Template talk:Infobox body of water

Template-protected edit request on 11 April 2023

Please, would someone see if can get a standard map parameter, usually integrated along with pushpin map, for an alternative usage: |map=, |map_size=, |map_caption=, |map_alt= ౪ Santa ౪^99° 20:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit template-protected}} template. This template already has |image_map= and |map_size= and |image_size= and |alt_map= and |caption_map=, which are rendered in the infobox's |image= parameter; and and bunch of |pushpin_xxx= parameters that are rendered in the infobox's |image2= parameter. As such, it is unclear what the requester is proposing.

Where is |map= described as a standard? Can you give a few examples of infobox templates that use this standard? – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:09, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

I did't say it's "described" as a "standard" nor did I implied that there is some specific policy which compels te creator(s) to integrate such or any other particular parameter for that matter, what I meant is when most templates carry parameter map and/or map_image, along the other similar parameters such as pushpin_map, or at least has mapframe or embedded, to serves as an alternative, then it usually considered a standard. Here's few of many examples with different combinations, all major infoboxes: Template:Infobox river, Template:Infobox islands, Template:Infobox cave, Template:Infobox settlement, Template:Infobox park, Template:Infobox spring, ౪ Santa ౪^99° 03:17, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

And there is no image_map in this infobox. ౪ Santa ౪^99° 03:27, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

It's here:

| image2   = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage|image={{{image_map|}}}|size={{{map_size|{{{image_size|}}}}}}|sizedefault=256px|maxsize=296px|border=yes|alt={{{alt_map|}}}}}
| caption2 = {{{caption_map|}}}

As for standardizing map parameters in infoboxes, there was a failed attempt to start standardization at Wikipedia:Maps in infoboxes in 2017. It's a hairy problem. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:02, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

Short description generated is never optimal

The short description “Body of water” is awful, practically useless, and makes WP look less encyclopedic to casual readers.

Can the template instead generate something like “type in location” from the parameters?

I’m not making a formal edit request just yet as I’m not sure if that’s the best alternative.

RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 05:34, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Can you please give a few examples where "Body of water" is "awful" and "useless", failing to meet the purposes of a short description?

If you find an article for which "Body of water" is a bad short description (SD), it is trivial to override the SD that the infobox provides by adding a {{short description}} template at the top of the article with more appropriate content. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:53, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

I am arguing that it is never very useful for readers, and undermines WP’s quality and encyclopedic nature.

Furthermore, if an article is missing a short description entirely, it is somewhat more likely to attract editor attention.

What I’m suggesting is that a more specific shortdesc could be automatically generated from the parameters already in the template, say “type” and “location” -> e.g. “Endorheic lake in Graustark Region, Ruritania”

RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 19:49, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Two issues with your suggestion —-

• |type= is only used on about 1/3 of the infoboxes
• |type= is not always a noun phrase, and sometimes has extraneous wiki markup (see, e.g., Utah Lake)

— hike395 (talk) 00:11, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Module:Type in location deals with most of those kinds of issues. --Trialpears (talk) 09:43, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, Trialpears! That is a very handy module. We could add it to this infobox. — hike395 (talk) 13:33, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

I can’t even figure out what to edit in the sandbox. Where is Template:Auto short description even transcluded?

Should I make an edit request even though I can’t figure out exact code to propose, per WP:IAR and WP:BOLD? RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 18:28, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

Take a look at {{Infobox hospital}}, {{Infobox shopping mall}}, {{Infobox museum}}, {{Infobox dam}}, and {{Infobox airport}} for examples. The full list is here. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:51, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

Added call to Module:Type in location to the sandbox, ptal. — hike395 (talk) 19:49, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Can we merge the change from sandbox? RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 21:50, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

 Done —— see Category:Pages using infobox body of water with auto short description for the articles where this is working. — hike395 (talk) 01:37, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

Are you sure it’s working? I don’t see any difference. RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 00:13, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Ameenpur Lake has the auto SD "Artificial lake in Hyderabad" that is generated from the infobox. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:23, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Every other example I found doesn’t though. RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 22:16, 18 May 2023 (UTC)

OK, I'll click on a couple more random ones. Anacoco Lake says "Reservoir in Louisiana, US". Backstairs Passage says "Strait in South Australia". When you are reporting a problem, always provide a link to a page where the problem is occurring. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:05, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

Huh, it seems to be working perfectly now. I don’t remember which pages I had originally tried but it was five or six randomly chosen ones. RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 18:26, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 13 May 2023

Could this infobox please be edited to allow for embedded infoboxes and child templates? This would be especially useful for bodies of water which are also Protected areas (such as Ramsar Wetlands, national parks or marine reserves), which currently need to use Template:Infobox landform to embed Template:Infobox protected area instead. Turnagra (talk) 06:41, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

 Already done Use |module=. See Firth of Tay for an example. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:43, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

Oh, my bad! I was busy scouring it for an |embed= parameter, but that makes sense - thank you! Turnagra (talk) 18:52, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

Should we add a new parameter of Date_Drained?

There is already a useful Date_Flooded parameter which shows when the body of water came into existence. However there is nothing to show when it ceased to exist.

I have been studying lakes for the last 3 years and have found many examples in wikipedia of 'Ancient' lakes, lakes which have dried out or are about to dry out (e.g. Aral Sea) or where the dam has broken. Sadly the instances of lakes drying out is increasing due to manmade interference with the water supply to the lake, and/or global warming increasing evaporation. There are also cases, especially with glacial lakes and landslide lakes, where the 'natural' dam has broken naturally or been broken by man in the name of safety to downstream places.

There are also many examples of Reservoirs where the manmade dam has broken. (e.g. Sanford Lake) While it could be argued that these should have used 'Infobox dam' instead of this Infobox, it is a fact that about 80% of the reservoir articles actually use this 'Infobox body of water', so the argument for adding this new parameter holds for them as well, just on saving the sheer amount of effort to changing thousands of article to use a different infobox.

If others agree with this suggestion, it would seem a very simple and safe parameter to add as it would not affect any existing article?MWchat (talk) 11:20, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

Agree I'm writing my first article (Draft:Diebsteich) about a former mill pond (one that is mostly relevant as it has a train station named after it, though it has some historical importance on its own). I was indeed looking for such a field as we have a decent idea when it was drained, and I'd be in support of the addition of such a field. Aveaoz (talk) 15:36, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 16 November 2023

I suggest that |native_name= be moved to the subheader. It makes little sense for it to be all the way in the body, completely separate from the name by the image and the location parameters. Đại Việt quốc (talk) 22:07, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

 Done. Note that other infoboxes I checked are inconsistent about this. If anyone else feels strongly that this should be reverted, feel free to ping me and I'll do so. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 02:28, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

mapframe location at the bottom

This has been like that since the initial implementation. I'm guessing the reason is that the existing map fields are up to image4 and image5 wouldn't work. (I saw that in another case). Regardless, it'd be more logical to convert all the map-related image parameters to data parameters and group them together. --Joy (talk) 20:59, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

I looked at the code in Module:Infobox, and I don't see why |image5= would fail. It should work with arbitrarily numbered arguments. I would suggest giving it a try. — hike395 (talk) 23:44, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

Zoom issue with mapframe?

@Joy: This infobox might be suffering the same zoom issue as {{Infobox river}}, because currently the mapframe doesn't know how big the body of water is. I just set the mapframe type to be "waterbody", which should set the default to be dim=20km (1:100000 scale). Are we seeing any scaling issues? Do we need to add |length_km=, |width_km=, and |area_km2= to the template, analogous to {{Infobox river}}? — hike395 (talk) 16:20, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Later --- looking at the test cases, unlike {{Infobox river}}, the mapframe does not turn on by default. I suspect we don't need to make sure that the zoom is correctly set, because if someone opts into the mapframe, they'll manually set the zoom. — hike395 (talk) 16:23, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Yep, we should do the same migration to split dimensions. No reason not to have a nice zoom after simply enabling mapframe = yes, forcing editors to think about these convoluted zoom levels by default is pretty bad design. --Joy (talk) 09:04, 13 May 2025 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 19 September 2025 – adding "color" attribute to abovestyle parameter to address Lint errors

While addressing old Linter errors, I see that {{Infobox body of water}} is contributing to some of the "Background color inline style rule w/o text color" errors due to the abovestyle parameter having the "background" attribute defined without a corresponding "color" attribute. Please add "; color:black;" to the parameter as follows:

−

| abovestyle = background-color: #cedeff; font-size: 125%;

+

| abovestyle = background-color: #cedeff; font-size: 125%; color:black;

This should help resolve a number of inherited Lint errors in articles and related templates.

Thanks! – SirOlgen (talk) 02:28, 19 September 2025 (UTC)

 Completed. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. – welcome! – 05:35, 19 September 2025 (UTC)

Infobox convert

Is there a reason that Module:ConvertIB and its associate {{convinfobox}} has never been implemented here? I know that there is Category:Pages using infobox body of water with a non-automatically converted dimension. I actually monitor that category which is how I realized this was an issue. Could really simplify things moving forward if it were implemented... Happy to take on that task unless there is a reason it has never been done. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 01:30, 5 October 2025 (UTC)

I was thinking about taking this on, because it could set the mapframe zoom value to good values (see, e.g., Gulf of California). Someone would have to do an AWB run to convert parameters like |length= to |length_km= to make that happen. — hike395 (talk) 04:24, 5 October 2025 (UTC)