Forum:Questions about Wiki related stuff.

The Help Desk has moved

The Help Desk forum has been closed, and a new Help Desk has been opened at The Sims Wiki:Help desk. Please refer all questions and requests for assistance to that page instead of the Help Desk forum.

---

This page is being kept for archival purposes. Please do not edit the contents of this page.

Forums: Index → Help desk → Questions about Wiki related stuff. | Post

Hello,

First of all sorry for the odd title. As you may or may not know I'm the admin of The Dutch Sims Wiki. And I'm working on the layout and other Wiki related stuff for quite a while. Just some things I can't figure out and I hope that some people can help me answer these questions;

• I copied this welcome message (for anon's, users and staff members) translated them and put them on the site. However they won't show up an still result in this message. Does somebody have a clue what I'm doing wrong?
• How do you edit the talk page so the summary box will become the title box, and it won't give you a double warning. (again I copied this one and made it like this, that's why there is a second one I guess, but how do I remove the 'original one'?

This is it for now, I simply can't remember the rest. But I do have a lot of more. Hopefully you are willing to help me.

Tiezel (talk) 22:57, February 7, 2013 (UTC)

• This page might be able to help you out with the welcome tool. Have you checked the appropriate MediaWiki pages just in case it's accidently disabled? It looks to me that you've done everything else correctly.
• Last time I checked that happens when you click the "Add section/New section/Add topic" button. A temporary workaround could be to append ?action=edit&section=new to the end of the URL but I'm not too sure how it works on the MediaWiki front.

Hope this helps! Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 23:03, February 7, 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, the page helped me a lot. We had a message board and I didn't set any welcome message for that one. I simply changed it. For the other question; how do you make the add topic/leave a message button on a page then?

Also; How do you make the 'add license' appear on image pages? (For example the green bar on this page).

Tiezel (talk) 09:15, February 10, 2013 (UTC)

If you want the "new section" button there permanently, you can add __NEWSECTIONLINK__ to the top of whatever page you want to add it to. As for the "add license" feature, we're using some JavaScript to achieve that which you can find here and you're welcome to make a copy and adapt it to your own needs (such as if you're using a different licensing template). Just remember that the \n character between the header and the template is required for it to work properly as it adds a new line. If you need help adapting the script, should you choose to do so, then I'm more than happy to help. :) Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 12:01, February 10, 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, you've been a great help really. Another question, how do you change your url to htpp://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_Wiki (in our case it would become nl.sims.wikia/wiki/De_Sims_Wiki I guess), because now it's saying Hoofdpagina (main page). I thought it was something at the MediaWiki namespace, but it didn't seem to work.. Tiezel (talk) 21:46, February 19, 2013 (UTC)

You should be able to edit MediaWiki:Mainpage with that and then De Sims Wiki should be your default main page. Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 21:51, February 19, 2013 (UTC)

I came up with another question, haha >.< Is it possible to change whatever it says in the emails send by wikia to users? (for instance if someone follows a page and someone else made changes on it). Here you always get a nice layout, and I think ours is a little messy.. And another one, is it possible to change the "Search this wiki" bar? Because here it says Search The Sims Wiki. I thought it was somewhere in MediaWiki as well, but when I changed it nothing happend.. Tiezel (talk) 10:35, March 10, 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure if it's possible to change the email content, can't say I ever tried. As for the search bar, try editing MediaWiki:Tooltip-search and see if that does anything. Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 11:27, March 10, 2013 (UTC)

Yes I tried editing that already, still it gives the same standard thingy. Ah wait, I just opened another browser and it does seem to work there. Tiezel (talk) 12:10, March 10, 2013 (UTC)

And I'm here again with a question :') For some reason in my {{Simbio3}} template the favorites all create extra space (for example with Bella Goth)) Did I mess something up in my Simbio or maybe even my {{Sim}} template, or the templates related to the favorites (they are named the same as the ones on here)? How can I fix it or can someone fix it for me? Tiezel (talk) 21:32, March 17, 2013 (UTC)

We're having a similar trouble with the trait parameters whenever the infobox is used outside mainspace or fanon namespace. :/ I would suspect it has something to do with the categorizing template, but I can't find anything wrong. Maybe try avoiding extra whitespaces in your templates? Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 10:41, March 23, 2013 (UTC)

April

I thought on keeping it a little clearer a new headline would help. Thanks for the great help so far, I (still) have some questions;

• Does this Wiki hide the Read More bar, or is it just not showing up here? If it is, how do you do that?
• I'm still wondering about the e-mail question. I found a MediaWiki about it (ofcourse now I can't find it anymore) but the page on here was deleted suggesting it wasn't relevant anymore. So I assume there has to be another page, or another system or anything?
• The extra space in my {{Simbio3}} template bothers me as well.

And another question that is actually Sims related.

• How can you see (for example in SimPE) if a Sim is a pre-made townie/npc etc? Is there an easy way? And is it also possible to see from which EP they are?

Thanks alot for your help (:
Tiezel (talk) 10:24, April 3, 2013 (UTC)

• Which "Read More" bar are you talking about, as I've never seen one? Although, someone could've customized the wiki to disable the button. There used to be a clock at the top of the bar too, I think.
• I can't seem to help much about this, unless you want to bother looking at this list of pages with MediaWiki namespace.
• If you're talking about the Simbio3 template in this wiki, not yours, I actually found it bothersome as well. The extra space, however, will not appear if it's used or transcluded to any Sim pages, as long as editors input the correct trait name. Otherwise it will show the extra space again. It will also if it's used in pages other than mainspace and fanon namespace. I really have no idea how to handle that.
• You can find premade townies/NPCs in their respective neighborhoods. For example, the Downtownies Sim files can be found in Nightlife neighborhood subfolder. Looking with SimPE with Sim Browser, you can see which Sims are there. Or in TS3, all worlds except Sunset Valley and Riverview has XML files in the world file. This is usually helpful to see who's where, except Bridgeport, since their reference names (as seen in XML) are very different than the ones in-game.

- Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 13:53, April 3, 2013 (UTC)

• For example, a random page at our wiki Strangetown, at the bottom of the page it says Meer lezen (read more) and suggests other neighborhoods, while this wiki doesn't have that.
• I found it again this is yours, but like I said they deleted it because it was no longer required, meaning that something else is used right now? I found on the wikia community this page, but it just claims to still use the same thing. And it makes sense because ours look like that as well. Still it would be weird considering you don't only get messages when a page has changed but also when it gets comments etc.
• The weird thing is that our Sim templates ARE used in the 'normal' namespace. I might need to check the template again I guess..
• Thanks for helping me on this one, its really usefull! For The Sims 2: how can I view the townies etc. of the pre-made neighborhoods? I can't seem to open them the same way as Downtown for example. Also, do these files only contain pre-made Sims? so it won't show any Sims later added by the game?
  

Tiezel (talk) 14:19, April 6, 2013 (UTC)

• I'm not really sure who configured this one, so I can't help you with this. Sorry. :/
• It does seem to be deleted, but it looks like it's still there. That's the message sent to my email every time a page I'm following has been edited. Are you sure that's deleted? Because I think it still works normally.
  
  Also, is that the MediaWiki page you were asking about?
• I've checked your templates once or twice, but I really can't tell what's wrong with that. Try narrowing down the problem by checking the template that's used in that Sim infobox template.

• If you want to make sure you're looking for premade Sims, go to the game folder in your installation directory, for example: C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods, go to the neighborhood you're looking for, and open the Nxxx_Neighborhood.package with SimPE. That's where the original files of the neighborhood is located, so it can come in handy when you want to restart a neighborhood (which means they're all untouched premades). Remember, it's the directory of your installation folder, not My Documents!
  
  After that, use the Sim Browser to see the list of residents there. You can filter your Sims in the Sim Browser: playable, townies, NPCs, and uneditable. Tick townies to see townies of your neighborhood. That's the example of Belladonna Cove. Notice the directory. Try opening the neighborhood file by browsing the game folder manually, not using the Neighborhood Browser, because it will browse your saved neighborhoods instead. I assume you know the basics of SimPE? Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 15:35, April 6, 2013 (UTC)

• Hmm too bad, but thanks anyway!
• I still can't really seem to figure it out. I made two screenshots of both English and Dutch emails to make it more clear to show you what's 'bothering' me (because as always I'm being unclear). Their appearence is visibly different besides the difference in language, but the MediaWiki page seems to look the same.. It was the page I mentioned earlier yes.

• Hmm, thanks. I will just try some stuff.
• Thanks about this! Helped me alot :D I know my SimPe yeah, haha!
  

Tiezel (talk) 19:11, April 17, 2013 (UTC)

I'll skip now for the issue #2. I still can't tell what's bothering you, but is it that:

1. There are too many links there? Or
2. They appear in full page link, but you only want the short titles linking to the revision, like "click here" in English version?

As far as I can tell, what appears in your email is exactly like what's written in MediaWiki:Enotif body. :/ Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 15:20, April 18, 2013 (UTC)

Yes they appear as full links and I prefer the click here thing you mentioned. The MediaWiki indeed looks exactly like our email, but it doesn't look like the emails I get from this wiki and they're using the same MediaWiki (if this makes it any clearer). Tiezel ^(talk) curious? 14:21, May 5, 2013 (UTC)

Okay, now I see it. It seems that $NEWPAGE is what handles it. Unfortunately, I don't know how to customize that. I think it might depend on the language. You might need to contact one of the wikia staff for that. :/ I'm sorry for the trouble making you explain it that much. Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 06:43, May 9, 2013 (UTC)

May

That's ok, thanks anyway, I have two more questions.

• How can I fix this so the whole chart is visible? And why is it like this in the first place? Because it's too wide?
• Another Sims question, this time The Sims 3 related. Is it possible to see in S3PE Sim details like in SimPE for The Sims 2? And is it possible to see all Townies and NPC's in there as well? If so, how? I tried to find it but I couldn't..

Tiezel ^(talk) curious? 17:42, May 16, 2013 (UTC)

• • Sometimes it just happens that way if you don't specify the width of the table. It can also happen if one row is too long the table width cannot be squeezed to fit the page. My suggestion is that you add width=100% next to class="wikitable" at the top of the table, as well as remove all style="padding: px;" in each table cell. It's the padding that forces the column width to leave some blank spaces.
  • No, it can't. You can't view the entire population using S3PE, unlike SimPE, unfortunately. :/ The best you can do is to look at the XML resource in the .world file. Even though, not all information is displayed there, so details like favorites and biography are excluded. Also, this can only be done with EA worlds, excluding Sunset Valley and Riverview. :/ Providing Sim information is a lot more difficult in TS3 than TS2. Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 16:22, May 17, 2013 (UTC)

really late reply. I found the XML files and they are indeed showing every Sim huisehold, sim, townie, npc etc. But.. I only found them in English.. would you have a clue how I can find the ones in my language? (Dutch) Tiezel ^(talk) curious? 15:48, July 9, 2013 (UTC)

No, sorry, and I didn't realize that too. The XML file only contains trivial information anyway (like skills or traits), which means you can read it even if it's not in your language. If it's the game strings (STBL), it's a different thing. Do you have any particular reason why you need other languages? Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 07:15, July 11, 2013 (UTC)

September

Woosssh, I kinda came up with a new question >.<

So, we have different Sims and families changing names in the Dutch version of the game. On the French wiki  the Sim template can display a name and display another header if necessary. Now I'd like this the same and I've found out how, but that means that I have to edit back ALL the sim- and familypages to add an header to their pages. Is it possible to seperate the header and names but let the header display the name of the Sim if there is no header input? I don't want the header to have the PAGENAME, as some Sims will have their pagename with (burglar) or (Sunset Valley) for example.

Sorry for explaining this like crap >.<

Also my old question about viewing the whole Simpopulation in my own language for The Sims 3 isn't solved yet, this is important for the neighborhood information on the Dutch wiki, as townies names sometimes differ from the English version. (To answer Nikel after two months..xD)

Thank you so much for the help. Tiezel ^(talk) curious? 14:07, September 29, 2013 (UTC)

It should be possible to have different header and Sim's name. You don't have to make any edits in {{Sim}}, but rather, templates that use it, e.g. {{Sim3}}, {{Sim2}}, and {{Simbio-start}}. In this wiki, you should see it has this line:

|header    = {{{name|{{PAGENAME}}}}}

You should change it to the following:

|header    = {{{header|{{{name|{{PAGENAME}}}}}}}}

That way, you should be able to input header parameter when you use {{Sim3}}. If you don't use header parameter, it will use name parameter instead. Otherwise, if neither is given any input, it will use the page title. Perhaps you should try it first. I haven't experimented it myself.

I have an idea to view the population's information. Try using Twallan's MasterController to see the basic information about Sims in the current neighborhood, just as soon as you first load the game. Keep in mind though, there might still be chance that the residents' attributes got changed during the split-second after you start the neighborhood, like being assigned to man a register or employed in a job. Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 09:59, September 30, 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! Again you helped me a lot (: I tried to tweak a little in our Lot template and it seems I kinda messed it up. I probably mixed two types of coding, or just forgot something. Could you please take a look for me and see what's wrong? Tiezel ^(talk) curious? 20:09, November 18, 2013 (UTC)

From a quick glance, you seem to have forgotten some closing tags or something relevant.

There, I've fixed it. You did forget to close the first table and div tag. There were two tables and div tags, but you only closed the inner ones. Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 23:26, November 20, 2013 (UTC)

July '15

Sorry for massive bump >.< Just thought this was the best way to ask about it again. I have two new questions for the Dutch Sims wiki. I tried changing the navigation wiki menu color in our Wikia.css file ( with these codes) / (I want it to be a different color than the buttons), but for some reason this isn't doing anything. Can somebody understand why? Cause I definetly don't :')

Also do I have a problem with probably our Sim template, as it won't show the chemistry and I don't know why either, I probably messed some codes up.

Help much appreciated! Sorry again for the huge bump Tiezel ^(talk) 12:01, July 19, 2015 (UTC)

By navigation I'm assuming you mean the topbar? I do recall seeing code for changing that but I'm not sure to what extent you wish to change it. Are you just changing the bar itself, the inactive tabs, the dropdowns, or something else? You could alternatively set a colour via the theme designer and instead change the buttons manually. I'll try to find the code I mentioned for you, either tonight or tomorrow (if i forget leave me a message) ―ฬђ ^talk 12:22, July 19, 2015 (UTC)

Yes I mean the topbar :) and just the topbar as it is blue here and purple on ours, the dropdown menus are fine the way they are. either way changing the buttons via wikia.css or the topbar doesn't really matter to me; as long as they can be two different colors. But thanks for your help! Waiting for it Tiezel ^(talk) 12:35, July 19, 2015 (UTC)

This is just about everything I could think of that you could use:

/*keep this the same colour as whatever the red in the next thing is, i didnt see a change when i removed it so it might not even be necessary but id keep it to be sure*/
.WikiHeader .navbackground div {
      background-color: red;
}

/*side of the navbar, everything not covered by buttons*/
.WikiHeader .navbackground {
      background-color: transparent;
      background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, red 0%, #33AD5C 100%);
      background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, color-stop(0%, red), color-stop(100%, #33AD5C));
}

/*colour of navbar tabbers*/
.WikiHeader > nav li.marked {
      background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, blue 0%, #33AD5C 100%);
      background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, color-stop(0%, blue), color-stop(100%, #009933));
}

/*colour of the buttons on the second row*/
.WikiHeader > nav .subnav-2 {
      background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, green 0%, #33AD5C 100%);
      background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, color-stop(0%, green), color-stop(100%, #33AD5C));
}

/* this is the border of the dropdowns*/
.WikiHeader > nav .subnav {
  background: red;
  border-color: purple;
}

/*this is the dropdowns themselves, set to 0 to kill the borders within the dropdown */
.WikiHeader > nav .subnav-3 li {
  border: 5px solid green;
  background-color: black;
}

/*buttons*/

/*idle*/
a.wikia-button, .wikia-single-button a, .wikia-menu-button, input[type="submit"], input[type="reset"], input[type="button"], .button, button {
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, red 35%, #33AD5C 65%);
background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, color-stop(35%, red), color-stop(65%, #33AD5C));
}
 
/*hover*/
a.wikia-button:hover, .wikia-single-button a:hover, .wikia-menu-button:hover, input[type="submit"]:hover, input[type="reset"]:hover, input[type="button"]:hover, .button:hover, button:hover, .wikia-menu-button:hover, .wikia-menu-button > a:hover, .wikia-menu-button .drop:hover {
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, blue 35%, #33AD5C 65%);
background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, color-stop(35%, blue), color-stop(65%, #33AD5C));
}
 
/*clicked*/
a.wikia-button:active, .wikia-single-button a:active, .wikia-menu-button:active, input[type="submit"]:active, input[type="reset"]:active, input[type="button"]:active, .button:active, button:active, .wikia-menu-button > a:active, .wikia-menu-button .drop:active {
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, yellow 35%, #33AD5C 65%);
background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, color-stop(35%, yellow), color-stop(65%, #33AD5C));
}

I use chrome and these seem to work fine to me. You'll need to remember to change both the moz and webkit values for browser compatibility, and obviously change the colours to your liking, I used colours which would be the opposite of aesthetically pleasing so they stand out. If you've got any other questions with this let me know. ―ฬђ ^talk 12:51, July 19, 2015 (UTC)

You might be able to make use of this too:

/* navbar backer (a=transparency) */
.WikiHeader nav { 
       background-color:rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);
       width:auto;
       -moz-border-radius: 2px; 
       -webkit-border-radius: 2px; 
       border-radius: 2px;
       -khtml-border-radius: 2px;     
}

This was the code we used to use to give the silvery backer to the top tabs on the navbar. I've directly ripped it from the history of our .css so if you use it you'll want to change it probably. ―ฬђ ^talk 13:02, July 19, 2015 (UTC)