An inputbox allows you to put a box on any page, which has a text field for users to fill out and a customizable button for launching the action.
There are three types: the article creation box, the search box, and the comment box. The default width for all boxes is 50 characters.
Box types
Article creation box
An article creation box places a box on the page that lets the user create a new page by entering the page title. A new page will be opened at the title the user types in. Page creation is handled by the InputBox extension. It checks if a page already exists and displays an error message if it does. It is also possible to use preloaded templates with the box to simplify the article creation process for editors.
| Type this: | To make this: |
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<inputbox> type=create </inputbox> |
Search box
A search box provides an extra box for users to search your community, in addition to the one in the global navigation bar.
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<inputbox> type=search </inputbox> |
Comment box
This box adds a section to an existing page (not necessarily the page used in.), which can be helpful in adding a new discussion to a talk page, or new items to a news page.
The text typed in the box is the page where to start a new section header. If you use as type commenttitle instead of comment, the text typed in the box becomes the new section header, and is also used as the edit summary for the addition. In this case, you additionally need to define a pagename with the page parameter.
| Type this: | To make this: |
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<inputbox> type = comment buttonlabel=Post a comment </inputbox> |
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<inputbox> type = commenttitle page = Help talk:Inputbox buttonlabel=Post a comment </inputbox> |
Customizing inputboxes
There are several parameters you can use to customize the display of the inputboxes.
- Background color
bgcolor=#FFFFFF- Sets the background color using HTML color values. Enter the color value without using quotes. Note that setting a background color that is very light or dark can make the inputbox unreadable on dark or light themes, and should be avoided.
- Width
width=##- Sets width of input field, where ## is a number of characters. (The default is 50.)
- Default text
default=any text- Default text to put in the inputbox before it is changed, such as "enter page title here".
- Button label
buttonlabel=any text- This label will be used for the text in the main submit button of the form.
- Search button label
searchbuttonlabel=any text- For search forms, this label will be used for the "Search full text" button.
- Line break
break=no- Removes the default line break between the input box and the button(s), displaying them side by side.
- Placeholder
placeholder=any text- Define placeholder text that will display in the input box when it is empty.
- Hide Box
hidden=yes- Removes the box and automatically goes to the page specified by
default=.
| Type this: | To make this: |
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<inputbox> type=create width=15 placeholder=Type here! buttonlabel=Click here! break=no </inputbox> |
| Type this: | To make this: |
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<inputbox> type=create width=15 default=Type here! hidden=yes buttonlabel=Click here! break=no </inputbox> |
Using preloaded templates with an article creation box
- See Help:Preloaded templates for more detail
If you want to use a standard article template, you can specify this in the form. Doing so will pre-load an article with a basic layout in terms of templates and structure, making the process standard for editors.
- Preloaded text
preload=pagename- For comment and create boxes, the text of the page under pagename will be preloaded (see below) into the blank editbox when a new page is created.
- Example: By specifying "preload=Template:New_page", the content of "Template:New page" will be loaded into the edit box for the new article.
- Edit introduction
editintro=pagename- For comment and create boxes, the text of the page under pagename will be added, as instructions, before the submission form for new pages. It is displayed instead of the text of MediaWiki:Newarticletext.
- Example: By specifying "editintro=Template:Welcome", the content of Template:Welcome will be shown above the article.
| Type this: | To make this: |
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<inputbox> type=create preload=Template:New_page editintro=Template:Welcome width=25 </inputbox> |
See also
Further help and feedback
- Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
- Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
- Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article