Template:POTD/Day/doc

This template is used to exhibit selections for the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD), predominantly in the POTD archives, but also through the notification templates UpcomingPOTD (for article talk pages) and NotifyPOTD (for user talk pages). The template draws information from the subpages for each day's POTD (e.g. Template:POTD/) and formats it in one of a few possible layouts, with a header and a footer that may be included or omitted as desired. Empty POTDs (i.e. dates yet to be scheduled with a selected featured picture) display POTDempty.

Parameters

 * First unnamed parameter: the date of the POTD to be displayed. Any date format is acceptable, but  is conventional in POTD. If unspecified or left blank, today's date  is used by default.
 * Second unnamed parameter: the layout in which the POTD is to be displayed. A list of possible values for this parameter can be found at Category:POTD layout templates, in each case omitting the initial "POTD" in the name of each template (e.g.  for POTD condensed). If unspecified or left blank,   is used by default, which calls POTD archive. This layout adapts the arrangement used on the Main Page slightly to make it more amenable for archive display. (The Main Page itself makes use of POTD row.) Note that   (POTD default) is not the default value for this parameter!
 * The  layout also allows the additional display of subpages in the case of a multiple POTD, where the POTD consists of more than one picture and blurb. A hatnote is included immediately below the date header to indicate this. This template currently accommodates the display of up to twenty subpages (which was the case on December 30, 2013). This is mainly handled through POTD archive/multiple, which draws information from subpages titled "/1", "/2", etc. Another template, POTD archive/footer, is also used to display the "Recently featured" list and the boldfaced links as on the Main Page in this layout.
 * excludeheader: if defined with, the horizontal rule and the boldfaced date (e.g. "  ") that appear above the POTD content are omitted from display. The subpage headers in the archive layout (e.g. " Subpage 1 "), if present, will also be excluded. Such headers are most useful in the archives (where they double as anchors for section linking).
 * excludefooter: if defined with, the list of links below the POTD, and below each subpage if present, are omitted from display. These links easily allow users to view, discuss, edit, check the history of, or watch the template, or access the file page(s). There are also links to view, edit and check the history of the protected version, if it exists; otherwise, there is a link to create it. If the POTD has not been scheduled, there is a link to create a new template. There may very occasionally be a link to a separate animated version of the featured picture.
 * excludesub: if defined with, the individual POTD subpages normally displayed in the archive layout are omitted from display; in the case of a random-selection multiple POTD, one subpage is randomly selected for display at a time, imitating the functionality used on the Main Page. This might be useful on talk pages, etc., where an abundance of transcluded POTD suggestions might overwhelm the page for users.