Writing articles

Before starting to write an article it has to be verified that no previous article covering the selected topic exists. This can be done with the search function or via the list of all articles. Before saving an article the text should be proof read to best knowledge. If you see any typos or grammatical mistakes, please keep in mind that a lot of the writers here are not speaking English as their native tongue and so you should correct any mistakes you find.

Articles should be written from a neutral and common point of view (i.e. do not write "I view the page" or "You view the page", but "Viewing the page"), to guarantee a homogenious writing style.

Important: Provide the Contao-Version

As Contao is under constant development and subject to change the used Version is of matter. Therefore it is important to state the Contao version an article applies to. Otherwise the reader has no way to know which an article or howto refers to. By defining the version the user can follow the changes in the code and templates and change them accordingly. To state the version within an article use the following code:

{{AppliesTo
|Version=All versions
|Ext1=SuperExtension
|Ext2=HyperExtension}}

The following parameters can be used:

• Version - The Contao version the article applies to.
• Ext1 ... ExtN - The extensions the article applies to. The number N is starting from 1 and is incremented by one for every extension.
• TLVersion - As a lot of the articles still apply to TYPOlight (the former name of Contao) the TYPOlight version can also be specified. The need to specify this version will decrease by time and then this parameter will cease to exist.

Categorization

An article can be filed under one or more categories. For every category one must specify a category tag. Each of those tags should be specified on a seperate line.

Example:

[[Category:Admin HOWTOS]]
[[Category:Modules]]

To mark an article as incomplete please add

{{stub}}

at the very top of the code, even before the categories. This will add a notice that the article is still not completed at the very top of the page and also include the article to the stub category.

Hints, notes and warnings

One can add hints, notes and warnings to an article.

These are added by including a certain template in the code.

Hints

 {{Hint|Text of the hint}}

Producing the following output:

Notes

 {{Note|Text of the note}}

Producing the following output:

Warnings

 {{Caution|Text of the Warning}}

Producing the following output:

Formatting

Formatting text

The most common text formats are: bold

'''bold'''

italic

''italic''

bold and italic

'''''bold and italic'''''

Lists

Unordered lists

* foo
* bar

resulting in

• foo
• bar

Ordered lists

# foo
# bar

resulting in

1. foo
2. bar

Structuring

It is possible (and encouraged) to structure an article into several sections to keep them readable.

=Section 1=
Text
==Subsection 1.1==
Text
==Subsection 1.2==
Text
=Section 2=
Text
==Subsection 2.1==
Text
==Subsection 2.2==
etc.

when specifying more than three sections, a table of contents will automatically be added to the top of the page (see top of this page what it looks like).

Linking

Text links

Text links are divided into two categories: internal and external.

Internal links (within the Contao community Documentation) are specified as follows:

[[Page name|description]]

For external links a different notation is used:

[http://www.example.com description]

(note the space between the URL and the description)

An exception to these external links are links to certain wikis as to wikipedia or the several translations of the ccd. Links to those sources are specified in interwiki notation.

Taking a link to wikipedia for example:

[[w:page name|description]]

for specifying a page in a different language than the default language within the specified wiki the page name has to be prepended with the ISO language code. For linking to the English page within wikipedia this results in:

[[w:de:page name|description]]

This notation is known as interwiki link notation.

Image links

Before using or linking an image in this wiki, one has to upload it.

To include the image in an article, use the following code:

[[File:foo.jpg|Description]]

Images can also be used to link to another page. Internal links:

[[File:foo.jpg|link=Main Page|Description]]

External links:

[[File:foo.jpg|link=http://www.example.com|Description]]

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More advanced information about mediawiki syntax is available on the MediaWiki Homepage

Translations of the Contao Community Documentation

The ccd currently is available in three languages. German (http://de.contaowiki.org), English (http://en.contaowiki.org) and French (http://fr.contaowiki.org). In every article there should be a section at the bottom of the left side menu listing the languages the current article has been translated to. If there is a language missing and the reader feels confident enough to provide a translation to the missing language please do so.

A small howto follows:

Determining the title

Before starting a translation one has to determine what the name translates to in the other language. Taking the fictive article "Example" (The word "Example" translates to "Beispiel" for German) the article to create on de.contaowiki.org should be named http://de.contaowiki.org/Beispiel.

Translating the text

After translating the name and opening the article in edit mode on the other side the translation continues with the text (the hardest part). One should keep in mind that the articles linked to in the original language will most likely have different names in the local language. One is encouraged to search them in the local language and update the name of the link accordingly. If there does not yet exist an article covering the linked topic, one will translate the name of the topic and link to it nonetheless. This will produce a red link to the aricle and place a new link within the wanted pages. Translating these pages also is even better.

Placing links to other languages

After the article has been translated, the wiki must be told where it can find the translation. This is done using Interwiki-notation.

In the German section the page "Beispiel" has to be edited and the following has to be added just after the categories:

[[en:Example]]

and on the English page "Example" the following has to be added on the same place:

[[de:Beispiel]]

Translating to French is almost the same but using the language prefix fr instead of de or en.