Template:Short description/doc

Template:Short description is used to add a short description (which can be edited from within Wikipedia) to a Wikipedia page.

Parameters
{	"params": { "1": {			"label": "Description", "description": "The short description of the article", "example": "Online free encyclopedia anyone can edit", "required": true, "type": "content" },		"2": {			"label": "2", "description": "Whether to override a short description if transcluded. Should be unused or 'noreplace'.", "example": "noreplace", "required": false, "type": "string" },		"pagetype": { "type": "string", "description": "The type of page. This puts it in the appropriate category - Things with short description", "example": "Redirect", "required": false, "default": "The namespace of the page." },		"bot": { "description": "Name of bot which added the short description. Should be generated automatically, as in Special:Diff/925779924 ", "example": "PearBOT 5", "type": "string" }	},	"description": "Creates a short description for a Wikipedia article, which is used in the Visual Editor to provide context on wikilinks.", "format": "\n" }

About writing good short descriptions
This page is about the short description template—it does not provide guidelines for writing a good short description. However, Short description, offers quick, easy-to-understand guidelines for writing effective short descriptions. If you plan to use this template, you should make sure you understand how to write a good short description.

Template information
Eventually all articles should have a short description:
 * by directly using this template, in which case the short description will be unique to the article
 * transcluded in another template, such as a disambiguation template, where a generic short description is adequate for a large class of pages
 * where the short description is assembled from data in an infobox

Automatically generated descriptions within templates should set the second parameter as noreplace so they do not override any short descriptions specifically added to the transcluding article.

Short descriptions are not required in other namespaces, but in some cases may be useful.

If the article title alone is sufficient to ensure reliable identification of the desired article, a null value of may be used. However, this will not override the descriptions from Wikidata.

Short descriptions do not necessarily serve the same function as the Wikidata description for an item and they do not have to be the same, but some overlap is expected in many cases. Some Wikidata descriptions may be unsuitable, and if imported, must be checked for relevance, accuracy and fitness for purpose. Responsibility for such imports lies with the importer.

The idea is that a class can be set to display differently on desktop Wikipedia from how it displays on mobile view. The intention is to bring the short description within the immediate editing ability of most editors.

Example
At Oxygen therapy, add the following at the top of the article: or Use the second form if the text of the short description contains an equals sign (=). Avoid this if possible, as it affects alternative uses of the short description as in annotated link (, if implemented, will make usage of annotated link unnecessary.)

Testing
For testing purposes, the display of this template can be enabled by adding a line to your Special:MyPage/common.css: This can be easily removed or disabled when finished testing.

If you wish to see short descriptions, you may want a more utilitarian layout, such as:

There is a test version of this template available as Template:Short description/test which displays its text by default.
 * displays the short description if supplied
 * displays nothing if  is supplied
 * displays the description from Wikidata if  is supplied.

Taking as an example:

Pagetype parameter
If is not set, then this template adds the article to a category based on the namespace:
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace
 * for redirects in any namespace

If is set, then this template adds the article to a category matching the parameter. For example:

Aliases
While there are [ redirects to this template], they should not be used.


 * Other templates and gadgets attempt to extract the description from pages by explicitly searching for the use of the Short description template.
 * For example, Annotated link searches for templates "Short description" or "short description".

Bot parameter
Bots adding short descriptions without manual supervision should set bot with the value being the bot task. For example Bots/Requests for approval/PearBOT 5 uses. Any user may remove the parameter if the description is acceptable. If it's not please report it to the bot operator.

The bot name is added to the category. For example: