This is the documentation page for the main data module for the Module:category tree/topic cat category tree subsystem, as well as for its submodules. Collectively, these modules handle generating the descriptions and categorization for topic pages such as Category:en:Birds, Category:es:France and Category:zh:State capitals of Germany, and the corresponding non-language-specific pages such as Category:Birds, Category:France and Category:State capitals of Germany. (All other categories handled through the {{auto cat}} system are handled by the Module:category tree/poscatboiler subsystem.)
The main data module at Module:category tree/topic cat/data does not contain data itself, but rather imports the data from its submodules, and applies some post-processing.
subpages list at the top of Module:category tree/topic cat/data.The topic cat system internally makes a distinction based on which languages a category applies to:
langcode:label (e.g. Category:es:Birds and Category:de:States of the United States). Here, langcode is the language code of a recognized full Wiktionary language (see WT:LOL for the list of all such languages and their codes), and label is a topic, generally one that can apply to multiple languages. The intended category contents is terms in the language in question that are either related to, instances of or types of the topic in question (depending on the type of category; see below). Associated with each per-language category is an umbrella category; see below. The following restrictions apply to per-language categories:
langcode must currently be a full language, not an etymology-only language. (Etymology-only languages include lects such as Provençal, considered a variety of Occitan, and Biblical Hebrew, considered a variety of Hebrew. See here for the list of such lects.)label as found in the category name always begins with a capital letter, whether or not the underlying form of the label is capitalized (contrast Category:en:Birds with Category:en:France). Internally, this is different, and the internal form of a label begins with a lowercase or uppercase letter as appropriate (birds but France).label, i.e. a bare category label. As with per-language categories, this label is always capitalized in the category name, regardless of the underlying form of the label. Examples are Category:Birds, Category:France and Category:State capitals of Germany. Umbrella categories serve to group all the per-language categories for a particular topic. They also serve to group more specific subcategories, e.g. under Category:Birds can be found Category:Birds of prey, Category:Freshwater birds, Category:Columbids (which includes doves and pigeons), etc. as well as Category:Eggs and Category:Feathers. Umbrella categories should not normally directly contain any terms.In addition to the above distinction, the topic cat system divides categories according to the category type, which specifies the relationship between the category and the members of that category:
type = "related-to") contain terms that are semantically related to the category topic. For example, Category:en:Chess contains terms such as checkmate, rank (a row on a chessboard), endgame, en passant, Grandmaster, etc. "Related to" is a nebulous criterion, and as a result the terms in the category should be related to the category as directly as possible, to avoid the category becoming a grab bag of random terms.type = "name") categories contain terms that are names of individual, specific instances of the category. For example, Category:Chess openings contains names of specific openings, such as Ruy Lopez and Sicilian Defense. Even more clearly, Category:Moons of Jupiter contains names of individual moons that orbit the planet Jupiter.type = "type") categories contains terms for types of the entity described by the category name. For example, Category:Checkmate patterns contains types of checkmates, such as ladder mate and smothered mate. Even more clearly, Category:Hobbyists contains terms for types of hobbyists, such as oenophile (a wine enthusiast), numismatist (a stamp collector), etc. (If this were a name category, it would contain names of specific, presumably famous, hobbyists — something that would probably not be dictionary-worthy material.)type = "set") categories are used when the distinction between names and types of a given topic may not always be clear, but the overall membership is still well-defined. For example, Category:Heraldic charges contains terms for components of coats of arms, e.g. bend sinister (a diagonal band from lower left to upper right), fleur-de-lis (a stylized image of a lily, as is commonly associated with New Orleans) and quatrefoil (a symmetrical shape made from the outline of four circles).type = "grouping") categories are higher-level categories that are used only to group more specific categories and should not contain elements themselves (but nevertheless sometimes do). An example is Category:Industries, which contains subcategories devoted to particular industries (e.g. Category:Banking, Category:Mining, Category:Music industry, Category:Oil industry, etc.).type = "toplevel") categories are special high-level categories that list all the categories of one of the above types, and which are always named List of type categories, e.g. Category:List of related-to categories (listing all the "related-to" umbrella categories) or Category:es:List of name categories (listing all the Spanish name-type categories). The number of top-level categories is fixed.Note that name, type and set categories are conceptually similar to each other, in that each contains terms that have an is-a relationship with the topic in question, whereas related-to categories express a weaker sort of relation between term and topic, merely asserting that the term is in some way "related" or "pertinent" to the topic in question. For this reason, when creating new topics, you should always strive to create name, type or set topics whenever possible, and avoid related-to topics unless there is no alternative and you're convinced this topic is really necessary. Before creating such a category:
brick, do not add terms like brick house, thick as a brick or yellow brick road merely becaues they have the word "brick" in them; instead, use the ===Related terms=== section of the brick lemma to include these terms).It should also be noted that name, type and set categories typically use the plural in their topic name, which related-to categories often use the singular. This is not a hard and fast rule, however, and there are exceptions in both directions. If it's not obvious what type of category a given topic refers to, consider making this explicit in the topic name, e.g. names of stars or types of stars rather than just stars. (In the future, all, or at least most, topic categories may be named in such a fashion.)
A sample entry is as follows (in this case, found in Module:category tree/topic cat/data/History):
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"history"},
}
This generates the description and categorization for all per-language categories of the form langcode:Ancient history (e.g. Category:en:Ancient history) as well as for the umbrella category Category:Ancient history (see above for the definition of per-language and umbrella categories).
The meaning of this snippet is as follows:
Ancient Near East (as in the example below) is capitalized because the label refers to a specific region, and toponyms are capitalized in English.type field specifies the category type, as described above. This label is a "related-to" category.description field gives the description text that will appear when a user visits the category page. Certain special values are recognized, including "default", which generates a default label. The value of the default label depends on the label's name, the language of the category, and the label's type. In this case, it is equivalent to "{{{langname}}} terms related to ] ]" (where {{{langname}}} is replaced with the name of the language in question) and "terms related to ] ]"" for the umbrella category. See #Descriptions below for more information on specifying descriptions.parents field gives the labels of the parent categories. Here, the category specifies a single parent "history". This means that a category such as Category:en:Ancient history will have Category:en:History as its parent. An additional top-level list parent will automatically be added (in this case Category:en:List of related-to categories) as well as the umbrella parent Category:Ancient history.Another example follows:
labels = {
type = "name",
displaytitle = "places in ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms''",
description = "=places in ''{{w|Romance of the Three Kingdoms}}''",
parents = {"Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "China"},
}
This is a subcategory of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (a 14th century Chinese historical novel) and accordingly specifies "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as the parent, along with "China" (note the capitalization, in accordance with the principles laid out above). A description is given explicitly, preceded by = (which in this case prepends "names for specific" to the description). The displaytitle field is also set so that the name of the work is italicized.
The following fields are recognized for the object describing a label:
typeflags currently has type = "related-to,name,type" because it contains a mixture of terms related to flags (e.g. flagpole and grommet), terms for individual flags (e.g. Star-Spangled Banner) and terms for types of flags (e.g. prayer flag, flag of convenience). Mixed categories are strongly dispreferred and should be split into separate per-type categories.descriptionadditional field described below, and put {{wikipedia}} boxes in the topright field described below so that they are correctly right-aligned with the description. Template invocations and special template-like references such as {{{langname}}} and {{{langcode}}} will be expanded appropriately; see #Template substitutions in field values below. Certain values are handled specially, including "default" (and variants such as "default with the", "default wikify" and "default no singularize") and phrases preceded by an = sign, as explained in more detail below.parentsname and sort. In the latter case, name specifies the parent label name, while the sort value specifies the sort key to use to sort it in that category. The default sort key is the category's label.Category: it is interpreted as a raw category name, rather than as a label name. It can still have its own sort key as usual.breadcrumb setting, as described below.)breadcrumbname and nocap. In the latter case, name specifies the breadcrumb text, while nocap can be used to disable the automatic capitalization of the breadcrumb text that normally happens.displaytitle{{DISPLAYTITLE:...}} magic word (see mw:Help:Magic words). The same formatting is also applied to breadcrumbs, descriptions and other mentions of the label in formatted text. The value of this is either a string (which should be the formatted label, e.g. "The Matrix", "people in Romance of the Three Kingdoms" or "Glee (TV series)") or a Lua function to generate the formatted category title. The Lua function is passed two parameters: the raw label (without any preceding language code) and the language object of the category's language (or nil for umbrella categories). It should return the appropriately formatted label. If the value of this field is a string, template invocations and special template-like references such as {{{langname}}} and {{{langcode}}} will be expanded appropriately; see below. See Module:category tree/topic cat/data/Culture for examples of using displaytitle.topright{{wikipedia}} and other similar boxes. Template invocations and special template-like references such as {{{langname}}} and {{{langcode}}} are expanded appropriately, just as with description; see #Template substitutions in field values below. Compare the preceding field, which is similar to topright but used for left-aligned text placed above the description.precedingdescription field. The difference between the two is that description text will also be shown in the list of children categories shown on the parent category's page, while the preceding text will not. For this reason, use preceding instead of description for {{also}} hatnotes and similar text, and keep description relatively short. Template invocations and special template-like references such as {{{langname}}} and {{{langcode}}} are expanded appropriately, just as with description; see #Template substitutions in field values below. Compare the topright field, which is similar to preceding but is right-aligned, placed above the edit and recent-entries boxes.additionaldescription field. The difference between the two is that description text will also be shown in the list of children categories shown on the parent category's page, while the additional text will not. For this reason, use additional instead of description for long explanatory notes, See also references and the like, and keep description relatively short. Template invocations and special template-like references such as {{{langname}}} and {{{langcode}}} are expanded appropriately, just as with description; see #Template substitutions in field values below.wptrue to link to an entry that is the same as the label; a string, to link to that entry; or a list of strings or true, to generate multiple boxes, one per list item. For example, if the label pesäpallo has wp = true, a box will be generated that links to Pesäpallo on Wikipedia, and if the label football (American) has wp = "American football", a box will be generated that links to American football on Wikipedia.wpcatwp except that the link is to a category (the generated entry or entries is/are prepended with Category:). For example, if the label animals has wpcat = true set, a box will be generated that links to Category:Animals on Wikipedia.commonscatwpcat except that the link is to Wikimedia Commons instead of Wikipedia. For example, if the label racquet sports has commonscat = true set, a box will be generated that links to Category:Racquet sports on Wikimedia Commons.topictype field) and what sorts of terms should go into it. This does not normally need to be specified, as it's derived directly from the label. But it is useful e.g. for the label types of planets, which sets topic = "planets", because the auto-generated "additional" message contains the text " ... It should contain terms for types of {{{topic}}}, ...", and using the label directly will result in redundant text. Template invocations and special template-like references such as {{{langname}}} and {{{langcode}}} are expanded appropriately, just as with description; see #Template substitutions in field values below. The value of this field can be "default" or "default with the", which will be expanded appropriately based on the label.umbrellaparents) of Category:en:Ancient history, Category:fr:Ancient history and all other language-specific categories holding adjectives. This table contains the following fields:
descriptiondescription field of the label itself by removing language references (specifically, {{{langname}}} , {{{langcode}}}:, {{{langcode}}} and {{{langcat}}} ) and adding This category concerns the topic: before the result. Text is automatically added to the end indicating that this category is an umbrella category that only contains other categories, and does not contain pages describing terms.breadcrumbtoprighttopright field on regular category pages; see above.precedingpreceding field on regular category pages; see above.additionaladditional field on regular category pages; see above.topictopic field on regular category pages; see above.umbrella_descriptiondescription subfield of the umbrella field.Template invocations can be inserted in the text of description, parents (both name and sort key), breadcrumb, toc_template and toc_template_full values, and will be expanded appropriately. In addition, the following special template-like invocations are recognized and replaced by the equivalent text:
{{PAGENAME}}{{{langname}}}{{{langcode}}}en for English, de for German). Not recognized in umbrella fields.{{{langcat}}}{{{langlink}}}{{{umbrella_msg}}}{{{topic}}}topic field (or the umbrella.topic field for umbrella categories), if specified; else, the value of displaytitle (if specified) or the label, with "the" added if the description is "default with the" or a variant containing "with the" (such as "default with the wikify").The description field is of one of three types:
= and not ending in a period."default" or one of its variants, such as "default with the" or "default wikify".If preceded by =, the description is generated from the specified phrase by prepending {{{LANGNAME}}} (which is replaced with the language name) followed by standard type-dependent text, and appending a period. The text prepended is currently as follows:
| Type | Text |
|---|---|
related-to |
terms related to |
set |
terms for types or instances of |
name |
names of specific |
type |
terms for types of |
grouping |
categories concerning more specific variants of |
toplevel |
N/A |
For example, for the label biblical characters, the description is currently "=characters in the ]", which expands to {{{LANGNAME}}} names of specific characters in the ]., and in turn is expanded to e.g. French names of specific characters in the ]. (if the category is Category:fr:Biblical characters).
Note that no standard text is provided for top-level categories, all of which include a custom description.
If "default" or one of its variants is used as the description, a default description is generated as if the description consisted of = prepended to the label, except that the word the might be added to the beginning of the label, and the words in the label might be wikilinked. Specifically:
"default with the" (or a form such as "default with the wikify", "default with the no singularize", etc.), the word the is prefixed to the label."default wikify" (or a related form), the label is linked to Wikipedia. If the label ends in an -s, the label is linked to a Wikipedia entry based on the singular form of the label (which converts -ies to -y; converts -xes, -ches or -shes, respectively, to -x, -ch or -sh; and otherwise just removes -s), unless the label is "default wikify no singularize" or a related form, in which case the label is linked unchanged.no singularize is not specified in the description, and the singular form of the label (generated according to the algorithm described just above) is a Wiktionary term, the label is linked to that term. Note that "is a Wiktionary term" simply means that a page of this name exists; the code does not currently check to see whether there is an English entry or whether the term is a lemma.no singularize is not found in the description, in that the code first attempts to link the word to its singular equivalent, falling back to the word itself if the singular equivalent doesn't name a Wiktionary term.For example, a label video games will be linked as ]s because the page video game exists, but Arabic deities will be linked as ] ] because neither Arabian deity nor Arabian deities exists as a page. The use of no singularize is needed with labels such as linguistics, comics and humanities, because their respective singular forms linguistic, comic and humanity exist as Wiktionary pages.
Finally, note that the components of a default-type description (wikify, with the and no singularize) can be given in any order if more than one of them needs to be specified.
It is also possible to have handlers that can handle arbitrarily-formed labels, e.g. political subdivisions of country for any country (categories such as Category:tg:Political subdivisions of the United Arab Emirates) or divisions of polity for any division and polity (e.g. Category:fr:Counties of South Korea or Category:pt:Municipalities of Tocantins, Brazil). Currently, handlers exist only in the toponym-handling code in Module:category tree/topic cat/data/Places and in Module:category tree/topic cat/data/Names. As example, the following is the handler for script letter names:
table.insert(handlers, function(label)
local script = label:match("^(.*) letter names$")
if script then
local sc = require("Module:scripts").getByCanonicalName(script)
if sc then
local script_page
local appendix = ("Appendix: %s script"):format(script)
local appendix_title = mw.title.new(appendix)
if appendix_title and appendix_title.exists then
script_page = appendix
else
script_page = "w:" .. sc:getWikipediaArticle()
end
local link = ("]"):format(script_page, script)
return {
type = "name",
description = ("{{{langname}}} terms that serve as names for letters and symbols directly based on letters, " ..
"such as ]s and letters with ]s, of the %s."):format(link),
parents = {"letter names"},
}
end
end
end)
The handler checks is passed a single argument (the label), checks if the passed-in label has a recognized form, and if so, returns an object that follows the same format as described above for directly-specified labels. In this case, the handler makes sure the given script name specifies an actual script, and constructs an appropriate link for the script, depending on whether an appendix page for the script exists (falling back to Wikipedia).
NOTE: The handler needs to be prepared to handle both umbrella categories and per-language categories. The label is passed in as it appears in the category; this means the handler may need to handle both uppercase-initial and lowercase-initial variants of the label. (For this handler, this isn't an issue because the script always appears uppercased.) One way to do that is to convert the label to lowercase-initial before further processing, using mw.getContentLanguage():lcfirst().
Note also that if a handler is specified, the module should return a table holding both the label and handler data; see the above modules.
local labels = {}
-- THESE CATEGORIES ARE ONLY INTENDED FOR USE IN THE THESAURUS!
labels = {
type = "grouping",
description = "{{error|do not use this category}}",
parents = {"all topics"},
}
-- closest existing label: ????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"human behaviour", "anger"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
labels = {
type = "grouping",
description = "{{{langname}}} terms grouped into conceptual categories",
parents = {"thesaurus-only categories"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: None (handled by POS categories like "LANG offensive terms")
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"communication"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ?????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "=] and ]",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ?????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: "metaphysics" or "ontology" - but this is broader in scope
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ?????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"human"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: None (handled by the POS category "LANG interjections")
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"communication"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: "drugs" - but this is broader in scope
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "=] and ]",
parents = {"thesaurus-only categories"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: "love" - but the thesaurus cat incorporates friendship etc
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"emotions"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"personal qualities", "concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ?????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "{{{langname}}} terms describing the order and disorder in which things occur or are found; terms to do with the sequential and chaotic nature of things",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: "personality" - but we use that cat for personality traits, while "personal qualities" is for transient states one can be in (e.g. lucky, drunk)
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "{{{langname}}} terms describing transient states a person can be in (e.g. lucky, drunk)",
parents = {"thesaurus-only categories"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ?????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ?????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: "quantity" - but we don't want this category to be under Mathematics, these are not mathematical concepts
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ?????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"human behaviour", "communication"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ?????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: "transport" - but this is much broader, containing verbs of motion and the like
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts", "human behaviour"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
-- closest existing label: ?????
labels = {
type = "related-to",
description = "default",
parents = {"concepts"},
thesaurusonly = true,
}
return labels