Editing Hull Designation Index Pages
This index lists U.S. Navy hull designations grouped into general categories.
Basic Page Structure
The entry for a hull designation is contained on a single line starting with "...". There should only be one type of entry:
- Entries with an active link
The designation's acronym is a link that takes you to the page for that designation. An entry should only provide an active link if there is an actual page already created for that designation or if the designation's page will be created immediately after the entry is added to the index page. Entries with an active link use the following template:<tr><td align="center">[[PAGE_NAME | ACRONYM]]</td><td>DESCRIPTION</td></tr>
Where:
"[[PAGE_NAME | ACRONYM]]" is a link to the page that contains the list of ships with that designation. "PAGE_NAME" is the name of the page for the given designation and should have the form: "Designation_<acronym>". For example, the page name for designation FSF is "Designation_FSF".
"ACRONYM" is the designation's acronym (ie, FSF, BB, etc) and will be used as the link's label (ie, how the link will appear when displayed on the page). For example, [[Designation_FSF | FSF]] is a link to a page named Designation_FSF but on the index page the link looks like "FSF".
"DESCRIPTION" is the full text description of the given designation. For example, for designation FSF, the description is "Fast Sea Frame".
How to add a new "active link" entry
If you want to add a new designation, then you need to use the "active link" template (see above) to create an entry with an active link. Copy the template and paste it in the correct location. Then replace "PAGE_NAME", "ACRONYM", and "DESCRIPTION" with appropriate values. For example,
<tr><td align="center">[[Designation_ADG | ADG]]</td><td> Degaussing Ship</td></tr>
Remember that there are two designation index pages: one listing designations by category and one listing designations in alphabetical order. If you need to add a new designation, please make sure to add it to both indexes! You can add it to the first index and then copy and paste the entry into the other index. Once the designation is in both indexes, you need to create the page associated with that designation and populate it with ships listed in hull number order. Use the Designation Page Template to help build that page.
Finally...
Don't forget to preview the page before saving it and please add a short description of the change in the Summary text box just above the Save / Show buttons at the bottom of the page. A short description would be something like "added designation FSF".
To see some examples, just look at how the current entries are coded. If you have questions or run into trouble, contact the Curator for help. You can always Cancel an editing session using the "Cancel" link just to the right of the "Show changes" button at the bottom of the editor screen. For general editing help, see the article on How To Edit Pages.
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