Controlling output format

Manual

Parameters

Controlling output format

With controlling output format, it is possible to:

• Setting basic modes of output formatting.
• Set advanced modes of output formatting (complete control over output).
• Generate simple/quick tabular output.
• Generate advanced tabular output (or format though special surrogate formatting templates).
• Apply formatting to and around lists with headings (and their contents).
• Arranging article lists in columns and rows (currently non-working).
• Control (or rewrite) the way article names are displayed.

In the examples that follow, the DPL output has been kept small to reduce page load time and page size, most notably using titlematch, nottitlematch, count, and includesubpages=false.

General approach to output formatting

The general approach to output formatting is two-fold:

1. There are a couple of simple predefined output formats which generate lists of articles.
   • You will understand their meaning directly from reading.
2. There is a mode called userformat which puts complete control into your hands.
   • You will understand their meaning directly from reading.

Setting the basic output mode

mode

mode	Provide basic control over the output of DPL3.

Syntax:

mode=modename where modename can be one of:

• unordered – outputs an unordered list – HTML tag ul – (default).
• ordered – outputs an ordered list – HTML tag ol.
• none – outputs a list using newlines and HTML tags br/ to separate each item.
• inline – outputs a list using symbols defined by the inlinetext parameter to separate items.
• category – outputs resulting articles in a way category pages are shown (ordermethod= must be used with one of the values: title; titlewithoutnamespace; category,title; or user,title).
• userformat – leaves output control completely to the user.
  See parameters listseparators and secseparators; in this mode, DPL3 offers built-in variables which must be referenced in the output format description provided by the user. mode=userformat is essential to have complete control over the output.

For advanced use of DPL3, it is important to understand mode=userformat. Note that this mode is automatically implied when listseparators or format are used.

mode 'ordered', 'unordered', 'none'

Example:

For space and comparison reasons, this example has been modified and put inside wikitable syntax to display the results side-by-side, rather than one after the other. See the actual example page for the proper (simplified) result, or test it in a sandbox (link at the right). The below examples create abbreviated lists of articles in Category:Fruit examples, each formatted either using an ordered list (numbered), an unordered list (bulleted), or the none list style (no list item markers).

Test in sandbox

In an <ol>...</ol> list:

In a <ul>...</ul> list:

In a <br/> list:

{{#dpl: |category = Fruit examples |titlematch = %a% |nottitlematch = %pl%¦%go% |mode = ordered |count = 3 }}

{{#dpl: |category = Fruit examples |titlematch = %a% |nottitlematch = %pl%¦%go% |mode = unordered |count = 3 }}

{{#dpl: |category = Fruit examples |titlematch = %a% |nottitlematch = %pl%¦%go% |mode = none |count = 3 }}

{{#dpl:

category = Fruit examples

titlematch = %a%

nottitlematch = %pl%¦%go%

mode = ordered

count = 3 }}

{{#dpl:

category = Fruit examples

titlematch = %a%

nottitlematch = %pl%¦%go%

mode = unordered

count = 3 }}

{{#dpl:

category = Fruit examples

titlematch = %a%

nottitlematch = %pl%¦%go%

mode = none

count = 3 }}

mode 'category'

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: mode (example 2)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Note: You must use ordermethod =  with one of: title / titlewithoutnamespace / category,title / user,title with this option.

mode 'inline'

inlinetext

inlinetext

To define the inline text used in mode=inline.

Syntax:
inlinetext=wikitext, where wikitext is the text to be set.

The default formatting is  -  which results in  -  except when mode=userformat where inlinetext is empty by default.

Notes:

• To get normal "breaking spaces" (and not the NON-breaking spaces) use &

1. 32;-&
2. 32;.

• Extra white spaces are stripped by DPL3 from the beginning and end of wikitext. To show one or multiple spaces, use one or multiple  , or use nowiki tags <nowiki> - </nowiki> which has the same effect as &nbsp-&nbsp.
• Bullets can be displayed with either • or {{*}}.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: mode (example 3)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: mode (example 3)|Result}}

---

mode 'userformat'

---

Note: As the below information is difficult to understand, there are additional DPL3 commands (table, tablerow) which make it fairly quick/easy to create tabular output. If tabular output is needed, skip to the table section.

While the standard output formats are meant to be used for fast generation of simple page lists, the userformat approach aims at transcluding contents from other pages and requires some effort to understand. There is a system of three tags which are used to enclose (a) the whole output, (b) each item, (c) each transcluded section of an item. A fourth tag is used to separate values between items of one section which occur more than once.

We assume that we have two documents A and B which use templates x and y with varying arguments; while x is being used once within each document, y is used several times. In very short notation, the structure might look as follows:

 A: x(a) y(3) y(5)
 B: x(b) y(4) y(1) y(2)

The following DPL parameters are used to define a set of tags which are used to construct the output:

• listseparators = liststart,itemstart,itemend,listend
• secseparators = sec-1-start,sec-1-end,sec-2-start,sec-2-end, .. , ..
• multisecseparators = multi-sep

The arguments of the above statements can contain references to %VARIABLES%. So sec-1-start might contain a reference like %PAGE% to output the page name. See format for more details on variable substitution.

Now think of the following page inclusion statement:

  includepage={x}.dpl,{y}.dpl

The output then looks like this:

  liststart
     itemstart
        sec-1-start
           x.dpl(a)
        sec-1-end
        sec-2-start
           y.dpl(3)
           multi-sep
           y.dpl(5)
        sec-2-end
     itemend
     itemstart
        sec-1-start
           x.dpl(b)
        sec-1-end
        sec-2-start
           y.dpl(4)
           multi-sep
           y.dpl(1)
           multi-sep
           y.dpl(2)
        sec-2-end
     itemend
  listend

Assuming that the tags (liststart, itemstart, etc.) contain wiki syntax for table definitions and multi-sep defines a horizontal line, the output might look like this:

  +------+---------------------+
  |      |          | y.dpl(3) |
  |  A   | x.dpl(a) |  ----    |
  |      |          | y.dpl(5) |
  +------+----------+----------+
  |      |          | y.dpl(4) |
  |      |          |  ----    |
  |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(1) |
  |      |          |  ----    |
  |      |          | y.dpl(2) |
  +------+----------+----------+

In some situations, however, an output table may be desired where each of the calls of template y is used to create a separate output row. Using a sortable table, the output could then be easily rearranged.

  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  A   | x.dpl(a) | y.dpl(1) |       |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(1) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  A   | x.dpl(a) | y.dpl(2) |       |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(2) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(3) |       |  A   | x.dpl(a) | y.dpl(3) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(4) |       |  A   | x.dpl(a) | y.dpl(4) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(5) |       |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(5) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+

There is a special parameter called dominantsection which can be used to mark one section of the includepage statement as "dominant" (in our example: "dominantsection=2" as {y}.dpl is the second argument of the includepage statement). Only one dominant section can be used in a DPL3 statement. Marking a section as "dominant" only makes sense if there are multiple calls of the same template (or multiple page sections/chapters with the same heading) in the documents. Each piece of content in the dominant section generates an individual output row with the values of all other columns being repeated.

format

format

Customize the output format completely. Implicitly sets "mode=userformat". Uses variable references like %PAGE% to describe the output format. See also the secseparators parameter. Note: format is incompatible with tablerow.

Syntax:

format=Startall,Start,End,Endall where Startall, Start, End and Endall are wiki tags used to separate the list items:

• Startall and Endall define an outer frame for the whole list.
• Start and End build an inner frame for each article item.

Notes:

• listseparators is an alias for format.
• The format command is very flexible, but somewhat complicated. To create tabular output, also see the table command.
• Because wiki syntax depends on newline characters, \n or ¶ must be used to explicitly insert newline characters into the output.
• A bullet point list in wiki syntax is defined by a * at the beginning of a line – therefore \n or ¶ must be used.
• A numbered list in wiki syntax is defined by a # at the beginning of a line – therefore \n or ¶ must be used.

Example:

For space and comparison reasons, this example has been modified and put inside wikitable syntax to display the results side-by-side, rather than one after the other. See the actual example page for the proper (simplified) result, or test it in a sandbox (link at the right). The classical default output of DPL3, an unordered (bulleted) list, can be produced by using a default statement (first example and result). It can also be created using format with the following statements (last example and result). This selects pages that have "ntries" in the title, it excludes pages that have "f" in the title, and it also excludes subpages. The format statement's Startall, End, and Endall arguments are empty, only Start is used to manually define a bulleted list followed by the liked page name, which is then applied to each row of output.

Test in sandbox

default	formatted
<dpl> titlematch = %ntries% nottitlematch = %f% includesubpages = false </dpl>	<dpl> titlematch = %ntries% nottitlematch = %f% includesubpages = false format = ,\n* [[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]],, </dpl>
<dpl> titlematch = %ntries% nottitlematch = %f% includesubpages = false </dpl>	<dpl> titlematch = %ntries% nottitlematch = %f% includesubpages = false format = ,\n* %TITLE%,, </dpl>

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: format (example 2)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: format (example 2)|Result}}

Notes:

• You can also use HTML syntax for the tags, although this is discouraged.

|format   = <ul type="disc">,<li>[[%PAGE%]],</li>,</ul>

The format parameter can be used to create a table using wiki syntax (note that the parser function syntax {{#dpl:}} invocation method requires the pipe | characters to be replaced by broken pipe ¦. Again, as wiki syntax depends on newline characters, \n or ¶ must be used to explicitly insert newline characters into the output.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: format (example 3)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: format (example 3)|Result}}

Notes:

• The Start position of the format= syntax starts and formats a row of output, which is then applied to each item in the result set.
• In the case of results outside the Main namespace, such as in the "Category" namespace, if "Category:" is not desired in the page title/link, [[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]] can be used instead.
• The table parameter, with tablerow and the include/includepage parameter, can also be used to output table syntax.

Image galleries can also be produced using the format syntax.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: format (example 4)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: format (example 4)|Result}}

Variables

As we want to be able to control output completely, we reference article names and other possible output by special %VARIABLES%: <section begin="formatvariables" />

Variable	Description
%PAGE%	<section begin="%PAGE%" />Outputs the name of the article (including namespace), corresponds to the Magic Word {{FULLPAGENAME}}.<section end="%PAGE%" />
%TITLE%	<section begin="%TITLE%" />Outputs the title of the article (without the namespace), corresponds to the Magic Word {{PAGENAME}}.<section end="%TITLE%" />
%NAMESPACE%	<section begin="%NAMESPACE%" />Outputs the namespace of the article.<section end="%NAMESPACE%" />
%PAGEID%	<section begin="%PAGEID%" />Outputs the internal unique numeric ID of the article page.<section end="%PAGEID%" />
%NR%	<section begin="%NR%" />Outputs the current article sequence number (starting from 1).<section end="%NR%" />
%IMAGE%	<section begin="%IMAGE%" />Outputs the physical path to an image (based on hash values, e.g., 5/5d/myImage.jpg).<section end="%IMAGE%" />
%PAGESEL%	<section begin="%PAGESEL%" />Outputs the name of an article which was used within the selection criteria (only applies to linksfrom and linksto).<section end="%PAGESEL%" />
%IMAGESEL%	<section begin="%IMAGESEL%" />Outputs the name of an image which was used within the selection criteria (only applies to imageused).<section end="%IMAGESEL%" />
%SIZE%	<section begin="%SIZE%" />Outputs the article size (requires addpagesize=true).<section end="%SIZE%" />
%SIZEFS%	<section begin="%SIZEFS%" />Outputs a font size number which is based on the article size (logarithm of square root of counter).<section end="%SIZEFS%" />
%DATE%	<section begin="%DATE%" />Outputs the date selected, e.g., ordermethod=lastedit; requires addeditdate=true or similar; the formatting of the date can be influenced using userdateformat=.<section end="%DATE%" />
%EXTERNALLINK%	<section begin="%EXTERNALLINK%" />Outputs the external hyperlink found as a consequence of the linkstoexternal statement.<section end="%EXTERNALLINK%" />
Relating to categories
%CATLIST%	<section begin="%CATLIST%" />Outputs a pipe-separated list of links to all categories to which the article belongs (requires addcategories=true).<section end="%CATLIST%" />
%CATBULLETS%	<section begin="%CATBULLETS%" />Outputs a bullet point list of links to all categories to which the article belongs (requires addcategories=true).<section end="%CATBULLETS%" />
%CATNAMES%	<section begin="%CATNAMES%" />Outputs a comma-separated list of all categories to which the article belongs (requires addcategories=true).<section end="%CATNAMES%" />
Relating to Revisions and Contributors
%REVISION%	<section begin="%REVISION%" />Outputs the name of the article revision; only accessible if the DPL query selects articles based on revision dates.<section end="%REVISION%" />
%USER%	<section begin="%USER%" />Outputs the user who changed the article last; requires adduser=true or addlasteditor=true.<section end="%USER%" />
%CONTRIBUTOR%	<section begin="%CONTRIBUTOR%" />Outputs the user who made a contribution; requires addcontribution=true.<section end="%CONTRIBUTOR%" />
%CONTRIBUTION%	<section begin="%CONTRIBUTION%" />Outputs the number of bytes changed; requires addcontribution=true.<section end="%CONTRIBUTION%" />
%CONTRIB%	<section begin="%CONTRIB%" />Outputs asterisk * bar to indicate the amount of change; requires addcontribution=true.<section end="%CONTRIB%" />

Note: The above variables are replaced by the corresponding values if they occur within Start or End or within the corresponding tags of the secseparators= parameter.

Variable	Description
Symbolic variables for use in resultsheader and/or resultsfooter
%PAGES%	<section begin="%PAGES%" />Outputs the number of articles in the result set. If the query result is limited (by system settings or by the count parameter) %PAGES% only shows the upper limit.<section end="%PAGES%" />
%TOTALPAGES%	<section begin="%TOTALPAGES%" />Outputs the number of articles in the result set, regardless of count limits, which may consume extra resources; it is only calculated if used.<section end="%TOTALPAGES%" />
%VERSION%	<section begin="%VERSION%" />Displays the current DPL3 version (see also Special:Version).<section end="%VERSION%" />
%DPLTIME%	<section begin="%DPLTIME%" />Outputs the amount of time that the DPL3 call itself took (in seconds + milliseconds). This useful to find out if or which DPL3 call, on a page, is taking a long time (if long loading times are noticed). Example: 2 (2009/06/13 09:27:43) would mean the DPL3 call accounts for 2 seconds of the total load time, and that the call started at bracketed time.<section end="%DPLTIME%" />
Variables for scrolling
%FIRSTNAMESPACE% %FIRSTTITLE% %LASTNAMESPACE% %LASTTITLE%	<section begin="%FIRSTNAMESPACE%" />Variables used for page scrolling, that produce the output described in their names. These variables correspond to %NAMESPACE% and %TITLE% of the first / last article in the result set, respectively.<section end="%FIRSTNAMESPACE%" />
%SCROLLDIR%	<section begin="%SCROLLDIR%" />Outputs the value set by the URL parameter DPL_scrollDir (up or down); it is passed to the scroll helper template, which uses it to produce its links for scrolling.<section end="%SCROLLDIR%" />
Removed parameters
%COUNT%	<section begin="%COUNT%" />The usage counter (requires addpagecounter=true). The built-in feature for this was removed in MediaWiki 1.25. Note: Requires the HitCounters extension. <section end="%COUNT%" />
%COUNTFS%	<section begin="%COUNTFS%" />A font size number which is based on the usage counter (currently this is the logarithm of the usage counter). The built-in feature for this was removed in MediaWiki 1.25. Note: Requires the HitCounters extension. <section end="%COUNTFS%" />
%COUNTFS2%	<section begin="%COUNTFS2%" />Similar to %COUNTFS%, but based on the logarithm of the square root of the usage counter. The built-in feature for this was removed in MediaWiki 1.25. Note: Requires the HitCounters extension. <section end="%COUNTFS2%" />

<section end="formatvariables" />

listseparators

listseparators

An alias for format, see the format parameter. Implicitly sets mode=userformat.

secseparators

secseparators

Customize the output format of included sections. Can be used with standard output modes and with mode=userformat.

Syntax:

secseparators=Start1,End1,Start2,End2,..,..

or

secseparators=Start

In the first syntax variant, specify pairs of tags which correspond to the includepage statement. StartN and EndN are HTML strings or wiki tags which are put around each transcluded section (see includepage=name1,name2,...).

In the second syntax variant, specify just one element which is then used as StartN for all sections; in this case the second tag (EndN) will be empty for all transcluded sections.

Symbolic replacements of %PAGE% etc. take place as described in listseparators. In addition, the variable %SECTION% can be used to refer to the section found (works only for page section/chapter headings).

If the same section occurs more than once in an article (or an article includes the same template more than once) all such occurrences are transcluded as a block, and the secseparators tags are only put once around the whole block (but see dominantsection).

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: secseparators (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

As mentioned above, a single element can be used in the secseparators statement to apply this as a start tag to all transcluded sections; so it could have also been written as shown in the example below.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: secseparators (example 2)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

multisecseparators

multisecseparators

Put a tag between multiple transcluded parts which refer to (use) the same template or article section/chapter.

Syntax:

multisecseparators=sep1,sep2,...

The tags correspond to the transcluded section (see includepage=name1,name2,...).

Symbolic replacements of %PAGE% etc. take place as described in listseparators. In addition, the variable %SECTION% can be used to refer to the section found (works only for chapter headings). It gives the precise name of each heading, even if a regular expression (double ##) was used in the include statement.

If an article uses the same template more than once, all references are provided with sepN as a separator.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: multisecseparators (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: multisecseparators (example 1)|Result}}

Values cannot be formatted within include, as formatting can only occur in formatting statements (this can be done in listseparators or secseparators, and multisecseparators). Variables can be omitted from the include, and instead be placed in these formatting statements, for further formatting.

We can achieve some field formatting by changing some of the above dpl statements:

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: multisecseparators (example 2)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: multisecseparators (example 3)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Formatting handled by a surrogate (also known as phantom) template (e.g., Template:DPL parameter.surrogateexample‎‎) applies to both secseparators and multisecseparators.

If separate formatting is required, it needs to be assigned to their respective parameters (as shown in the surrogate, and in the example above if "View result" is clicked). In the surrogate and in the result, it can be seen that a link was applied to the second column in addition to the first, this required the use of a surrogate, though there are simpler ways to accomplish a task as basic as this, see the table and tablerow parameters for more information.

dominantsection

dominantsection

Define a section with multiple occurrences as dominant, i.e., each piece of the contents of this section (which is associated with a template call or an article section/chapter within the original document) creates a separate output line.

Syntax:

dominantsection=number between 1 and the number of arguments in the includepage= statement

If there is only 0 or 1 piece of content for the dominant section, no difference from normal DPL3 behavior is observed.

See the explanations at the top of this document to understand the meaning of dominantsection.

Note: Using dominantsection together with table may lead to strange result formatting.

Generating tabular output

table

table

A simple syntax to create standard tabular output; see also tablerow. Requires an include statement, and is a shortcut that implicitly sets values for other DPL3 parameters, namely mode, listseparators / format, secseparators, and multisecseparators.

Syntax:

table=tableattr, linkheader, (column headlines) ..

The layout is less flexible than the individual use of all of the above parameters, but is probably be sufficient often, especially when used together with tablerow.

Parameters automatically set by table are:

• mode=userformat.
• listseparators is configured to produce table definition wiki syntax.
• secseparators is configured to produce table row wiki syntax.
  • The first column always contains a hyperlink to the article of the query result (unless suppressed using '-' in the link header as described below).
• multisecseparators is configured to produce another table row wiki syntax, for multiple occurrences of the first include argument.
  • For all other arguments:
    • Template parameters – A line break is used (because a table where each template invocation becomes a row in the table may be desired).
    • Page section contents– A line break is used (Note: Formerly a horizontal separation line was noted, but this changed some time ago).

It does not make sense to use one of the other parameters mentioned, if table is used in a DPL3 statement because their values are overwritten without notice.

• There is one exception to this rule, it can make sense to specify the third argument for format combined with table; therefore, this parameter is NOT overwritten by the table command. The third argument can be used to output metadata like %COUNT%, %USER% etc., as columns in an output table. To do so, the third parameter must contain wiki syntax for output columns like this:

include = {some template}:param1,#some-section-heading
table   =,,tplparam,#sectionheading,#hits
format  =,,\n%COUNT%

This provides a table which contains template parameters, article section/chapter contents, and the usage counter as a third column. Metadata can only be placed AFTER normal contents, the third argument of the table statement adds %COUNT% to add that value after that column's normal content.

Important:

• An include statement is required to use table.
• Each argument of the include statement produces one or more values for the output described by the table statement.
• For reasons of readability and because the include and table statements correspond, the include statement should directly precede the table statement.

table expects a comma-separated list of arguments:

table = class="wikitable sortable",First column header,Second column header,...

• The first argument assigns general properties for the table.
  • It is recommended to make a CSS reference here, using something like class="wikitable sortable", or class="mytable" if mytable is defined in the Mediawiki:Common.css document.
  • class="wikitable" is the default value if left empty.

• The second argument is the headline for the first column.
  • A - hyphen in the second argument suppresses the automatically generated first column of output.
    • You can manually create a hyperlink to the article in any other column instead, using [[{{{%PAGE%}}}|{{{%TITLE%}}}]], in a tablerow statement, or in a surrogate (also known as phantom) template.
  • If no header text is specified in second position, "Content page" appears.
• All subsequent arguments specify the column headings, which correspond to the arguments of the include parameter. If a surrogate template is called (like {Some Template}.dpl) in the include statement, as many headlines as the surrogate template produces columns needs to be provided.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: table (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: table (example 1)|Result}}

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: table (example 2)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: table (example 2)|Result}}

When using surrogate templates (i.e., templates that format a single row of output, called during DPL3 execution, and then applied by DPL3 to subsequent rows), they must be written to produce output according to wiki table syntax. The table parameter already creates the beginning and end of a table, so when entering such a template, we are already at the beginning of a column (i.e., a preceding line with a | has already been put into the output stream). So, start directly with the contents of the first column. To add more columns, use a | on a separate line.

Example:

   some output for the first column: {{{1|}}}
   |
   some output for the next column: {{{2|}}}
   |
   some output for the next column: {{{3|}}}

It may sound complicated, but is a huge improvement compared to the native use of mode, listseparators, secseparators and multisecseparators.

A typical DPL3 statement using the table parameter would contain:

include =                            #Section X,   {T1}:param1   ,#Section Y,{T2}.dpl
table   = class="sortable", Article,      X    , Template param1 ,     Y    ,T2-a T2-b

Note that we have written the above statement in a way to show the correspondence between include and table. You can see the first two arguments define the table characteristics and then the first column (for the hyperlink to the article) and headline. Then follow headlines for each argument of include. Note that there are two headlines which correspond to the last argument of the include statement (assuming that Template:T2.dpl outputs two columns). Template:T2 itself might have more or less than 2 arguments – it only matters how many columns are output by Template:T2.dpl).

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: table (example 3)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: table (example 3)|Result}}

See: the collection of Generating tabular output (examples) for more table examples, and also include for more information on surrogate template use.

tablerow

tablerow

A simple syntax to precisely position tabular data within formatting syntax; requires a table statement. Note: tablerow is incompatible with format

Syntax:

tablerow=columnDefinition, .. where columnDefinition uses the symbol %% to precisely position content included by an include statement, within wikitext formatting code.

When it comes to simple tables using tablerow, an include statement first tells DPL3 what content to include in each column of a table, the table statement sets corresponding table syntax, styles, separators, table headers, and also determines if the first (automatically generated) column is included or suppressed. The job of the tablerow is to precisely position the column values %% of the corresponding include, within some supplied formatting for a single row of output. Whatever is supplied for formatting is then re-applied to every row of output.

When defining the formatting, it's possible to start with cell styles/attributes like style="background:grey;"¦ (followed by the value %%) or skipping such styles and just adding the value %%. All columns must be specified, meaning as many entries in the tablerow statement must exist as there are columns in the table. Skipping a column would suppress output for that column completely.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: tablerow (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: tablerow (example 1)|Result}}

Notes:

• You can add a leading \n or ¶ to make sure that the field contents are displayed correctly if it contains wiki syntax that depends on line breaks (e.g., numbered list).
• See Generating tabular output (examples) for many more examples of tablerow use (and other methods of generating tabular data).

tablesortcol

tablesortcol

Define a column to be used as a sort key (see also table)

Syntax:

tablesortcol=number

number is the position of the column that shall be used as sortkey when the result is initially displayed.

• Column numbering starts with 1;
• tablesortcol = 0 means do not sort; this is the default.
• Negative numbers are used to sort in descending order; e.g., -3 would sort according to the third column in descending order.
• Note that the rest of the row after the selected column are also part of the sortkey; so the contents of successive columns may serve as a secondary sort criterion if there are identical values in the selected column.
• Also note that the whole column contents is taken; this may include hidden contents or markup sequences if column formatting commands were used. For the same reason, numeric contents cannot be expected to sort numerically – sorting is always alphabetical.
• You can, of course, use something like class="sortable" or class="wikitable sortable" together with tablesortcol. The difference is that:
  • Interactive sorting only works after the article has been initially displayed.
  • Interactive sorting tries to guess the content type of column and sorts according to that (date, number, string)
• If tablesortcol is not used, the output order of table rows depends on the sort order by which the articles were analyzed. That order depends on other DPL3 commands like ordermethod. The default is "alphabetically by title". So, without tablesortcol table rows appear in alphabetical sequence of the article names where they come from. With tablesortcol these can be ordered by the column contents itself.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: tablesortcol (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: tablesortcol (example 1)|Result}}

Heading mode

headingmode

headingmode

To control the output of the headings in a DPL3 with complex/multi-parameter ordermethod (has no effect with single-parameter ordermethods). For ordermethod=method1,method2,..., method1 is used for headings. E.g., In ordermethod=category,title a 2-parameter ordermethod, headingmode affects category headings. See also headingcount.

Syntax:

headingmode=modename where modename can be one of:

• ordered – outputs an ordered (numbered) list – HTML tag ol
• unordered – outputs an unordered (bulleted) list – HTML tag ul
• definition – outputs a description list – HTML tag dl
• none – headings are not displayed, no heading – (default, need not be set)
• H1 – outputs (heading) sections – HTML tags H1
• H2 – outputs heading sections – HTML tags H2
• H3 – outputs heading sections – HTML tags H3
• H4 – outputs heading sections – HTML tags H4
• H4 – outputs heading sections – HTML tags H5
• H4 – outputs heading sections – HTML tags H6

Important notes:

• If a single category is used to select articles for the result set, and those articles belong to more than one category, all categories they belong to are displayed as headings and the articles themselves will repeat under each category they belong to, unless extra categories are deliberately filtered off with other page selection parameters. The distinct parameter would have no effect on this behavior because the articles are already distinct to each category (and distinct=true is already the default, setting it would not change the result).
• headingmode can be used with multi-column output, but the length of the columns may vary more expected.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: headingmode (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: headingmode (example 1)|Result}}

headingmode, which governs the mode of only headings, can also be combined with mode=ordered or mode=unordered, which can number or bullet the articles under those headings.

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: headingmode (example 2)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: headingmode (example 2)|Result}}

hlistattr

hlistattr

Add attributes to the HTML heading/top level elements, which enclose all other elements in the result, depending on headingmode (HTML element would be ol for ordered, ul for unordered, dl for definition; or div for others) Not yet applicable to headingmode=none.

Syntax:

hlistattr= attribute1="val1" attribute2="val2" ...

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: hlistattr (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

If there is one page output for each category, the HTML structure output is:

<dl id="dl-example" class="dpl-orange-background">
  <dt>Category_1</dt>
  <dd>
    <ol>
      <li>Page 1</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
  <dt>Category_1</dt>
  <dd>
    <ol>
      <li>Page 2</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
</dl>

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: hlistattr (example 1)|Result}}

Note: To format subsequent elements in the same result set, see also (in the corresponding order since the examples build on one another) hitemattr, listattr, itemattr.

hitemattr

hitemattr

Add attributes all list item headings in the result, depending on headingmode (HTML element would be li for ordered/unordered, div for others). To be used with headingmode=unordered or ordered. (Not yet applicable for others.)

Syntax:

hitemattr= attribute1="val1" attribute2="val2" ...

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: hitemattr (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

If there is one page of output for each category, the HTML structure output is:

<dl id="dl-example" class="dpl-orange-background">
  <dt>Category_1</dt>
  <dd id="list-item-heading" class="list-item-heading">
    <ol>
      <li>Page_1</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
  <dt>Category_2</dt>
  <dd id="list-item-heading" class="list-item-heading">
    <ol>
      <li>Page_2</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
</dl>

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: hitemattr (example 1)|Result}}

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: hitemattr (example 2)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: hitemattr (example 2)|Result}}

Note: To format subsequent elements in the same result set, see also (in the corresponding order since the examples build on one another) listattr, itemattr.

listattr

listattr

Add attributes to HTML list type declaration elements, depending on mode (HTML element is ol for ordered, ul for unordered, div for others). Can be used with pseudo mode=inline where inline text contains one or more <br/>. Only applicable to mode=ordered or mode=unordered. Not applicable to mode=category or mode=inline (with no <br/> in inline text).

Syntax:

listattr= attribute1="val1" attribute2="val2" ...

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: listattr (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

If there is one page output for each category, the HTML structure output is:

<dl id="dl-example" class="dpl-orange-background">
  <dt>Category_1</dt>
  <dd id="list-item-heading-attrubite" class="list-item-heading-attrubite">
    <ol id="ol-example" class="dpl-blue-background">
      <li>Page_1</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
  <dt>Category_2</dt>
  <dd id="list-item-heading-attrubite" class="list-item-heading-attrubite">
    <ol id="ol-example" class="dpl-blue-background">
      <li>Page_1</li>
      <li>Page_2</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
</dl>

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: listattr (example 1)|Result}}

Note: To format subsequent elements in the same result set, see also (in the corresponding order since the examples build on one another) itemattr.

itemattr

itemattr

Add attributes to HTML list items, depending on mode (element is li for ordered/unordered, span for others). Not applicable to mode=category.

Syntax:

itemattr= attribute1="val1" attribute2="val2" ...

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: itemattr (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

If there are multiple pages output for each category, the HTML structure output is:

<dl id="dl-example" class="dpl-orange-background">
  <dt>Category_1</dt>
  <dd id="list-item-heading-attrubite" class="list-item-heading-attrubite">
    <ol id="ol-example" class="dpl-blue-background">
      <li id="li-example" class="li-example">Page_1</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
  <dt>Category_2</dt>
  <dd id="list-item-heading-attrubite" class="list-item-heading-attrubite">
    <ol id="ol-example" class="dpl-blue-background">
      <li id="li-example" class="li-example">Page_1</li>
      <li id="li-example" class="li-example">Page_2</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
</dl>

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: itemattr (example 1)|Result}}

headingcount

headingcount

Decides, combined with headingmode, whether to show a text line with the number of articles per group or not.

Syntax:

headingcount=true

Note: (default is headingcount=false, it need not be set)

userdateformat

userdateformat

Define a special layout for date formatting.

Syntax:

userdateformat=formatstring where formatstring sets the date format.

The formatstring may contain letters like "y,Y,m,M,d,D,h,H,i,I,s" for year, month day. Other characters are printed as they are. See the documentation for PHP function date() for more details [1]. The userdateformat applies to all date/time fields, see the parameters: addeditdate, addpagetoucheddate,addfirstcategorydate.

Example:

userdateformat=Y-m-d (D)

Default:

By default, DPL3 uses "Y-m-d H:i:s" to display date and time. Note that MediaWiki stores all dates/times in UTC format. When displaying a time stamp, DPL3 translates it according to:

1. The timezone preference (difference to UTC/GMT) given by the user in his user settings.
2. If no preference is given, and for all anonymous users, the local time on the server is used.

So, either time based on the user's local time (browser based), or based on the timezone in which the wiki server is running is seen.

The same kind of translation applies to dates specified when selecting articles by revision date/time.

Control the way article names are displayed

shownamespace

shownamespace

Restrict the appearance of the namespace name of a page before the page. As the switch is true by default, it should be set to false to avoid namespaces being shown in the output.

Syntax:

shownamespace=false

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: shownamespace (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: shownamespace (example 1)|Result}}

Note: In mode=userformat there is a different way to decide whether output the title with or without namespace is desired; two built-in variables are provided which contain the page name including the namespace (%PAGE%) and the base title name (%TITLE%). Setting [[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]] links to the full page with namespace, but displays the link text without namespace.

escapelinks

escapelinks

Determines if links are escaped as a link, or used directly as-is. When used to display File: namespace image names, or Category: namespace page names, this causes: A link to the image or to the category page to be produced (escapelinks=true – default, need not be set). The image or category to be directly inserted (the former displays the image on-page, the latter categorizes the page it appears on, into the categories of the result set; escapelinks=false).

Syntax:

escapelinks=false

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: imagecontainer (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: imagecontainer (example 1)|Result}}

Notes:

• You can use this parameter to show images, the images are displayed at the largest size as will fit on the page (which may be larger than is appropriate).
• Another way to do this is to:

• Use a format statement, such as: |format = ,[[File:%TITLE%|40px]] as in the second example here.
• Use gallery syntax within a format statement, as in the example here.

titlemaxlength

titlemaxlength

To limit the number of characters of the title to display. If the page title (this does not include the namespace or any other prefix before the title) is bigger than the titlemaxlength value, the title is truncated and ended by '...'.

Syntax:

titlemaxlength=number of characters

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: titlemaxlength (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: titlemaxlength (example 1)|Result}}

replaceintitle

replaceintitle

execute a string replacement operation on the %TITLE% variable.

Syntax:

replaceintitle=search for,replacement

The search for argument must be an expression which can be used in a PHP preg_replace() function call.

To remove the string "demo" in article names, it must be written as:

replaceintitle=/demo/,

Example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: replaceintitle (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: replaceintitle (example 1)|Result}}

Notes:

• Standard regexp rules apply.
• The regexp must start with a non-alphanumeric character – but not necessarily with a backslash! It is a good habit to use / if this character is not needed within the regexp itself.

If you are not familiar with regular expressions and/or do not know the specifics of Perl regexp used in PHP, it may be helpful to see:

• The PHP manual and W3Schools for more information.
• RegExr for testing regular expressions.

Arranging article lists in columns and rows

columns

columns

Defines a column layout for the output. Currently non-working, though a workaround has been provided.

Syntax:

columns=ncols where ncols is the number of desired columns.

Warning: The columns parameter is currently bugged and is non-working A workaround is provided below.

This (if it worked) displays articles in Category:Fruit examples‏‎, a count of three, arranged in 3 columns (rowcolformat is used to make the table width 100%).

{{#dpl:
|category        = Fruit examples
|includesubpages = false
|columns         = 3
|rowcolformat    = width=100%
|count           = 3
}}

Workaround example:

{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: columns (example 1)|Example}}

Test in sandbox

View Result

Workaround result:
{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: columns (example 1)|Result}}

Note: In mode=userformat the outer tags from listseparators are repeated for each column. This means that such a statement could create tables within columns, with something like:

  addpagesize=true
  ordermethod=size
  listseparators={|class="wikitable sortable" id=2\n!Rank\n!Article\n!Bytes\n|-,\n|%NR%.\n|[[%PAGE%]]\n|style="text-align:right;|%SIZE%,\n|-,\n|}

rows

rows	Define a row layout for the output. A "row" is a group of output lines for which the heading is repeated. If how big your result will be is unknown, it may be better to use the rowsize parameter. Currently non-working.

Syntax:

rows=nrows where nrows is the number of desired rows.

In mode=userformat, the outer tags from listseparators are repeated for each column. Thus, long lists can be created where the table heading is repeated from time to time.

This would (if it worked) list the largest articles in Category:Fruit examples‏‎, arranged in two rows (dividing the list of lines equally into 2). Each row consists of a table which has itself three columns: rank, article name, and size.

This example is currently non-working, it may be replaced or removed at a later date to improve the clarity of this manual. As this needs to be done at a deliberate pace, the Gamepedia DPL3 Manual can be used in the interim, keeping in mind some functions may have changed.

Example:

{{#dpl:
|category        = Fruit examples‏‎
|addpagesize     = true
|ordermethod     = size
|listseparators  = {¦class="wikitable sortable" id=2\n!Rank\n!Article\n!Bytes\n¦-,\n¦%NR%.\n¦[[%PAGE%]]\n¦style="text-align:right;"¦%SIZE%,\n¦-,\n¦}
|rows            = 2
|count           = 6
}}

Result:
{{#dpl: |category = Fruit examples‏‎ |addpagesize = true |ordermethod = size |listseparators = {¦class="wikitable sortable" id=2\n!Rank\n!Article\n!Bytes\n¦-,\n¦%NR%.\n¦%PAGE%\n¦style="text-align:right;"¦%SIZE%,\n¦-,\n¦} |rows = 2 |count = 6 }}

rowsize

rowsize

Define a row layout for the output. A "row" is a group of n output lines for which the heading are repeated. Currently non-working.

Syntax:

rowsize=nrowsize where nrowsize is the desired row size.

In mode=userformat the outer tags from listseparators are repeated after each group of rowsize output lines. Thus, long lists can be created where the table heading is repeated in regular intervals.

The (if it worked) lists all articles in Category:Fruit examples‏‎. After each group of 3 entries (article names) the table heading is repeated. It may be useful to set the width of the column with the article names explicitly, so that the tables in each row have equal width.

Example:

This example is currently non-working, it may be replaced or removed at a later date to improve the clarity of this manual. As this needs to be done at a deliberate pace, the Gamepedia DPL3 Manual can be used in the interim, keeping in mind some functions may have changed.

{{#dpl:
|category        = Fruit examples‏‎
|addpagesize     = true
|ordermethod     = size
|listseparators  = {¦class="wikitable sortable" id=2\n!Rank\n!Article\n!Bytes\n¦-,\n¦%NR%.\n¦[[%PAGE%]]\n¦style="text-align:right;"¦%SIZE%,\n¦-,\n¦}
|rowsize         = 3
|count           = 6
}}

rowcolformat

rowcolformat

Defines layout properties (using allowed HTML table tag parameters) for the row/column grid. Currently non-working.

Syntax:

rowcolformat=HTML tags where HTML tags are the desired (allowed) HTML tags to set.

Example:

This example is currently non-working, it may be replaced or removed at a later date to improve the clarity of this manual. As this needs to be done at a deliberate pace, the Gamepedia DPL3 Manual can be used in the interim, keeping in mind some functions may have changed.

This (if it worked) lists articles in Category:Fruit examples, displayed in 3 columns, with more space around the columns.

{{#dpl:
|category        = Fruit examples
|columns         = 3
|rowcolformat    = cellspacing=20
|count           = 6
}}

The ideal way to use rowcolformat is to assign a CSS class to the DPL3 table, which has been defined in the MediaWiki:Common.css article.

Example:

{{#dpl:
|category        = Fruit examples
|includesubpages = false
|columns         = 3
|rowcolformat    = class="dpl3columns"
|count           = 6
}}

In MediaWiki:Common.css article, something like the following might be written:

.dpl3columns td {
  background: #f2f2f2;
  padding: 0.5em;
  border: 3px;
  width: 33%;
}

References