Help with Infoboxes
The infobox is used as a general information box to display on pages, particularly ones relating to brands and operators.
The purpose of an infobox is to give all the vital information people might need to know. For a long time Google has taken information from it (their algorithm struggles to read the main text but can process the table easily), but now other robotic assistants are doing this too.
The following infoboxes are used on this website. Each link contains a list of all the acceptable variables:
- Template:Infobox for brands and operators.
- Template:Services for existing, closed and under construction service areas (the most popular template).
- Template:Planned for proposed service areas that may not be carried through.
- Template:Unbuilt for dropped proposals that somehow warrant their own page.
It's worth noting that the Services infobox often stretches away from just its own box, to all three/four orange boxes displayed across the top of the page. All four can also handle hidden data that affects where the page is filed, or what the search engine knows about it.
Code
Each infobox uses a similar format, the same as any other template. The format will be familiar to anybody who has been using the source editor, and that's the easiest way to copy-and-paste existing templates as a starting point.
If you're using the visual editor, you won't need to worry about the code, as when you tap to edit the infobox it will tell you what each variable does anyway. However for the record, that code often looks like this:
{{Infobox
|colour = #ED1B2D
|image = Popham_Little_Chef.jpg
|locations = 177
|accompaniedby = [[Coffee Tempo!]], [[Travelodge]]
}}