User:David Newton/New Format Ship Table Tutorial

{{Ship Table|
|Ship image=
|Ship caption=
|Ship ordered=
|Ship flag=
|Ship laid down=
|Ship launched=
|Ship table purchased=
|Ship purchased=
|Ship table commissioned=
|Ship commissioned=
|Ship table decommissioned=
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship table in service=
|Ship in service=
|Ship table out of service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship table fate=
|Ship fate=
|Individual ship=
|Ship table struck=
|Ship struck=
|Ship table homeport=
|Ship homeport=
|Ship displacement=
|Individual ship=
|Ship length=
|Individual ship=
|Ship beam=
|Individual ship=
|Draught=
|Ship draught=
|Individual ship=
|Ship propulsion=
|Individual ship=
|Ship speed=
|Individual ship=
|Ship table range=
|Ship range=
|Ship table test depth=
|Ship test depth=
|Ship table capacity=
|Ship capacity=
|Individual ship=
|Ship complement=
|Individual ship=
|Ship table time to activate=
|Ship time to activate=
|Ship table sensors=
|Ship sensors=
|Individual ship=
|Ship table EW=
|Ship EW=
|Individual ship=
|Ship table armament=
|Ship armament=
|Individual ship=
|Ship table armour=
|Ship armour=
|Individual ship=
|Ship table aircraft=
|Ship aircraft=
|Individual ship=
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|}}

This template is an attempt to reproduce the functionality of each of the different types of table that have been developed for the WikiProject Ships in a more easily maintainable and centrally editable fashion. It has functionality to allow the common specifications of a ship class to be created in one template and then promulgated to all ships of that class, meaning all the information of all the ships of the class is as consistent as possible. It also has functionality to include or exclude certain optional table rows. For example, there would be little point in including the electronic warfare equipment of a sailing frigate, and little point in including the time required to activate a ship from reserve for a vessel already in active service.

The optional rows for the table are as follows:

Purchased
Commissioned
Decommissioned
In service
Out of service
Struck
Homeport
Range
Test depth
Capacity
Time to activate
Sensors
Electronic warfare and decoys (with a variable EW)
Armament
Armour
Aircraft

In order to include or exclude an optional row set the variable "Ship table optional row" to yes or no as appropriate. For example, for a ship without a cargo capacity the value "Ship table capacity=no" would be correct, where a ship with embarked aircraft would need the value "Ship table aircraft=yes". The one slight exception to that rule is the armour variable which is explained below.

A number of the rows allow the common features of a ship class to be reproduced across the whole class from one template. Those rows are:

Displacement
Length
Beam
Draught
Propulsion
Speed
Range
Test depth
Capacity
Complement
Sensors
Electronic warfare and decoys (with a variable EW)
Armament
Armour
Aircraft

To use ability of the template to display the common features of a class from one central document, Wikipedia templates covering those variables that apply to the ship need to be created. For example, for the Invincible-class aircraft carrier, templates such as Template:Ship length box Invincible class aircraft carrier and Template:Ship aircraft box Invincible class aircraft carrier have been created.

The templates must use the following name structure:

Template:Variable box XXXX

where variable is the name of the parameter referred to, such as sensors for the sensors of the ship, complement for the complement etc and XXXX is a descriptor of the ship class, such as Invincible class aircraft carrier or Arleigh Burke class destroyer.

Following many of the template variables will be found a separate section "Individual ship". The intention of that section is to allow variations from the class unique to each ship to be covered in the table. For example, if one ship in a class has half its guns removed at a certain date, then "Individual ship" would be the place to cover that change.

In order to accomodate the traditions of the Wikipedia, the template can cope with both British and American English. This comes up at two points in the table: draught/draft and armour/armor. In order to tell the template which variant to use, two variables must be set. For the armour variable, the functionality is incorporated into "Ship table armour". To set the armour row not to appear the variable should still be set to "no". To set the armour row to appear with British spelling it should be set to "yes uk", and to set it to appear with American spelling it should be set to "yes us". For the draught variable, the functionality is implemented using "Draught", with the variable simply being set to "uk" or "us" as appropriate.

There is one other variation in the structure of the table: the variable "Ship table fate" can be set in two ways. Set it to status and the ship will have a status row in the table, and set it to fate and the ship will have a fate row instead.

The most simple part of the table covers the following variables:

Ship image
Ship caption
Ship ordered
Ship flag
Ship laid down
Ship launched
Ship purchased
Ship commissioned
Ship decommissioned
Ship in service
Ship out of service
Ship struck
Ship homeport
Ship motto
Ship nickname

They are unique to each ship and thus should be entered as in a normal table. "Ship image" is the photo of the ship that appears at the top of the table and should use Wikipedia image markup. "Ship caption" is the caption for that image. "Ship flag" is the ensign/jack of the navy/ies that the ship serve(d) with and again should use the appropriate Wikipedia image markup.

For the variable "ship fate" a variety of templates have been created to provide consistency and linkage for ships. The variables defined include:

active in service
target
sunk enemy action
wrecked
ordered
building
museum ship
scrapped
in reserve
unknown

As with the class common feature templates, "ship fate" is followed by "individual ship" which can be used to flesh out the broad categories, such as when a ship was wrecked, where is a muesum ship, who built it etc.