Template:Engvar/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Engvar.
It contains usage information, categories, interlanguage links and other content that is not part of the original template page.

Usage

This template can be used in templates that are used on pages with different English language variants (see ENGVAR): articles in en-UK and articles in en-US. At the moment only UK and US English are recognised.

Article editor: When using the prepared template in an article, the editor can set its parameter |engvar=en-UK. The template text now will use the provided en-UK variant of words. This parameter setting is only needed once in the template.

In the template: So your template takes input parameter {{{engvar}}} as the language id. Internally, your template should have this code construct:

...
| label= {{engvar| engvar={{{engvar}}} | en-uk=Football | en-us=Soccer }}
...

Depending on the engvar input, it returns one of the words.

Language id

At this moment, the next language ids are recognised.
These ased in article code (article editor; case insensitive):

language	alternative name	note
`en-UK`	`UK, en-GB, GB, uk, en-gb, gb`
`en-US`	`US, en-us, us`
`en-AUS`	`AUS, en-aus, aus`
`en-NZ`	`NZ, en-nz, nz`
`en`		default

Used in template code (template editor):

Here, always use the lowercase language id for your word definition: uk-en=Football (NOT uk-EN=Football)
Recognised language id's: en-uk=, en-us=, en-aus=, en-nz=, en=. Abbreviations like "uk" can not be used to define a word.

Unnamed parameters

In template code unnamed parameters can be used:

Unnamed parameter 1=pass throught the {{{engvar}}} variable. Named: engvar={{{engvar}}}
Unnamed parameter 2=en-UK word(s)
Unnamed parameter 3=en-US word(s)
Unnamed parameter 4=en-AUS word(s)
Unnamed parameter 5=en-NZ word(s)
Parameter "en=" cannot be unnamed.

<!-- The next four rows are equal in template code: -->
...
| label= {{engvar| engvar={{{engvar|}}} | en-uk=Football | en-us=Soccer }}
| label= {{engvar| 1={{{engvar|}}} | uk=Football | us=Soccer }}
| label= {{engvar| {{{engvar|}}} | Football | Soccer }}
| label= {{engvar| 1={{{engvar|}}} | 2=Football | 3=Soccer }}
...

Plain "en" variant

It is possible to define and use the plain English variant word(s) with id "en": en=Association football. From here, the article can ask for plain "en" by using engvar=en.

In the template code, this must always be a named parameter.

...
| label= {{engvar| {{{engvar|}}} | Football | Soccer | en=Association football }}
...

Default language id

Default behaviour 1: To force a default language id (a language that will be used when there is no input, or a blank input) use default=en-US.

| label= {{engvar| {{{engvar}}} | Football | Soccer | default=en-US }}

Default behaviour 2: Another default-behaviour can be used: in your template, provide parameter engvar with a default language id:

| label= {{engvar| {{{engvar| en-US }}} | Football | Soccer | en=Association football }}

This default last example will not use the default language when the engvar is a blank. Instead, the standard default word is returned (see below).This may occur in nested templates and pass-through variables.

Default word(s)

Default behaviour 3: When the engvar value is not recognised (or the default language alternative you might have provided), then the default word(s) will be returned.

This default word(s) is determined as follows: 1st: the en= word if entered
2nd: the en-uk= word if entered
3rd: the en-us= word if entered
4rd: the en-aus= word if entered
5rd: the en-nz= word if entered
6rd: a blank
Clearly, this template tries to make a catch when possible. Blanks output avoided when possibble.

Default behaviour 4: From the above, it follows that entering engvar=en produces the default word(s) as described. This is intentionally and by definition. Still, it is preferred not to rely on this route, because it might not work as expected.

Notes on coding

On the template side provide at least both UK and US word(s), and maybe the en-word(s). Do not rely on the Default-behaviour, even when it tests OK today.
Use named parameters for code clarity
Do not rely on blank entries to return (do not use: en-UK=|...}}). It might be interpreted as absent, and so another word may be used.

Full parameter list

Parameter list:

{{engvar
| engvar =
| en-uk  =
| en-us  =
| en-aus =
| en-nz  =
| en     =
| default=
}}

Or, unnamed:

{{engvar
|
|
|
|
|
| en     =
| default=
}}

Todo

Other English variants could be added
Is there a definite list of English language variants, we should cover?
Maybe a fallback can exist: if en-GB does not exist then use en-UK
Rewrite this doc. ;-)

Examples

See Template:Engvar/testcases

en-UK	en-US	en-CAN en-OED (Oxford)	en-AUS en-NZ
centre	center	centre	centre
colour	color	colour	colour
-isation	-ization	-ization	-isation
vapour	vapor	vapour	vapour
grey	gray	grey	grey