Template talk:Category class

Template:Category class is permanently protected from editing because it is a heavily used or highly visible template. Substantial changes should first be proposed and discussed here on this page. If the proposal is uncontroversial or has been discussed and is supported by consensus, editors may use {{edit template-protected}} to notify an administrator or template editor to make the requested edit. Usually, any contributor may edit the template's documentation to add usage notes or categories.

Any contributor may edit the template's sandbox. Functionality of the template can be checked using test cases.

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Category class template.

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A-Class

{{editprotected}} Can the following line be changed:

|style="background: #66ffff;"| [[:Category:A-Class {{{topic|}}} articles|A]]

to

|style="background: #66ffff;"| [[Image:Symbol a class.svg|A-Class article|14px]] [[:Category:A-Class {{{topic|}}} articles|A]]

This will add the A-Class symbol which is now being displayed in {{A-Class}}. Small-town hero (talk) 02:01, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Done Ruslik (talk) 15:56, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Project-class

{{editprotected}} Please change the colour of Project-class from #FCCCFF to #C0C090 so that it matches Template:Project-Class. Thank you. Martin 13:34, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Incidentally, is there some reason why this template can't just transclude {{Project-Class}} directly, or at least {{Project-Class col}}? —Preceding unsigned comment added by PC78 (talk • contribs)

Not {{Project-Class}} because it's boldface. But {{Project-Class col}} seems like a good idea, but I can't see how it's used currently. I've disabled the editprotected while we work out what to do on this and what to ask for specifically. Martin 15:39, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It was just a thought. All of the classes have these col templates, and although they seem like a good idea in principle (as a singular place to control the colour of each class), none of them appear to be used in any meaningful way. Just curious, and a little o/t, but what's the deal with templates such as {{Project-Class td}}? PC78 (talk) 08:06, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Category Sorting

Is it worth changing the category sorting to use the function so that it doesn't end up with lots of upper & lowercase items listed apart from each other in the categories. See Category:NA-Class articles for an example.

Changing the line:

[[Category:{{{class|}}}-Class articles|{{{sort|{{{topic|}}}}}}]]|}}}}

to

[[Category:{{{class|}}}-Class articles|{{{sort|{{ucfirst:{{{topic|}}}}}}}}]]|}}}}

would fix that. -- WOSlinker (talk) 16:57, 18 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

{{editprotected}} Could the change described above be made. Thanks. -- WOSlinker (talk) 21:25, 19 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Done--Aervanath (talk) 15:31, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

{{editprotected}} It seems that the change above was made and then reverted. Could it be looked at again. Thanks -- WOSlinker (talk) 19:04, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There's also a fullcopy in the sandbox, if you would prefer that. Template:Cat class/sandbox -- WOSlinker (talk) 19:21, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Change for Unassessed class

{{editprotected}}

If there are two categories, one called Category:Unassessed-Class ZZZ articles and one called Category:Unassessed ZZZ articles, the template currently links to the Unassessed-Class version. However, it should really link to the Unassessed version as Unassessed is more common than Unassessed-Class. So, could the version in Template:Cat class/sandbox be copied over to the live one.

Thanks. -- WOSlinker (talk) 19:26, 16 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not done I am not sure this is a good idea. It can adversity affect many projects. In addition, can the code be made more efficient? The proposed version contains repetitions. Ruslik (talk) 20:27, 16 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request

{{editprotected}} Please update the template with the code in {{cat class/sandbox}} to add Current-Class and Future-Class. It makes no sense whatsoever to omit these two classes when they are actively used by a minority of projects, and unless this template includes all classes it can only do it's job in a limited fashion. These two classes will of course only be displayed in the template if the corresponding categories exist, so the vast majority of transclusions will be unaffected by this change. It will, however, be of huge benefit to WP:FILM which makes good use of Future-Class and transcludes this template in some 275 categories. PC78 (talk) 18:00, 22 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Done Ruslik (talk) 18:22, 22 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Custom category names

{{editprotected}} I've added parameters to the sandbox to allow for custom category names to be specified for all assessments that are not on the main "unassessed-FL" scale to allow the template to link to such things as Category:WikiProject Anime and manga categories (because, frankly, I hate everything about the title "X-class Y articles" when X is "Template", "Category", or anything else that's not an article). Would an administrator be willing to review my change and replace the current code in {{Cat class}} with that in the sandbox? 「ダイノガイ千？！」^{(Dinoguy1000)} 19:25, 14 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds reasonable to me. But could we leave time for a discussion before placing the editprotected? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 20:09, 14 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it's not like I was asking the template's fundamental behavior to be changed, only to supplement it with additional functionality which isn't particularly complex, hence my immediate editprot request. But, I'm not against giving time for discussion, if you think it might be necessary or beneficial. ;) 「ダイノガイ千？！」^{(Dinoguy1000)} 20:12, 14 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Okay I take your point. But as it's not at all urgent, there's no harm in giving some time for input :) Someone might even think of a better way to achieve it. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 20:48, 14 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is problematic because {{cat class}} uses {{class}} which hard-codes part of the category name. So for example, if you try {{cat class/sandbox|topic=anime and manga|categorycat=WikiProject Anime and manga categories}}, you get:

FA	A	GA	B	C	Start	Stub	FL	List	Category	Disambig	Draft	File	Portal	Project	Redirect	Template	NA	???
12	0	390	357	1,960	7,690	5,238	69	1,934	2,561	43	67	6,878	9	282	12,565	889	77	0

which creates an undesirable redlink to Category:Category-Class WikiProject Anime and manga categories. To be honest, I wish {{class}} hadn't been coded that way, but it's probably too late in the day to change it now. Martin, any ideas why Category-Class is even showing in the above example, when the category doesn't exit and isn't being used? PC78 (talk) 15:08, 15 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it's because {{Cat in use}} is being fed WikiProject Anime and manga categories which does exist. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, pooh, something like that *would* have to happen, wouldn't it? Methinks it would probably be easy enough to hack in an override in {{class}}, but it would probably be better in the long run to adjust its behavior so that it doesn't automatically prepend the name like that... or something. I dunno, I'm feeling a bit lightheaded today, and as a result, am not thinking quite so clearly. =D 「ダイノガイ千？！」^{(Dinoguy1000)} 19:25, 15 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Allowing an override might well be something worth considering, especially as Template:Class is likely to become ubiquitous. Maybe you could bring it up there? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 19:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I may do that, but probably not right now... I don't feel like thinking on the best way to implement the override at the moment (what with my head swimming + just having had my mind blown by some amazing Mirror's Edge speedrun footwork on Youtube). =) First I have to look more carefully at {{class}}'s source and probably try to find some other assessment cats with non-standard names for consideration (*hint hint* know of any?). 「ダイノガイ千？！」^{(Dinoguy1000)} 20:06, 15 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed colour changes for Merge, Category & Template-Class

A proposal has been made to adjust the colours used for Merge, Category and Template-Class. Discussion can be found here for those interested. PC78 (talk) 17:41, 16 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Tennessee templates

Any ideas as to why this transclusion of {{Cat class}} is linking to the non-existant Category:Unassessed Tennessee articles as opposed to Category:Unassessed-Class Tennessee articles? It shouldn't be doing this, or at least it wouldn't have done in previous versions of the template. Another {{Class}}-related issue? PC78 (talk) 15:03, 17 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm going to ask WOSlinker to look at this, because he's worked on this issue before. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 16:50, 17 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It was the change on the 21st of March to this template use the {{class}} template when the feature was lost. It takes a quite a lot of parser functions to add it back. Would need to be added as: If topic is empty then Unassessed-Class articles, else if exsits Unassessed topic articles then link to that else if exsits Unassessed-Class topic articles then link to that else link to Unassessed topic articles. There are currently 1395 categoryies without -Class and 114 with -Class. Is it still worth adding back? -- WOSlinker (talk) 18:37, 17 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

So it was might fault?! Oops. That's a really complicated way of adding it back with two ifexist calls. Is there an edit to {{class}} which would simplify it at all? Even if there weren't, I would suggest that it might be worth doing for 114. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 20:31, 17 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's going to get less than 114 as more project banners are converted to use WPBannerMeta. I've flagged 6 of them to be deleted as they aren't used anymore now anyway. And a lot that are left are down to two banners: {{WP India}} & {{Comicsproj}}. -- WOSlinker (talk) 21:12, 17 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unassessed-Class not showing up

{{edit protected}}

Why isn't Unassessed-Class showing up in the navbar in some WPs, like Category:Unassessed-Class Egypt articles? It's documented as such in Template:Class, as being "Unassessed-Class", but it only seems to take "Unassessed 'Egypt' articles" as the category name. Can you add this usage to this template? Thanks --Funandtrvl (talk) 21:03, 1 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The fact that the Category:Unassessed Egypt articles also exists doesn't help. Happy‑melon 22:44, 1 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't matter, the problem was occuring BEFORE I created the 2nd category off the template. --Funandtrvl (talk) 23:06, 1 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually it does matter. Now you've converted {{WikiProject Egypt}} to {{WPBannerMeta}}, your banner will now populate Category:Unassessed Egypt articles and Category:Unassessed-Class Egypt articles will soon be empty. There's no problem here with regards to your project, though the general issue you have raised has already been discussed directly above. PC78 (talk) 23:15, 1 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

So does that mean that the WPBM template will be using only "Unassessed project articles"? Will this be the standard then? --Funandtrvl (talk) 00:19, 2 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Generally speaking, it already is the standard. PC78 (talk) 01:33, 2 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, thank you! This will help when working on organizing categories! --Funandtrvl (talk) 03:22, 2 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reshuffle?

Since there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the ordering of the non-standard classes in this template, would there be any objections to a minor reshuffle? I was thinking this:

FA	A	GA	B	C	Start	Stub	FL	AL	BL	CL	List	SIA	Future	Category	Disambig	Draft	FM	File	Needed	Portal	Project	Redirect	Template	User	NA	???
1	0	0	150	893	2,097	5,759	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6,488	12,066

I've kept Future and Current next to the main class types since they are used for proper articles, and NA over to the far end as it's more of a catch-all class for stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else. The rest have merely been arranged in reverse alphabetical order. Thoughts? PC78 (talk) 19:50, 4 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My suggestions:

Put FA first, and the non-articles last
Put FL next to List

— Martin (MSGJ · talk) 20:33, 4 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm all for flipping the whole thing and going from FA→???, which seems far more logical to me (had thought about suggesting it myself), less so about moving FL, but meh. Presumably you would be cool with this:

-- PC78 (talk) 00:16, 5 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good PC78. I never did understand the reverse order of this list. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 00:31, 5 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Love it! — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:26, 5 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've added the last missing classes to my sandbox example. Some of them don't show in the example above because they don't currently have top level categories, but this should make the template fully functional for all existing WikiProjects. Some examples:

WikiProject Mathematics
WikiProject Plants
WikiProject Firearms

-- PC78 (talk) 12:15, 5 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have to say that I am not completely convinced of the wisdom of including custom quality classes which are only used by one project (User, SL, B+ and Deferred) on a template which is used by nearly every project. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 21:30, 5 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see the disadvantage in doing so. It's not like there are a lot of them, and it benfits the projects that use them at no detriment to anyone else (at least so far as I can see). PC78 (talk) 21:35, 5 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, if the template only displays the types that are applicable to the project in question, then there is no harm at all. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 00:18, 6 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think there are a couple of projects which don't use GA- and FA-Class (although confusingly they are still using categories such as GA-Class XXX articles so that the bot can keep track of their good articles). Should we put the "in use" check on all the classes? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:14, 6 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, don't see why not. PC78 (talk) 09:01, 6 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to me that redlinks could be useful in some cases for drawing attention to categories which need creating. On the other hand, they will be annoying for projects that have specifically decided not to use one of the standard classes. So I'm thinking they could be some parameter to switch off links for non-existent categories without any elements. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 19:39, 6 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure I'm with you. Do you mean a parameter to disable the "cat in use" check? PC78 (talk) 23:17, 6 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I went through a while ago and tried to clean up the assessment categories to fix absent, duplicate and incorrectly-sorted categories, which cleaned out much of the dead wood. I expect it's gone to seed again though, it's an inherently messy structure. Remember that now there can only be 136+28=164 banners that don't use FA→Stub, NA, FL and List. I think what Martin means is a check to enable the cat in use check on all classes, which would be a useful feature. Otherwise, I think the checks should be only on C-Class and the nonstandard classes. I fully support the reshuffle; the ones that spill off the edge of the screen should not be the most important classes!! Happy‑melon 10:10, 11 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm implemented the new version. I was wondering whether the standard classes should all be displayed by default, but on further thought, perhaps it is simpler to use {{cat in use}} for all of them. A parameter to switch off redlinks might cause a lot of confusion. I have a couple of further suggestions:

Checking whether PAGENAME = {{{class}}}-Class {{{topic}}} articles, and if not then add to a tracking category for possible fixing.
For categories which are populated but not yet created, link to a preload (such as Template:WPBannerMeta/templatepage/preloadqual).

— Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:41, 12 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've just implemented #1 suggestion above. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 20:31, 22 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Suppress unwanted classes?

As the only person at WikiProject Ethiopia who is actively rating articles, I don't want to be bothered about using the "C" class for a number of reasons -- mostly that I'd rather spend my time making "Start" class articles "B" class. However, due to overlap with other WikiProjects, I just discovered that some helpful souls are using that grade on WikiProject Ethiopia articles, in a drive-by manner. Now my options at this point are (1) tell them to stop doing this, which will lead to hurt feelings, time lost defending myself at WP:AN/I, & wasting time which I'd rather spend on upgrading articles; (2) just revert & don't tell them to stop, which will lead to people telling me to stop doing this, hurt feelings, time lost defending myself at WP:AN/I, & wasting time which I'd rather spend on upgrading articles; or (3) having a way to simply set an option, so I won't see that someone has one this on the category pages where this otherwise useful template appears, & thus avoid WikiDrama & allow me to focus on upgrading articles. Does this request make sense? -- llywrch (talk) 06:16, 19 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What you need to do, is put a custom class mask in Template:WikiProject Ethiopia/class. The instructions for doing this can be found at Template:WPBannerMeta/class/doc, but let me know if you need help with this! At the same time you could think if there are any other classes which are not used (e.g. Image/Portal/Project). Then, when an unused class is used the banner will classify it as "unassessed". — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:07, 19 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Add book class to the template

{{editprotected}}

This category is for Wikipedia Books (see example) which will be populated in the near future. Simply add

}}{{cat class/column|class=Book|topic={{{topic|}}}

This has been tested here and doesn't break anything. I would suggest to place it after List, or perhaps between Category and File (although I don't particularly care where it ends up). Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 19:35, 18 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It should go between Future and Category; the non-article classes are arranged alphabetically. PC78 (talk) 00:17, 19 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fine with me. Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 00:45, 19 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Done — Tivedshambo (t/c) 13:07, 19 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a bunch. Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 15:01, 19 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image-Class deprecated

{{edit protected}} Per the consensus described at Wikipedia:Rename of Image-class to File-class, Image-Class has now been fully deprecated and replaced with File-Class (Category:Image-Class articles is now a category redirect to Category:File-Class articles). Could someone with a better understanding of templates remove and/or replace mentions of Image-Class in this and related templates? Thank you, -- Black Falcon ^(talk) 22:22, 25 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Done — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:42, 26 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! -- Black Falcon ^(talk) 16:51, 26 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

FM-Class

Can this be displayed before File-Class? FA-Class is before the other article classes and FL-Class is before List-Class. Thanks. Imzadi 1979 → 01:45, 9 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That makes sense.

Done — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:40, 9 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not mobile friendly

Please review! :) Reach out to me if I can help. Jon (WMF) (talk) 19:40, 18 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Template-protected edit request on 6 March 2018

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Add AL-Class between FL and List.

{{category class/column|class=AL|topic={{{topic|}}} }}

Thanks! – Lionel^(talk) 11:39, 6 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: I would like to see some discussion/consensus before new classes are created — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 21:15, 7 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Template-protected edit request on 6 August 2021

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Can you add {{empty category}}? Qwerfjkl talk 11:05, 6 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Of the 37659 pages with transclusions of this template, 8732 already have the empty category template on the page as well. Adding it here would then be doubling up on those pages. -- WOSlinker (talk) 11:19, 6 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Not done per WOSlinker * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 19:43, 11 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@WOSlinker @Pppery This could be fixed by adding something like

{{#ifeq: {{Find page text|\{\{empty category\}\}|plain=false|nomatch=no|no|{{empty category}}|}}

. ― Qwerfjkl talk 19:28, 13 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure that it would. For example Category:Unassessed maritime warfare articles does not have that text on the page, but is using the {{Possibly empty category}} template. Maybe go through and remove all the existing instances first and then get it added here? -- WOSlinker (talk) 19:58, 13 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@WOSlinker This should work:

{{#ifeq: {{Find page text|\{\{([Pp]ossibly empty category|[Ee]mpty category|[Pp]ec|[Ee]mpty Category|[Ee]mptycategory|[Ee]mptycat|[Ee]mpty cat)\}\}|nomatch=no|plain=false}}|no|{{Possibly empty category}}|}}

― Qwerfjkl talk 20:22, 13 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Nevermimd, this would be a lot more complicated because Lua modules don't allow | as an OR operator. I'll follow your advice and post this at WP:BOTREQ. ― Qwerfjkl talk 21:33, 13 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I think my original search critera was not quite right. I'm seeing 3,458 pages now which already have both templates. There are 7 templates that need editing to remove about 2,500 occurences, leaving 460 used directly on the category pages which would need updating. -- WOSlinker (talk) 22:34, 13 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@WOSlinker Using something like {{WPFILM Category}} would probably be better than using {{Possibly empty category}}. ― Qwerfjkl talk 08:17, 14 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

{{WPMILHIST Task force assessment level category}} - 1,249 uses
{{WPMILHIST Special project phase assessment level category}} - 40
{{WPFILM Assessment level category}} - 528
{{WPANIMATION assessment quality work group level}} - 366
{{WikiProject Television task force assessment category}} - 277
{{WPWesterns assessment category}} - 15
{{WPBASEBALL assessment level category-main}} - 19

@WOSlinker I think you missed a few, because I've removed all of the mentioned transclusions of {{Possibly empty category}}. ― Qwerfjkl talk 13:09, 14 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Done I've removed the last few that I spotted and have added it to the Category class template now. -- WOSlinker (talk) 13:35, 14 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Template-protected edit request - Change to PAGEINCAT counting

This edit request to Template:Category class/second row column has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Currently, Template:Category class/second row column counts all types of elements (pages, subcategories, and files). Surely it would be a better idea to count only pages? All ratings should be placed onto the talk pages of pages, and therefore will always appear as pages in the category listing. The removal of counting of subcategories would mean that, if a project has a sub-category (Like with Category:A-Class Florida articles and Category:A-Class Navarre, Florida articles), the count isnt being misrepresented as +1 for each rating (In this case, making it appear as if an A-Class page exists under the Florida project, when it doesnt).

Implementation of this change wouldnt be hard, it would just require adding |pages to the end of {{PAGESINCATEGORY:{{{class}}}-Class {{{topic}}} articles}} and {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Unassessed {{{topic}}} articles}}.

Thanks. Aidan9382 _(talk) 06:37, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Done * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 15:17, 26 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Call Template:Articles by Quality?

This template has similar functionality to Template:Articles by Quality. Rather than duplicating the code, should we just call that template? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 17:17, 9 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]