Module:Message box/doc

	This is a documentation subpage for Module:Message box. It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original module page.

	Archived This Module is no longer being actively used. It is only being maintained for archive purposes.

This is a meta-module that implements the message box templates {{mbox}}, {{ambox}}, {{cmbox}}, {{fmbox}}, {{imbox}}, {{ombox}}, and {{tmbox}}. It is intended to be used from Lua modules, and should not be used directly from wiki pages. If you want to use this module's functionality from a wiki page, please use the individual message box templates instead.

Usage

To use this module from another Lua module, first you need to load it.

local messageBox = require('Module:Message box')

To create a message box, use the main function. It takes two parameters: the first is the box type (as a string), and the second is a table containing the message box parameters.

local box = messageBox.main( boxType, {
    param1 = param1,
    param2 = param2,
    -- More parameters...
})

There are seven available box types:

Box type	Template	Purpose
mbox	{{mbox}}	For message boxes to be used in multiple namespaces
ambox	{{ambox}}	For article message boxes
cmbox	{{cmbox}}	For category message boxes
fmbox	{{fmbox}}	For interface message boxes
imbox	{{imbox}}	For file namespace message boxes
tmbox	{{tmbox}}	For talk page message boxes
ombox	{{ombox}}	For message boxes in other namespaces

See the template page of each box type for the available parameters.

Usage from #invoke

As well as the main function, this module has separate functions for each box type. They are accessed using the code {{#invoke:Message box|mbox|...}}, {{#invoke:Message box|ambox|...}}, etc. These will work when called from other modules, but they access code used to process arguments passed from #invoke, and so calling them will be less efficient than calling main.

Technical details

The module uses the same basic code for each of the templates listed above; the differences between each of them are configured using the data at Module:Message box/config. Here are the various configuration options and what they mean:

Option	Explanation
types	a table containing data used by the type parameter of the message box. The table keys are the values that can be passed to the type parameter, and the table values are tables containing the class and the image used by that type.
default	the type to use if no value was passed to the type parameter, or if an invalid value was specified.
showInvalidTypeError	whether to show an error if the value passed to the type parameter was invalid.
allowBlankParams	usually blank values are stripped from parameters passed to the module. However, whitespace is preserved for the parameters included in the allowBlankParams table.
allowSmall	whether a small version of the message box can be produced with "small=yes".
smallParam	a custom name for the small parameter. For example, if set to "left" you can produce a small message box using "small=left".
smallClass	the class to use for small message boxes.
substCheck	whether to perform a subst check or not.
classes	an array of classes to use with the message box.
imageEmptyCell	whether to use an empty <td>...</td> cell if there is no image set. This is used to preserve spacing for message boxes with a width of less than 100% of the screen.
imageEmptyCellStyle	whether empty image cells should be styled.
imageCheckBlank	whether "image=blank" results in no image being displayed.
imageSmallSize	usually, images used in small message boxes are set to 30x30px. This sets a custom size.
imageCellDiv	whether to enclose the image in a div enforcing a maximum image size.
useCollapsibleTextFields	whether to use text fields that can be collapsed, i.e. "issue", "fix", "talk", etc. Currently only used in ambox.
imageRightNone	whether imageright=none results in no image being displayed on the right-hand side of the message box.
sectionDefault	the default name for the "section" parameter. Depends on useCollapsibleTextFields.
allowMainspaceCategories	allow categorisation in the main namespace.
templateCategory	the name of a category to be placed on the template page.
templateCategoryRequireName	whether the name parameter is required to display the template category.
templateErrorCategory	the name of the error category to be used on the template page.
templateErrorParamsToCheck	an array of parameter names to check. If any are absent, the templateErrorCategory is applied to the template page.