Help:Vehicle

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A vehicle page is a special type of article devoted to the real-life Mattel re-creation of any given Cars character (or version thereof). These exist in a special namespace and operate rather uniquely from the regular content pages here on the wiki.

Overview

Vehicle pages are part of the larger die-cast project, and are in fact the very basis of its entire infrastructure. They work with the Cargo extension to store template parameters into a site-wide database, which not only can be independently searched, but also accessible by other pages on the wiki as part of their own page output. In short, when you edit a vehicle page, the results immediately effect every type of list page it appears on, including series, castings, etc.

• Philosophy is to be as extensive and useful (optimal time-wise) as possible while staying user-friendly, easy-to-use

Usage

Every vehicle page has two distinct features: The leading infobox to introduce the vehicle itself, and then the Releases section listing every individual issue of that character (documenting an issue-by-issue history of that character's production). Both sections are edited within dedicated templates.

• Landing page (List of vehicles)
• Tooltip photos (this does not currently work on lists due to programming limitations)
• Click cell text to go to list/query - cast for all of same, Year/origin/collector number to respective lists.
• Main image, you will always see the basic vehicle (1:55 die-cast) - ones without like Mini Racers and Color Changers should instead use their respective counterpart

Editing

• Form introduction (no VisualEditor)
  • 3 required parameters, there are some additional ones only configurable in source mode (simplicity/situational necessity)
  • Everything else is pre-set i.e. {{series index}} and {{segment index}} (colors, link variables + defaults for assortment, exclusivity)
• Add a vehicle: Special:CreatePage
• Gadgets: Form is default, you can enable/disable either in preferences

Standards etc.

• Extra text should never be placed onto a vehicle page: navigational customs like {{distinguish}} and {{about}} are handled within the infobox (see template documentation)
• Vehicle stats (appearance and colno query Vehicles table instead of Releases)
• |character= should be the base variant i.e. Dinoco Lightning McQueen and Lightning McQueen with Cone should both point back to Lightning McQueen.
• Distinctions, each vehicle has its own page, generally based on name - exceptions typically made for NASCAR etc.
  • Comes down largely to how it impacts the identity of what the model represents
  • Variant considerations
    • Fillmore = no because expression change has remained ever since
    • Posing McQueen = yes because unique one-off model and Mack playset piece, there is official precedent with Road Trip Lightning McQueen etc.
• |sort_name=
  • Sets name for {{poster sort}} (what else?), this becomes the standard MODEL NAME for all releases
  • Can set |sort_name= within a row to change that individual release.
  • |full_name= For collector number list
• Release photo must be accurate to final release
  • Official promos > personal photos
• Key
  • Series is the backbone
  • type definitions plus {{vehicle key}}

Troubleshooting

Here are some common issues you run into, and the process for checking them

• • Releases won't store = Make sure you have {{table end}} at the very bottom
  • Won't sort properly = ensure that the input name matches the RELEASE "sort name", otherwise you need to write the exact page title