code above is used, it will return: result if in mainspace

You can make it so your template also understands the demospace parameter. That means you can demonstrate the different appearances of your template in the documentation for your template:

{{main other |result if in mainspace |result if elsewhere |demospace={{{demospace|}}} }}

Technical details

This template detects article "Talk:" pages as type other.

This template works like {{main talk other}}. For more examples and technical details, see the documentation there.

Template:Namespace and pagename-detecting templates