Comic Template change?

[Roygbiv666]

Now that it's too late, is there any way to put the synopsis before the cast? Does anyone really want to see a multi-screen list of people before the synopsis?

[m1shawhan]

I think we originally had it this way and it seemed to leave a LOT of whitespace on the mid-page. With the synopsis in the middle of the page and the characters above it leaves the infobox taking up most of that whitespace.

[Jamie]

I think we originally had it this way and it seemed to leave a LOT of whitespace on the mid-page. With the synopsis in the middle of the page and the characters above it leaves the infobox taking up most of that whitespace.

PROBLEM SOLVED:

'hide/show' collapsability. (Hidden by default)

Thoughts?

[m1shawhan]

I personally liked it this proposed way...if we can collapse it then I say YES!

[Roygbiv666]

I think we originally had it this way and it seemed to leave a LOT of whitespace on the mid-page. With the synopsis in the middle of the page and the characters above it leaves the infobox taking up most of that whitespace.

PROBLEM SOLVED:

'hide/show' collapsability. (Hidden by default)

Thoughts?

Sounds neat-o. I assume it's like the TOC section that you cna hide/show?

[Jamie]

Sounds neat-o. I assume it's like the TOC section that you cna hide/show?

Yup, it should be.

[Peteparker]

If we have "Don't Show TOC's" checked in our preferences will we see the collapse able sections?

[Jamie]

If we have "Don't Show TOC's" checked in our preferences will we see the collapse able sections?

Should still see it since it isn't a system generated function, but rather a user generated template...
I could be wrong... we will have to see.

[Roygbiv666]

Here's another idea. Since the Character templates have a "Creators" field, what about autocategorizing the creators listed into "Category:Bob Kane/Creator" or something?

Anyone?

[Jamie]

Here's another idea. Since the Character templates have a "Creators" field, what about autocategorizing the creators listed into "Category:Bob Kane/Creator" or something?

Anyone?

Should be possible...
Peteparker is better with these {{#pos: things than I...

[m1shawhan]

This could definitely be done....we just need to think up a good term. "Jamie/Creators", might be ambiguous (sorry Jamie..), but We could make it something like "Jamie/Creations" or something...

We might even be better with the category showing on the "Staff pages". So that when you search for Jamie you find his page with his "creations" and such listed out or if nothing else "linked" to from that page. This way overall, you add it to the comic, character, event, item, etc in the creator field...and get a full category link on the staff page showing from the Staff member that created those things. Make sense? My problem is when there are multiple people listed there...which is where Peteparker would be excellent for this (I think he uses an explode command if there are people listed with ;'s between the names. If it were just a single individual listed in the Creators= section (without brackets) then the code for that is below.

If we do something like this, then the commands to put on the template pages would be:
{{#if: {{{Creators|}}} | [[Category:{{{Creators}}}/Creations]] | }}
{{#if: {{{Creator|}}} | [[Category:{{{Creator}}}/Creations]] | }}

and the command on the Staff page (under each "sub-[if]-section") would be:
{{#ifexist: Category:{{PAGENAME}}/Creations | * [[:Category:{{PAGENAME}}/Creations|{{PAGENAME}}/Creations]] }}
{{#ifexist: Category:{{{RealName}}}/Creations | * [[:Category:{{{RealName}}}/Creations|{{{RealName}}}/Creations]] }}
{{#ifexist: Category:{{{Pseudonyms}}}/Creations | * [[:Category:{{{Pseudonyms}}}/Creations|{{{Pseudonyms}}}/Creations]] }}

if you all want to attempt this, let me know and I could easily add this or any other name for the category we can come up with.

[GrnMarvl14]

The ability for the creator information to autocategorize a list of characters created by a creator has been my #1 wish for quite a while now. WHOEVER makes it possible will be my new hero.

[m1shawhan]

LOL...do you think "/Creations" is appropriate?

[Roygbiv666]

LOL...do you think "/Creations" is appropriate?

Could be, or "Category:Bob Kane/Creator" just like "Category:Bob Kane/Penciller" or "Category:Bob Kane/Writer".

[Peteparker]

Here's another idea. Since the Character templates have a "Creators" field, what about auto-categorizing the creators listed into "Category:Bob Kane/Creator" or something?

Anyone?

As stated in previous posts, it is not impossible to achieve, but the real reason it hasn't been done yet is the lack of continuity between all of the 'Creators' fields.
For example, I did a simple search for | Creators =, and here are some of the different values that came up on the first 1000 hits:

| Creators = Bill Everett
| Creators = [[Jack Kirby]]
| Creators = Stan Lee Steve Ditko (Admittedly, I changed this one to: Stan Lee; Steve Ditko)
| Creators = Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum
| Creators = [[Fabian Nicieza]], [[Rob Liefeld]]
| Creators = Gardner Fox and Syd Shores
| Creators = [[Sean McKeever]] and [[Mike Norton]]
| Creators = [[D.G. Chichester]], [[Margaret Clark]], and [[Klaus Janson]]
| Creators = Sal Buscema, Mike Esposito, Don Glut, John Tartag
| Creators = Fabian Nicieza & Kevin Maguire
| Creators = Bob Layton; Jackson Guice
| Creators = [[Fabian Nicieza]]; [[Tony Daniel|Antonio Daniel]]
| Creators = John Ostrander; Joe Edkin; Ivan Reis
| Creators = [[Grant Morrison]] (writer), [[Ethan van Sciver]] (artist)
| Creators = [[Stan Lee]] (story) and [[Jack Kirby]] (art).
| Creators = Group of Marvel Comics staff: Tom DeFalco, John Romita Jr., Louise Simonson, and Roger Stern
| Creators = The character of Guardian was created by writer [[Chris Claremont]] and later expanded upon by [[John Byrne]]
| Creators = (I)Roy Thomas, John Buscema; (II)Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung

So you can quickly see that though the main parts of the information are all in there, they are all stated in a LOT of different ways. This is the reason that making this field auto-categorize is difficult. (Not impossible, by a long-shot, but hours of programming difficult for sure).

There are two ways I can accomplish the goal:

1. I can design and implement a complex "Creators Standardization" Template, much like the Comic Name Standardization Template, that takes the variable input of the Creators Field and tries to break it down in a bunch of different ways to get the actual names within the field.
The drawbacks to using this strategy are two-fold: It takes a LOT of time, because the differences are difficult to program around, and Jamie has told me previously that over-complicated templates (like the one previously stated), can slow down the page load time, especially for users that aren't utilizing a broadband or better connection.
The positive aspect to this strategy is that once the template is completed, it becomes VERY easy to stick it into other templates around the site, say the Race, Vehicle, Item, and Location templates, to name a few.

2. I can write a much simpler Creators Standardization Template, that as M1 stated, would take only one specific way for the info to be put into the field, say all the creators separated by semi-colons, and easily output the text and categories accordingly. The drawbacks to this strategy are: If anything is put into the Creators field that doesn't match up with the specific pattern, (CreatorName or CreatorName; CreatorName2 or CreatorName; CreatorName2; CreatorName3), it will come back as regular text, with no categorization or linkage, plus, a Bot program will still have to be written to search all of the Creators fields on the database, recognize which pieces are actual creator's names, and change the field correctly. So the Bot program will still have to be written to overcome all of the differences shown above, and this program would have to be run pretty much over almost every page on the site, which takes some time. There is also no real way to ensure that people using the templates both understand the change that was made, and comply with the new way to input the information. The positive aspect to this strategy is keeping the page load time for a given page down, and keeping the template code on the site simple, and therefore easy to understand.

So with all of that said, M1's code:

If we do something like this, then the commands to put on the template pages would be:
{{#if: {{{Creators|}}} | [[Category:{{{Creators}}}/Creations]] | }}
{{#if: {{{Creator|}}} | [[Category:{{{Creator}}}/Creations]] | }}

and the command on the Staff page (under each "sub-[if]-section") would be:
{{#ifexist: Category:{{PAGENAME}}/Creations | * [[:Category:{{PAGENAME}}/Creations|{{PAGENAME}}/Creations]] }}
{{#ifexist: Category:{{{RealName}}}/Creations | * [[:Category:{{{RealName}}}/Creations|{{{RealName}}}/Creations]] }}
{{#ifexist: Category:{{{Pseudonyms}}}/Creations | * [[:Category:{{{Pseudonyms}}}/Creations|{{{Pseudonyms}}}/Creations]] }}

is the starting point for either situation. Incorporating a link to the /Creator or /Creations Category page is very easy to put into the Staff template, and it would even be easy to put together a little header for those Category pages. (In case you guys haven't noticed, I feel that a Category with no information in it beyond the articles listed in it isn't very fun to look at, {Take a look at New York State, Ben Raab/Writer and Vampires for examples}).

The ability for the creator information to auto-categorize a list of characters created by a creator has been my #1 wish for quite a while now. WHOEVER makes it possible will be my new hero.

Can and will be done, my good man, all in due time.

PS, For those of you who are not currently aware of the 'Comic Name Standardization Template', it is a GREAT little template that will take a common name for a comic, and attempt to create a link to the actual comic page it's referring to. The most common usage of it is if you know the book you're talking about is the first volume, like Uncanny X-Men #15, all you'd have to type is: {{Cnst|Uncanny X-Men #15}}, and you'll get back a beautiful link ([[Comics:Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 15|Uncanny X-Men #15]]) to the actual page. This template covers MANY different types of common names, so if a link isn't returned for what you've put into it there's a very good chance the comic's page doesn't exist. (Though the template is not 100% complete, since periods and commas don't work: i.e.: 'Captain America Vol. 2 #4' would NOT link to Comics:Captain America Vol 2 4).

PPS, For those with ADD, I apologize for this post being so long.