Difference between revisions of "Vogons Wiki:Adding a device"

Revision as of 18:49, 18 March 2016

To add a device to the wiki, simply create a new page for it. By adding the appropriate infoboxes to the page, it will be automatically categorised, and will appear on various lists of devices throughout the wiki.

Create a device page

Create a new article for the device you wish to add. The title should be of the form Manufacturer Model, for example Shugart SA800-2. Spaces are fine, such as Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16.

Try to use an official name where possible, and choose a name that will be the most descriptive. The idea is that if you get multiple similar devices (such as two video cards) you can create separate pages for them even though they may use the same chipset. Don't worry too much about the name, as the page can always be renamed later - however all the images will also have to be renamed so you can save a little effort by choosing a good name to begin with.

Copy an existing similar device

Find a device that is similar to the one you wish to add, edit the page, and copy all the wikicode to your new page. This will give you all the infoboxes prefilled, so you will only have to change them as needed.

If you need more information or you aren't sure how to add a new item to the infobox, have a look at all the available infoboxes. Each one provides a list of parameters you can include. If you aren't sure how to add a particular piece of information, you can ask on the infobox's talk page and someone will let you know.

Check infobox

Preview the page, and make sure there are no exclamation marks appearing in the infobox. If so you will either need to correct the infobox (perhaps a typo) or the infobox might need a new option added, if the type of device you are adding has a feature that is new to the wiki. You can either fix your mistake or add the new item as needed. If you read the help for the infobox (from the previous step) you should see how to add new options to the infoboxes.

Upload images

Once you've populated the infobox, it's time to upload images. If you don't have any images handy you can upload them later, but the wiki really shines when each device has photos. First, find a similar device and click on the equivalent image you intend to upload. You will see a page for the image itself, which you can edit to see the wikicode for. This code puts the image in the appropriate categories so it is important to put the same code on and images you upload. It will look something like this:

[[Accton EN1650]] top view

[[Category:Ethernet card images]]

Copy this code, and paste it into the description for the images you want to upload, and update the device model with the name you chose earlier. The category should be correct already, assuming you picked a device photo for the same type of device you are adding!

Notes

After you have added a new device or changed its infobox, there is some time lag before the device lists on the rest of the wiki will update. You can manually trigger an update by editing a page and then immediately saving it again without changing anything (leaving the edit summary blank). This special edit won't affect the page history but will simply refresh the page. If your device does not appear after doing this, the data in the infobox will need correcting.

Updating every single list of devices in this manner is not necessary - after a few minutes to an hour the wiki will have refreshed all the device lists automatically.