Template talk:Infobox country
Usage
An example from Netherlands:
<!-- BEGIN INFOBOX -->
{{Infobox_Country|
native_name = Koninkrijk der Nederlanden |
common_name = the Netherlands |
image_flag = Netherlands_flag_large.png |
image_coat = Nl-arms.gif |
image_map = LocationNetherlands.png |
national_motto = Je Maintiendrai<br>([[English language|English]]: I will maintain)|
national_anthem = [[Wilhelmus van Nassouwe]] |
official_languages = [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Frisian language|Frisian]] |
capital = [[Amsterdam]], [[The Hague]] is the seat of government |
latd=52|latm=21|latNS=N|longd=04|longm=52|longEW=E|
largest_city = [[Amsterdam]] |
government_type= Democratic constitutional [[monarchy]] |
leader_titles = [[Dutch monarch|Queen]]<br>[[Prime minister of the Netherlands|Prime minister]] |
leader_names = [[Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands|Beatrix]] <br> [[Jan Peter Balkenende]] |
area_rank = 131st |
area_magnitude = 1_E10 |
area=41,526 |
percent_water = 18.41% |
population_estimate = 16,318,199 |
population_estimate_year = 2004 |
population_estimate_rank = 59th |
population_census=—|
population_census_year=—|
population_density = 481 |
population_density_rank=—|
GDP_PPP_year=2003 |
GDP_PPP = $512 billion |
GDP_PPP_rank = 14th |
GDP_PPP_per_capita = $31,548 |
GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = 10th |
sovereignty_type = [[Independence]] |
established_events = - Declared<br/> - Recognised |
established_dates = [[Eighty Years' War]]<br/>[[July 26]], [[1581]]<br/>[[January 30]], [[1648]] (by [[Spain]]) |
currency = [[Euro]] <sup>1</sup> |
currency_code = € EUR |
time_zone= [[Central European Time|CET]] |
utc_offset= +1 |
time_zone_DST= [[Central European Summer Time|CEST]] |
utc_offset_DST= +2 |
cctld= [[.nl]] |
CCTLD= NL |
calling_code = 31 |
footnotes = <sup>1</sup> Prior to [[2001]]: [[Guilder]]
}}
<!-- END INFOBOX -->
Archives: /archive1
Coordinates
I would like to see the capital coordinates wikified using the Coordinates: Missing latitude
Invalid arguments have been passed to the {{#coordinates:}} function template. Is it possible? It would be great to have it wikified. =Nichalp (talk · contribs)= 17:50, May 21, 2005 (UTC)
With the following changes, the infobox would use the coor dm-format:
- Template
- From: {{{capitals_coordinates}}}
- To: {{coor dm|{{{latd}}}|{{{latm}}}|{{{latNS}}}|{{{longd}}}|{{{longm}}}|{{{longEW}}}|type:city}}
- Infobox, e.g. for Chile:
- From: capitals_coordinates = 33° 26′ S 70° 40′ W|
- To: latd=33|latm=26|latNS=S|longd=70|longm=40|longEW=W|
-- User:Docu
- I tried different combinations for New Delhi (Template:India infobox), but it still did not render as a link. =Nichalp (Talk)= 07:07, May 23, 2005 (UTC)
- In my sample above, "Template" is Template:Infobox Country and "Infobox" is the page using it, Chile is such a page.
- Even more confusing, Template:India infobox is also a page using Template:Infobox Country. As you didn't change Template:Infobox Country, you couldn't use the new variables on Template:India infobox.
- Note that if you change Template:Infobox Country, you need to update all other infoboxes (I suppose I could do that by bot).
- I just tried it out with Template:Infobox Country test and Template talk:Infobox Country test . It works BTW. -- User:Docu
- Ok, I'm trying to do it. I just changed the infobox and I'm in process of updating the different country articles (e.g. Argentina). -- User:Docu
- All should be converted by now. Please excuse the lag between the change in the template and its use. - User:Docu
Emblem vs Coat of Arms
In many countries the "coat of arms" is called the "emblem" of the country. I'm not sure if the two could mean the same (but I'm sure there's a clear difference). In the WordWeb dictionary, they have two similar meanings with a subtle difference: "The official symbols of a family, state, etc." as opposed to "Special design or visual object representing a quality, type, group, etc.". Since the current template automatically creates an article page for the [[coat of arms of xx]], is it possible to modify it so that [[emblem of xx]] can also be used? 19:47, May 23, 2005 (UTC)
- There is a difference in meaning. Whilst "coat of arms" refers specifically and exclusively to the "shield" (or "seal") of a nation an emblem is much broader in meaning. Because an "emblem" is defined as a symbol, it can refer to coats of arms, but its use also extends to "faunal emblem" and "floral emblem" etc. --Cyberjunkie 02:40, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
Infobox country test
Since an emblem and coat of arms are vastly different, I've modified the India infobox so that Emblem appears instead of coat of arms. I've linked the India infobox to Template:Infobox Country test instead of Template:Infobox Country. If editing the latter, please update the test infobox too. Thanks, =Nichalp (Talk)= 07:44, May 29, 2005 (UTC)
ISO and IOC country codes
Any interest in including ISO three-letter country codes and IOC's Olympic Games country codes? I have them available as a side effect of {{flag}}: 
USA (SEWilco 17:24, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC))
Spoken languages
Could someone add a "spoken language" box in addition to "official language"? some countries are using it. Thank you. 500LL July 2, 2005 20:25 (UTC)
- I also forget. I think that a "National Emblem" box is also necessary. Thank you 500LL July 2, 2005 21:37 (UTC)
Isn't a national emblem about the same thing as a national coat of arms? Jeltz talk 2 July 2005 22:03 (UTC)
- It's quite differnet. For example see Canada: it's Coat of Arms is different from its national emblem, the maple leaf.500LL July 2, 2005 22:21 (UTC)
- Refer to the above discussion: Template talk:Infobox Country#Emblem vs Coat of Arms.--File:Australia flag large.png Cyberjunkie TALK 9 July 2005 11:27 (UTC)
- I added a major regional languages box. Someone changed the format of the infobox for Philippines article and this resulted in not being able to have the major regional languages listed. --Chris 9 July 2005 08:48 (UTC)
- I have removed your change. While your addition might have merit, it was unwise to simply change the template without prior discussion. Because you did not notify other editors, your change caused the template to appear incomplete in every article bar the Philippines. It might be possible to create a "free label" in which you could have "major regional languages" appear in the template for the Philippines article, and not appear at all in other articles. I'll look into that, unless, of course, someone with greater knowledge of templates volunteers.--File:Australia flag large.png Cyberjunkie TALK 9 July 2005 11:40 (UTC)
- This is the right approach. I don't like this particular addition, but if it gains concensus, the change should be propogated to the articles first, by defining an extra parameter, and then added to the template once that project is complete. -- Netoholic @ 9 July 2005 15:50 (UTC)
- Oh, ok. I apologize. I had no idea. I think I'll find a work around for now à la France. --Chris 9 July 2005 16:45 (UTC)
- I have removed your change. While your addition might have merit, it was unwise to simply change the template without prior discussion. Because you did not notify other editors, your change caused the template to appear incomplete in every article bar the Philippines. It might be possible to create a "free label" in which you could have "major regional languages" appear in the template for the Philippines article, and not appear at all in other articles. I'll look into that, unless, of course, someone with greater knowledge of templates volunteers.--File:Australia flag large.png Cyberjunkie TALK 9 July 2005 11:40 (UTC)
I still request the "Spoken Language" box. Why the template had no effective change? 500LL 13:58, July 14, 2005 (UTC)
Should cctld be raw? eg .nl
I note that the cctld for Netherlands is assigned cctld=.nl, not cctld=nl. I am thinking that it is better to have the raw data in the cctld, and anoint it nicely in the template. I will ponder this for a few days amd hack all if I am not chased away. --NevilleDNZ 15:09, 10 July 2005 (UTC)
What about the other CCTLD variable that is used in the city coordinates section? Why that variable is not in lower case? --Timurberk 19:30, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
Sometimes the cctld=[[.nl]], other times it is plain cctld=nl. Ideally the value would be a plain 'xx' in all the country pages, and annointed with the [[.xx]] from within the template. Maybe this change could be done by a bot, but in the mean time CCTLD is the plain version (it is needed for the Template:coor). --NevilleDNZ 07:37, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
Imperial & metric infobox measurements
I've just noticed that the infobox for the UK & all the subdivisions of that country notes, as with all infoboxes, the land area in Km2 rather than in miles2, which is the official unit of distance measurement in the UK. Does anyone know if this is deliberate or if it is just due to the fact that the infoboxes were created by someone who uses Km as a matter of course & they;ve then been exported to all other countries regardless of whether this is appropriate or not. If it is the latter there really should be a seperate template for countries where imperial measurements are used rather than metric. AllanHainey 13:30, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
- but km should stay, because also people from outside like to read about UK Tobias Conradi (Talk) 11:59, 31 July 2005 (UTC)
- I strongly disagree. We should use the same units in all of the country infoboxes to be consistent. Kilometres is the SI standard and also the most commonly used unit. I think that it's always appropriate to use kilomtres here. I think that the reason for that all numbers are kilomtres is because they originate from the CIA factbook which only uses metric units. If the American goverment uses SI units for all countries why shouldn't we do the same? Jeltz talk 12:19, 31 July 2005 (UTC)
- It was not created by someone who uses kms. kms are the most common measure unit internationally. Even though USA uses miles, the world factbook is in kms perhaps for this very same reaseon. If things would have to vary depending on every country's policy, then articles should also put the GDP in local currency, the area of a country should include territories which are disputed since maps vary depending on what a particular country claims, etc. SpiceMan 06:01, 1 August 2005 (UTC)
- Fair enough, I suppose those who don't use Km can always follow the links find out the conversion factor & then use a calculator to work out the size in miles. Seems awfully convoluted though, is there by any chance a conversion calculator on wikipedia for metric to imperial measurements, I've looked but can't find one, as it'd be a good idea to link to it at the bottom of country info boxes if there is. AllanHainey 08:30, 1 August 2005 (UTC)
- It was not created by someone who uses kms. kms are the most common measure unit internationally. Even though USA uses miles, the world factbook is in kms perhaps for this very same reaseon. If things would have to vary depending on every country's policy, then articles should also put the GDP in local currency, the area of a country should include territories which are disputed since maps vary depending on what a particular country claims, etc. SpiceMan 06:01, 1 August 2005 (UTC)
timezones
Kenya: Moscow time - does not make sense, can this be left empty?
What about linking to pages like UTC-11?
Native name
Should we include the full English name in native_name even if English isn't an official language of the country? --Golbez 23:19, August 8, 2005 (UTC)
- Or, should we add a full_english_name entry? --Golbez 23:40, August 8, 2005 (UTC)
As I have been arguing here and elsewhere, this is an English language encyclopedia, and while I am very far from being an anglocentric, I find it beneficial in terms of layout to provide the reader with the conventional longform in English within the infobox's large font text (the only large text in the article). I will refrain from any further such edits for a few days pending input. Sorry I didn't bring it here first. If in a few days there are no outstanding objections, I will then continue with the layout changes gradually, as I have been doing; i.e. whenever I encounter them on my watchlist. Thanks for reading everyone, and my thanks also goes to Golbez for taking the time to clarify and to advance this issue forward. El_C 00:14, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
- You bring up a good point; I was just countering them because of the standard. (I keep saying that word :P) Adding a "full_english_name" entry into the template might be useful. It would seem bad to put ENGLISH text into the "native_name" entry. You have a point. I just went about it the wrong way. --Golbez 00:16, August 9, 2005 (UTC)
- Thanks, I'm glad you also appreciate it. Yeah, that bothered me, too. Becuase I kept thinking: this isn't actually the native_name. Indeed, it wasn't. My many edit summaries of 'adding conventional longform in English to native_name' must have looked bizzare. :) El_C 00:40, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
- To reiterate and rephrase somewhat: the largest text the average English reader is going to see are going to be undecipherable to them. Whereas with my changes, we ground their attention immediately in informing them —with equale-sized fonts— that, yes, Naxçıvan Muxtar Respublikası translates into Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. El_C 01:03, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
- I'm for a full_english_name field, preferably placed right under the native_name with the same font. KissL 09:18, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
- including the full english name is reundant. this information is already given in bold in the introduction. we don't need to bombard the reader with extra text. --Jiang
- True; then again, the local long form is also typically written out in the introduction. --Golbez 15:11, August 9, 2005 (UTC)
- perhaps native names are best left out of the into because a bunch of unintelligible text in parenthesis might throw some readers off. --Jiang 17:34, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
- We can allow for a little bit of redundancy (having a large text title). What is key is having the reader's attention focused immediately and the English conventional longform makes it simpler to understand what the text/s in the native_name means. El_C 01:57, 13 August 2005 (UTC)
- I am with EL C on this one. FearÉIREANN
\(caint) 05:19, 13 August 2005 (UTC)
- I am with EL C on this one. FearÉIREANN
So, the general(?) consensus seemed to be to do it? I will soon if there are no objections. Having Native name and English name in the header? (Though that does screw things up a bit if the native name IS English... What to do?) --Golbez 05:57, September 8, 2005 (UTC)
Multiple Currencies
Cuba has two offical currencies, the Cuban peso and the Cuban convertible peso which do not have a fixed rate of exchange between the two. I'm trying to convert the Cuban infobox template to use this template. However, a straightforward data entry causes a problem with the currency coding. The dual currency thing (one floating and the other convertible at a fixed rate to hard currencies) have been done before, and back in the days of gold and silver it was not ususual for a country to mint both gold and silver coins without establishing a fixed ratio between them, so while Cuba is the only country that has dual currencies at the momment, it isn't the only one to have done so. So anyway, what do people here suggest, that I kludge the entries for Cuba or that the template be adjusted to allow for multiple currencies? Caerwine 16:58, 12 August 2005 (UTC)
China also had two currencies in the 1990s. The FEC (foreign exchange coupon) and the Chinese yuan "renminbi". Tourists were only offically allowed to be issued FEC which was offically 1:1 with the renminbi. But then actual street value was nearer 1:5. NevilleDNZ 01:21, 13 August 2005 (UTC)
I went with the kludge for now, but I may consider adjusting this template if I can think of a good way of doing so. Caerwine 15:16, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
Human Development Index
Why has the above field been added? User:Nichalp/sg 11:55, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
Greetings! Why not? The HDI is a standard, synthetic measure produced annually by the UN to gauge the level of economic, educational, and human development in countries worldwide. And for a visitor who doesn't exactly know what it is, the link will take them to the relevant article. I do not propose to add every index that's comparative (e.g., Gini coefficient, etc.), but the HDI is at least authoritative. Moreover, I'd entertain suggestions about how to expeditiously and easily add this field in without manually adding them to all country's templates. Thoughts and feedback are appreciated. Thanks! E Pluribus Anthony 20:12, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
- It's far beyond the basic info required in an infobox. It offers no more info than the GDP section does, unless there's some weird country out there with a tiny per-capita GDP but a huge life expectancy and literacy rate, or vice versa. It's just not useful that I can see. And there is no way to do it except to manually add it to all the templates, there are no suggestions that can be made apart from doing it, but please discuss new additions first, otherwise it just smacks of political activism. --Golbez 21:03, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
- Thanks for the reply. Hmmm. I disagree. The HDI is a basic measure that will allow a visitor to gage how developed a nation is: I imagine most people have heard of developed countries and developing countries. And I think some would be surprised that various Gulf states, for instance, are highly developed and that the United States isn't at the peak. If the index itself is too cryptic or complex, similar categories could replace them (as the HDI is split into segments containing countries with high, medium, and low levels of development).
- In addition, GDP figures can be used for political purposes and is not necessarily the best indicator of what a country is all about: the concept of purchasing power parity is likely far beyond the understanding of most visitors too (and, as part of the HDI, gives a better indication of economic 'strength').
- Lastly, I do not think inclusion of this index amounts to political activism: I was REALLY eager to include something I think of benefit to visitors, so forgive my zealousness. Separately, how is a country's calling code relevant or substantial in the infobox? Moreover, what was the process to put that or other infobox fields in place? It would be interesting to put this issue to an online vote or similar, which may sway me more this or that way. Feedback is encouraged. Thanks! E Pluribus Anthony 01:57, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
I agree with Golbez that this should have first been discussed, but I find the charge of "political activism" a bit odd. I noticed this being done but was disinclined to raise the issue on the talk page because I think it a worthy inclusion. However, additions to the infobox need to be discussed beforehand both so support can be garnered, and so its implementation can be speedy. --Cyberjunkie | Talk 04:56, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
- I was in a bad mood. I apologize for the charge.
- As for why calling code and not HDI - Calling code is information. Capital is info, president is info, GDP is info, GDP rank is a natural rank derived from that single info, Area is info. HDI is a rank, nothing more. I don't like the precedent of adding composite ranks into infoboxes - only info and basic ranks should be there. --Golbez 07:07, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks; again, I apologise for making changes without discussion. I do believe, though, that a visitor's understanding of a country can be enhanced by including some reference to HDI (numerically, categorically, or both) in the infobox.
My question regarding calling code does not challenge that it is information per se, but its pertinence and relevance in the box and how it got there. There are likely more qualified -- not to mention quantitative -- tidbits of information which can be included: a glance in any almanac will review a wealth (pardon the pun) of information. The HDI is just as valid a bit of information and it is in and of itself not a rank, it's an index which can be ranked. IMHO ... E Pluribus Anthony 08:35, 18 September 2005 (UTC)