Template:Factions/doc

{{factions}} creates a small 30x30 clickable icon of a character's faction symbol to the right of the page title. Up to 10 icons can be created this way.

Note: This template is based on an almost-identical template on Wookiepedia used to place "Era" icons in the titlebar.

{{factions
|autobot
|decepticon}}

Faction icon names

Faction names used by this template are lowercase. Any mis-typed text not recognized as the template will be rendered as text. (You will notice, it's hard to miss.)

To add additional names, first edit {{Factions/icons}} using the syntax described there, then add to this list.

FACTION NAME	TEMPLATE TEXT	ICON
Autobot	autobot
Decepticon	decepticon
Skywatch	skywatch
G.I. Joe	gijoe
Cobra	cobra
Arashikage	arashikage
Dreadnoks	dreadnoks
Doctor X	drx
EDC	edc
M.A.S.K.	mask
Adventure Team	at
V.E.N.O.M.	venom
Action Man Programme	actionman
Jem and the Holograms	jem
The Misfits	misfits
Spectral Knights	spectralknight
Darkling Lords	darklinglord

Custom faction icons

There are some characters who have their own faction symbol, (example: Moon) essentially used nowhere else. Rather than clutter the template with these, it is possible to declare a custom faction icon via the following format;

{{factions/icons
|custom=Moon symbol clean.png     -REQUIRED, filename of image
|cSize=30x30px     -Optional, maximum size of image.
|cLink=Celestial     -REQUIRED, Page the image links to.
|cPretty=Celestials     -Optional, mouseover text.  Will use the link if not supplied.
}}

This is, in turn, included along with the other non-custom tags.

{{factions
|{{factions/icons|custom=Moon symbol clean.png|cLink=Celestial|cPretty=Celestials}}
|maximal
}}

General considerations

As of this writing^(Jan-16-09), this is the only template on IDW Hasbro Wiki that requires Javascript to function. The icons in question are created within a non-rendering <div> tag, which is then copied into the titlebar when the page finishes loading. As a result, the

template doesn't HAVE to be at the page... but by convention it always should be.Between 0.5 - 1.0% of internet surfers have either disabled Javascript or access the internet in a way that does not support it. Those users will not be able to see these faction icons. These faction icons are intended to serve as a convenient visual shorthand for information already in the article, and are not a primary means of communicating that information. Any information presented by these icons should also be present in the article text.

Technical notes

• The Javascript function associated with this template is called showFactions().
• The non-rendering <div> has an id of "title-factionicons." There is a single CSS rule associated with this ID-- causing the <imagemap> <div>s to render inline rather than as blocks.

• The "custom" imagemaps use "#tag: syntax" to allow parameters to be passed to them. (Don't think this will ever have to be edited.)
• The icons themselves are generated by the "Template:Factions/icons" sub-page.

Trivia

• The development process of this template included a truly spectacular recursion error that knocked the entire wiki offline as its stack overflowed, repeatedly and we think corrupted link-table entries that couldn't be resolved without deleting the whole thing and starting from scratch. That is why the current version of the template exists in a 'dumb' (non-recursive) form. Bad Derik!'