Template talk:ThePlantList

Need to handle other taxons
This template currently only handles species, whereas The Plant List holds data on higher-level taxons like genera and families. We have links to those, but they are now obsolete because they link to the old version of the data. If this template were to be modified, it could take care of updating these links en masse. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 09:08, 22 May 2014 (UTC)
 * I created this template, but I don't have much experience with templates. The format of the URL used by The Plant List for genera and families pages is completely different from the format used for species; while I'm sure there must be a way to handle the different URL formats with in a single template, doing so is beyond my abilities. There could be a separate template for genera and families.


 * And this template isn't very widely used (probably 75% of the articles incorporating it are ones I've added it too myself), so I haven't been very interested in maintaining it. Mass updating family/genus links to The Plant List would still require adding a template in the first place (although once a template was added, it could conceivably handle further updates to The Plant List with minimal effort). For now, the version of The Plant List is hardcoded in this template (i.e., the template always links to TPL version 1.1); assuming TPL follows a consistent pattern in forming the URL in future versions, version # could be soft coded (i.e, editors would be required to enter a version number parameter when using the template, which would then link to the right version of TPL). I'm not sure that creating a template that dynamically links to TPL as TPL updates is a good idea; the information on TPL changes between versions, and it's better to cite an obsolete version of TPL, then to use TPL as a source for information which may be falsified by the next TPL update. Plantdrew (talk) 17:06, 22 May 2014 (UTC)


 * I have updated this template to match accepted input formatting used by other Wikipedias such as commons:Template:ThePlantList and fr:Modèle:ThePlantList_espèce. It should now work better with utilities such as WikipediaBioReferences. I was unable to add genus or family support to this template due to the complexity of differences in the URLs between species and higher taxon. As other wikis have done, I have created ThePlantList taxon to support linking to thePlantList at those levels. It may be more appropriate to rename this template "ThePlantList species" as other wikis have done since it only supports the species level. --MCEllis (talk) 16:52, 5 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I've updated this template, merging in support for Genus and Family taxons as requested in 2014. Copy the url of the Genus or Family page and add it with , rather then specifying the species id. To link to a family, you will also have to disable the italicized behavior with  .  We should not disable the default italicized behavior by default because ThePlantList is a species oriented website. Most people will be linking to species pages and it's important not to break current syntax.


 * I have also added support for retrieving the corresponding The Plant List url from Wikidata by just typing  or  --MCEllis (talk) 01:26, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

the template produces a duplicated wikilink to The Plant List – once as the website and once through via. The same happens with the Tropicos template. This needs to be fixed. Peter coxhead (talk) 12:00, 18 February 2016 (UTC)
 * These have been fixed now.--MCEllis (talk) 14:53, 18 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks. You're certainly gaining experience with template editing! Peter coxhead (talk) 18:30, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Spelling error in template
This template at present misspells "superseded" as "superceded". Pol098 (talk) 13:35, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

(this affects hundreds of articles). Pol098 (talk) 15:12, 24 May 2023 (UTC)


 * Spelling changed (I did create this template, but I didn't add the note about The Plant List being superseded). Plantdrew (talk) 16:04, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

Template uses others= parameter.
Using others is a CS1 maintenance category. I am not sure exactly what this means. I usually eliminate its use. But this may be incorrect. User-duck (talk) 23:20, 5 December 2023 (UTC)