Template:Archives/doc

Places an archive box flush right (default) or a wide archive banner containing links to archive pages and a search box to search them. A summary of the archive bot config appears below the search box.

When to use
You may use this template to generate a boxed Archive list and search box when there is no Talk page header box at the top of the page, or when the Talk page header does not emit an archive box as part of the Talk header.

Another reason to use template Archive box is for an article having archives with both standard as well as non-standard names for the archives. This sometimes occurs for older articles that were created before the archiving system became standardized, and have both ad hoc archive names as well as standard ones, or having both standard archives as well as topically-named archives out of the main numerical sequence. In cases like these, you can include both the Talk header box with no params at the top of the page to pick up all the standard archive names, as well as Archives with the list parameter to pick up all the non-standard names.

Another reason might be to link standard archive names with other display text, or to add annotations next to the linked archive name, even if they are linked using the standard names.

When not to use
When you add this template to a talk page with the Talk header template, by default each one will display the same archive list and search box. In order to avoid such duplication, either don't use the template, or turn off archive search box display in the Talk header template. It is possible to search for Talk pages that have both templates, in order to search for anomalies that may need attention.

Where to place
Place the template last among the header material at the top of a talk page, and before the first section heading.

Parameters
There is one positional parameter, and 27 named parameters; all are optional. With no parameters, the template displays a rectangular box entitled "Archives" flush-right on the page, with links to every archive page that exists (as long as they have the standard naming scheme), an input box to enter search terms, a search button to search the archives, and a bot notice at the bottom summarizing the configuration parameters for the archive bot.

Descriptions of the parameters below are grouped into five functional areas (see ).

Descriptions
Parameters described below are grouped into functional areas:
 * – how to specify archives if they have non-standard names; and how to display them

– to change the icon

– about the appearance of the box and button, and what pages archive to search

– how to suppress the bot config notice at the bottom

– how to alter the default appearance of the box.

What links to display, and their format
No parameters are necessary for detection of numbered archive pages in the standard format Archive_1, Archive_2, and so on. These are detected automatically. Talk page archives having non-standard naming schemes can also be listed, but you have to specify them.

(1st unnamed parameter) or 1=
 * Inline list of manually maintained archives. For example: " list=Archive of 2017, Archive of 2018-19, Archive of 2020 ". No subpages are assumed unless specified (e.g. " list=/Archives/2017 " and so on). Using this parameter disables automatic detection, but this detection can be re-enabled with  or , making the template display both manual and automatic archives. This is usually done when other related archives are linked, such as when using centralized talk pages or adding links to archives of alternative accounts.

list
 * The same as the unnamed parameter, except the disabling of automatic detection cannot be re-enabled. In other words, using list instead of 1 makes the template ignore the auto parameter's secondary function of forcing auto-detection.

auto= 
 * Specifies the format of the auto-generated archive list and forces automatic detection. If left unspecified, the default is "long", meaning links to archives are spelled out ("Archive 42"); any other word (except "no") will result in "short", resulting in shorter links (e.g. "42"; see Example #2), and "no" will disable auto-detection, meaning that even if there are archives following the  format they will not be displayed automatically. Auto-detection is also disabled if a manual list is supplied. However, if this list is supplied by the 1st unnamed parameter rather than the list parameter, auto-detection can be re-enabled by overriding the default by using   or.

index
 * Links the "Archives" title to a specified subpage that should be the subject index page for all archived discussions, such as "Archive index". The slash "/" is not used for this parameter. Legobot may be used to create and maintain such an index. To link to a different subpage, only use the subpage name and don't add the slash "/". For example, to link to the Talk:Example/Page Index subpage, use Page Index. none disables this feature.

archivelist
 * In conjunction with this parameter you are able to create a whole page where you can customize your archive list. The parameter specifies a link to this page, which should be a subpage that contains the archive list. The name of this page is commonly simply "archivelist", i.e. the same name as its parameter. This is also the default assumption, see notes below. The slash "/" is used for this parameter. As an example of real usage: Wikipedia:Media copyright questions/Archivelist. As you can see Media copyright questions/Archivelist is set up to be used by the Archives box on its respective page.

Icon image
image 
 * An alternate image to be used, defaults to " ". May also use image-size.  results in no image.

alt 
 * Alt text for the image, for visually impaired readers. See WP:ALT. This defaults to empty. If a nonempty value is specified for,   should be nonempty too, and should indicate what will happen if the user clicks on the image.

link 
 * Link for the image. This normally defaults to empty, which means no link. However, if  is nonempty, it defaults to the image's file page.

The link and alt parameters only take effect if the image is changed from the default.

Search box and button
search
 * Default: yes. If no, removes the search box.

root
 * Specifies a different base than . Useful for when this template is located on a different page than the page being archived. Use prefix, if the addition of a trailing slash is not desired. The archive wikilinks generated are of the form.

prefix
 * Similar to root, but does not automatically add a trailing slash.

search-break
 * Inserts a newline between the search bar and search button preventing them from being on the same line. Default: no if in banner format yes otherwise

search-width
 * Default: 22

search-button-label
 * Default: Search archives. "button-label" is an alias.

Archive bot config
Automated archiving settings are defined by  if using User:ClueBot III or   if using User:Lowercase sigmabot III. Archives will automatically extract these settings and display them at the bottom of the archive box (or banner) unless suppressed with nobot. The parameters formerly used to state settings for the bot notice (before automatic extraction was introduced) are deprecated and grayed out below.

nobot
 * Set yes to suppress the bot notice normally displayed below the search box.

target
 * The title of the page (just the name, no link syntax) that threads are currently being archived to, for manual archiving.

 (deprecated)

 (deprecated)

 (deprecated)

 (deprecated)

Box style and title
banner
 * "yes" converts the box design of the template into a talk page banner style of template, with the archives listed in a horizontal row above the search bar, and the bot config notice listed below it.

large
 * alias of 'banner'.

collapsible 
 * If yes, makes the list collapsible.

collapsed 
 * If yes, makes the list collapsed.

style 
 * An arbitrary string of CSS can be applied to the box (use with care).

title 
 * An alternative title, defaults to "Archives". The title is automatically linked to the /archivelist subpage, if it exists. If another link is desired, a wikilink may be inserted here.

editbox 
 * If yes or omitted, includes a button to edit the archive box's sub-page /archivelist.

Further details
The template may be used to add a box containing page links to archived discussions. It will automatically detect archived pages by default, if they follow the format, eliminating the need to manually update the box each time a new archive page is created. However, if a list of archives is given manually through the first unnamed parameter, then it does not check for archives automatically. Instead,  or   has to be added, if both manual and automatic lists are used.

This page is intended to explain the details of template usage. For a general guide to archiving, see: Help:Archiving a talk page, which includes more information on using this template and others. With no explicit parameters, the archive list presented in the box is determined automatically. If a subpage called " " exists, it will be used as the central content of the box.

If no archive list subpage is detected, numbered archive subpages will be listed in long format. Such pages must be named as "/Archive #" in order to be automatically detected. No other naming styles will be auto-detected. The " " auto format (the default) indicates "Archive 1", "Archive 2", and so on. The " " auto format indicates only the archive number.

An additional list of archives can be passed in the first unnamed parameter, avoiding the need to set up an archivelist subpage.

Using "auto=no" will disable archive auto-detection. Manually specified archives will still be shown. [The archive box will also contain an "Edit" link, targeted at the archive list subpage, which can then be used to begin manually populating the list, if desired. This seems broken.] This may be desirable, if the archive list is given in the title parameter.

The " " and " " parameters are not intended to be used together. (Doing so does not use the specified archive list page.)

The auto-generated archive list requires subpages to use the common naming convention. That is, " /Archive 1", "  /Archive 2", and so on. The letter "A" must be capitalized, there must be a single space between the word "Archive" and the number, and there must be no leading zeros. If archive subpages do not conform to this convention, they can be renamed to conform, or a manual list can be maintained.

Examples
Default

Short, index, collapsible

TemplateData
{	"params": { "1": {			"aliases": [ "list" ],			"label": "List of manual archives", "description": "Inline list of manually maintained archives", "example": "/Archive 1, /Archive 2", "type": "content" },		"demospace": { "label": "Demospace parameter for box", "description": "Demospace parameter for ", "suggestedvalues": [ "talk", "other" ],			"default": "talk" },		"banner": { "aliases": [ "large" ],			"type": "boolean", "example": "yes", "default": "no", "label": "Large box banner option", "description": "\"yes\" converts the box design of the template into a talk page banner style of template, with the archives listed in a horizontal row above the search bar. " },		"collapsed": { "label": "Collapsed?", "description": "Whether or not the list is pre-collapsed. If set to yes, will also force the list to be collapsible regardless of the value of the collapsible parameter.", "example": "yes", "type": "boolean", "default": "no" },		"collapsible": { "label": "Collapsible?", "description": "Whether or not the list should be collapsible", "example": "yes", "type": "boolean", "default": "no" },		"box-width": { "deprecated": "True" },		"style": { "description": "Arbitrary custom CSS styling", "type": "string" },		"search": { "label": "Search bar?", "description": "Set to \"no\" to disable the search bar", "example": "no", "default": "yes" },		"age": { "type": "number", "aliases": [ "archive_age" ],			"label": "Archiving delay", "description": "Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, this will be displayed as the archiving delay. ", "deprecated": "Remove parameter. " },		"target": {}, "image": { "label": "Icon image", "description": "The image to be used for the icon. Set to \"none\" to remove the icon.", "default": "Replacement filing cabinet.svg", "type": "wiki-file-name" },		"alt": { "label": "Icon alt text", "description": "Icon alt text, for accessibility", "type": "string" },		"link": { "label": "Icon link", "description": "Page that the icon links to when clicked", "type": "wiki-page-name" },		"image-size": { "label": "Icon size", "description": "Size of the icon", "type": "string", "default": "40px" },		"title": { "label": "Title", "description": "An alternative title.", "type": "line", "default": "Archives" },		"auto": { "label": "Automatic detection", "description": "Whether to spell out archive names (long), only list numbers (short), or disable automatic detection entirely", "suggestedvalues": [ "short", "long", "no" ],			"default": "long" },		"index": { "description": "Links the 'Archives' title to a specified subpage that should be the subject index page for all archived discussions. Set index=none to disable.", "label": "Archive index page" },		"start": { "label": "Start index", "description": "Starting index for list of archives", "default": "1" },		"archivelist": { "label": "Archive list page", "description": "In conjunction with this parameter you are able to create a whole page where you can customize your archive list. The parameter specifies a link to this page, which should be a subpage that contains the archive list. ", "example": "Wikipedia:Media copyright questions/Archivelist", "type": "wiki-page-name" },		"root": { "label": "Archive page root", "description": "What should be prepended to the archive name (trailing slash automatically added)", "type": "wiki-page-name", "default": "" },		"prefix": { "aliases": [ "searchprefix" ],			"label": "Archive page prefix", "description": "What should be prepended to the archive name (trailing slash not automatically added)", "default": "/" },		"search-break": { "label": "Insert newline between search bar and button?", "description": "Inserts a newline between the search bar and search button preventing them from being on the same line. Defaults to no if in banner format, yes otherwise ", "type": "boolean" },		"search-width": { "label": "Search bar width", "type": "number", "default": "22", "description": "Width of the search bar" },		"search-button-label": { "type": "string", "aliases": [ "button-label" ],			"label": "Search button label", "description": "Label for the search button", "default": "Search achives" },		"units": { "aliases": [ "archive_units" ],			"type": "string", "suggestedvalues": [ "days", "weeks", "months" ],			"default": "days", "label": "Archiving delay unit", "description": "Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, this will display units for the archiving delay. The default is \"day\" or \"days\". ", "deprecated": "Remove parameter. " },		"bot": { "aliases": [ "archive_bot" ],			"type": "wiki-user-name", "label": "Name of bot that does auto archiving", "description": "Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, a note about automatic archiving will be shown. ", "deprecated": "Remove parameter. " },		"minthreadsleft": { "type": "number", "label": "The minimum number of threads that the archiving bot will leave on the page", "description": "Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, this will display a note explaining the page won't be emptied out", "deprecated": "Remove parameter." },		"editbox": { "default": "yes", "label": "Include a button to edit the archivelist?", "description": "If yes or omitted, includes a button to edit the archive box's sub-page /archivelist. ", "suggestedvalues": [ "yes", "no" ]		},		"class": { "description": "Add additional CSS classes", "type": "string" }	},	"paramOrder": [ "1",		"demospace", "banner", "collapsible", "collapsed", "box-width", "class", "style", "target", "image", "alt", "link", "image-size", "title", "auto", "index", "start", "archivelist", "root", "prefix", "search", "search-break", "search-width", "search-button-label", "age", "units", "bot", "minthreadsleft", "editbox" ],	"description": "Box to list archived discussions on talk pages" }

Redirects

 * 1) archive banner
 * 2) archive box
 * 3) archive search
 * 4) archive searchable
 * 5) my talk archives
 * 6) search archive
 * 7) search archives
 * 8) talk archives