Template talk:Official website

Dead links

What's the correct way to mark a {{official website}} as a dead link? -- Mikeblas (talk) 16:35, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

This comes up over and over in the talk archives. The last discussion of any note is Template_talk:Official_website/Archive_3#Dead_links. Some people say if the link is dead it should be deleted entirely from Wikipedia and not replaced with an archive URL. I don't understand that thinking. It is further complicated by Wikidata. IMO I would delete the template and replace it with {{webarchive}} using the |title= arg to give the same wording eg. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309010101/https://example.com|date=2021-03-09|title=Official website}} which produces:

Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2021-03-09)

-- GreenC 16:49, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

FWIW, P856 supports inclusion of an archive URL property like the citations templates do (example), but this template does not make use of it. If I knew template code well enough, I would boldly adjust to treat it as the citation templates do, but since I do not I simply record that wish here so maybe someone else will try it. —KGF0 ( T | C ) 02:00, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

It's true and called archive URL (P1065). Is there someone out there who indeed knows module code well enough and has admin rights to edit it? You can use the example of (Q27978783#P856) and Scorpia (journalist)#External links. -Cardace (talk) 20:34, 15 July 2022 (UTC)

I also support adding |archive-url= support. ~Kvng (talk) 14:04, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

|archive-url= is a CS1|2 argument name. I don't think we should use that key name, unless it is a CS1|2 template, to avoid confusion about which arguments the template supports. -- GreenC 19:54, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

If it keeps coming up, perhaps some text should be included in the documentation to explain what to do with a dead official website (both in the case of a completely dead site and in the case of an updated URL)? Rowing007 (talk) 19:46, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

I support archive capability as well. ɱ (talk) 21:46, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

I came here from Space Station 76#External links, and all I want to say is: Ditto. —ReadOnlyAccount (talk) 01:09, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

Handling Equal Signs

It doesn't appear that official can handle it if there is a equal sign in the url for example, Dimitar Berbatov has *{{official|http://berbatov.sportal.bg/index.php?lang=2}} and it throws wierd errors. What is the proper way, can it be made, I think the term is "URL-safe"?Naraht (talk) 17:56, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

As explained in the documentation (Some URLs that contain special characters...), like this: *{{official|1=http://berbatov.sportal.bg/index.php?lang=2}} → Official website – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:31, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

When did mobile get removed?

When did mobile as a parameter get removed here?Naraht (talk) 13:28, 3 November 2023 (UTC)

29 July 2023 by Izno. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:07, 3 November 2023 (UTC)

Thanx. Cleaning up Category:Pages using Official website with unknown parameters and figured most of them were from that.Naraht (talk) 16:35, 3 November 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, I didn't want to jump on that immediately in case someone noticed and I got into one of the common WP:FAIT arguments about the validity of a parameter. Izno (talk) 20:45, 3 November 2023 (UTC)

Use inside Infobox?

Is there any guidance that it is not appropriate to have this template in an infobox?Naraht (talk) 22:12, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Does the infobox have a field for official website? -- GreenC 22:16, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Template under discussion is {{Infobox_fraternity}} field is website. Field is "website -The URL of the official website."Naraht (talk) 23:42, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

I do not recall any prohibition on use of {{Official website}} in infoboxes, but the documentation for some infoboxes provide guidance that the |website= parameter should be for an official website only (e.g., {{Infobox person}}).

For the infoboxes I usually deal with, the general practice has been to display only the url of the website link (not including the http/https portion). The documentation and examples often suggest the use of {{URL}}. {{Official URL}} can be a useful alternative. Note that in some cases, the infobox documentation specifically advises not to include the www. portion of the url unless the website requires it (presumably to save space in space-constrained infoboxes). However, {{Official URL}} displays the full website name including the www. portion if that is what is stored in wikidata or passed in as the first parameter.

In addition to {{URL}}, {{Official URL}}, and {{Official website}} I have seen external links like [https://about.me/ About Me] used, especially when the official website url is very long. Others also use, incorrectly, the deprecated second parameter of {{URL}} to display alternative text instead of the url itself.

Note that it appears that {{Official website}} (with no parameters) will show a website link from wikidata, even if the website is marked as deprecated and displays an error if there is no website in wikidata. {{Official URL}} does not display a deprecated link nor an error message if there is no website in wikidata.  — Archer1234 (t·c) 00:32, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

Here's a search that shows at least a few infoboxes using the template. There are a bunch of false positives in this search result; someone else could probably make a better search, but scrolling through 37 results isn't that hard. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:35, 9 February 2024 (UTC)