Help:Child lists

From Familypedia

(Initially copied from Watercooler.)

One of the problems we have with the mechanics of the wiki is the requirement to duplicate informaiton in vairous places---for example, when we create a person article we normally create an article for both the husband and the wife---and usually that means we need a child list in both articles---usually exactly the same child list, unless there are multiple marriages. That requires a duplication of effort; most genealogy programs handle that chore automatically---and I believe people expect that kind of facility in any genealogy site. As discussed before, we will eventually solve that problem with the development of extensions---but that's a comprehensive answer that's still a bit in the future before I will have the time to tackle it. In the meantime, for this particular child list problem, I've realized that there's a tool in the magic words kit that will do the job---though its more complicated than I'd like.

the tool is {{:article name}}

This magic word inserts the entire contents of the named article into another article where the magic words appear. Thus, if I create a subpage on an article for a woman, that shows the child list, I can automatically insert that child list into both the husband's and wife's articles.

Here's and example child list from one of my ancestors, Nancy Ann Wannamaugher. If you click the links to Nancy Ann, or to her husband Benjamin Givens, you'll go to their pages and see exactly the same child list. Note that iin the example below the usual edit button on the right will not take you to a point where you can edit the child list---it will take you to the part of the page containing the magic words. To get to the child list to edit it you need another link that points to the actual child list. I've embedded this in the Child list table in the upper right where it says "Edit this List".

I suspect that this approach is going to be too cumbersome for most folks to make effective use of it (In theory its simple enough, in practice it requires a knowledge of HTML, and some semi complicated thinking to see how it works.) But perhaps we can figure out how to use the same trick with other components, and something that would make it simpler to use. Bill 13:57, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Children of Nancy Ann Wannamaugher (1811-1848) by Benjamin Givens (1809-1852)							Edit This List
Name	DOB	POB	DOD	POD	Spouse	DOM	POM	Notes
Margaret Jane Givens	12 April 1832				William Merrifield	20 Aug 1850		Alt DOB 12 Mar 1832
Catherine Givens	1834
Eliza Ann Givens	1836				James Ewing	23 Jan 1867
Olive Caroline Givens	27 Sep 1837	Armiesburg, Wabash Township, Parke Co, IN			John McTurk Gibson	27 Dec 1855
William H. Givens	23 Nov 1841							Alt DOB 23 Oct 1840
Lucinda E. Givens	1842				Philemon H. Hatchett	14 April 1866
Nancy Ann Givens (c1840-?)	23 Nov 1845			7 Nov 1897	Oliver Washington Patten (1837-?)	7 Aug 1865		[edit] Other methods Template:Childbox Genealogy:Info pages