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This template is used in many system messages, and on approximately 20,000 pages.
Changes to it can cause immediate changes to the Wikipedia user interface.
To avoid major disruption, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Please discuss changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template uses Lua:

Module:Message box (sandbox)

Message box meta-templates
template	context
((Ambox))	article
((Cmbox))	category
((Imbox))	image
((Tmbox))	talk
((Fmbox))	footer / header
((Ombox))	other pages
((Mbox))	auto-detect
((Asbox))	article stub
((Dmbox))	disambiguation

This is the ((Fmbox)) ([F]ooter and header [m]essage [box]) metatemplate.

It can be used to build message boxes for system messages such as MediaWiki:Sp-contributions-footer-anon. It can also be used for footer and header boxes on user pages and for editnotices.

This template works similarly to ((Ambox)) and mostly uses the same parameters. The main differences are that this box is 100% wide and has different colour styles.

Usage

Simple example

((Fmbox |text=Some text.))

produces:

Some text.

Complex example

((Fmbox
 | type = editnotice
 | image = [[File:Emblem-question-yellow.svg|40px]]
 | style = border:1px solid #f4c430;
 | textstyle = font-style:italic; font-weight:bold; color:red;
 | text = The message's text.
))

produces:

The message's text.

Footer and header message box types

The following examples use different type parameters but no image parameters, i.e. they use the default image for each type.

type = warning
For system warning notices such as MediaWiki:Revision-info and MediaWiki:Protectedpagewarning.

type = editnotice
Provides a transparent background for editnotices.

type = system
Default light-grey system-message background.

Non-default images

The default images shown above are mostly for testing and demonstration. In most cases, it is more appropriate to use a more specific image or no image at all. The following examples use the image parameter to specify an image other than the default.

image = [[File:User-info.svg|40px]]
MediaWiki:Sp-contributions-footer image.

image = [[File:Commons-logo.svg|40x40px]]
MediaWiki:Sharedupload-desc-here image. The "40x40px" parameter within the File: link sets the height as well as the width of the image.

Other examples

Fmbox's default image (i.e. image left unspecified).

Setting image = none means that the text uses the whole of the message box.

image = [[File:User-info.svg|40px]]
imageright = [[File:Nuvola apps bookcase.svg|40px]]

Parameters

List of all parameters:

((fmbox
| name = name of the template
| type  = system / editnotice / warning
| image = none / [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| imageright = [[Image:Some image.svg|40px]]
| id = CSS id
| class = CSS class names
| style = CSS values
| textstyle = CSS values
| plainlinks  = no
| text  = The message body text.
))

name

(Optional) Name of the template. This adds a CSS class with name box-name to the HTML element, for use by bots or scripts.

type

If no type parameter is given the template defaults to type system. That means it gets a light grey background.

image

No parameter = If no image parameter is given the template uses a default image. Which default image it uses depends on the type parameter.

An image = Should be an image with usual wiki notation. 40px - 50px width are usually about right depending on the image height to width ratio. (But the message box can handle images of any size.) For example:

image = [[Image:User-info.svg|40px]]

none = Means that no image is used.

imageright

No parameter = If no imageright parameter is given then no image is shown on the right side.

imageright = [[Image:Nuvola apps bookcase.png|40px]]

Anything = Any other object that you want to show on the right side.

Optional CSS id used by the entire message box table. Without quotation marks " ". Mostly meant to be used to tag a message box with its name, to make it easy to detect the presence of the message from javascript. For instance MediaWiki:Sp-contributions-footer would use:

id = sp-contributions-footer

class

Optional CSS class names used by the entire message box table. Without quotation marks " ". Mostly meant to be used to tag a message box with its name so it can be individually skinned. For instance MediaWiki:Sp-contributions-footer would use:

class = sp-contributions-footer

style

Optional CSS values used by the entire message box table. Without quotation marks " " but with the ending semicolons ;. For example:

style = margin-top: 1em;

textstyle

Optional CSS values used by the text cell. For example:

textstyle = font-size: 90%; text-align: center;

plainlinks

Normally on Wikipedia, external links have an arrow icon next to them, like this: Example.com. However, in message boxes, the arrow icon is suppressed by default, like this: Example.com. To get the normal style of external link with the arrow icon, use |plainlinks=no.

text

The message body text.

Technical details

This template currently uses hard coded styles and class names. Later it will only use CSS classes making it easier to skin. (In the meantime it can be skinned by using the "!important" keyword.)

If you need to make a box that is less than 100% wide, then do not use this box; instead, use ((Ombox)). Since this box doesn't have the "1px empty image cell" code that makes it so the other mboxes get proper box flow in all browsers when less than 100% wide.

If you need to use special characters in the text parameter, then you need to "escape" them like this:

((Fmbox
| text = <div>
Equal sign = and a start and end brace { } work fine as they are. 
But here is a pipe ((!)) and two end braces <nowiki>))</nowiki>. 
And now a pipe and end braces <nowiki>|))</nowiki>.
</div>
))

This produces:

Equal sign = and a start and end brace { } work fine as they are. But here is a pipe | and two end braces )). And now a pipe and end braces |)).

To avoid potential difficulties with e.g. parser functions or special characters, this metatemplate uses HTML rather than wiki markup to produce the table carrying its output.

As some older browsers have difficulty rendering SVG transparency, the default images for this metatemplate are in PNG rather than SVG format and have been optimised by hand to ensure they work across a wide range and age of browsers. (SVG icons only look somewhat bad in older browsers, thus such optimisation is only worthwhile for very widely used icons.)

Admins: MediaWiki's parsing and converting HTML markup for system messages is not the same as for normal pages: <br> for instance, is not automatically converted to <br /> and missing </td> and </tr> tags are not added automatically. Any HTML code used in system messages, therefore, must already be valid (include all complementary close tags, etc.).

For more details, see the talk page. Since this template works in almost the same way as ((Ambox)), ((Tmbox)), ((Imbox)), ((Cmbox)) and ((Ombox)), further information found on their talk pages may also be relevant.