User:Kww/howto

Using the Billboard chart referencing system is straightforward. Most users will never have to know how it works inside.

References in discographies
If you want to make a reference in a discography, then use BillboardURLbyName in the citation.

For example, will generate. The chart name mapping is documented at BillboardChartNum. The artist name must match the one used on the Billboard site precisely: no allowances are made for cases like "&" vs. "and", and Billboard is extremely inconsistent about the use of a leading "The" in a band's name.

The Billboard name may not match Wikipedia's naming: for example, an article about a song by Kesha needs to use, because Billboard uses "Ke$ha" for the artist's name. That generates, while will generate

This template is normally used within citations, i.e.



What if it doesn't work?
The usual problem is going to be that you didn't match the artist name on Billboard. Billboard is picky! "Selena Gomez & the Scene" is not the same as "Selena Gomez and the Scene". "Ana Belén" and "Ana Belen" are not the same. So, double check your name.

Next, doublecheck your chart name against the names listed at BillboardChartNum.

If that doesn't help, the problem probably lies in BillboardID. Fixing it is simple:
 * 1) Go find your artist's list of charts on Billboard.
 * 2) Look at the URL. Again, looking at you will see that big number:. That's the magic number we need.
 * 3) Edit the appropriate child of BillboardID. For Shakira, that's BillboardID/S, because "Shakira" begins with an "S".
 * 4) Insert the line. Again, using Shakira as an example, it's
 * shakira=
 * Pay attention to the case. It has to be lower case inside the template.
 * 1) Now try again. Please doublecheck a few artists' articles that begin with the same letter and make sure you didn't break them. You can easily break hundreds of articles by inserting an error in the BillboardID templates, so be careful.