Wikipedia:WikiProject Gastropods/Automatic taxobox

Given the complicated nature of the new Automatic taxobox, this (incomplete) list is aimed at assisting Gastropod project editors in utilizing the new template for all possible cases encountered in the article space. The automatic taxobox uses back-end templates (e.g. Taxonomy/Gastropoda) that all use the form. The back-end templates are connected in a hierarchy so that future changes to classifications will be easy to manipulate by editing a few templates rather than hundreds or thousands of individual taxoboxes.

General advice
Most instances of the automatic taxobox will be straightforward. To convert to an automatic taxobox, change the title of the template from  to   (with the lowercase "t" in taxobox) if the taxon is genus or higher and   if the taxon is a species. Every parameter found in the old taxobox is available in the automatic taxobox. Remove all classification from regnum (or domain) down to the article's taxon and let the automatic taxobox know which taxon the template is supposed to be about by writing, e.g. . This is not strictly necessary when taxa are titled at their taxon name, but if the page were ever to be moved, the automatic taxobox would look broken without the   parameter. Additionally remove the name parameter and replace the authority parameters to. The binomial_authority will need to be replaced with authority on species articles, and genus_authority will need to be replaced to authority on genus articles. The  can be removed from the page since the automatic taxobox takes care of the formatting.

For example: Lobatus gallus. New automatic taxobox on right, template setup on left:

Sometimes when you add a Speciesbox, the back-end template for the genus will need to be generated. The Speciesbox will have a message that reads, "Unrecognized taxon (fix):" The fix link will lead you to a pre-filled back-end template with instructions on how to complete it (link); Or you can generate the template manually by going to Template:Taxonomy/Example taxon. In this example, you would head to the yet-to-be-created Template:Taxonomy/Lobatus.

Here you identify the following:
 * rank of the taxon (species, in this case; don't forget to latinize the ranks, e.g. sectio)
 * link to be displayed on daughter taxa (if any), especially useful for species that would need to be abbreviated like the above or to link directly to articles at a common name (e.g. ) or titles that are disambiguated (e.g.  )
 * parent: the direct, immediate parent taxon of the article's taxon. In this case, it's the family, Strombidae. The title of the parent link is identifying the parent  template it should link to and so the name should be exactly what comes after  . In this case, the name is the same for the parent article and the parent template: Strombidae and Template:Taxonomy/Strombidae.

A normal genus article
See Lobatus.

Here we use  for the genus authority. The template knows the rank of the template since this information is supplied at Template:Taxonomy/Lobatus and places the authority in the proper place.

Monotypic genus
See Melarhaphe neritoides.

Template:Speciesbox is a variant of Template:Automatic taxobox designed for pages on species and monotypic genera. Note how it automatically generates a binomial name, and a listing "M. neritoides" in the taxonomic list.

It is important to note that at Template:Taxonomy/Melarhaphe, that  be used. This makes the term bold in the taxobox. If we had used, relying on the redirect, the term would have just been blue-linked. This is problematic when pages are moved. It is also not okay per WP:OVERLINK to have a link redirect to the same page.

Note: The automatic taxobox to the right does not correctly display the bold genus name because the title of this project-space is not "Melarhaphe neritoides", but the article Melarhaphe neritoides does.

Monotypic family
See Testacella.

In this case, we use  to identify the authority for the family. It is important to note that at Template:Taxonomy/Testacellidae, that  be used. This makes the term bold in the taxobox. If we had used, relying on the redirect, the term would have just been blue-linked. This is problematic when pages are moved. It is also not okay per WP:OVERLINK to have a link redirect to the same page.

Note: The automatic taxobox to the right does not correctly display the bold family name because the title of this project-space is not "Testacella", but the article Testacella does.

Disambiguated article
See Bithynia (gastropod).

And then create Template:Taxonomy/Bithynia with the. If another animal taxon has also been named Bithynia, then Template:Taxonomy/Bithynia (gastropod) must be created.

Other notes

 * Use the  on the Taxonomy template pages to force the display of ranks such as super families. Some ranks are configured to not display by default. See Template:Taxonomy/Rissooidea.

Comments from WP:Paleontology member
The use of automatic taxoboxes is by no means a universally accepted practice. In fact WP:Paleontology is the only project that has adopted use of them for all new articles created. Currently the explanatory documentation needs to be reworked to make it more intuitive for users. However, I think use at both the WP:Gastropods and WP:Bivalves could be beneficial as the higher taxonomies of both are, for the most part, in flux at this point. Creation of the taxonomy templates is not very difficult, and conversion of a taxobox to an automatic taxobox is also not complex. A lot of the work involved actually comes from the initial creation of the first few taxon template groups, after those are done, other lower level templates link in fairly quickly. I will be the first to admit that I don't know nearly every in-and-out of the automatic taxoboxes or the speciesboxes, but the users who maintain/work on them are willing to help with problems. I think a lot of what is needed to clarify the documentation is more new eyes there working with us to clarify and streamline it. This page WikiProject Plants/Automatic taxobox has a good overview of how to create and covert taxoboxes.-- Kev min  § 22:53, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Additional examples

 * a move of a species to a red link in the same genus:  Nassarius plicatellus to Nassarius niveus (A. Adams, 1852) (an existing red link)
 * Nassarius plicatellus move was straightforward. I just had change the taxon parameter after the move (diff).


 * a move a species to a red link in another genus : Fusinus faurei to Granulifusus faurei (Barnard, 1959) (a species not mentioned yet in Wikipedia)
 * Fusinus faurei required creation of taxonomy template for the genus (diff). Here is how it looked after the move. Here is the screenshot for creating the taxonomy template. See Template:Taxonomy/Granulifusus.


 * a move of a genus to a red link in the same family : Austrogemmula has to be moved to Epidirella Iredale, 1913
 * Austrogemmula required the following steps:
 * converting to speciesbox
 * Template:Taxonomy/Austrogemmula
 * Template:Taxonomy/Turridae
 * after the move
 * updates
 * after the updates
 * Template:Taxonomy/Epidirella
 * Epidirella