[Mediawiki-l] Comments and Parameters on Templates

[Rodney Morris]

I've two issues I've been bashing my head against for the last few days
and finally decided to put it out to the list as a whole.  I'm working
on an increasingly complex template and I'm hoping you guys might be
able to provide some easy answers.
 
1) Is it possible to put comments into a template?  Something that will
only show up on the edit screen for the template, not on the 'view' tab
and not when the template is used?
 
2) Is it possible to assign a parameter value to a parameter within the
template?  Basically, what I'm trying to do is to use an ifeq statement
to provide output based on one of three possible parameter values.  For
example:
 
Let's assume the only parameter passed from the calling page is a value
for "pet".  The two values expected are "dog" or "fish".  If the
parameter value passed is "dog", then I'd want to assign breathes=air,
legs=4 and teeth=yes.  If the parameter value from 'pet' is "fish", I'd
want breathes=water, legs=0 and teeth=none.  Later on in the same
template, I'd want to put the values for breathers, legs and teeth into
a table.
 
Now I know I could just put the ifeq statement within the cell in the
table, but that's going to quickly get repetitive and cumbersome,
resulting in a vary nasty and complex page under the 'edit' tab.  I'm
hoping for something a bit more elegant and efficient.
 
Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
 
R. William Morris
Lucifer at infernaldreams.com