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This template presents version history tables in a standardized format.
Many articles on Wikipedia use color-coded tables to illustrate the version or release history of software. The template has been imported from German Wikipedia, where it is used as the current standard for color-coding history tables.
This template is used within Wikitables, making use of the pipe syntax. Legends can be added flexbox or tables. As colors are not visible to blind or visually-impaired readers, this template uses replacement information when necessary to improve accessibility, e.g. using the "title" attribute. (See Wikipedia:WikiProject Accessibility.)
When creating a version history, please note that less is more: Wikipedia is not a directory or changelog. Only important or major releases should be documented in Wikipedia. See the Manual of Style for Computing topics for further guidelines.
General look
| Version | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 2022 | Old versions that no longer receive updates |
| 2.0 | 2023 | Old versions that still receive updates |
| 3.0 | 2024 | Latest version |
| 4.0beta2 | 2025 | Latest preview version |
| 4.0 | 2026 | Future version |
Legend: Old version, not maintained Old version, still maintained Latest version Latest preview version Future version | ||
When to avoid
- Discontinued products
- For a product that is neither supported nor developed, each version would have the "EOL versions" description. Since no distinction would exist between version stages, the use of this template would lack any basis. A simple sentence or a
|discontinued=yesin the infobox would do admirably well.
Parameters
Legend box
| Parameter | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
1
|
Legend type | Either of the following generates a legend box. Acceptable values include:
|
show
|
Legend contents | This parameter is optional. By default the legend box contains the following six items:
This parameter allows each item to be displayed or hidden with digits. Each digit controls the state of its associated item in the above list.
Additional digits on the left are ignored. |
style
|
CSS styles | This parameter is optional. Use it to change the template's formatting, style and layout via CSS syntax. In combination with the legend the specified CSS applies to the entire block. |
Table cells
| Parameter | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
1
|
Data type | Either of the following change the background color of the cell in which it is inserted:
|
2
|
Text | Specifies the text to display on screen, usually a version number or name of a specific version. |
style
|
CSS styles | This parameter is optional. Use it to change the template's formatting, style and layout via CSS syntax. This parameter can be inserted into a table cell to enforce CSS definitions in that cell. |
sortKey
|
Sorting key | This parameter is optional. A sortkey is an invisible string used to change the way a certain table cell is sorted. For instance, normally, the phrase "ACME's Bow" is sorted with phrases that start with A. Affixing a sortkey of "Bow" to the phrase causes the phrase to be sorted with other phrases that start with "B" (or, to be more accurate, with "Bow"). For general information on sorting tables, see Help:Tables. |
Examples
Legend box
| Description | What you type | What it looks like | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horizontal legend | {{Version |l |show=110111}}
|
Legend: Old version Latest version Latest preview version Future version | |||||
| Vertical legend | {{Version |lv |show=011101}}
|
Old version, not maintained Old version, still maintained Latest version Future version | |||||
| Horizontal legend table | {{Version |t |show=11110}}
|
| |||||
| Vertical legend table | {{Version |tv |show=01111}}
|
|
Table cells
| Description | What you type | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| EOL versions | {{Version |o |1.0}}
|
1.0 |
| LTS versions | {{Version |co |2.0}}
|
2.0 |
| Latest stable version | {{Version |c |3.0}}
|
3.0 |
| Preview version | {{Version |cp |4.0}}
|
4.0 |
| Planned future version | {{Version |p |5.0}}
|
5.0 |
Sortable tables
The template can be used in sortable tables. If the column version is sortable, the sort key defaults to the value of the version parameter. If you need differing sorting, add the sortKey parameter as follows:
| What you type | What it looks like | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Version !! Date !! Description
|-
| {{Version |o |1.0 |sortKey=1.0}}
| 2010-07-23 || [[end-of-life (product)|EOL]] versions
|-
| {{Version |co |2.0 |sortKey=2.0}}
| 2011-06-27 || [[long-term support|LTS]] versions
|-
| {{Version |cp |3.0 DP |sortKey=3.0 A}}
| 2012-03-02 || Developer's preview
|-
| {{Version |cp |3.0 CP |sortKey=3.0 B}}
| 2012-04-01 || Consumers Preview
|-
| {{Version |cp |3.0 RC |sortKey=3.0 C}}
| 2012-05-25 || Release candidate
|-
| {{Version |c |3.0 |sortKey=3.0 Z}}
| 2012-06-23 || Release to web
|-
| {{Version |p |4.0 |sortKey=4.0}}
| 2017-09-06 || Future version
|}
|
|
TemplateData
TemplateData for Version
This template presents version history tables in a standardized format. Note that you may have to insert it in source mode, not visual mode. Many articles on Wikipedia use color-coded tables to illustrate the version or release history of software. The template has been imported from German Wikipedia, where it is used as the current standard for color-coding history tables. This template is used within Wikitables, making use of the pipe syntax. Legends can be added as tables, as floating or non-floating containers. As colors are not visible to blind or visually-impaired readers, this template uses replacement information when necessary to improve accessibility, e.g. using the "title" attribute. (See Wikipedia:WikiProject Accessibility.) When creating a version history, please note that less is more: Wikipedia is not a directory or changelog. Only important or major releases should be documented in Wikipedia. See the Manual of Style for Computing topics for further guidelines.
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | 1 | For a table cell, this is "o", "co", "c", "cp", or "p", meaning old unmaintained version, old maintained version, current, preview, and future version respectively. To create a table legend instead, use "l", "lv", "t", or "tv", meaning horizontal or vertical legend, or horizontal or vertical legend as a table, respectively.
| String | required |
| Text (for cells) | 2 | If this is a cell (see parameter 1), this is required. It is the text to display.
| Content | suggested |
| Custom CSS | style | Custom CSS to apply to the template
| Unknown | optional |
| Legend components shown | show | If this is a legend, a series of ones (on) and zeros (off) denoting the components of the legend in the order: Legend; EOL versions; LTS versions; Current version; Latest preview version; Future release. If displaying as a table, the text "Legend" must be shown and so the first digit should be omitted.
| String | suggested |
| Sort key (for cells) | sortKey | When the cells of a table are sorted, this cell would normally be positioned by the visible cell content. If you set this parameter, this cell will be positioned when sorted as if this was its content.
| String | optional |
Limitations
- The current version of the template is known to fail creating correct cell contents when combined with the "colspan" keyword for table cell joining - except for the legend item.
- The current version of the template doesn't apply styles correctly if only the table cells are used without the legend.
See also
- Template:Table cell templates – a family of related templates
- Template:Dts – used to correctly sort and display dates in a sortable table
- {{Oldid}}