Guidelines:Projects
This guidelines aims to help instruct how to create pages for projects within the Zelda Wiki: namespace to track progress while covering games.
Overview
Step 1: Categorization
The foundation for project tracking is built on proper categorization. The templates used for this heavily rely on what are colloquially called "X in Y" categories (such as Category:Characters in Ocarina of Time). These categories provide a list of relevant pages for inquiries that the templates make, so as long as pages are properly categorized, these categories can reliably be used to keep track of what pages may need work.
The process for creating these categories is covered in the New Games guidelines. Each "X in Y" category can be used to create a broad overview of needed work, and this will be covered in later steps. Please note that the templates involved only permit a select range of types, which correspond to the X. There may need to be edits to the templates in order to accommodate new types of articles.
Step 2: Declaring Tables
Once the categories have been made, Cargo tables for each type in a given game will also need to be declared. These are declared via templates, so each type has its own template page that exists solely to generate the Cargo tables required for retrieving the data that is stored in later steps. A list of these templates can be seen on Category:Project Templates Defining Cargo Tables.
As shown in this category, these templates should be structured as sub-pages to Template:Checklist first by game and then by type. Each table must also have a unique name. For the sake of consistency and to organize them together, these names should follow a similar format: "ZWgametypeProject".
On the template page itself, you only need to save the following text. Remember to make the necessary changes for game and typeto the table name. The letter at the end of the category should reflect the first letter of the game's initialism to help sort it (so OoTOcarina of Time would be O, and TotKTears of the Kingdom would be T).
{{#cargo_declare:
_table = ZWgametypeProject
|game = String
|type = String
|article = String
|categorygroup = String
|priority = String
|needs = Wikitext
}}
[[Category:Project Templates Defining Cargo Tables|G]]
Once the page has been saved, the Cargo table must be generated. This is done by following the "Create data table" prompt at the top of the page on desktop. Though this can be done on mobile, it is not recommended as the option is only represented by an icon without text.
Step 3: Quick Links
Quick Links are 200x200px icons made to be used to represent different types of content for games. For instance:
-
ZW QL EoW Characters
The icon for Echoes of Wisdom's characters type
Quick Links icons are not exclusively used for these projects, although they help to serve as a useful baseline for images across the wiki. When making Quick Links icons, it helps to make other templates alongside them. You can view other Quick Links templates here. As with other aspects of this process, Quick Links icons must follow a specific naming convention in order to display properly.
Step 4: Creating a Project Page
A project page should be made for the game you are working on under the Zelda Wiki: namespace. This name should be the full subtitle for the game. For instance, TotKTears of the Kingdom's would be placed under Zelda Wiki:Tears of the Kingdom. Broadly speaking, the contents of the page should follow like this:
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Zelda Wiki:{{game|-}}}}
__TOC__
==Overview==
{{Project Overview/Subpage
|game= game
|type= type
}}
[[Category:Project Pages|G]]
Any instance of game and type should be substituted for the proper equivalents. Also remember to replace the final letter in the category as you did during Step 2.
The Project Overview template is a flexbox container for Project Summary templates, which generate summaries that quantify progress made within each type for the specified game. Any number of the Project Summary template can fit inside the Project Overview template, though these should only be for the corresponding types that have been categorized as the template makes use of both the categories created in Step 1 and the icons made for Step 3. The Project Summary templates will link to the sub-pages you create in Step 5. You may wish to further customize the page, such as by creating a Getting Started sub-section for the Overview section to help provide guidance specific for that game.
Step 5: Creating Project Sub-pages
Sub-pages for projects should be focused on the various types of subjects for those games, such as Bosses, Characters, or Locations. If necessary, you can further subdivide those into their own sub-pages. For instance, Zelda Wiki:Tears of the Kingdom/Locations divides its regions into sub-pages like /Locations/Akkala due to the sheer number of locations present within that game.
Like the project page itself, the sub-page should use the Project Overview container template and a single instance of the Project Summary template that uses the specific type to provide a broad summary of progress. Beneath the Overview section, you can include a Getting Started sub-section that provides information specific to that type. On Zelda Wiki:Tears of the Kingdom/Locations, a boilerplate example of the Checklist template (discussed in Step 6) is provided to help people with properly logging what work needs done.
Finally, in a section titled What Pages Need Help, you can use the Checklist Report template to generate lists of articles within specific category scopes to see what specific work needs to be done. This template separates the pages into two lists: articles that make use of the Checklist template to specify what is left to do, and articles that do not have that information. Articles that lack the Checklist template are listed so that people can add the Checklist template to them and keep documentation on what is left to do for the pages within the defined category range.
{{Checklist Report
|game=
|type=
|category=
}}
Each category used should have its own sub-section with the same name.
Step 6: Getting the Word Out
Once the project pages have been made, there are two things that need to be done. The first is to leave a notice on the listing page for the corresponding type (such as Locations in Tears of the Kingdom) with the Project Blurb template to ensure that people know about the project page. This will link to the project page and include a percentage of the work that has been completed.
{{Project Blurb
|game=
|type=
}}
Finally, pages that are stubs or that still need work should be marked with the Checklist template. As mentioned in Step 5, there are pre-fabricated examples of what to add to pages with corresponding types on each project sub-page. These include brief notes on what is expected for pages, but they can be customized as needed for each page. The goal of this is to help people find work, and then help instruct them on what to do.
{{Checklist
|game=
|type=
|category=
|needs=
}}
