Template:Article history

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This template combines all the "content milestone"-related templates into one, to reduce clutter on talk pages, and make it less confusing when an article has had multiple FACs, FARs or been demoted and repromoted etc. Good Article status, Articles for Deletion, Peer reviews and WikiProject reviews can also be included. If the article is moved, the actions within the milestones do not usually need to also be moved; the template tacks the milestone actions for an article through article moves and name changes.

This template cannot be used for placing Good article nominations on hold or for nominating articles for processes such as Featured article candidate, Good article candidate, Peer review or Featured article review, and should never be used for processes that are still in progress; items are only added to the template after they are closed.

The parameter |currentstatus= controls what text appears at the top of the box. If the article is a GA, |topic= is needed to show the article topic within the top of the box. A set of up to twenty parameters of the form |action1=|action1date=|action1link=|action1result=|action1oldid= produces a row in the history section at the bottom of the box. Action1 refers to the earliest event.

Syntax

Note: DO NOT put HTML comments inside this template.

A simple use would typically include:

{{Article history
| action1       = 
| action1date   = 
| action1link   = 
| action1result = 
| action1oldid  = 

| currentstatus = 
| topic         = <!--If the article is a GA-->
}}

More complex uses might include other fields:

{{Article history
| action1       = 
| action1date   = 
| action1link   = 
| action1result = 
| action1oldid  = 

| action2       = 
| action2date   = 
| action2link   = 
| action2result = 
| action2oldid  = 

| currentstatus = 
| itndate       = 
| dykdate       = 
| dykentry      = 
| dyknom        = 
| topic         = 
| collapse      = 
}}

Most syntax errors place the talk page in Category:Article history templates with errors. After adding Article history or adding/removing a milestone, please check the bottom of the talk page for this error category.

How to use in practice

Process	actionX	actionXdate	actionXlink	actionXresult	actionXoldid	Possible current statuses
Featured content process
Featured article candidate	FAC	Date ended	Link to FAC page	One of promoted or failed	oldid number of version.	FFAC/FA/FFA
Featured article review	FAR	Date ended	Link to FAR page	One of kept or removed	oldid number of version.	FA/FFA
Refreshing brilliant prose	RBP	Date ended	Link to RBP page	One of kept or removed	oldid number of version.	FA/FFAC
Brilliant prose	BP	Date nominated	N/A	nominated	oldid number of version.
Featured list candidate	FLC	Date ended	Link to FLC page	One of promoted or failed	oldid number of version.	FFLC/FL/FFL
Featured list removal candidate	FLR	Date ended	Link to FLR page	One of kept or removed	oldid number of version.	FL/FFL
Featured topic candidate	FTC	Date ended	Link to FTC page	One of promoted or failed	oldid number of version.	Any. See ftname below if promoted
Featured topic removal candidate	FTR	Date ended	Link to FTR page	One of kept or removed	oldid number of version.	Any. Do not include ftname
Good article process
Good article nomination	GAN	Date ended	Talk:Name of article/GA1	One of listed or failed	oldid number of version.	FGAN/GA/DGA or any FA code
Good article reassessment	GAR	Date ended	Link in talk page archive where reassessment ended, or to GAR archive entry	One of kept, delisted, or listed	oldid number of version.	GA/DGA or any FA code
Good topic candidate	GTC	Date ended	Link to GTC page	One of promoted or failed	oldid number of version.	Any. See ftname below if promoted
Peer reviews
Wikipedia:Peer review	PR	Date ended	Link to PR page	leave blank or use Reviewed or Not reviewed	oldid number of version.	N/A
WikiProject Peer review	WPR	Date ended	Link to PR page	leave blank or use reviewed	oldid number of version.	N/A
(Any stable or approved version) Defunct process			Project page	approved	oldid number is required.
A Wikiproject collaboration			Project or "collaboration of the week" page	collaborated	oldid number of version.
WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors			Link to GoCE subpage	copyedited	oldid number of version.
WikiProject A-class review	WAR	Date ended	Link to PR page	One of approved or failed or kept or demoted	oldid number of version.	N/A
Deletion processes
Articles for deletion	AFD	Date ended	Link to AFD page	One of kept, deleted, merged, no consensus, speedily kept, speedily deleted, redirected, or renamed	oldid number of version.	N/A
Proposed deletion	PROD	Date ended	N/A	One of kept, deleted, speedily kept, speedily deleted, redirected, afd (sent to articles for deletion), or renamed	oldid number of version.	N/A
Deletion review	DRV	Date ended	Link to DRV archive of that date	One of endorsed, relisted, overturned, or no consensus	oldid number of version.	N/A
Miscellaneous
Main Page Date	maindate	Date the article appeared (or will appear) on the Main Page as Today's featured article or Today's featured list. You can use the parameter maindate2 for a subsequent date.
In the news	itndate	Date the article appeared in the In the news column on the Main Page. The parameters itn2date, itn3date, etc. can be used for subsequent dates.
	itnlink	ITN entries from January 2005 or later are automatically linked to the relevant archive page. However, if you want to link an older ITN entry, or if you want to link an ITN entry to a custom page, you can use this parameter to do so. The parameters itn2link, itn3link, etc. can be used to link entries for subsequent dates. Links to a specific historical version of Template:In the news should specify its permanent link.
Did you know	dykdate	Date the article appeared in the Did you know? column on the Main Page. The parameters dyk2date, dyk3date, etc. can be used for subsequent dates.
	dykentry	The text of the entry of the DYK hook, including the three periods. dyk2entry, dyk3entry, etc. can be used for subsequent entries.
	dyknom	Link to DYK nomination page.
	dykignoreerror	Don't add DYKs with missing or invalid entries to Category:Pages with a missing DYK entry or Category:Pages with a malformed DYK entry.
On this day	otddate	Date the article appeared in the "On this day" column on the Main Page. The parameters otd2date, otd3date, etc. can be used for subsequent dates.
	otdoldid	The oldid of the anniversary page revision that links to the article. To find the anniversary page, go to What links here and enter the mainspace article. Find a link that contains "Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries"; it will be followed by the month name in which the anniversary takes place. Look in the history of that page to find the oldid. (For more details about using oldids, see #How to find and use oldid below, but note that Dr pdf's tool does not yet work for "On this day" oldid parameters.) You can also use the parameters otd2oldid, otd3oldid, etc. for subsequent revisions.
	otdlink	A custom link containing information about the anniversary. The otdoldid parameters should generally be preferred to this, but it can be used if you do wish to link to a specific oldid. otd2link, otd3link, etc. can be used for subsequent links.
Four award	four	=yes if the article has received a Four Award; otherwise, do not use
Article Collaboration and Improvement Drive	aciddate	Week that the article was selected as the ACID article. (The process has been closed and is now inactive.)
Good/Featured Topic	ftname	The name of the series in which the article is a good/featured topic; do not use for failed or demoted topics
Good/Featured Topic Main Article	ftmain	=yes if the article is the main article in the good/featured topic; do not use for failed or demoted topics
2nd Good/Featured Topic	ft2name	The name of the second series in which the article is a good/featured topic; do not use for failed or demoted topics
2nd Good/Featured Topic Main Article	ft2main	=yes if the article is the main article in the second good/featured topic; do not use for failed or demoted topics
3rd Good/Featured Topic	ft3name	The name of the third series in which the article is a good/featured topic; do not use for failed or demoted topics
3rd Good/Featured Topic Main Article	ft3main	=yes if the article is the main article in the third good/featured topic; do not use for failed or demoted topics
Good article topic	topic	The main topic of a good article. Use one of the following: agriculture: agriculture, food, drink art: art, architecture engtech: engineering, technology, computing, transport geography: geography, places history: history, archaeology, royalty, nobility, heraldry langlit: languages, linguistics, literature maths: math drama: drama, film, television, theater, dance music: music, albums, songs natsci: natural sciences, biology, medicine, chemistry, physics philrelig: philosophy, religion, mythology socsci: social sciences, culture, education, law, psychology, politics, journalism sports: sports, recreation, games video games: video games, computer games warfare: warfare, military
Collapse option	collapse	=yes to always collapse the list of actions; =no to never collapse it. The default is to collapse the list of actions when it contains four or more items.
Current Status
	FA	Featured article
	FFA	Former featured article
	FFA/GA	Former featured article which is now a Good article
	FFAC	Failed featured article candidate
	FFAC/GA	Failed featured article candidate which is currently a good article
	FL	Featured list
	FFL	Former featured list
	FFLC	Failed featured list candidate
	GA	Good article which is not a former featured article
	DGA	Delisted good article which is not a former featured article
	FGAN	Failed good article nominee which is not a former featured article
	FPO	Featured portal
	FFPO	Former featured portal
	FFPOC	Former featured portal candidate

FAC and FAR are not valid statuses, because it is necessary for maintenance that {{FAC}} and {{FAR}} be kept separate.

Example

Example for Talk:Fermi paradox:

{{Article history
| action1       = FAC
| action1date   = 00:44, 12 June 2004
| action1link   = Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Fermi paradox/archive1
| action1result = Promoted
| action1oldid  = 4164969

| action2       = FAR
| action2date   = 02:55, 23 April 2006
| action2link   = Wikipedia:Featured article removal candidates/Fermi paradox
| action2result = Demoted
| action2oldid  = 49669714

| action3       = PR
| action3date   = 09:31, 28 April 2006
| action3link   = Wikipedia:Peer review/Fermi paradox/archive1
| action3oldid  = 50428052

| action4       = FAC
| action4date   = 22:10, 27 June 2006
| action4link   = Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Fermi paradox/archive2
| action4result = Promoted
| action4oldid  = 60821005

| action5       = FAR
| action5date   = 14:17, 13 September 2010
| action5link   = Wikipedia:Featured article review/Fermi paradox/archive1
| action5result = removed
| action5oldid  = 384447156

| maindate      = 13 January 2005
| currentstatus = FFA
}}

How to find and use oldid

Further information: Wikipedia:Permanent link

The "oldid" is a several-digit number which refers to the exact version of the page at the time of that particular action. This version can then be viewed when a user clicks on the date in the list of milestones. If the oldid is not provided, a bot can determine it from the action date.

There are multiple ways to obtain an oldid. For example, while looking at a page's history, it should be possible to hover the mouse over the date of a particular change, and then the URL will appear at the bottom of the window in the browser's status bar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=89723590

In the above example, the final number, 89723590 is what should be used in the oldid field.

This number can also be obtained by stepping through the diffs in an article's history, and looking for the oldid in the URL line.

Errors

This template can produce a number of errors. These are categorised into Category:Article history templates with errors. Explanation of individual errors is given below.

Invalid date

This error occurs when a date is specified, but the date isn't recognized as being valid. If in doubt, use the format "d Month YYYY" (for example, "4 June 2010"). If the date looks correct to you, but you still get this error, you might have inserted an invisible control character at the beginning or end of the date. This can happen when you copy and paste a timestamp. Try pressing backspace after you've pasted; if you hit backspace but the cursor doesn't move, you just deleted a control character.

The date recognition in the template relies on the #time parser function, so for all the technical details of what is allowed see the #time documentation on mediawiki.org.

No date parameter

When certain parameter prefixes are followed by a number, e.g. "action4", "dyk2" or "otd3", a date parameter must also be specified, e.g. "action4date", "dyk2date" or "otd3date". This works for parameter names like "action4x", "dyk2abc" and "otd3blah" as well. If you get this error, then you must provide the correct date parameter, or remove all the other parameters with that prefix.

Featured article candidates

The status "FAC" is treated as invalid, as there is a specialized template, Template:Fac, for nominating articles for Featured status. Using two templates would mean more maintenance work. While the featured article candidacy is underway, simply leave this template with the old status. Then a bot will update the {{article history}} template when the featured article candidacy discussion is closed.

Featured article review

The status "FAR" is treated as invalid for similar reasons as FAC above. Instead of using this template to record featured article reviews, you should use the specialized template, Template:FAR, instead. While the review candidacy is underway, simply leave this template with the old status. Then a bot will update the {{article history}} template when the review discussion is closed.

WikiProject assessments

Article ratings such as "B", "C", "Start" and "Stub" are made by individual WikiProjects. Although these ratings are often the same between WikiProjects, they don't have to be: projects are entirely free to rate an article as "C" that others might rate as "Start", for example. For this reason, these kinds of ratings shouldn't be added to the article history template.

Invalid status

This error occurs if you specify a current status with the |currentstatus= parameter, but the status code that you used was not recognized by the template. See above for a list of valid status codes.

Former featured articles

Former featured articles always have a current status. Depending on the history of the article, that could be any of "FA", "FL", "FFA", "FFL", "FFA/GA", or "GA". ("GA" is automatically converted to "FFA/GA".) You need to use one of these values for the |currentstatus= parameter, otherwise one of the errors above will be triggered. Alternatively, if the article is not really a former featured article, you will need to fix the action parameter that says that the article was demoted at featured article review (FAR).

Featured topic names

If you specify the parameter "ftmain", "ft2main", etc., or just anything starting with "ft" and a number, then the template assumes you want to add information about a featured topic. These errors occur if you specify one of these parameters, but don't specify the appropriate name parameter. For "ftmain", that would be "ftname", and for "ft2main", that would be "ft2name". Other parameters starting with "ft" are probably a mistake, so check your spelling. (Also, you should use "ftname", not "ft1name", but "ft2name", "ft3name" etc. are fine.)

Missing icon

This is an error in the module configuration. Please notify the maintainer at Template talk:Article history.

Action codes

Every action needs an action code for the template to know what the valid results are, what the default link label should be, and other things. For example, for a featured article candidacy the action code is "FAC", and for peer review the action code is "PR". These codes go in the parameters "action1", "action2", "action3", etc. If you include a parameter like "action3result" but don't include an "action3" parameter, or if you include an action code that isn't recognized, you get one of these errors. To fix them, check the spelling of your parameters, check that you have an action code for every action that you have included, and check the list of valid action codes above to see that you have the right one.

No actions

Article history templates where a current status is supplied must also have actions supplied. This is because for an article to have a current status in the first place, some kind of action must have occurred for it to reach that status. For example, articles with a current status of FA (featured article) must have gone through the action FAC (featured article candidates). To fix this error, either add the appropriate actions, or if the article does not have a current status, remove the |currentstatus= parameter.

Action results

Most actions (but not all) require a result code. For example, the "FAC" action has two possible results, "promoted" and "failed". Please see the table of actions and results above for valid values. If you fail to specify a result parameter for an action that requires it, or if you specify an invalid result code, then you will get one of these errors. You may also get this error if you supplied an action parameter such as "action1", "action2" etc. by mistake: if this is the case, just remove the parameter.

Invalid oldid

It is optional, but recommended, to specify an oldid for all of the actions in the template. This is done by using the parameters "action1oldid", "action2oldid", etc. If any of these values is not a number, or if that number is zero or lower, or is not a whole number, then you will get this error. To fix it, either specify a valid oldid or remove the parameter.

See also

• Template:WikiProject banner shell - For combining and collapsing multiple WikiProject banners
• Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-03-24/Dispatches, Taming talk page clutter

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Article history/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.