Should we clearly delineate and standardize Templates?

Question

Project boxes, user boxes and profile templates all utilize different code. Some are built upon a basic template such as the project box (not all projects use the project template), profile boxes, and user boxes. Some templates appear as profile boxes or user boxes but don't utilize the main template code to build upon. These templates utilize HTML5 or wiki markup such as wikitables. Build upon basically means a basic template already exists then new templates are created using this basic template.
 

Templates size can expand quite a bit depending on added parameters.
Placing assorted templates on profiles can appear as if the page isn't coded properly (for lack of a better explanation).

 http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Template_Examples

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Template_Project_Box_Examples

? from last year:http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/111391/project-profile-templates-are-too-big

Comments

..."it's just that I read Mark Twain thought so", (..if you ask me he probably just wanted to be Anne's neighbor).  :D

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Yes I of course understand that it is used as a warning sign, and for the later profiles it is absolutely fine and will probably help , to , just like the unsourced one, make people look for more sources. date guess templates makes it clear a date is just an estimate.

But what I actually meant is ,if adding the date guess template to the very early Pre-1700 ones is really something we all want and if it's needed and/or adds something, for most of these we all for sure, because we and other people before us, did a lot of research for them and only to discover we will not ever find a Birth record or Church Baptism record, because the Church + books burned down or records were destroyed because of some other disaster, so people that are only mentioned in charters, books, stories, deeds, letters, ancient Family genealogies and so on, so other sources than the normal ones we use and are able to find for the later profiles .

So for the Pre-1700 profiles where mostly projects are working on.The date guess template really doesn't add a thing (?), for these profiles, it's just a huge template (warning sign) telling us what we already all know, dates are marked as uncertain and now this template is going to be added and stay there forever and ever (?) because the actual date was and is never going to be found . 

So uncertain, for many if not most of the Pre-1700 ones for these, seems quite sufficient I don't think this template would make a profile look better or help (just  Imagine it is going to be added to all Pre-1500 Euro Aristo profiles ) a date guess category if it really is needed to me seems quite enough for these profiles. 

 

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Magnus, You sound like you have a good understanding of the difference of about and dateguess

Terri, I've met plenty of "dumber than a stone" people in Connecticut and other parts of the US.

Vincent, You gotta love Mark Twain. I was born in Hartford. His house is there, that makes us neighbors, right? He also spent a lot of time in Elmira, New York, and my dad was born in Elmira, so that makes us kinfolk, right?

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You're of course right about that Anne, so the dateguess template should not be added to the profiles with the about dates, but found it at some of those as well. And the question Michelle asked is if we should delineate and standarize , so if we want them all smaller or maybe just one instead of a whole bunch etc.. 

I personally, but than who am I :P ,  think the dateguess templates {{DateGuess}} {{DateGuess|Birth and second marriage}} are just too large , and they don't improve a profile and for the Pre-1700 that are covered by a project , a dateguess category if this is what we want could work maybe even better . 

The dateguess templates don't categorize profiles like other templates or categories do, so it's not that we can find all dateguess profiles in the dateguess category to make it more easy to find them and work on them if we would like to find prove for the now estimated dates. 

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I think we focus too much on layout instead of good genealogy in the above discussion.....

Why not see it as this profile has some more work to do 
Its a warning and a request for input 

Restate that the DateGuess is a template used when

1. we have a wild guess without any sources
2. a signal that you cant trust the date given
3. an exhaustive research after sources has not been done and documented
4. a signal please help us with input about possible sources to research or help us add sources...

When we have done what we can and documented our research and analyse then use another template.....
I normally see {{DateGuess}} on profiles with no sources and cant see the problem that its big.... and looks like a warning....

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This question is about size position and style not how it should be used.

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What I suggest is that the size can be big as long as the homework is not done...

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Magnus, the question I ask is specific to layout and design of templates. I encourage you ask a new question if you wish to discuss good genealogy. This is the tech section of the G2G and we are trying to come up with some guidelines for template design and useage.
 Such as more consistent size so they look better next to other templates.

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Re Michelle Hartley

My point is 

1. big size is good if its a warning or ask for help
2. If we think we have done the homework then make it small 

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Sorry I wasn't more involved in this discussion. I'd meant to be.

I think it's clear that we need more standardized templates, and I'm inclined to think that they should be clearly delineated from other content.

But ... as Michelle, Magnus, Rick, Julie and others have raised various issues over the past couple weeks, I've come to realize that there are a lot of unresolved template-related policy and style questions.

Here is a draft of a new policy page: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template_Guidelines

Let's move the discussion here: http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/226037/what-do-you-think-this-template-guidelines-policy-page-draft

Thanks!

Answer 1

Look What Wikiedia has done I think is step 1

I spoke with a super user at Wikipedia and he said he always use templates for things that can change like links to sites etc....
e.g. search links
https://sok.riksarkivet.se/topografier?ValdSortering=Relevans&Ort=Götlunda

What happen if Family search change the search question with all source citations inside Wikitree?

Easier to use templates

One problem today is to find a template
FYI: I have tested a new tool Visual Editor at Wikipedia that I hope we can use inside Wikitree
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Why

The have a much much better support for using templates
Sandbox to test the Visual Editor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sandbox?veaction=edit

Manual about using Templates 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor/User_guide#Editing_templates 

Screen dump

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Question I have tried to be part of the template project but no answer? I sent a request but no answer. I need to create some small templates for Swedish Parish category pages (2606 pages to create....)
 

Comments

Magnus,  problem with using the wikipedia tools is Wikitree uses a older modified version of mediawiki. So, a lot of those cool tools don't work on wikitree.

Who did you contact about the template project? Only Leaders can join or create templates. If you e-mail me the particulars and I'll see what we can do.

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An email has been sent and a project page is created and a intro video is done

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Visual Editor at Wikipedia
Yes I understand the "mismatch" between Wikipedia and Wikitree but I feel its a success factor for Wikitree to get a better user experience when adding information...

Today with the unsourced mafia uploading unsourced gedcoms created at Ancestry with profiles from 1100 with just names and no dates is and after that they just disappear will kill Wikitree.... 

 

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Of course you have a point here Magnus, maybe we should have some sort of introduction period for new members, at least for 3-6  months a member and working on their own family first (no Pre-1700 profiles) and if than someone still is interested in uploading a Gedcom , he or she can ?

Pre-1700 profiles are not allowed to be uploaded by Gedcoms anymore + the size of Gedcoms people may upload is limited now ..so that is already a big improvement. 

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Good to hear Bea that "old profiles" are not imported. My understanding is that Geni had the same problem

At Geni they have today a smart copy not tested but maybe a way forward....

Link chrome.google.com

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All pre-1500 individuals are automatically excluded. The individuals between 1500 and 1700 are very closely reviewed and the GEDCOM submitter has to have the pre-1700 badge and be in contact with a project that covers their pre-1700 ancestors if one exists. And individuals with neither a birth nor death date have to be skipped.

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Was editing my message :) and yes we all know and probably had our Family tree somewhere else already, but these were created at genealogy pages that were not based on the same principal we have here. There everyone is working for and by him or herself on his or her own tree, so many people are working on the same tree and many duplicate trees present there ... sometimes with compare tools so people can copy stuf from the other person that has the same people in his or her similar branche or exactly same tree .

But Wikitree is trying to do the complete opposite, just one profile for every individual that ever lived , so I personally don't think gedcoms will ever work great here, it would probably be much easier if someone would look for relatives, ancestors he or she has in his or her tree as well and start with his or tree by adding just the ones missing here and build his own tree and manually add all these people and try to connect them to the ones that already are present .

The small gedcoms with the duplicates left out are no fun at all, if for example the parents were recognized and left out as duplicates, all children will be ''lost'' and seperated (so connected to no one ) they will be floating around here after the import, if these profiles have no sources it's quite a job to try and find the correct parents (so all research has to be done again)

The smart copy is something that maybe could work here as well , we do have the Familysearch smart matches and that works fine :)

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>> so I personally don't think gedcoms will ever work great here

Agree 100%.... problem its a full-time work to rewrite your family tree.....

I have tried to get support for some workflow for doing "better genealogy" ==> maybe we can attract people interested in hardcore genealogy ==> better family trees, more interesting discussions etc..... a better place to live in ;-) and in the long run that Wikitree get somekind of "Wikipedia status"

My confused suggestions so far are

• Have a flag/category/template please review my profiles
  {{GPS-Review wanted|Sweden|Sources}}
  {{GPS-Review wanted|Sweden|Correlation}}
  {{GPS-Review wanted|Sweden|Conclusion}}
• mark profiles who has been reviewed following GPS with some star ;-) 
• have a career Ladder also not just the number of Contributions but also direction what you try to learn more about....
  • GPS basic
  • GPS Sweden genealogy
  • GPS Sweden| Blacksmith....
  • GPS Sweden | Värmland....
  • GPS emigration
  • GPS New Sweden

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if these profiles have no sources it's quite a job to try and find the correct parents

and no phonenumber ;) 

I think Wikitree soon will have a delete workflow/ garbage collector ;-)  

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Magus, what does GPS stand for? I'm thinking you don't mean Global positioning.

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GPS is a Genealogical Proof Standard
a framework created in the USA to follow so that you get less errors in your family research and are more effective and that your work can be understand by others....


Video by Crista Cowen Genealogical Proof Standard: An Introduction
The book on Kindle

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EXCELLENT Idea!  I am a newbie and have had lots of problems learning the do's and don'ts,

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hahaha no phone number indeed, no need to trow them away, just an awful lot of work trying to find out who is who and where the rest of the family members went  or can be found :P

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>> EXCELLENT Idea!  I am a newbie and have had lots of problems learning the do's and don'ts,

Barb my understanding today at Wikitree the best way to get help is ask a question in G2G and use tags that attracts people reading it and helping you....I think that is the fastest way of learning..... and get help from others...

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Magnus, Thank you for that answer, it tells me one thing - I have a whole lot to learn - templates, tags, etc.  Real newbie to tech language. I'll get on it!  Barb

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My understanding

Category ==> excellent way to mark a profile ==> you get a link to a category page. On this page you can gather more information that is interesting to all profiles with that category e.g. 

• Occupations ...Blacksmith
• Resident in ..... Chester : South Carolina and have ob this category page good genealogy resources for people researching in Chester, South Carolina ( I do a project for Sweden right now)

Template ==> can be used for more things
a) add some visible attributes with the same style and resused by other profiles
b) excellent way if you reuse a source to use an template. If the source is changing URL then you just need to change the template instead of all profiles using it. I spoke with people at Wikipedia doing a lot of pages and they use templates as much as you can.... so I think we will use it more and more in Wikitree. What happen if Family Seach change the URL will all source URLS....? 
 

Tags used like # in twitter a way to mark a discussion in G2G or Free space pages ....

 

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Thanks! I actually have that book. I just wanted to be sure what you meant by the GPS parameter  in your example template.

Answer 2

Re: Project Templates. Quantity:

Maybe we need to decide, that there can be too much of a good thing and limit the number of Project Templates at the top of a profile to one or perhaps two.

Comments

Why not do like with badges that you can hide some by default....

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In the case of profiles, I don't see any point or advantage to adding a template just to hide it. The category associated with the profile can be added anyway, which identifies it as part of a project.

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The only advantage to having one that could be hidden after it is added is the profile could then be added to the project/category without the template image showing on the profile page. As it stands now you only have the choice of leave it or remove it and removing it takes it off of the linked pages.

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I have been looking more and more at Wikipedia and they have categories etc. at the bottom see Help:Category

My vote: Move categories and templates to the end
Focus should be on well written and researched profiles. Categories and projects is a bonus ==> move categories and templates to the end ==> less problem with size....

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And what tags / projects would you put on, e.g., the Duke of Wellington?

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The Duke of Wellington is not in my area of knowledge, but it seems to me the current Duke falls into British Isles Royals and Aristocrats 1500-Present

With this Project Box {{British Isles 1500-Present}}

I suppose he also falls into the United Kingdom Project, in the sub-project for House of Lords. This template for United Kingdom {{United Kingdom|Country|County|Town}} doesn't look like it expresses quite what's needed in his case.

That's only two projects. So two shouldn't overly clutter his profile.

Answer 3

Re: Project Templates: Physical Attributes.

I would like to see them all fairly uniform. That way gathered together at the top of a profile, they look neat and cohesive.

Currently the most used seems to be a small picture followed by some information and under that an invitation to Join the Project. Can all those three lines be put to the right of the picture, instead of one line to the right and two lines below? This would cut down on the footprint.

Comments

Sounds like a good solution Anne and indeed just one or maybe two if that's really needed.

Answer 4

I would like to give the profile managers a choice of "styles" for templates.  When the template is built, it is possible to add options to change how the template looks.  Maybe style choices of  "Banner", "UserBox" or "ProjectBox"

For example:  {{MyTemplate | style=Banner}} or {{MyTemplate | style=UserBox}}

This would provide consistency, but give profile managers some choice in how the template is displayed.  I do something similar with the Quakers template.

Comments

Or maybe give the choice to the reader...
See all or hide?!?!1

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Very nice Andrea! This works really well for templates without longer parameters or projects without sub-projects.

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It looks indeed great Andrea :)

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Good idea, Andrea, but I think standard styles are important for collaboration. Otherwise conflicting preferences lead to arguments.

Theoretically, I think Magnus is right, but we're not ready to add that level of complexity. When we do, the priorities will be language, name format, etc.

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Language is a key thing to attract older people who cant read english.....

A language workaround is using Google translate and a list box to select the language ==> you get Mr Whitten presented in Latin, marathi or hindi 

 

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Christus?!  Nobody mentioned this was the Second Coming

(Altogether now - He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!)

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Google translate is great, but it should stop translating names eeh ..really ...causes a lot of wrong names around here :P

Overall it's very useful though at least we can decipher and understand txt or at least parts of it, that otherwise would be 'abracadabra' for many :D

We are working on a Dutch Portal - Nederlands Portaal for Dutch speaking and reading Wikitree members to make things more easy and understandable for this group of members . Maybe more Roots Projects have done or could work on this ?

And Magnus I really admire the great ideas you have and the great way you explain everything  .

To stick with the templates and if we should or not should standarize them though, what I think most people are saying is we should standarize and make them smaller, so maybe one standard size for all templates is an option ?

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Re Bea Yes maybe changing size makes users more happy and its an easy change

But
Size matters ;-)
Smaller is not better ;-) 

My suggestion
1) start defining what devices to support is step number 1....
see how pages looks in an emulator different 

ex. Schenck-546 on a PC/MAc

• phone 5 small screen OK
• Ipad mini Excellent
• Samsung Galaxy Y not readable

My opinion: Is that Wikitree is a site with a lot authors and not to many readers ==> its not so important to support small devices. People work in Wikitree and use Mac or PC..... or?

I think its easy to check in the web logs what is the usage pattern

1. readers vs. writers
2. Iphone vs. PC
3. how long time an user stays at the site and how many clicks
   1. If you have a device with no good user experience you dont stay at WIkitree e.g. compare using web interface for Ancestry on a phone versus the Iphone app

Important is that some things like Infospaces that gives important information works see my picture from my Iphone 5 surfing Wikipedia 



The Wikipedia page Härestads socken ==> they have totally changed the layout on the iphone

1. from multi columns to one column.....
2. moved the right column to be presented first 

The picture above is using a template called Infobox socken and I hope that we should have a Infobox on Wikitree pages on the Swedish Category pages for parishes that contains data useful for genealogy

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We have compared how things looked on some different devices also, so linux, windows, laptop, pc, Iphone, etc. so I really agree with you on this Magnus, for now and the future it really is important Wikitree supports all (most) devices, operating systems , browers etc.

Maybe you should just start a WikiTech G2G question about this, to see what is possible and or what they currently are working on ;)

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Magnus, please explain how changing template size is an easy change.

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Ditto that Bea! Another discussion would be beneficial. We're trying to decide whether or not to standardize template size.

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Re Michelle Hartley.....
>> Explain how changing template size is easy

A wild guess as no one has opened up so I can start create needed template for the Swedish Parish Category Page project

But when I look at the generated code on the page linked above its old classic html

so just changing font and width/height of images then its done... doing it right I assume use css to scale is better

Small test I did in TextWrangler

large pic

 

I will do some playing around in the Wikipedia template sandbox as I need templates in the above mentioned project

1. For Links ==> I dont have to change in 2606 pages when a linked site moves but hopefully 
2. also to create something like Infobox socken but for genealogy related info

Answer 5

I absolutely think we should standardize templates. Being able to have them fit nice and uniformly on a profile would greatly help with the asthetics as well as usefulness of templates. At the very least, project templates should be uniform, though making all templates fit together like a puzzle would be nice. Announcement types like date guess or disputed existence could be a long bar and project templates something like shorter bars that could fit side by side-like legos.

I also think that the wording on the template for projects should be minimized. I like the project graphics Rob had worked up. If we used those as a template-really on their own, so that the graphic linked to the project and the graphic had the g2g tag on it so it was easily referenced, as well. Other than that, I don't think we need more.

Answer 6

I have been thinking about the war/veteran templates, too. I wonder if we'd be better served by one service template that you put parameters in-which war(s), units, ranks, etc. rather than a different one for each war. The war included could put in the right graphic.

Comments

I don't like this at all, no offense to Abby.

1. Each war was different.
2. The military units involved were different.
3. The eras were different and produced soldiers who were vastly different.
4. There also needs to be Veteran categories and templates for soldiers who served in times of peace, or who served during times of conflict but did not personally see combat.

The war templates should have enough variety to reflect how they were/are thought about when they were fought and today. World War I icons are very different than World War II icons, the 100 Day War much different than the Boxer Rebellion.

 

I'll have to use US military units as examples to make my point about units in general, but the arguments applies to other nations' units as well. Anyway, the icons for the 82nd Airborne Division are very different from the 101st Airborne. The Big Red One icons are extremely different than the icons for the Special Forces.

 

Icons for the Vietnam war are different than the Korean War, King Philip's War different than the French Revolution.

 

You get the idea. And as much as any of the above categories produce different icons, the soldiers from each had their own icons. When we create profiles of ancient Aristocracy, the ideal is to enter their names using the spelling as it was known then. The same ideal should be used for the wars and warriors . . . enter them using the icons which uniquely identify them.

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I don't think our ideas differ as much as you think, John. I think that each war, unit, etc can be represented differently, but using one template. So the template could give parameters you can fill in to personalize it for the member in question. Alternatively, we may just consider creating a standard for the military templates to follow. I wasn't suggesting one template that looked completely the same for everyone, just that they followed the same mould. Thinking out loud :-)

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My suggestion: Start with using the same CSS classes to get some consistency in layout and scaling?!?!? See comment

Having different icons based on some value is not rocket science
I think we have that in the migration template with the flags 

Category:Flag_Images
Category:US_State_Flag_Images

Answer 7

Know I'm a bit late getting into this discussion. But please, if we're standardizing templates, can they all be a bit smaller and more compact? After adding the NSSAR template to a profile already loaded with other categories and templates, that area takes up more room than the Biography & Sources section.

See Bumgardner-224

Comments

One UI pattern gmail use is to let the end user have a listbox and select options. As some of us use always a mobile phone and other have 3 big screens its not easy to do one design that fits all

 

 

 

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I would agree with you. I personally use two big screens and when I occasionally use my small Kindle Fire it's a real pain. I would think small, compact templates with less verbiage would be most useful to those who use cell phones or tablets.

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Shirley, When you point out the impact of usage of different platforms (i.e., computer, tablet, phone), that is opening another whole can of worms.  This is an excellent addition to the considerations needed, however I believe that it is, at the same time, something to determine as an additional decision to the main one.

It has become well established - axiomatic, if you will - that pages designed for computers simply do not work for devices with much smaller screens.  There are technical solutions that permit definition of parameter values to optimize a page format for different devices.  When this is done, the server identifies the device from which the page is requested and delivers it properly formatted for the user's screen size.

WikiTree can - and, I would hope/expect, already does - implement this.  Whatever decisions are ultimately made on the extent to which template formats are standardized can be further modified for small-screen devices.

For example ONLY - this is not a suggestion or opinion of how I think it should be done ... perhaps for phones only a small logo with very short title should be used for all templates.

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The increasing usage of small-screen devices should be one of the factors considered in the re-design of templates. But when on my 22" screen the templates take up so much room I need to scroll down quite a bit before I can even find the Bio section, there is a problem. If one uses only one template, not so bad.

The profile I referenced above had four -- a One-Name study, NSSAR, 1776, and Southern Colonies. If a Date Guess template is added, which it could have used, way too much of the screen is covered. I do hope that smaller, more compact templates with less verbiage are being considered.

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One way is to ask template designers to test the design in an emulator

1. Iphone 5 surfing on Space:Template_Examples negative

   Css resolution

   320x568

2. Ipad mini maybe

   Css resolution

   768x1024

3. Samsung Galaxy Y useless

   Css resolution

   240x320

See video of using an Iphone emulator
Stackoverflow How to deal with different screen resolutions in CSS

Good article suggests:

Flexible everything

Responsive images
 

Showing Hiding Content



Summary 
Not designing web solutions to work on mobile devices is moving in the wrong direction 2016. As a template designer you are part of the overall user experience and need to do the best to follow good design guidelines. What you do will work as good as possible on devices used on Wikitree...

Some kind of guidelines would be nice to have what good design is at Wikitree.com and what devices we have as primary target...

 

EDIT: Video about using Chrome developers tools. Easy way to check the layout on different devices....

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Bumgardner-224 on a Iphone 5

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Here are some guidelines Magnus , I noticed HTML and CSS was mentioned in the article , HTML and Inline CSS (this is for the use at profiles of course so don't know if it goes for how WT technically works?

Of course and I guess that's why we have these guidelines and recommended tags, they are trying very hard to keep Wikitree easy to use for everyone , so to keep it possible and easy for all members, so also for members that don't know a thing about HTML and or other coding, to work on profiles without having to worry if maybe the Bio becomes a mess , it says : The best way to ensure our content is accessible in the future is to keep it simple and have all members using the same standards.

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In general template designers have very limited ability to deal with the screen size 'issues' since any styling in templates is done using inline styling and not by updates to the sites style sheets (where styles can be customized to a device using media types/media queries as Gaile alluded to). What can be done using inline style has definite limits and can sometimes create unintended results - for example, a template with a minimum size specified inline to to prevent a template from expanding vertically on a small screen can cause the frame it is displayed inside (i.e. the biography, which is relatively sized) to display wider than the user's browser window thereby requiring the user to side-scroll to see the width of the page) While templates have freedom to use inline styling and HTML that is discouraged on profiles, they do not have anymore access to certain common html tags - notably<img> and <a> - and must use the wikitext equivalents which give access to a limited subset of the parameters normally used with these tags.

Compounding the limits on template writers ability to account for display on different devices is that all inline styling used in templates adds to the byte-size of the template. The MediaWiki version that Wikitree is forked from has a limit on the number of bytes that can be transcluded into a given page. (Newer MediaWiki versions use a thread limit instead) Once that byte limit is reached any additional templates on the page are simply not processed and will display the raw (and meaningless to the user) template calls, so keeping templates 'lean' is a concern.

Add to the above the typical web-design problem of supporting a variety of browsers and versions which might require a number of different inline style declarations just to have a somewhat consistent result for *most* users - for example just to round the corners on a box across a number of somewhat current browsers might require inline styling similar to: <div style="-webkit-border-radius: 36px 12px; -moz-border-radius: 36px / 12px; border-radius: 36px / 12px;"></div> and even this will still not display as intended on some browsers - handling for different screen sizes on different browsers, assuming the needed styling can even be implemented inline from a template, would be even more "verbose", (While I have not tried them, I believe CSS Flexbox and Grid, commonly used for adjusting layout for different devices, would be highly complicated if not impossible to add to a page through transclusion from a template)

On a different note let's remember that while giving a project box "pride of place" at the top of a profile can help people identify which project might have PPP'd a profile, and also serves an important role in promoting projects, there is no requirement for *every* template to be added to the top of the profile - the profile managers and editors have freedom to put a template anywhere in a profile that makes sense - a migrating ancestor template for example can be a 'call-out' of the paragraph where the migration is actually discussed instead of being stuck at the top, likewise the unverified parents template might follow a paragraph that discusses the facts and myths of the persons parents to re-emphasize that the information given is unproven. If you have to scroll past seven templates to get to the biography it might be worth discussing with other profile collaborators if a few of the templates could be relocated within the profile.

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Thanks Rob some comments/questions
Question A: Current version of Wikitree 1.11.0 any plans to upgrade?
Question B: What is the limit? Do we hit that limit?
Question C: No possibility to add external css files? inline css is messy and a maintenance hell...

Comment 1: My suggestion was more check with different screen sizes than do different designs....
Video example how to check the result on iphone with Chrome developers tools

Comment 2: I would see some statement/plans about delivering on more platforms
Like
2a) Prefered browser is a PC normal size screen
2b) Mobile phones with small screen should be prefered platform to design 
2c) Opt your design so it looks ok on PC and on mobile....
.....

See also:
* Category Mobil wikimedia
* Interesting project from big brother Wikipedia to deliver Wikipedia to Africa and mobile for free...

Answer 8

The following is something I was playing around with. 

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Michelle%27s_template_sandbox

Comments

That's an idea, Michelle. But it still takes up quite a bit of the space allocated for the Biography. Is it really necessary to use the "If you are interested in this project ...." ? Could there maybe just be a link to the project page?

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This template box could work if placed at the right side which I guess it was meant for ? So it would not take any Bio space ;)

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I did a bit of playing too, implementing suggestions on ways to cut down on text. Not sure the image sizes stayed the same in copy/paste, but first is 50px & 2nd 75px (which are the two sizes available for flags in the Migrating Ancestor template - with a lot of templates, it helps if the images are the same size).

Join: Project:Louisiana Families Talk: G2G

With the 75px image, three lines work well:

This person lived in Louisiana. Join: Project:Louisiana Families Talk: G2G

 

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The project box template code includes "if you are interested in this project". So, using the project box will see the text. I agree it takes up a lot of space. It's an easy change.

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Thanks Liz!

Answer 9

I proposed that we start using server based css classes ==> 

1. standard look and feel
2. easier to administrate
3. easier to customize for devices with small screens ==>
   1. show smaller graphics
   2. have responsive design

Please see G2G about templates to be or not to be

Answer 10

I love the Yellow {{Italian Roots}} template and would like to see more colorful boxes in nationality templates. I find the {{German Roots}} template boring, with only a little flag. Let's dress up the templates so they look a lot more like the Italian Roots template! We could make a green one for the Irish and add other national colors for other nationalities! ! It is so much fun to add the italian Roots template because it is so pretty!

Comments

Hm... is that the purpose of a template....

Cant you add a background picture to the profile and get it even more italian ;-)