Re: [Semediawiki-user] [SMW-devel] New way to format tabular results?

[Dan B. <dan...@gm...>]

I like this idea too. However, I suspect it will be hard to get MW to
ignore {{{#n}}} just for the purposes of SMW.

Is there a cleaner way to 'inline' a format template in the query?

I totally agree that creating two or three templates for one ask query
is the main reason that template format is a pain.


Cheers,
Dan.

On 28 October 2011 23:18, Jon Lang <dat...@gm...> wrote:
> Dan Bolser wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Currently we have tabular format results and, if we want
>> customization, we have 'template' format results.
>> * Tabular format is great, but is quite inflexible.
>> * Template format is very flexible, but complex, hard to develop and
>> maintain.
>>
>> I'd like to suggest a half way house for simple column based tabular
>> formatting. Something along the lines of the following:
>>
>> {{#ask: [[My Cat]]
>>  |? My prop 1 # Template for p1
>>  |? My prop 2 # Template for p2
>>  |? My prop 3
>>  |? My prop 4 = P4
>> }}
>>
>> For each row, this would call the template 'Template for p1' with just
>> one parameter, the value for 'My prop 1'. The resulting wikitext would
>> then be passed back for regular tabular layout. As implied, these 'per
>> column' templates could be mixed with 'unadorned' values, that would
>> appear just as in regular tabular output.
>>
>> This would be a much lighter and easier way to 'tweak' the results of
>> tabular format without going to the full blown (and sometimes
>> unpopular) template format.
>>
>> I've posted here for discussion, but we can start a feature request
>> instead.
>>
>
> I like this idea, and would like to piggyback a suggestion of my own here.
>
> Sometimes, the reason why the template format is unpopular is because it is
> overkill.  For instance, if you're only going to be formatting a single
> #ask, creating a full template page for it seems like a bit much.  I'd like
> to see an "inline" result format that works just like the template result
> format except that it embeds the template directly into the query.  For
> example:
>
> {{#ask: [[Category:City]] [[Area::+]] [[Population::+]]
>   | ?Population=Inhabitants
>   | ?Area#km²=Size in km²
>   | format=inline
>   | inline={{{#2}}} people squeeze into the {{{#3}}} of {{{#1}}}.
>   | limit=3
> }}
>
> The hash marks inside the triple-curlies are to distinguish these "inline
> template" parameters from any regular template parameters that may be in
> play if the #ask appears on a template page.
>
> This is germane to Dan's proposal in that I would recommend inline templates
> for what he's suggesting rather than regular templates:
>
> {{#ask: [[My Cat]]
>   |? My prop 1 # format string for p1
>   |? My prop 2 # format string for p2
>   |? My prop 3
>   |? My prop 4 = P4
> }}
>
> As with my "inline result format" suggestion above, the value for each
> cell's format would be specified as {{{#1}}}.  So:
>
> {{#ask: [[Category:City]] [[Area::+]] [[Population::+]]
>   | ?Population=Inhabitants # {{{#1}}} people
>   | ?Area#km²=Size in km²
>   | limit=3
> }}
>
> would produce something like:
>
> {|
> ! Inhabitants !! Size in km²
> |-
> | Berlin || 3,391,409 people || 891.85 km²
> |-
> | Frankfurt || 679,664 people || 248.31 km²
> |-
> | Karlsruhe || 285,812 people || 173.46 km²
> |}
>
> If you wish to utilize an actual template page, you can do so using the
> regular wiki syntax for including a template; the only catch is that I think
> that you'd have to explicitly pass the value into the template:
>
> {{#ask: [[My Cat]]
>   |? My prop 1 # {{template for p1|{{{#1}}}}}
>   |? My prop 2 # {{template for p2|{{{#1}}}}}
>   |? My prop 3
>   |? My prop 4 = P4
> }}
>
> --
> Jonathan "Dataweaver" Lang
>