InfoBox Templates

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This page was last updated on 03/17/2019. Total Pages: 744. Total Files: 994.

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Home / Help - InfoBox Templates

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Sample InfoBox

Name	Sample InfoBox
Date	January 5
Year	1986
Notes	Self centering (switchable), two buttons.
Info Source	1986 Radio Shack catalog
About the Info Box

This page will link to the various InfoBox templates available in this wiki, and explain how to use them. An InfoBox is a summary box that will appear on the top right of most pages of this site. It should be just the bare minimal information about the item, such as name, photo, year of release, and a short description. Anything beyond that would be added as category tags.

There will be a top-level InfoBox for each major section of this site:

• Company
• Convention
• Hardware
• People
• Publication
• Software

To make things easier, we can create sub-InfoBoxes that fill out common details. For example, InfoBoxPublication will add the category tag of "Publication", but we can create "InfoBoxMagazine" which will be the same box, but include the category tag of "Magazine" so the user does not have to.

There are only a few InfoBoxes right now, and they are not in the new format yet. Click on a template link to view the usage help:

• Template:InfoBox
• Template:InfoBox Magazine

Once we decide on all the "bare minimum" fields for each InfoBox, I will create all the templates and we can start adding them (and category tags) to every page that needs one.

InfoBox Fields

Here is where we will figure out the various fields each InfoBox needs to have.

Each InfoBox will display a few useful fields specific to that section. For example, the Publication InfoBox might have a "start year" and "end year", but a Software InfoBox might only have a "release year" field.

The InfoBox will automatically create links from certain entries, and Category tags for others. i.e., if there is a field that says "First Year:" and it was set to "1980", the template might create a Category tag for 1980 and a link to a "1980" History/Timeline page.

InfoBox Tags

On the Facebook Group, Steve Bjork suggested using the modern concept of tags (you know, like everything else in the world does these days). This would solve the challenges of making all hardware devices have the same number of fields (though the InfoBox can be made to just not display anything undefined).

See this List of Tags page for some ideas on this. I think this is how we should go!

Common

InfoBox Templates

MISSING PHOTO
Name	InfoBox Templates
Year	2016
Notes	This is a note
Info Source	Allen
About the Info Box

Every InfoBox will have the following fields:

• Name (name) - will use PAGENAME if not specified
• Photo (photo) - will use PAGENAME.jpg if not specified (or display/tag "MISSING PHOTO" if not there)
• Caption (caption) - photo caption (or display/tag "MISSING PHOTO" if not there)
• Date (date) - (optional) Month XX
• Year (year) - Year of release/first year (or display/tag "MISSING YEAR" if not there)
• Notes (notes) - a short description
• Info Source (infosource) - where did the data come from? Link to other website, or note magazine article, etc. or the name of whoever submitted it. Credit where credit is due, please!

Some sections will use the same fields, but have different wording. For example, "year" might represent "Release Year" for a Software/Hardware item, but might be called "First Published:" for a Publication item, or "First Held:" for a convention.

Company

Sub-Etha Software

MISSING PHOTO
Name	Sub-Etha Software
Year	1990
Location	Lufkin, TX
Notes	Started by Allen Huffman and Terry Todd.
Info Source	Allen
About the Company Info Box

• End Year (endyear) - last year operated (used as a Category)
• Location (location) - City, State, country they were located? (used as a Category)

Convention

Rainbowfest

MISSING PHOTO
Name	Rainbowfest
Year	1983
Location	Chicago, IL
Notes	I wish I had gone to one of these...
Info Source	Allen
About the Convention Info Box

• End Year (endyear) - last year published (used as a Category)
• Location (location) - City, State, country they were located? (used as a Category)

Person

Allen Huffman

MISSING PHOTO
Name	Allen Huffman
Date	August
Year	1969
Location	Des Moines, IA
Notes	I created this Wiki.
Info Source	Allen
About the Person Info Box

• Location (location) - City, State, country they were located? (used as a Category)

Publication

Rainbow

MISSING PHOTO
Name	Rainbow
Year	1981
Location	Prospect, KY
Notes	The biggest magazine we had!
Info Source	Allen
About the Publication Info Box

Every Publication adds these extra fields, and anything extra will be added as tags:

• End Date (enddate) -
• End Year (endyear) - last year published (used as a Category)
• Author (author) - also used by Software
• Alibris (alibris) - ???
• Format (format) - Book, Magazine, Newsletter? (used as a Category)
• ISBN (isbn)
• ISBN-13 (isbn-13)
• Language (language) - (used as a Category)
• Pages (pages) - how many pages
• Publisher (publisher) - (used as a Category)
• Volume - Such as, "Rainbow Book of Adventures, Volume 2" or magazines "Volume 2, Number 3".

NOTE: These have not been added yet. Magazines have start and end dates, but a book would not. "Format" probably needs to be something else, specifying Book, Magazine or Newsletter. Then another category could be had for Soft bound, hard bound, floppy disk, online, etc...? Surely there is a simple way to group all Publications together like this.

Hardware

CoCo Joystick

MISSING PHOTO
Name	CoCo Joystick
Year	2015
Interface	Joystick Port
Notes	This is about the joystick...
Info Source	Also Allen
About the Hardware Info Box

Every Hardware item adds these extra fields, and anything extra will be added as tags:

• Interface/Port (port) - this is where the hardware plugs in to the CoCo. (Cassette Port, Expansion Port, Joystick Port, Serial Port, etc.). (Used as a Category, maybe. If something plugs in to multiple ports, like the Hi-Res Joystick Interface or the RASCAN digitizer, the template cannot handle that.)

Software

InfoBox Templates

Name	InfoBox Templates
Year	1987
Author(s)	Greg L. Zumwalt & Mark W. Easter (ZCT Systems Group) for Gamestar
Media	ROM-Pak
Memory	128K
O.S.	DECB
Platform	CoCo 3
Publisher	Tandy/Radio Shack
Requires	Joystick optional.
Video Mode	VIDEO MODE NEEDED
Download	DOWNLOAD NEEDED
Notes	This was a weird game.
Info Source	INFO SOURCE NEEDED
About the Software Info Box

Every Software item adds these extra fields, and anything extra will be added as tags:

• Author(s) - what if there are more than one?
• Media (media) - Cassette, Disk, ROM-Pak (used as a Category)
• Memory (memory) - 32K, 64K, 128K, etc. (used as a Category)
• OS (os) - RS-DOS versus OS-9? We need to standardize. (used at a Category)
• Platform (platform) - CoCo 1/2, CoCo 3 (used as a Category)
• Publisher
• Requires (requires) - Joysticks, 6309, Extended BASIC, etc.
• Video Mode (videomode) - VDG/GIME mode: 32, 80, 256x192x2, etc. (used as a Category)

QUESTION: We can add tags for "RS-DOS" or "OS-9", but the InfoBox really should show that, so I want to also add something like "OS" (yeah, I know, Disk Extended Color BASIC/RS-DOS is not an OS)... Better name?

ANSWER: DECB Is a Disk Operating System Only (DOS), But the problem is that the program only loads in DECB/RS-DOS or in OS9/NitrOS-9, or also without any, as it is the case of some tapes that do not run with DECB Luiscoco

One InfoBox to rule them all...

When I make the master InfoBox, it will be the "one box to rule them all" and include the various sections depending on the type specified. Because of that, fields that are common to subsets need to be noted.

You can see the boxes being tested here: InfoBoxTest