Template:Template other/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Template 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 250,000+ 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.

This is the {{Template other}} meta-template. It helps other templates detect if they are on a "Template:" page or another type of page.

Usage

This template usually takes one or two parameters:

{{Template other |[result/action if on a template page] (|[result/action if on another type of page])}}

For example, if {{Template other |On template page |Not on template page}} were on a "Template:" page, it would return:

On template page

On any other type of page (e.g. "Wikipedia:", "User:") it would return:

Not on template page

A typical use is to manage the categorization of template pages. Adding {{Template other | |[[Category:[category name]Template:))!}} to a template, for instance, means it would only categorize a page when that page isn't a template page. (The first parameter consists of nothing, so no action taken if/when the template is on a template page.)

Demospace

The parameter demospace can be used to demonstrate or test this template. By default, it is undefined and has no effect on the template's action, but:

when set as "template" (|demospace=template), it prompts the template to return the first result/action above (i.e. to behave as if on a "Template:" page) even if the template is on a different type of page;
when set as "other" (|demospace=other), it prompts the template to return the second result/action above (i.e. to behave as if not on a "Template:" page) even if the template is on a "Template:" page.

For example:

{{Template other
| demospace = template
| Template page text 
| Other pages text 
}}

No matter on what kind of page the code above is used, it returns: Template page text

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. Then do like this:

{{template other 
| Template page text 
| Other pages text 
| demospace = {{{demospace|}}}
}}

Technical details

This template detects "Template talk:" pages as type other. For more details relevant to this template, see {{Main talk other}}, which works similarly.

Template:Namespace and pagename-detecting templates