Sunshine Review:WikiProject Proposed state sunshine legislation/Stub pages and implementation

This is the Key page which breaks down the various parts of the template. To find a complete template which you can copy and paste or an example of a completed page, note the tabs across the top of the screen. For more detailed instructions, see Sunshine Review:WikiProject Proposed state sunshine legislation/Stub page details

To get back to the main project page, please go to: Sunshine Review:WikiProject Proposed state sunshine legislation.

Where do I start?!

Creating Wikis can be a complicated process for a beginner. This page is designed to help usher you into page creation on WikiFOIA. By carefully reading this page and later using it as a reference guide you should be able to follow the instructions and be creating pages in no time! This page is designed with exposed code that has been highlighted where it needs edited. Below each section of code is a corresponding key that explains how to change each piece of code with further links that explain the reasoning and other information about the pieces.

Creating the page

The easiest way to create the page is to utilize the search bar on the left side of the page. Make sure to use the advanced search on the right side of the page and simply type in the name of the bill, the state and the year according to our naming conventions which will bring up a failed search. In red text middle right on the page it will either say "create this page" or simply have a red link with the bill name, click on this. This should bring up a page with a large empty text box, this is your canvas.

First Section: Proposed legislation facts template

WikiFOIA uses templates in a number of ways. If you wish to learn more about templates and how they are created please see our Template Creation page. Our most commonly used template in this project is the {{Proposed legislation facts}} which should be included at the top right of every proposed bill page. It will look like this:

{{{Transparencyrating}}}   {{{Bill}}}
Status:	Final Status:{{{Finalstatus}}}
	{{{House}}}:{{{Housestats}}} {{{Senate}}}:{{{Senatestats}}} {{{Governor}}}:{{{Governorstats}}}
Sponsor:	{{{Sponsor}}}
Introduction date:	{{{Date}}}
State law:	{{{Act}}}
Bill text:	{{{Text1}}} {{{Text2}}} {{{Text3}}}
Status key:	= Passed, = Failed/Vetoed, = Committee = Awaiting Vote

The code

The actual code for the template will look like this:

Key to Proposed legislation facts

• Transparancyrating - This is where you would insert "{{Sunny}}", "{{Cloudy}}" or "{{Stormy}}". For info on how these are used please see the subsection entitled Transparency rating.
• Page Name - This is where you place the name of the bill in accordance with our naming conventions for example, you would insert "Senate Bill 249, Alaska 2010". You can easily copy and paste the page name from the top of the page.
• Bill Name - This is where you place just the bill name. It is effectively the same as Page name, but without the piece after the comma. For example you would insert "Senate Bill 249".
• State Senate Page, House Page, Governor Page - This is where you insert the Ballotpedia page for the state's house, senate and governor. Those pages can be found at Governor list and State legislatures.
• Image template - This is where you place the current status of the bill within each of the three chambers. If the bill has not yet reached that chamber you should leave the space blank. The options for this section are "{{Failed}}", "{{Passed}}", "{{Committee}}", and "{{Waiting}}". For more information on which of these to use and what they mean please see the subsection entitled Bill status. If the bill is in a committee you should provide a ballotpedia link to this committee. If the bill has passed or failed you should include the date of passage or failure and if possible a link to the vote and the vote numbers. For more information about link creation please see our subsection entitled How to create a link.
• Name of sponsor/Title and name - This is where you would insert a link to ballotpedia page of the bill sponsor followed by their title and full name. If there are multiple sponsors for a bill you may list them within reason. An example of this would be "[[ballotpedia:Johnny Ellis|Senator John Ellis]]". For more information about link creation please see our subsection entitled How to create a link.
• ACT - This is where you link to the open records or open meetings act that is being modified. For a list of these, see: State sunshine laws and State Open Meetings Laws.
• Date of introduction - This is where you would insert the date following MM-DD-YYYY format. An example of this would be "02-01-2010"
• Link to text - This is where you would place a link to the actual bill text. An example of this would be "[http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill_text.asp?hsid=SB0249A&session=26 As introduced]". The part after the link is the As introduced part of the link, this is the text that will show up as a selectable link, as such it should be descriptive of the website you are linking to. If it is the bill text as introduced use "As introduced", if it is the bill text as amended by a certain committee use "As amended by the Judicial Committee", or if it is the bill as it was passed into law use "As passed into law" and so on. For more information on link creation please see our subsection entitled How to create a link.
• Categoryname - This is where you insert the bill into a category so that it may later be sorted. More information and an explanation of what each category entails can be found by going to the section entitled categories.

Progress

The ## heading of the Progress bar template indicates to the wiki which image to load to indicate the progress of the bill. The ## is composed of one letter and one number. The letter is either H or S indicating the origin of the bill in either the House or Senate respectively. The second number indicates the level the bill has achieved. Finally a third letter, V is added when a bill has been vetoed or failed a vote. It is added on at the end of the combination of letters. Here is a list of all of the possible combination and the respective image that should appear.

Code	Image	Code	Image
H1	a	S1	m
H2	b	S2	n
H3	c	S3	o
H3V	d	S3V	p
H4	e	S4	q
H5	f	S5	r
H6	g	S6	s
H6V	h	S6V	t
H7	i	S7	u
H7V	j	S7V	v
H8	k	S8	w
H8V	l	S8V	x

Second section: Bill summary

This is the easy part of the page creation. A lot of the technical stuff can simply be copied and pasted from the first section. The most difficult part should be writing a clear bill summary that everyone can understand.

The code

The actual code for the template will look like this:

Key to Proposed legislation facts

• Bill Title - This is where you insert an abbreviated bill title. The convention is to use the first letter of the house the bill began in, for example a bill that started in the senate would be "SB 249" and a bill that started in the house would be "HB 2282". You may also run into an Assembly bill "AB 1682" or a House Joint Resolution "HJR 79".

• Introduction summary - This is where you will write up a small summary of the bill text to give the reader an idea of what the bill entails and why it applies to sunshine legislation. You should include ballotpedia links to the house the bill originated in and the sponsor in this section. For more information on how to write up this section and an example please see our subsection entitled Introduction line format.

• Bill status summary - This is where you will give a short summary of where the bill is currently. You should include a ballotpedia link to any committee, transfer, etc. it is currently in or expand on Final Status from the first section. For more information on how to track a bill check our subsection entitled Tracking a bills status.

• Bill support - This is where you will link to any websites or articles that support the bill. As we continue to develop and we hope that other transparency organizations will give their opinions on individual bills. You can also feel free to do some independent reporting and contact organizations for their opinion on more important bills. Please feel free to include quotes from major organizations here. You can also take quotes from existing news stories on the bill. For more information about link creation please see our subsection entitled How to create a link.

• Bill critics - This is where you will link to any websites or articles that criticize the bill. As we continue to develop and grow we hope that other transparency organizations will give their opinions on individual bills. You can also feel free to do some independent reporting and contact organizations for their opinion on more important bills. Please feel free to include quotes from major organizations here. You can also take quotes from existing news stories on the bill. For more information about link creation please see our subsection entitled How to create a link.

• News stories - This is where you will provide links to any news stories you have found relating to the bill. These should be articles pulled from online sources that relate to the bill. For more information about link creation please see our subsection entitled How to create a link.

• State act - This is where you will place a link to the state public records act. The names differ on a few of them, you can find the names at State sunshine laws and State Open Meetings Laws . For example you would insert "Alaska Public Records Act". For more information about link creation please see our subsection entitled How to create a link. Remember that this in an internal link.

• State - This is where you insert the name of the state so that it can bring up other transparency legislation from the same state as your page. For example you would insert "Alaska".

• Year - This is where you would insert the current year of the bill so that it could show other transparency legislation for that shares the same year as your page. For example you would insert "2010"

• Links to bill website or other external sites of interest - This is where you would link to the bill website or any other pages you think are relevant to the bill and could be of interest to others. For example you would insert [http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill.asp?bill=SB%20249&session=26 Bill website] For more information about link creation please see our subsection entitled How to create a link

• Year - This is where you will insert the current year of the bill so that the dpl function can pull bills that share a year with your page. For example you would insert "2010".

• Category1{{!}}Category2 - This is where you insert the same categories that you used in the first section under Categoryname. If there is more than one category you MUST insert the {{!}} in-between. This is critical. If there is only one category you do not need the |. For example with only one category you would insert "Open meetings legislation". However, if you had two or more categories you would insert "Open meetings legislation{{!}}Penalties and violations legislation", each separated with a "{{!}}".

• State - This is where you will insert the state your bill is from so that the dpl function can pull bills from other states. For example you would insert "Alaska".

• For more information and clarification of the "Similar bills from other states" dpl please see our subsection entitled For more Similar bills

Section three - Categories

The code

The actual code for the template will look like this:

Key to Categories and Progress bar

• State - for all instances of state within the highlighted section you will insert the name of the state you are working on. For example you would insert "Alaska".
• Year - for all instances of year within the highlighted section you will insert the year the bill you are working on was introduced. For example you would insert "2010".
• Category1 - As in the last section you will insert the category that you felt best fit the legislation. This would be the same as the one you used in the previous sections. For more information on category selection, please seeCategories.
• Category2 - As in the last section you will insert the category that you felt best fit the legislation. This would be the same as the one you used in previous sections. If you only have one category you should delete this entire line. For more information on category selection, please seeCategories.