Template talk:GNIS/Archive 1

Generated link
If one reads the FAQ page at GNIS, they state that using the session information as a bookmark (which is kind of what the template currently uses) is NOT guaranted to work in the future. However, I do not currently see another way to implement this. RedWolf 19:46, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for this template. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks useful. I link to GNIS entries all the time. Pfly 17:31, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

AntarID
Some features are identified by Antarctic ID. Sample "9763" on McNish Island (currently a dead link). http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic offers a specific form to "Search Antarctica Data". To fix the dead links, we could either include a way to enter those ids on this template or create another one. -- User:Docu
 * Just add a conditional parameter to this way. Egads, we already have 3 different versions of this one. no need for a 4th. RedWolf 03:36, 27 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I added the possibility (type=antarid) to gnis3. Using http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=179:3:::NO::P3_ANTAR_ID: doesn't appear to work though.
 * renders:
 * http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=179:3:::NO::P3_ANTAR_ID:9763 (dynamic: )
 * We'd probably need to leave a session id in the url. -- User:Docu
 * Session IDs don't work in general, they only work once. I'll investigate hike395 04:08, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm stuck: I don't know how to make this work. hike395 04:53, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah! Got it to work (from FAQ at GNIS, pointed to by Wwods, thanks!) hike395 08:23, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Looks like the FAQ was updated. Thanks for updating the links. I added the option "type=antarid" to the other two templates. -- User:Docu

I fixed the remaining AntarIDs in articles on Special:Linksearch. -- User:Docu

USGS GNIS
According to USGS GNIS FAQs: the (3) link options are:

For most features:
 * http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:nnnnnnn

For Antarctic features:
 * http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:5:::NO::P5_ANTAR_ID:nnnnnnn

For a "pre-defined list" by specifying one to four parameters:
 * http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:2:::NO::P1_FNAME,P1_CLASS,P1_COUNTY,P1_STATE: name, feature class, county name, state name

Currently, USGS GNIS is having Oracle database performance issues, the above functionalities has been (temporarily) disabled by USGS GNIS. They are working on their issues ... I will post when I hear any updates.

Lists
For "List-class" articles, I believe it would be useful to have a Gnis template which generates the "2:::NO::P1_FNAME,P1_CLASS,P1_COUNTY,P1_STATE" query(ies), rather than manually coding: [http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:2:::NO::P1_FNAME,P1_CLASS,P1_COUNTY,P1_STATE:feature_name,feature_class,county_name,state_name} provided that it is clearly documented (on the Template documentation page) to ONLY retrieve relatively-small lists (USGS GNIS has a "hard limit" of 2000, and initially shows up to the 1st. 15), but most (Wiki-generated) links/queries should be better broken up than that when possible. i.e. most of the time, a "List-class" article should specify at least (2) or (3) of the (4) possible parameters.

If others besides me feel that would be useful, then I can try to rough out a modified version of template Gnis3 named Gnis4 which accepts 1 to 4 named: "name=", "class=", "county=", and "state=" parameters and generates a link intended to be used within an [ External_link ].

The possible technical issue which I can see is if someone creates a "List of Lists" article and repeatedly transcludes such a template, not sure if they might run into one of the Wiki article page size or template configurable limits?

I have seen some long lists and WikiTables, and Recently because of performance issues which I was experiencing when editing, I had to remove some content which I was trying to add.

I wish there was a better way so that some repetitive content gets expanded on the client-side? I suppose Cascading style sheets as opposed to Templates (unless someone is aware of another way?)

Census
Similarly, it would be nice if "Census" (FIPS 55-2,3,4) GNIS data would be retrieved by a link. See: http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=150:1:::NO:1:P1_SHOW_FIPS55,P1_SHOW_ADV,P1_SHOW_ANTAR:Y%2C%2C

USGS GNIS support replied that such a query link based on "Federal" a.k.a. Census or FIPS 55-2,3,4 codes should be possible as well. They said they will reply with more details after they resolve their other (Oracle database) issue.

GR templates
The latter (Census query) comes from what I see as "overuse" of template GR with the: 1=U.S. Gazetteer or 2=American FactFinder parameters.

Personally, I prefer to see a template Cite gnis reference (with the Feature ID and appropriate name supplied), rather than a "non-specific" GR with parameter 3=U S Board on Geographic Names or 4=Geographic Names Information System.

On GR article talk, I posted requesting that GR (with parameter 1,2,3 or 4) at least be deprecated or superseded in documentation. LeheckaG (talk) 14:51, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Number-only display
I'm making up a List of Boundary Peaks on the Alaska-British Columbia border and one of the columns will be the gnis citation/link - but is there I way I can get it to display only 12345 intead of "such and so in the USGS GNIS database" or whatever it says? Same idea I'd like to be able to use cite bcgnis and Cite cgndb for linking their citations without the overburden of the template text. I tried using a space after the ID number, where the name should be; maybe I could used use a dash e.g. but then it would still say "- in the yakkety yak etc". Any possiblity of a switch that would display ID-number only?Skookum1 (talk) 05:08, 3 November 2009 (UTC)


 * How about [ 123456] ? Should produce [ 123456]. —hike395 (talk) 08:18, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Antarid broken
The way to link to Antarctica articles seems to have changed, but the gnis didn't update the corresponding FAQ. I tried to figure out the new way to link there, but w/o much luck. -- 签名 sig  at  09:16, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

editprotected
 * I, too, failed to get the templates to link to the specific Antarctic GNIS pages. Instead of linking to an error page, I changed gnis2 and gnis3 to simply point to the Antarctic GNIS search page (at least until GNIS fixes the problem.


 * Could we change gnis to be the following, to match the other two?




 * ✅. Have you informed the gnis administrators ? —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 13:52, 9 November 2009 (UTC)


 * It is broken again. GNIS was down for maintenance this weekend and I noticed the FAQ page was updated. I tried using the updated details query for Antarctica but I get an error: "failed to parse SQL query: ORA-00942: table or view does not exist". I will email them about the problem. RedWolf (talk) 02:38, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Full names rather than acronym soup
editprotected Can we change the acronyms of "USGS GNIS" to "U.S. Geological Survey Geographical Names Information System" to make it make it more understandable. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 10:04, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅ —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 12:44, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

CGNDB
Okay, so it's not this template, but I thought some page watchers might be interested. I have started a discussion for changing CGNDB into a redirect here. Thanks for your input in this matter. Plastikspork ―Œ (talk) 16:40, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

link to /doc pg needs to be updated
Hi - since the template's name was changed, the link to the /doc pg wasn't updated also. It should be: within the "noinclude" tags, so it doesn't redirect to the old /doc pg of Template:Gnis/doc. Thanks, --Funandtrvl (talk) 18:21, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done Rambo's Revenge (talk)  21:52, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from Ken Gallager, 5 August 2010
editprotected

The template should display as "U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: GNIS"; currently it reads "Geographical". Thanks for your help.

Ken Gallager (talk) 15:06, 5 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Absolutely, well spotted, now fixed. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 15:26, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

leading and trailing whitespace on 1st parameter
Older versions of this template ignored leading/trailing whitespace on the first parameter to produce a valid external link, but this is no longer the case: is fine, but  produces a link which leads to a database error. This should be easy to fix. Any interest or support? —Stepheng3 (talk) 18:39, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I've implemented the fix in GNIS/sandbox and tested it. I plan to request a protected edit in a day or two. —Stepheng3 (talk) 17:22, 29 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Please copy GNIS/sandbox to GNIS. —Stepheng3 (talk) 20:35, 31 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I've . All parser functions trim whitespace;  is more expensive than , and   won't complain if the argument is not supplied. -- Red rose64 (talk) 16:29, 1 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm fine with the simplification. —Stepheng3 (talk) 17:41, 1 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done -- Red rose64 (talk) 22:50, 1 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you. —Stepheng3 (talk) 00:44, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Please use HTTPS for the geonames.usgs.gov link
The purpose of this edit is to provide increased privacy and security for users by having the template generate an HTTPS link for the specified GNIS Feature. At the current time, the template generates an HTTP link. In the template source, please change  to   instead. Thanks.

According to Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer, the example URLs  and   (which are included in the template documentation) both generate a 301 (Moved Permanently) redirect to an HTTPS version of the URL. --Elegie (talk) 06:38, 9 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Yes check.svg Done Cabayi (talk) 07:37, 9 April 2017 (UTC)