Template talk:Infobox Dam

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This template seems to work fine. I added it to Goodnough Dike. -- LymanSchool 23:05, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Added some parameters for reservoir info. Hope I didn't break anything though I note this template is experimental anyway.-- Jeza 13:15, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Seems to work. Did change the way the header is. Trying it on Wolf Creek Dam.--Zuejay 06:32, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Template should be country-neutral

Please make this template country-neutral. The layout can also be improved a bit and coor-title can be added. =Nichalp «Talk»= 10:03, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm not very good with templates - could you be more specific on how to make it country-neutral? And what is "coor-title"? Thanks! ZueJay (talk) 11:39, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
The template gives examples of San Francisco, Indiana-Kentucky State Line, "2 lanes of US Route 1", "foot traffic". This is not something a non-US reader is familiar with. Clear examples should be given without naming a country entity. Also, region:US_type should be removed. =Nichalp «Talk»= 17:39, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Further suggestions:

I did the original work on this. The layout was taken from the {{Infobox bridge}} and should track changes, if any, there. The "US_type" is to show how to use the coor template, which is included to show what is expected for the coordinates parameter. I will attempt to make the other items more balanced. Note that everything you commented on is merely the example, and does not reflect the actual template, so you would not have risked damaging the template editing the examples. --J Clear 01:29, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Actually US_type is the end of one parameter and the beginning of another. I added a link in the parameters to the explaination of the use. Although now it looks like the whole {{coor}} family of templates has been superceded by {{coord}}, so the cut and paste should probably by changed after testing. --J Clear 01:57, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
The _US params seem to be embedded. See Kolkewadi Dam where the Maps and aerial photos link points to a US region. =Nichalp «Talk»= 15:57, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
You're correct, I guess I hadn't seen an example of using lat/lon vs. coordinates params that is truly ugly the way it is now. And since it was in the original version, I probably copied it out of {{Infobox bridge}} without a thought. I'll go play with that in my sandbox for a bit and straighten it out. I'll omit the region tag, which seems not to do much yet. The savvy can just use coordinates instead. --J Clear 22:49, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
Sorted! Check out Kolkewadi Dam now. Although somebody needs to edit the captions on the images. --J Clear 23:09, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Some more changes needed (I'm modelling my sugestions based on Template:Geobox Mountain Range:

  • I'm looking for the same style used by Template:Geobox Mountain Range. Row size, font size etc. Could this be done?
  • Secondly height, width and length do not display their units. This is very important. Could this be also sorted?

Regards, =Nichalp «Talk»= 03:40, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Every template in wikipedia does not have the same formatting. Usually you will find consistant formatting withing a wiki project or group/family of projects. {{Geobox Mountain Range}} uses a class called "infobox geography", which is consistent for that project. While dams may be as large as some geographic features they are generally man made. If you have the time to change this template, I suggest using the formatting from Wikipedia:WikiProject Architecture/infobox. In fact copying over the formatting is a great way to learn about such, but do so in a sandbox first, so that you only make on final edit to the real template. Changing a template causes the wikipedia servers to do a recalculation of the pages that use it, so testing edits directly with a popular template is frowned upon.
As far as the units, this template displays the units and conversion if the editor includes them in the Article, see Conowingo Dam. {{Geobox Mountain Range}} uses extra coding and two sets of paramters to "relieve" the editor of this horrible chore. This increases complexity and size, reducing maintainability, for a debatable amount of gain. This gets back to the "not all infoboxes are the same theme". The editor of Kolkewadi Dam made incorrect assumptions about the template they chose. You could add the same mechanism here, but then you'd need two entirely new sets of parameters for each, as you couldn't assume anything about the old usage being metric or imperial. Or you could go back and edit the 75 or so usages, too, but you'd still double the number of parameters.
Also bear in mind that larger, more complicated templates are not necessarily better. There is some debate about "template bloat". Like "external links", everyone adds their pet paramter or pet trick to the infobox, until they become much larger than most articles and unmaintainable. And ${DIETY} help you if you try to trim out some later.--J Clear 14:18, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Another Infobox

I just made Template:Japan dam, which is a translation of the Japanese Dam infobox. It's built pretty well. They have an entire Dam WikiProject even. If someone wants to use this for other dams, I can translate the variable names, so it would give the exact same appearance but be more usable in worldwide dams (this would dictate making a new template), but my current plans are just to use this to copy Japanese dam pages. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 06:16, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Please don't "spit" templates this way; add the desired fields to the existing template. I've nominated it for deletion, but suggest that you pre-empt that, and move it to your user space while you work on the existing template. Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 11:27, 4 August 2007 (UTC)
TfD isn't displaying correctly - please fix it so I can concur or not. Thanks. ZueJay (talk) 13:02, 4 August 2007 (UTC)
Done Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 13:28, 4 August 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. ZueJay (talk) 13:55, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is reservoir_capacity needed to display the other vars?

I was just looking at one dam article where it looked like the volume was known but not the capacity. Isn't it more a hindrance to have the display of further variables linked to one that may not be known? -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 06:08, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Not sure I understand the question? ZueJay (talk) 22:39, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Shouldn't this:

{{#if: {{{reservoir_capacity|}}}|
    ! colspan="2" {{!}} Reservoir information
    {{!}}-
    ! Capacity
    {{!}} {{{reservoir_capacity}}}
    {{!}}-
    {{#if: {{{reservoir_catchment|}}}|
    ! Catchment area
    {{!}} {{{reservoir_catchment}}}}}
    {{!}}-
    {{#if: {{{reservoir_surface|}}}|
    ! Surface area
    {{!}} {{{reservoir_surface}}}}}
}}

be this?

{{#if: {{{reservoir_capacity|{{{reservoir_catchment|{{{reservoir_surface|}}}}}}}}}|
    ! colspan="2" {{!}} Reservoir information
    {{!}}-
}}
{{#if: {{{reservoir_capacity|}}}|
! Capacity
{{!}} {{{reservoir_capacity}}}}}
{{!}}-
{{#if: {{{reservoir_catchment|}}}|
! Catchment area
{{!}} {{{reservoir_catchment}}}}}
{{!}}-
{{#if: {{{reservoir_surface|}}}|
! Surface area
{{!}} {{{reservoir_surface}}}}}

Does that make sense? -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 00:22, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah. I think you're right. Although, some of that is simply TMI. I've played more with the Japan Dam template in my User:Zuejay/sandbox3 and, subsequently, trimmed it way down. Right now I think all the "road info" in this template is overkill; that's why the "Note" section on Japan Dam is so useful. ZueJay (talk) 01:37, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Date of Destruction

There are many Dams that are 'closed' but not destroyed. Bloede dam is one of them I know of and I know there are loads more. These Dams may no longer be serving the purpose they were originally built to serve but not necessarily destroyed. Yet if I enter a value for the "Closing" date it comes up "Destruction Date". It used to be a Hydro-Electric Dam. Even though it no longer serves it's purpose as a generation facility it is still there! An option should be added as a closing date but not necessarily a destruction date because that is not always the case. --Dp67 | QSO | Sandbox | UBX's 18:55, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Suggested Changed

I suggest changing locale to location because this is a more common term that people understand better. Also do we really need the co-ords duplicated in the header and the infobox. I prefer using the coor title template outside of the infobox. Any problems with that? :: maelgwn - talk 07:10, 26 November 2007 (UTC)