Template:AllyBox

Getting Started
Setting up the AllyBox is incredibly simple. Start off by copying and pasting the code below into the section where you want the information to show up.   This will set up a table with Friends, Neutrals and Enemies categories as seen below:

Adding Characters
Once the initial template in place, characters are easily added by entering in information for their name and description. This is done by setting pre-defined parameter values. The parameters follow the pattern of {REL}{LOC}{NUM)}, where {REL} is either "friend", "neutral" or "enemy", {LOC} is either "name" or "desc" and {NUM} is a numerical value from 1 to 20. For example, "friendname1", "neutraldesc5" and "enemyname20" are all valid parameters.

To add characters, enter values for the parameters in numerical order. Since the wording may be confusing, an example of the code is placed below:   The blue and green code is what we added to the original template. Blue indicates the necesarry parts of the template and green indicates the editable sections. An updated view of how the template would look is shown below:

Titles
Let's suppose for a minute that you want to change the title of one or more categories. This can be done by setting the parameters "friendtitle", "neutraltitle" and "enemytitle". The following is an updated example of our previous code:   Just like before, the blue text indicates a part of the template, and the green is the editable regions. The code above would create the following example:

Coloring
Lastly, it is possible to change the color of the individual columns to fit the color scheme of your page. The colors you choose must either be standard html colors (i.e. "red", "blue" and so on) or in hexidecimal form ("#024334", "#FFFFFF", ect). To set the color of a column, set the paramters for friendcolor, neutralcolor and enemycolor. The following is an example:   As with the prior examples, blue code indicates a part of the template and green represents the editable region. These changes would make our example template look like this:

Including Links
Often times, people might want to include links to other people's pages. This can be done two ways and is entirely up to user preference.

Option 1
The simplest and easiest way to add links to VirtueVerse pages would be to encompass the character names in the standard " " brackets. Let's modify our basic code (before we added the title and color changes) to see how that code would look. The edits are hightlighted in blue below:   These minor changes to the code would make the output look like this:

Option 2
While option 1 isn't a bad solution, the blue and red links may be difficult to see on some backgrounds. They also make the columns less monotone, which for some might be less stylistically appealing. If this is an issue, there is a second option.

By editing the section titles, it is possible to add references to link to various other pages. The following is an example of this approach (new changes appearing in blue):   When using this method, be sure to place the code for references ( " " ) on the bottom of your page so that the links become visible. By linking to other pages this way, the links become non-obtrusive to the style of the page while still providing users with the ability to provide links for additional info. This can be seen in the example below:

Limitations
Currently, the AllyBox only has room for 20 friends, 20 neutrals and 20 enemies. This limit is completely arbitrary and can be expanded if requested.

Closing Thoughts
Hopefully, this template will be useful for some. I know there's a lot of information on this page and it might make the template seem overly complex, but the only vital information is the stuff in the "Getting Started" and "Adding Characters" sections. The rest is totally optional. So try it out, and customize as much or little as you need. If you have any requests or comments, post them on the discussion page and I'll try to update this as I'm able. Cheers!

--Sadronmeldir 13:21, 14 July 2008 (MST)