Template:Event

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Overview

The {{event}} template is used to denote an historical event in a way that the Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) extension can understand. These events can then be queried into interactive timelines and other list formats for easy exploration.

Usage

This template has very particular formatting requirements. Please read this documentation fully before using the template.

Where to use

You should preferentially place {{event}} markers in articles that are specifically about the event you wish to mark-up for SMW. For example, the start and end dates of a war should go in the article about said war. A person's dates of birth and death should be included in the article about that person. A king's coronation should be included in the article about them. The date an Age was completed should go in the article about the Age itself, not the author's page. The date of a major occasion, like the founding of a D'ni guild, should go in the article about the guild, and not in the more general article about guilds as a socio-political entity.

There are times when the event itself is not significant enough to warrant its own lengthy article, but still significant enough to warrant inclusion in a timeline. In those cases, you should use your best judgement about where to describe the event. Sometimes a stub article with just the {{event}} template may be warranted. In other cases, it may go in an article about a person's actions. In still others, it may go in a summary article about that period in time (like the event material marked up in the Myst Online episodes pages).

Before adding an {{event}} marker to an article, you may first want to run a search of that time period to make sure it hasn't already been listed in another article. You can use the preset search on this page to find anything within a set time range simply by clicking the pencil icon at the top-left of the page (next to the "Result" tab) and changing the dates in the left-hand box. The first date in the search box is the earliest date to search for, and the second is the latest. The first column of the results indicates what page the event is currently located on.

In general, you should leave events where they are currently located unless you are expanding on a specific event and want to move it to its own dedicated article. If a single event impacts multiple people (such as a marriage), it should be noted on one of those people's pages, not both. Whoever's page is marked up first will then be the container for that event.

Parameters

{{event|Event category|Surface date|Hahr|Vailee|Yahr|Brief description|type=the type of event|ends=Surface end date|hidedescription=1}}

Required parameters

The first 6 parameters (Event category, Surface date, Hahr, Vailee, Yahr, and Brief description) are all required. However, most events don't need to be put into a particular category under most circumstances, so you can generally leave the first parameter empty.

Formatting notes

Event category

As noted above, this can typically be left blank. However, it can sometimes be useful to group a collection of events together for organizational purposes on interactive timelines. When used, events marked with the same category will appear together as their own separate block on a timeline with this parameter's contents as the label. It does accept wikitext, and generally you should link to an article (or category) that describes all of the entries you tag with it. For instance, an event category of "D'ni kings" could contain the reigns of all of the D'ni kings, along with their birth and death dates, and the parameter text could link to the List of D'ni kings.

Surface date

This parameter should be entered in ISO 8601 format. If the time is not known, you can leave it out entirely. For dates with unknown days or months, set the month and day components to April 21st (e.g. 2020-04-21) to align it roughly with the D'ni new year.

Vailee

If the vailee (D'ni month) of the event is unknown, set this value to 1.

Yahr

If the yahr (D'ni day) of the event is unknown, set this value to 1.

Brief description

This description will appear in interactive timelines next to the marker for the event itself. You should keep this short; no more than 2 sentences, but ideally only a few words. Wikitext is allowed, but avoid using line breaks or images unless absolutely necessary.

Additional parameters

type

When left out, this parameter defaults to "event". For dates of birth, use "birth". For death dates, use "death". Additional options for this value have not yet been determined, but will control how the content is managed within SMW.

ends

For events that occur over an extended period, specify the end date (in ISO 8601 format) with this parameter. If this parameter is not included, the event will be treated as a point moment in time.

hidedescription

When this parameter is left out (and by default) whatever you put in the "Brief description" parameter will display within the body of the article text. This makes it easy to create inline event markers, but the natural language of an article may also result in a description that is over-long for an interactive timeline. To hide the text of the parameter (creating an "invisible" event marker within the article), set hidedescription to 1. Other values have no effect.

Examples

No event category

{{event|2020-04-20T17:27:49Z|9676|1|1|D'ni new year}}

This will produce an uncategorized point event with the in-article text "D'ni new year".

Event category

{{event|D'ni holidays|2020-04-20T17:27:49Z|9676|1|1|D'ni new year}}

This will produce a point event with the in-article text "D'ni new year". It will appear in interactive timelines within a separate "D'ni holidays" section.

Ranged event

{{event|Myst Online episodes|2007-05-19|9676|1|1|Scars|ends=2007-05-25}}

This will produce an event block with the in-article text "Scars". The block will fill the dates between May 19 and May 25, 2007. It will appear in interactive timelines within a separate "Myst Online episodes" section.

Hidden description

{{event|2007-07-30|9663|3|22|Victor Laxman is seen down by the docks in the city.|hidedescription=1}}

This will produce an uncategorized point event that will appear on interactive timelines with the text "Victor Laxman is seen down by the docks in the city.", but will display no in-article text (the output on the page will effectively be blank).