Unexpected Line Break in MediaWiki Template

Question

So I have a MediaWiki template which I use within a table to represent one column. The code looks like this and works as I want it.

<includeonly>{{#if:{{{name|}}}|''{{{name}}}: ''|}}{{#if:{{{food|}}}|+{{Food|{{{food|}}}}}|}} {{#if:{{{condition|}}}|{{{condition|}}}|}}</includeonly>

When I use it with the input

{{Symbiosis|name=Groove|food=10|condition=if next to [[Apple Tree]], [[Dandelion]] or [[Straberry]]}}

I get the folling result which is as desired.

However now I want to extend this template and move the part with the food definition in another template because I need it elsewhere again. So I make a new ResourceList template which basically does the same as before.

<includeonly>{{#if:{{{food|}}}|+{{Food|{{{food|}}}}}|}}<includeonly>

and include it in my Symbiosis template to look like this.

<includeonly>{{#if:{{{name|}}}|''{{{name}}}: ''|}}{{ResourceList|food={{{food}}}}} {{#if:{{{condition|}}}|{{{condition|}}}|}}</includeonly>

But when I now use the same input as above I get a line break in my table to look like this.

Why is this? There are no spaces or linkebreaks in the template definitions. I don't really understand how MediaWiki handles all this, it is quite confusing and somewhat unintuitivive. All this whitespace and line break behavious is driving me nuts... Is there a way to tell MediaWiki that it might ignore all whitespaces and linebreaks within my template definition expect the ones I explecitly want to have?

Answer 1

I can't reproduce your error.

I input all of the code from your second example exactly as written and it turned out like your first example. I tried it by itself and then I tried replicating your table based on the screenshot (see below), and in both cases no errant line break occurred.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- 
! width="33%" | Column A
! width="34%" | Column B
! width="33%" | Column C
|- 
| {{loremipsum}}
| {{Symbiosis|name=Groove|food=10|condition=if next to [[Apple Tree]], [[Dandelion]] or [[Straberry]]}}
| {{loremipsum}}
|}

Are you using a different css class in your table? Because sometimes that can cause unexpected wrapping or paragraph problems.

Answer 2

This can happen when multiple templates with no output are included in sequence (not sure if that's the problem here).

Try adding <nowiki/> right before the end of each of the template (before any </includeonly>)

Answer 3

You can't rely on using the pipe character, |, in templates. Instead you should create a new template specifically for the pipe character. This is what Wikipedia does. This is simpler than it sounds. Simply:

1. Create a new template called ! (so the page name will be Template:!).
2. The page contents only need to be | (yes, just the pipe character).
3. Use it by adding {{!}} to any template where you currently use the pipe character (ie replace | with {{!}})

See Template:! on Wikipedia for more information.