Template talk:SMWDefaultMarkup

Explanation

The idea of this template, is to provide a one-size-fits-all chance to add markup to pages. This is in fact a rather questionable undertaking, since more markup means more computing needed to process it - so embedding intelligence in the semantic templates which are supposed to process the markup is probably a better bet.

Need for caution

This template is potentially problematic to the stability and predicability of SMW. In particular, statements of the form "If this page doesn't have property X, then give it property X" will put create problems by putting SMW into an infinite loop which it cannot spot - first adding property X and then removing it again - slowing down the processing of the SMW jobs queue and putting the semantic data involved into non-deterministic states.

Why?

Currently, it tags each page with the {{FULLPAGENAME}} variable, so easy to get from a template, but seems to be inaccessible from a semantic query. This is not actually used as yet, due to changes in how I decided to use the SMW data. Why then persist with this template? I think it is a useful adjunct to the existing options for inserting semantic data in pages. Some statements are not problematic (if X and Y exist, then add Z) and may simplify coding of semantic templates in future. Robin (talk) 09:00, 2 January 2014 (GMT)