Template talk:Blockquote/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

Reusing legacy template

Resolved

– Long since fixed.

This template was redirected to {{wikiquote}} two years ago to handle articles that used it for providing a convenient external link to en:Wikiquote. It was recently changed without fixing those legacy articles, so I've reverted the change back to the redirect. I will look into converting these articles to free up this name, but meanwhile, I would recommend that editors not re-use such legacy templates for new purposes without first addressing the current usage of those templates. Thank you. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 00:17, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

I've completed updating the 40 or so articles that used the legacy {{quote}} template so they now use {{wikiquote}} directly. The way is clear to reuse this for more obvious purposes. But be careful! Many people may still think that this template is for WQ links. There are not so many pages currently using it that they can't be checked to verify proper use. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 04:37, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Blockquote indention and quotation marks

Resolved

– Quotation marks were removed from template.

Quotation marks shouldn't be used on blockquoted text. It's considered a redundancy... ?? --Renice 14:09, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Why is this labeled with Template:Esoteric?

Resolved

– Esoteric tag was removed.

There's nothing {{Esoteric}} about the content in this template. It's all quite straightforward. — SMcCandlish [talk] [contrib] ツ 17:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Styling

Resolved

– Style changes were made; no objections.

Instead of —<cite style="font-style: normal;">, we should just have  or something like that and set the style with CSS. — Omegatron 06:08, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

If you can add this into Common.css, please do — I don't have editor status. I should note that the former markup purposely uses the <cite> tag, as it's standard HTML for citing a reference (the quote, in this case). —Down10 ^TACO 06:34, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, cite as a tag is fine, but the styling for that cite should be set by CSS. Also the blockquote has style="margin-top:0;" for some unknown reason. — Omegatron 23:30, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Ok, let's do this. The template

{{Quote|Phrase|Somebody|Source}}

produces:

Phrase
— Somebody, Source

which is made up of this code:

<blockquote class="templatequote" style="margin-top: 0pt;">
    <p>Phrase</p>
    <p style="line-height: 1em; text-align: left; padding-left: 2em;">
        <small>
            —
            <cite style="font-style: normal;">
                Somebody, Source
            </cite>
        </small>
    </p>
</blockquote>

This should ideally be done with simpler code. But like this?

<blockquote class="templatequote">
    <p>Phrase</p>
    <p>
        —
        <cite>
            Somebody, Source
        </cite>
    </p>
</blockquote>

or like this?

<blockquote class="templatequote">
    <p>Phrase</p>
    <cite>
        —Somebody, Source
    </cite>
</blockquote>

How does the cite tag work, exactly? — Omegatron 02:50, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

The first example, wrapped in paragraph tags, is correct. According to the W3C, the CITE tag is a phrase element, so it's to be used the same way as EM and STRONG tags.[1]

Also, please note that most browsers automatically style the text in a CITE tag as italic, so this should be reverted back to normal text in its CSS.

The style="margin-top:0;" is because the template was producing two line breaks above the element in articles, which I believe is due to MediaWiki's preordained styling of paragraph margins. I suggest the template look like this:

<blockquote class="templatequote">
    <p>Phrase</p>
    <p class="cited">
        —<cite>Somebody, Source</cite>
    </p>
</blockquote>

...and the CSS look something like this:

blockquote.templatequote { margin-top: 0; }

blockquote.templatequote p.cited { 
    line-height: 1em;
    text-align: left;
    padding-left: 2em;
    margin-top: 0;
}

blockquote.templatequote p.cited cite {
    font-size: smaller;
    font-style: normal;
}

Good idea? I also am working out a similar solution to the pullquote debacle, so that the resulting article text syntax would remain sound while the text display would be styled according to Monobook and/or the user's personal choice of CSS. —Down10 ^TACO 07:07, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Newlines

FYI

– Problem fixed, no objections.

I removed some newlines from the template, which were causing it to not work inside lists:

Here is a quote

— Omegatron 02:40, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Links not working

Resolved

– Workaround provided; it's just the equals sign in unnamed parameters problem of MediaWiki.

The hyperlink to the author of the quote doesn't seem to work. Whoever groks this template fix it please. Grue 18:34, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Or maybe it's not a bug, but a sudden and swiping change of behaviour. Either way, it's irresponsible thing to do. Grue 18:41, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Example? — Omegatron 03:29, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Long URLs seem to break {{quote}}

Disregard

– It's just the equals sign in unnamed parameters problem of MediaWiki.

For example:

Error: No text given for quotation (or equals sign used in the actual argument to an unnamed parameter)

Look at the source to see what I'm talking about. This also affects {{cquote}} and other quotation templates. SharkD (talk) 03:09, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

This is because there are ='s in the URL. You have to use |1=text instead of |text, i.e.

If you're curious (and wish to establish notability), Here is a machine translation of the Japanese Wikipedia article on the subject.

Ms2ger (talk) 18:50, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

URLs break quote

Disregard

– It's just the equals sign in unnamed parameters problem of MediaWiki.

It seems that this template doesn't support having URLs in the attribution parameter:

{{quote|Curiouser and curiouser!|Alice, [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y7sOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA15 p.15]}}

produces

Curiouser and curiouser!

Is this right? Shreevatsa (talk) 20:36, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

It also fails if there are URL characters in the Phrase. Using "1=" does not help either. I have added a note and two examples to the documentation page. 84user (talk) 14:09, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

The problem in the above example is with the unnamed parameters and the equals signs. This is documented behaviour (H:T) where URL equal signs need a parameter name to work, and because of the parameter names the 1/2/3 in the template breaks (Template:Cite web only has named parameters). I guess Template:= can fix it for URLs but H:T gives examples where even that breaks ("Restrictions on parameters and parameter values" at H:T).

I suggest giving named parameters to the template, then adding to the documentation the requirement that every parameter be named if using {strings containing equals signs} anywhere. At least that makes it analogous from our POV to Template:Cite web. 118.90.15.97 (talk) 10:07, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Text does not display properly if it includes =

Disregard

– It's just the equals sign in unnamed parameters problem of MediaWiki.

The equals sign disrupts the template. Use the nowiki markup around the sign to make the text display properly. PYRRHON talk 22:02, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

See above, "URLs break quote"... 118.90.109.178 (talk) 01:24, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Trailing newline and referencing

Disregard

– PEBKAC

The template emits a new line at the end which causes trailing referencing to end up on a new line. If the quotation is supposed to stand alone, would it not usually be terminated with a new line in the calling article? Testing with a trailing external link as a substitute for a citation. (SEWilco 18:18, 9 April 2007 (UTC))

This is an example quotation

[2]

That isn't how blockquotes work. It's an actual block of text, which means that text inside the block is inline, and all text outside of the blockquote tags is moved onto a separate line. Put the citation inside the block, on the same line of the text it would follow, like so:

{{quote|This is an example quotation.<ref>Example</ref>|Reference<ref>Example</ref>}}

This is an example quotation.^[1]
— Reference^[2]

—Down10 ^TACO 18:50, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Notice of imminent CSS-ification

FYI

– Style stuff was moved into site-wide CSS as a class; no objections.

This is a notice that I am going to move this template's styling to MediaWiki:Common.css. This will cause the template to temporarily lose styling if an old, cached version of the external stylesheet is used, but this will be quickly resolved. Any objections? — Edward Z. Yang^(Talk) 15:40, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Great. You read #Styling, right? — Omegatron 17:35, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I'll be implementing (mostly) Down10's solution. It's a pretty straight-forward move, so I don't expect too many objections, but if I'm going to edit Common.css, might as well make sure everyone agrees with the move. There will be a slight tweak by changing small to a div rather than a p, because attribution is not a paragraph in any conventional English sense of the term (it also means we can independently style p tags without having to override them). — Edward Z. Yang^(Talk) 21:40, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I just modified it to implement a workaround (not a fix) for Bugzilla:6200, so you shouldn't have to type paragraph tags manually anymore. But I think it might be better to do the CSS with a descendant selector? I'm not too familiar with them, though. In other words, I created class="templatequotecite", but if we could select only divs that contain a cite tag instead, that would be better. — Omegatron 23:19, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Need to take into account whether this would work in all browsers, too. — Omegatron 23:20, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Also I'd like to add "display:table;" to the blockquote statement, so that it displays with indents when next to an image. — Omegatron 23:40, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Currently the template doesn't render correctly for me. I use IE 7.0--Esprit15d (talk ¤ contribs) 14:18, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

What doesn't render correctly? — Omegatron 00:32, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

The template doesn't render correctly for me. It just spits it out as regular text.--Esprit15d (talk ¤ contribs) 12:49, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

It is regular text. :-) Can you give an example? A screenshot? Anything to demonstrate what is wrong? Have you bypassed your cache since the changes were made? — Omegatron 03:00, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Let's say the quote is "I am a three-toed sloth". Using {{quote}}, for me it displays like this:

I am a three-toed sloth

and not like this:

I am a three-toed sloth

There is no indentation, and the font is the same size. And yes, I've overridden the cache.--Esprit15d (talk ¤ contribs) 19:56, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

I am now on a Windows computer (XP Pro SP2) in IE7 (7.0.5730.11), and the block quotes in Abraham Lincoln and Aristotle are correctly formatted as indented text in a smaller font, with the attribution line indented a little further, just like it appears in Firefox. It would help if you could describe your setup in more detail and include a screenshot. This stopped appearing correctly after my change to the site's CSS, or has it always been this way? — Omegatron 23:59, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

It started hapening after you changed the site's CSS. But now I realize, it only doens't display correctly within other templates. For example in {{FGAN}}, I sometimes use it to quote passages that need attention. But it won't display correctly anymore. In other situations, it still works.--Esprit15d 16:36, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I see now. I originally removed all #newlines from the template so that it would work inside other tags like that, but then when I added the div and newlines to work around the paragraph bug, the "inside other tags" bug came back. There might be a way to get both to work, but I don't know what it would be. (Besides getting the software itself fixed, of course, but don't hold your breath for that...) — Omegatron 00:19, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I feel like someone with a rare disease that finally got a diagnosis. Not necessarily good news, but satisfying nontheless. I don't know if you create many templates, but with your knowledge, would it be possible for you to create some type of quote template for use within other templates, since this is extremely useful for FA and GA reviewers like myself? Or will using <blockquote class="templatequote"> work equally as well?--Esprit15d 14:38, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, you can copy this template into another one, and undo the change I made that works around the bug. You have to choose between working around the newlines bug and working around the "inside other tags" bug. There might be a way to do both, but I haven't figured it out. — Omegatron 19:36, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Bulleting: I haven't tried, but maybe numbering is affected too, and by extrapolation, probabbly other things as well

Resolved

– Workaround provided.

{{editprotected}} Let's say I have this:

Asdfffa.
— asdfah, asfhash 25.6

Asdfffa.
— asdfah, asfhash 25.6
Asdf asgh.
— asdfasdhazsh h, aashsh ash 2356.636

As you can see, the bullets do not indent the quotes. I have no idea if

Asdfffa.
— asdfah, asfhash 25.6

Asdf asgh.
— asdfasdhazsh h, aashsh ash 2356.636

even shows up a line space. You've got to fix this.68.148.164.166 (talk) 18:37, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia's use of * for unordered lists is rather crude. Using html works:

Asdfffa.
— asdfah, asfhash 25.6

Algebraist 13:13, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

I think I have a similar problem. Here's an ~~example in my userspace~~ and an article containing the   workaround. All comments gratefully received, as I've not yet delved into template definitions myself. Thanks. --trevj (talk) 10:46, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

If you do this, you can get the same result, but without the spurious newline (at least in my version of Firefox). Check the difference between the two versions. Thanks! Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 22:01, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Thank you WFM. --trevj (talk) 12:05, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Correct the protection tag

Resolved

– Fixed.

{{editprotected}} Please fix the protection tag, is full instead of semi. Clark89 (talk) 22:01, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Done – Luna Santin (talk) 23:32, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Adding indenting parameter?

Stale

– Proposal did not generate interest.

a slight change to the template would allow indenting of quotes, which would make reading a lot easier. change this:

<blockquote class="templatequote"><div>
{{{1|Insert the text of the quote here, without quotation marks.}}}
</div>{{#if:{{{2|}}}|<div class="templatequotecite">—<cite>{{{2}}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}|, {{{3}}}}}</cite></div >}}</blockquote>

to this:

<blockquote class="templatequote"><div style="margin-left: {{#expr:{{{indent|0}}} * 25}}px">
{{{1|Insert the text of the quote here, without quotation marks.}}}
{{#if:{{{2|}}}|<div class="templatequotecite">—<cite>{{{2}}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}|, {{{3}}}}}</cite></div >}}</div></blockquote>

this adds a style element to the first div, and moves its closing tag to after the citation. the 'indent * 25 pixels' is just an eye estimate. probably a more systematic way of doing it, but I wanted to fly the proposal before fleshing it out exactly. I've tested it briefly without issue. comments? --Ludwigs2 17:37, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

P.s. by the same token, it would be easy to add options for other styles (such as borders) if that seems like a good idea...--Ludwigs2 17:44, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Margins are already added by MediaWiki:Monobook.css and other global stylesheets. --- RockMFR 20:15, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

yes, I know. this is intended to allow blockquotes to be indented along with text. examples:

currently, all you can do is this:

level 0 comment

level 1 comment

level 2 comment

level 3 comment

level 4 comment

blockquotes are always indented relative to the left edge
— along with its citation

more level 4 comments

with the revision you could do this:

level 0 comment

level 1 comment

level 2 comment

level 3 comment

level 4 comment

this blockquote indents with text.
—as does it's citation

more level 4 comments

or if you wanted to add something to clarify the quote visually:

level 0 comment

level 1 comment

level 2 comment

level 3 comment

level 4 comment

this blockquote indents with text, and is marked with a border.
—as does it's citation

more level 4 comments

see what I'm getting at? --Ludwigs2 21:16, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Newline

Disregard

–

No actual problem

{{editprotected}}

Please revert the last edit. This broke

single line of text;

there is no longer a  element in the source. —Ms2ger (talk) 16:07, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Question: Looking through the history there has never been a  element in the source. Rambo's Revenge (talk) 17:59, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

It was probably added by the parser itself due to the earlier linebreaks. Why is the p important though ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 23:49, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Not done: There doesn't seem to be a problem. Rambo's Revenge (talk) 10:38, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Several sandbox changes

Resolved

– Fixed.

{{edit protected}} I create a Template:Quote/sandbox and Template:Quote/testcases, and used them to test some improvements. In no particular order:

I added a source= named parameter; previously it was only the third unnamed parameter
I changed the "no quotation text provided" case to emit an obvious error message, rather than the easy-to-miss default phrase of before. I also included a possible explanation (the equals sign failure mode) in the error message.
I made the example (lorem ipsum, etc.) implicit and inline in the template code, by using default values wrapped in <noinclude>...</noinclude> tags. Previously, it there was an explicit recursive call at the top, wrapped in <noinclude>...</noinclude> tags, and the template code itself was wrapped in <includeonly>...</includeonly> tags. That works for the production template, but breaks the sandbox technique.

Assuming no one objects, can this be copied to the production template? —DragonHawk (talk|hist) 17:10, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Done, please make sure the documentation is up to date accordingly. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:21, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Asploding Template

Resolved

– Fixed.

Here external links are not working. Fix please.100110100 (talk) 20:51, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't see what the problem is, but this doesn't look like RfC material. can you be more specific, please? --Ludwigs2 21:16, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

It's not RfC material. I've removed the RfC tag. This issue seems to be the same as #URLs_break_quote, above, and I don't believe it's fixable. Using template:= is a workaround.--Father Goose (talk) 21:19, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

You know, I think it might be useful to have a 'Template Gotchas' section somewhere - maybe help:template? Make note of problems using equals signs, whitespace on unnamed parameters, problems with bullets, tables and vertical pipes in parameters - anything else you can think of off hand, FG? we could give it a shortcut and post the link whenever people run into these issues. --Ludwigs2 22:24, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Help:Template#Restrictions_on_parameters_and_parameter_values mentions {{=}} and {{!}}, but it could be made a lot clearer and moved much further up on the page. Perhaps a new section "Common problems" as a subsection under Help:Template#Template_usage?--Father Goose (talk) 00:07, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I'll see what I can do with that later tonight. --Ludwigs2 02:01, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Tables

Disregard

–

No actual problem

{{editprotected}} This needs to change so it can accommodate tables. Cf.: Taepyeongso#Sinawi 174.3.121.27 (talk) 00:19, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Why (and how) do you quote a table? People don't speak in tables, and I find it highly unlikely anyone would need to quote a written table. —fetch ·comms 02:38, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

The table at the link you gave said it was "summarized", so I don't think you'd need a quote for that anyhow. —fetch ·comms 02:40, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

^ Example
^ Example

[1] Example

[2] Example

[1]

[2]

Reusing legacy template

Blockquote indention and quotation marks

Why is this labeled with Template:Esoteric?

Styling

Newlines

Links not working

Long URLs seem to break {{quote}}

URLs break quote

Text does not display properly if it includes =

Trailing newline and referencing

Notice of imminent CSS-ification

Bulleting: I haven't tried, but maybe numbering is affected too, and by extrapolation, probabbly other things as well

Correct the protection tag

Adding indenting parameter?

Newline

Several sandbox changes

Asploding Template

Font size

Tables