View source for Template:Main article/doc

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When a [[Wikipedia:What is an article|Wikipedia article]] is large, it is often written in [[Wikipedia:summary style|summary style]]. This [[Wikipedia:Template messages|template]] is used after the heading of the summary, to link to the subtopic article that has been summarized. For [[Help:Category|Category namespace]], please use '''{{tl|Cat main}}''' instead.

Use of this template should be restricted to the purposes described above. It is '''not''' to be used as a substitute for inline links or {{tl|Further}} template. The latter is used when the section expounds a specific aspect of the topic instead of summarizing its article. For example, in [[phthalate]], the template under the "Endocrine disruptor" section should '''not''' be {{tlf|Main|Endocrine disruptor}}, because the section specifically deals with phthalate as an endocrine disruptor and not endocrine disruptors in general.

This template should also not be used in lead sections. A lead section is always a summary of its own article, not any other; as such, the only appropriate target for a {{tl|main article}} link in the lead section would be the article itself, which is not useful. {{tl|Broader}} may be appropriate in this case.

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== Usage ==
; Basic usage: {{tlf|main article|''page''}}
; All parameters: {{((}}main article | ''page1'' | ''page2'' | ''page3'' | ...  | l1 = ''label1'' | l2 = ''label2'' | l3 = ''label3'' | ... | selfref = ''yes''{{))}}

== Parameters ==

* <code>1</code>, <code>2</code>, <code>3</code>, ... - the pages to link to. If no page names are specified, the current page name is used instead (without the [[WP:NS|namespace]] prefix). Categories and files are automatically escaped with the [[Help:Colon trick|colon trick]], and links to sections are automatically formatted as ''page § section'', rather than the MediaWiki default of ''page#section''.
* <code>l1</code>, <code>l2</code>, <code>l3</code>, ...; optional labels for each of the pages to link to (this is for articles where a piped link would be used). Note that the extra parameters use a lower case 'L', for example, <code>l1</code>, <u>not</u> <code>L1</code>. (<code>label 1</code>, <code>label 2</code>, <code>label 3</code>, ... for this template does ''not'' work)
* <code>selfref</code> - if set to "yes", "y", "true" or "1", adds the CSS class "selfref". This is used to denote self-references to Wikipedia. See [[Template:Selfref]] for more information. This is only necessary in articles and other content (e.g. templates) that will appear in articles, and need not be added for uses of this template on <code>Wikipedia:</code> namespace pages.

== Template data ==

{{TemplateDataHeader}}
<templatedata>
{
	"description": "This template is used after the heading of a section, to link to a sub-article (or sub-articles) that is entirely about the topic of the section. The template will display, in italics, \"Main article: Article 1, Article 2 and Article 3\"",
	"params": {
		"1": {
			"label": "Page 1",
			"description": "The name of the first page that you want to link to. If this is not specified, the current page name (with no namespace prefix) is used instead. ",
			"type": "wiki-page-name",
			"required": false,
			"suggested": true
		},
		"2": {
			"label": "Page 2",
			"description": "The name of the second page that you want to link to.",
			"type": "wiki-page-name",
			"required": false
		},
		"3": {
			"label": "Page 3",
			"description": "The name of the third page that you want to link to. More pages can be added using the parameters \"4\", \"5\", \"6\", etc.",
			"type": "wiki-page-name",
			"required": false
		},
		"l1": {
			"type": "string",
			"label": "Label 1",
			"description": "What the first linked page is to be displayed as."
		},
		"l2": {
			"label": "Label 2",
			"description": "What the second linked page is to be displayed as.",
			"type": "string"
		},
		"l3": {
			"label": "Label 3",
			"description": "What the third linked page is to be displayed as. Other labels can be added by using increasing numbers (starting with \"l4\" for page 4) as parameter names.",
			"type": "string"
		},
		"selfref": {
			"type": "string/line",
			"label": "Self reference",
			"description": "Set to \"yes\" if the template is a self-reference to Wikipedia that would not make sense on mirrors or forks of the Wikipedia site."
		}
	}
}
</templatedata>

== Examples ==
* <code><nowiki>{{main article}}</nowiki></code> &rarr; {{main}}
* <code><nowiki>{{main article|Article}}</nowiki></code> &rarr; {{main|Article}}
* <code><nowiki>{{main article|Article#Section}}</nowiki></code> &rarr; {{main|Article#Section}}
* <code><nowiki>{{main article|Article#Section|l1=Custom section label}}</nowiki></code> &rarr; {{main|Article#Section|l1=Custom section label}}
* <code><nowiki>{{main article|Article1|Article2|Article3}}</nowiki></code> &rarr; {{main|Article1|Article2|Article3}}
* <code><nowiki>{{main article|Article1|l1=Custom label 1|Article2|l2=Custom label 2}}</nowiki></code> &rarr; {{main|Article1|l1=Custom label 1|Article2|l2=Custom label 2}}
* <code><nowiki>{{main article|(15760) 1992 QB1|l1={{mp|(15760) 1992 QB|1}}}}</nowiki></code> &rarr; {{main|(15760) 1992 QB1|l1={{mp|(15760) 1992 QB|1}}}}

== Errors ==
If the name of the first page that you want to link to is not specified, the current page name (with no namespace prefix) is used instead:
* {{main}}

No errors can be displayed due to the illegal usage of parameters or other usages (i.e. the first parameter can be omitted, other parameters can be used even if the first one is empty (and automatically filled with the current page name (with no namespace prefix)), equals sign can be used as one of the parameters, and template can be used by direct call to the module (using "#invoke")). This is not the case for {{tl|see also}}, for example.

<includeonly>{{#ifeq:{{SUBPAGENAME}}|sandbox||
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[[Category:Cross-reference templates]]
[[Category:Exclude in print]]
[[Category:Hatnote templates]]
[[Category:Wikipedia page-section templates]]

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