Template:Geography parent category/doc

This template formats an information box at the head of a geographical parent category, a category where all or most of the articles are held in sub-categories. It holds information such as notes on the content, Wikimedia Commons category, main article and "see also" links, and may link to a map from OpenStreetMap showing the coordinates of child pages. For a diffused parent category, it may provide a link to a canned PetScan query that gives a consolidated list of pages in the child categories. For a non-diffused category, it may provide links to PetScan queries on articles in child categories but not in the parent and articles in the parent but not in any child category. The PetScan links and the map should be useful in maintenance.

This template may replace {{All included}} for non-diffused geographical categories, and may also replace {{Cat main}}, {{See also}}, {{Category see also}} and {{GeoGroup}}, presenting the same information in a less cluttered and more consistent format.

Usage

{{Geography parent category
| child_level =
| metacategory =
| sample_child =
| exception =
| type =
| child_scan =
| child_no_parent =
| parent_no_child =
| geogroup =
| title=
| notes =
| main =
| commonscat =
| seealso =
| catseealso =
| footer =
| TOC =
}}

Parameter names and descriptions

Parameter name	Description
Parent information: rendered only if |metacategory= or |sample_child= are specified
child_level	Administrative level of child categories, e.g. county, canton, department. Optional.
metacategory	Category that holds all the child categories. e.g. Category:Rivers of England by county. Optional. Use |metacategory2= for a second metacategory
sample_child	Name of a sample child category (without "category:" prefix). Ignored if metacategory is provided.
exception	Qualifier to the statement "should hold all entries in the child categories", e.g. exception=apart from seasonal creeks. Optional.
type	empty if the parent category is diffused, so not expected to be populated. Optional: defaults to populated.
child_scan	PetScan identifier (e.g. 21263054) of a scan that lists all pages in child categories. Used for diffused categories. Optional.
child_no_parent	PetScan identifier of a scan that lists pages in child categories that are not in the parent. Used for non-diffused categories. Optional.
parent_no_child	PetScan identifier of a scan that lists pages in the parent category that are not in any child category. Used for non-diffused categories. Optional
General information
geogroup	If non-blank, includes a {{GeoGroup}} box that lists all coordinates in child pages. Optional.
title	Not expected if |metacategory= or |sample_child= is specified. Otherwise default Portal:Geography. Optional
notes	(or |other=) Information about the category such as types of page included. Optional.
main	Name of the main article for this category. Optional.
commonscat	Name of the corresponding Wikimedia Commons category. For a second category, use |commoncat2=. Optional.
seealso	Name of a related article. For more than one article, use |seealso2= ... |seealso4=. Optional.
catseealso	Name of a related category. For more than one category, use |catseealso2= ... |catseealso6=. Optional.
footer	Text to be placed below the infobox. May be a template such as {{Census-designated places in the United States}}. Optional.
TOC	Enter |TOC=y to place an alphabet table of contents below the infobox if the category holds more than 200 entries. Optional.

PetScan queries

PetScan is a useful maintenance tool held at petscan.wmflabs.org. Sample queries:

Purpose	Depth	Categories	Combination	Negative categories	Example
All articles in child categories	1	Metacategory holding all child categories
Articles in child but not parent	1	Metacategory holding all child categories	Union	Parent category|0
Articles in parent but not in child	1	Parent category|0	Union	Metacategory holding all child categories

The vertical bar and 0 after the parent category name overrides Depth=1 and tells PetScan to only list articles in the parent category, and not articles in categories below the parent.

If there is no metacategory holding all child categories, you may have to list the child categories in the query – or create a metacategory and add the child categories to it.

Before and after example

Before: multiple lines of text and templates

For convenience, all unincorporated communities in Alabama should be included in this category. This includes all the unincorporated communities that can also be found in the subcategories.

This category is for named unincorporated communities in the U.S. state of Alabama that lack political existence, whether census-designated places or neighborhoods.

See also the categories Cities in Alabama, Towns in Alabama, and Census-designated places in Alabama

After: integrated template with PetScan links

This is a non-diffused parent category for categories​ in Category:Unincorporated communities in Alabama by county. It should hold all the pages in the county-level categories, and may hold other pages such as lists.

• county-level articles not in this parent category
• articles in this parent but not in a county-level category

• This category is for named unincorporated communities in the U.S. state of Alabama that lack political existence, whether census-designated places or neighborhoods.
• Wikimedia Commons has media related to Unincorporated communities in Alabama
• See also categories Cities in Alabama, Towns in Alabama, Census-designated places in Alabama

See also