This template is intended as a meta template: a template used for constructing other templates. '''Note''': In general, it is not meant for use directly in an article, but can be used on a one-off basis if required. [[w:Help:Infobox]] contains an introduction about the recommended content and design of infoboxes; [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Infoboxes]] contains additional style guidelines. See [[WP:List of infoboxes]] and [[:Category:Infobox templates]] for lists of prepared topic-specific infoboxes.

; name : If this parameter is present, "view/talk/edit" links will be added to the bottom of the infobox, pointing to the named page, prefixed by <code>Template:</code> if no namespace is specified. You may use the value <nowiki>{{subst:PAGENAME}}</nowiki>; however, this is rarely what you want, because it will send users clicking these links in an infobox in an article to the template code rather than the data in the infobox that they probably want to change.

There are two different ways to put a title on an infobox. One contains the title inside the infobox's border in the uppermost cell of the table, the other puts it as a caption it on top of the table. You can use them both of them together if you like, or just one or the other, or even neither (though this is not recommended):

; title : Text to put in the caption over the top of the table (or as section header before the whole content of this table, if this is a child infobox). For [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility#Tables|accessibility reasons]], this is the most recommended alternative.

For more on #if, see [[mw:Help:Extensionmeta:ParserFunctions##if:|here]].

==== Hiding headers when all its data fields are hiddenempty ====

You can also make headers optionalautomatically inhide awhen similartheir way.section Consideris thisempty example:(has no data-row showing).

| title = Example: ofheader anwith undesirable& headerwithout data

| label4label2 = Item 3 label2 text | data4data2 =

| label6label4 = Staticlabel4 itemtext | data6data4 = Static value

| title = Example: ofheader anwith undesirable& headerwithout data

| label4label2 = Item 3 label2 text | data4data2 =

| label6label4 = Staticlabel4 itemtext | data6data4 = Static value

If you want hide the first header towhen appear only if one or more of theno {{para|data''N''}} fields that fall under itvalues are filledpresent, one could use the following pattern as an example of how to do it'''{{para|autoheaders|y}}''':

| title = Example: ofheader anwith optional& headerwithout data

| label6label3 = Staticlabel3 itemtext | data6data3 = Static value

| title = Example: ofheader anwith optional& headerwithout data

| label6label3 = Staticlabel3 itemtext | data6data3 = Static value

</presyntaxhighlight>{{clear}}

So, header1 will be shown if any of item1, item2, or item3 is defined. If none of the three parameters are defined the header won't be shown and no empty row appears before the next staticvisible content. The trick to this is that the "#if" returns false only if there is nothing whatsoever in the conditional section, so only if all three of item1, item2 and item3 are undefined will the if statement fail.

This template supports the addition of microformat information. This is done by adding "class" attributes to various data cells, indicating what kind of information is contained within. Multiple class names may be specified, separated by spaces, some of them being used as selectors for custom styling according to a project policy or to the skin selected in user preferences, others beigbeing used for microformats.

To flag an infobox as containing [[w:hCard|hCard]] information, for example, add the following parameter:

See [[wWikipedia:WikiProject Microformats]] for more information on adding microformat information to Wikipedia, and [[microformat]] for more information on microformats in general.

|abovestyle = background:#cfc;

<presyntaxhighlight lang="Sass" style="overflow:auto" highlight="15">

|abovestyle = background:#cfc;

</presyntaxhighlight>{{clear}}

For this example, the '''{{para|bodystyle'''}} and '''{{para|labelstyle'''}} parameters are used to adjust the infobox width and define a default width for the column of labels:

<presyntaxhighlight lang="sass" highlight="3,9" style="overflow: auto">

</presyntaxhighlight>{{clear}}

One infobox template can be embedded into another using the {{para|child}} parameter or the {{para|embed}} parameter. This feature can be used to create a modular infobox, or to create better-defined logical sections. Long ago, it was necessary to use embedding in order to create infoboxes with more than 99 rows; but nowadays there's no limit to the number of rows that can be defined in a single instance of <code><nowiki>{{infobox}}</nowiki></code>.

Note that omitting the {{para|title}} parameter, and not including any text preceding the embedded infobox, may result in spurious blank table rows, creating gaps in the visual presentation. The garbage output can be suppressed using {{para|rowstyleN|display: none}}, replacing N with the data/header number.

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="sass" style="overflow:auto">

</sourcesyntaxhighlight>{{clear}}

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="sass" style="overflow:auto">

</sourcesyntaxhighlight>{{clear}}

* [[Module:Infobox]], the [[mwWP:Lua/OverviewLUA|Lua]] module on which this template is based

[[Category:MetatemplatesWikipedia metatemplates|Infobox]]