View source for Infobox

{{short description|Template used to collect and present a subset of information about a subject}}
{{Self-reference|For information about infoboxes on Wikipedia, see [[Help:Infobox]].}}
[[File:43185 infobox.jpg|thumb|right|A real-life infobox from [[British Rail Class 43 (HST)|British Rail Class 43]] car 43185 operated by [[First Great Western]]]]

An '''infobox''' is a digital or physical [[Table (information)|table]] used to collect and present a subset of information about its subject, such as a [[document]]. It is a [[structured document]] containing a set of [[attribute–value pair]]s,{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=31}} and in [[Wikipedia]] represents a summary of information about the subject of an [[Article (publishing)|article]].{{sfn|Liyang|2011|p=385}} In this way, they are comparable to data [[table (information)|tables]] in some aspects. When presented within the larger document it summarizes, an infobox is often presented in a [[sidebar (publishing)|sidebar]] format.

An infobox may be implemented in another document by [[transclusion|transcluding]] it into that document and specifying some or all of the attribute–value pairs associated with that infobox, known as [[parameterization]].

==Wikipedia==
An infobox may be used to summarize the information of an article on [[Wikipedia]].{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=357}} They are used on similar articles to ensure consistency of presentation by using a common format.{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=17}}{{sfn|Liyang|2011|p=385}} Originally, infoboxes (and templates in general) were used for [[page layout]] purposes.{{sfn|Liyang|2011|p=385}} An infobox may be transcluded into an article by specifying the [[Value (computer science)|value]] for some or all of its [[Parameter (computer programming)|parameters]].{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=18}} The parameter name used must be the same as that specified in the infobox template, but any value may be associated to it.{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=18}} The name is [[delimiter|delimited]] from the value by an [[equals sign]].{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=18}} The parameter name may be regarded as an attribute of the article's subject.{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=30}}

<!-- this table is used for examples in the text; please update the text when changing contents in the table -->
{|class="wikitable"
|-
| style="vertical-align: top;" |
<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">
{{Infobox prepared food
| name = 
| image = 
| image_size = 
| caption = 
| alternate_name = 
| country = 
| region = 
| creator = 
| course = 
| type = 
| served = 
| main_ingredient = 
| variations = 
| calories = 
| other = 
}}
</syntaxhighlight>
| style="vertical-align: top;" | 
<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">
{{Infobox prepared food
| name = Crostata
| image = Crostata limone e zenzero 3.jpg
| image_size = 
| caption = Crostata with lemon ginger filling
| alternate_name = 
| country = [[Italy]]
| region = [[Lombardia]]
| creator = 
| course = [[Dessert]]
| type = [[Tart]]
| served = 
| main_ingredient = Pastry crust, [[jam]] or [[ricotta]], fruit
| variations = ''Crostata di frutta'', ''crostata di ricotta'', many other sweet or savoury variations
| calories = 
| other = 
}}
</syntaxhighlight>
|-
| style="vertical-align: top;" |The infobox ''[[Template:Infobox prepared food|Infobox prepared food]]'' used on Wikipedia food-related articles, with no [[Value (computer science)|values]] specified for its [[Parameter (computer programming)|parameters]] (attributes).
| style="vertical-align: top;" |The same infobox as implemented in the article ''[[crostata]]''. Values are to the right of the [[equals sign]] (=), and that the parameter names are the same as those in the specification for the infobox template. The values are in [[wiki markup]]: entries enclosed in square brackets (e.g. <nowiki>[[Tart]]</nowiki>) will be rendered as a link to the respective Wikipedia article (e.g. [[Tart]]), and the linked file will be transcluded into the article in place of its markup.
|}

[[File:Crostata infobox, February 2018.png|thumb|right|The infobox for the Wikipedia article ''[[Crostata]]'' rendered by a [[web browser engine]] on a [[desktop computer]]]]

On Wikipedia, an infobox is transcluded into an article by enclosing its name and attribute–value pairs within a double set of [[Curly bracket|braces]]. The [[MediaWiki]] software on which Wikipedia operates then [[Parsing|parses]] the document, for which the infobox and other templates are processed by a [[template processor]]. This is a [[Web template system|template engine]] which produces a [[web document]] and a [[Style sheet (web development)|style sheet]] used for presentation of the document. This enables the design of the infobox to be separated from the content it manipulates;{{sfn|Liyang|2011|p=385}} that is, the design of the template may be updated without affecting the information within it, and the new design will automatically propagate to all articles that transclude the infobox.{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=17}} Usually, infoboxes are [[Typesetting|formatted]] to appear in the top-right corner of a Wikipedia article in the desktop view,{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=357}} or at the top in the mobile view.

Placement of an infobox within the [[Wiki markup|wikitext]] of an article is important for [[Web accessibility|accessibility]].{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=234}} A [[best practice]] is to place them following ''disambiguation'' templates (those that direct readers to articles about topics with similar names) and maintenance templates (such as that marking an article as unreferenced), but before all other [[Content (media)|content]].{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=235}}<ref>The [[English Wikipedia]] policy about accessibility is specified in the [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility]]. The policy about [[Wiki markup|wikitext]] layout is specified at [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout]] and [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section]].</ref>

[[Ricardo Baeza-Yates|Baeza-Yates]] and King say that some editors find templates such as infoboxes complicated,{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=345}} as the template may hide text about a property or resource that the editor wishes to change; this is exacerbated by chained templates, that is templates transcluded within other templates.{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=345}}

As of August 2009, English Wikipedia used about {{formatnum:3000}} infobox templates that collectively used more than {{formatnum:20000}} attributes.{{sfn|Lange|Böhm|Naumann|2010|page=7}} Since then, many have been merged, to reduce redundancy. As of June 2013, there were at least {{formatnum:1345446}} transclusions of the parent [[Template:Infobox|Infobox template]],<ref name="Jarry">{{cite web|url=http://toolserver.org/~jarry/templatecount/index.php?lang=en&name=Infobox&namespace=10|title=Jarry1250's Toolserver Tools - Template transclusion count|date=7 June 2013|work=[[List of Wikimedia projects]]|access-date=7 June 2013}}</ref> used by some, but not all, infoboxes, on {{formatnum:4251127}} articles.

The name of an Infobox is typically "Infobox [genre]"; however, widely used infoboxes may be assigned shorter names, such as "taxobox" for taxonomy.{{sfn|Broughton|2008|p=235}}

===Machine learning===
About 44.2% of Wikipedia articles contained an infobox in 2008,{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=28}} and about 33% in 2010.{{sfn|Lange|Böhm|Naumann|2010|page=5}} Automated [[Semantic data model|semantic knowledge extraction]] using [[machine learning]] algorithms is used to "extract machine-processable information at a relatively low complexity cost".{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=31}} However, the low coverage makes it more difficult, though this can be partially overcome by complementing article data with that in [[Categorization|categories]] in which the article is included.{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=28}} The [[French Wikipedia]] initiated the project ''Infobox Version 2'' in May 2011.{{sfn|Geertman|Reinhardt|Toppen|2011|p=493}}<ref>The project is hosted on the [[French Wikipedia]] page [[:fr:Projet:Infobox/V2|Infobox/V2]].</ref>

Knowledge obtained by machine learning can be used to improve an article, such as by using automated software suggestions to editors for adding infobox data.{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=28}} The iPopulator project created a system to add a value to an article's infobox parameter via an automated parsing of the text of that article.{{sfn|Lange|Böhm|Naumann|2010|page=7}}

[[DBpedia]] uses [[structured content]] extracted from infoboxes{{sfn|Liyang|2011|p=385}} by machine learning algorithms to create a resource of [[linked data]] in the [[Semantic Web]]; it has been described by [[Tim Berners-Lee]] as "one of the more famous" components of the linked data project.{{sfn|Miller|2008}}

Machine extraction creates a triple consisting of a subject, predicate or relation, and object.{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=31}} Each attribute-value pair of the infobox is used to create an [[Resource Description Framework|RDF]] statement using an [[Ontology (information science)|ontology]].{{sfn|Liyang|2011|p=387}} This is facilated by the narrower gap between Wikipedia and an ontology than exists between unstructured or free text and an ontology.{{sfn|Virvou|Matsuura|2012|p=315}}

The [[Ontology components|semantic relationship]] between the subject and object is established by the predicate.{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=31}} In the example infobox, the triple ("crostata", type, "tart") indicates that a [[crostata]] is a type of [[tart]]. The article's topic is used as the subject, the parameter name is used as the predicate, and the parameter's value as the object.{{sfn|Liyang|2011|p=387}}{{sfn|Baeza-Yates|King|2009|p=31}} Each type of infobox is mapped to an ontology class, and each property (parameter) within an infobox is mapped to an ontology property.{{sfn|Liyang|2011|p=395}} These mappings are used when parsing a Wikipedia article to extract data.

==Metadata==
[[File:Link to infobox article posted into teams.png|alt=Screenshot of a Link to this article posting into Microsoft's application teams|thumb|Link to this article posting into Microsoft Teams and the application using the metadata from the infobox to make the link fuller by adding an image and summary text]]

By presenting the basic facts of an article within an infobox, also allows the facts to be presented in a machine-friendly way allowing extra functionality such as when a link to a Wikipedia article is pasted into a compatible program, instead of just the link itself being posted other information such as the articles image is posted too.

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Works cited ==
{{refbegin|2}}
* {{cite book|title=Weaving services and people on the World Wide Web|editor1-last=Baeza-Yates|editor1-first=Ricardo|editor2-last=King|editor-first2=Irwin|publisher=Springer|year=2009|isbn=9783642005695|lccn=2009926100}}
* {{cite book|title=[[Wikipedia – The Missing Manual]]|last=Broughton|first=John|editor1-last=Barber|editor1-first=Nan|editor2-last=Meyers|editor2-first=Peter|publisher=[[O'Reilly Media]]|date=2008-07-14|isbn=9780596553777}}
* {{cite book|title=Advancing geoinformation science for a changing world|series=Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography|volume=1|editor1-last=Geertman|editor1-first=Stan|editor2-last=Reinhardt|editor2-first=Wolfgang|editor3-last=Toppen|editor3-first=Fred|publisher=Springer|year=2011|isbn=9783642197888|issn=1863-2246|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-19789-5|lccn=2011925152}}
* {{cite book |url=http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2010/4571/|title=Extracting Structured Information from Wikipedia Articles to Populate Infoboxes|volume=Technische Berichte des Hasso-Plattner-Instituts für Softwaresystemtechnik an der Universität Potsdam, Hasso-Plattner-Institut für Softwaresystemtechnik Potsdam|last1=Lange|first1=Dustin|last2=Böhm|first2=Christoph|last3=Naumann|first3=Felix|issue=38|publisher=Universitätsverlag Potsdam|year=2010|isbn=9783869560816|access-date=2013-06-02|archive-date=2014-06-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606211144/http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2010/4571/|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|title=A Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web|last=Yu|first=Liyang|publisher=Springer|year=2011|isbn=9783642159695|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-15970-1|bibcode=2011adgt.book.....Y|ref={{sfnRef|Liyang|2011}}}}
* {{cite web |url=http://talis-podcasts.s3.amazonaws.com/twt20080207_TimBL.html |title=Sir Tim Berners-Lee Talks with Talis about the Semantic Web |last=Miller |first=Paul |others=Transcription by CastingWords |publisher=Talis Group |date=2008-02-07 |access-date=2013-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510134842/http://talis-podcasts.s3.amazonaws.com/twt20080207_TimBL.html |archive-date=2013-05-10 }}
* {{cite book|title=Knowledge-based Software Engineering: Proceedings of the Tenth Joint Conference on Knowledge-Based Software Engineering|series=Frontiers and Artificial Intelligence and Applications|editor1-last=Virvou|editor1-first=Maria|editor2-last=Matsuura|editor2-first=Saeko|volume=240|publisher=IOS Press|year=2012|isbn=9781614990932|lccn=2012943674}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last1=Kiran|first1=Kumar N.|last2=Santosh|first2=G.S.K.|last3=Varma|first3=Vasudeva|title=Multidisciplinary Information Retrieval |volume=6653|publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg|date=June 2011|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-21353-3|isbn=9783642213533|issn=0302-9743|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science|s2cid=9901886|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/multidisciplinar0000info}}
* {{cite book|title=The Semantic Web: 3rd Asian Semantic Web Conference, ASWC 2008, Bangkok, Thailand, December 8-11, 2008. Proceedings|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science|editor1-last=Chutiporn|editor1-first=Anutariya|editor2-last=Domingue|editor2-first=John|volume=5367|publisher=Springer|year=2008|isbn=9783540897033|issn=0302-9743}}
* {{cite book|last1=Wu|first1=Fei|last2=Hoffmann|first2=Ralph|last3=Weld|first3=Daniel s.|title=Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining |chapter=Information extraction from Wikipedia |publisher=[[Association for Computing Machinery]]|year=2008|pages=731–739|isbn=9781605581934|doi=10.1145/1401890.1401978|s2cid=7781746}}

[[Category:Semantic Web]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]