Talk:Nicholas the Traveler/Past Dialogues

DPL
Here is DPL to get any date's dialogue. It depends on there being no headers on the page other than for the dialogue sections.

The "click here to edit today's dialogue" might profit from a  or. -- ◄mendel► 09:45, July 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * The # isn't needed there, % is the symbol for including a section by number. Why are you setting up talk pages like templates?  I've copied that idea onto the article itself, which makes more sense.
 * Also, I don't see how preload or editintro would be any more helpful than what's already here. Preload wouldn't work at all: If the page or section to be edited already exists then only its wikitext is loaded, the preload command is ignored..  Editintro would require creating a single-use (throwaway) template with the same instructions that I've already included here, and just because the instructions are outside the box doesn't mean they'll be any more effective.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 14:03, July 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * I am setting up talk pages like templates because it saves me creating a separate demo template, and that way the demo is stored with the talk.
 * On the other hand, I do not believe that setting up articles as templates is a good idea (except in cases where we're transcluding the relevant content on the page wholly), because it marries the function ("current dialogue") to a specific representation of the underlying data. If we're putting the dialogue on the location pages and delete this page here, you'll have to change the template calls instead of just the template. Also, using this article as a template means that people have to remember to prepend a ":" when transcluding it; you are getting the current dialogue from a call that says "past dialogues" and is needlessly long; and in implementing your solution you opted to forego the date parameter for some reason, so in fact past dialogues can't be accessed.
 * The editintro can provide a copy & paste header if the location info has already been added to the wiki, and it can't be inadvertently deleted. In fact, storing the editintro right on this page in an &lt;onlyinclude>&lt;includeonly> section does make sense (if it works, I don't remember if it has to be in template namespace?), because it will be geared to editing just this page, won't be used for anything else, and saves us the "throwaway template".
 * If the editintro was used, then the setup could be changed so that the section does not, in fact, already exist, and then the preload could be used. -- ◄mendel► 06:39, July 28, 2010 (UTC)


 * editintro and preload both ignore &lt;noinclude>/&lt;onlyinclude>, for example, that tries to find 'User:Dr ishmael/doc'. So yes, it would have to be a throwaway template with no documentation.  And as for mainspace templates, we've never done that before.  Oh wait.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 12:31, July 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah, you're right about the noninclusion not working; I read that but failed to realize it applied here. (Probably would've noticed if I'd tried. ;)
 * Your "mainspace templates" fall under cases where we're transcluding the relevant content on the page wholly, and they don't have parameters or logic. This one has an implicit time parameter. -- ◄mendel► 18:30, July 28, 2010 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I didn't think of that until shortly after I posted. Sigh.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 18:56, July 28, 2010 (UTC)