Template:Deleted template

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{{Deleted template}} provides a way to delete templates but still retain them for the purpose of correctly displaying old revisions of pages. When using this method to delete a template, all existing transclusions should be removed in the usual way, and {{Deleted template}} added into the template being deleted. This should ensure correct display in old revisions, and a warning when used in a revision postdating the deletion.

Current revisions containing templates deleted in this way (as well as the deleted templates themselves) are automatically categorised in Category:Pages containing deleted templates.

Similar templates include {{Deprecated template}} and {{Historical template}}.

Usage

The template takes 4 parameters, the latter 3 are compulsory parameters:

1. |1= the revision ID of the template at the time of it being deleted. This parameter is no longer used, and the third parameter (date) is used to decide whether to treat the page like an old revision.
2. |2= template name (without Template:)
3. |3=14 September 2025 date the template was deleted (in format: dd MM yyyy)
4. the fourth parameter is the output text itself that the template would have generated upon being called or transcluded. Usually its contents should be the entirety of the template to be deleted. However in some cases, the input text is outputted since the original template adapted input text to output garbage in modern-day browsers. So browsing old revisions would give garbage instead of the text.

To use this template, add it at the beginning of the template to be deleted, like {{Deleted template| and add the closing brackets of at the end of the template }}:

Example:

{{Deleted template|388523941|Example|12 February 2011|
Old template
did various things
and possibly other things
}}

• There is also one optional parameter: the |extra= parameter may be used to add further information at the end of the message. Remember when calling a named parameter like |extra= it must appear after all unnamed parameters, i.e. at the end like |extra=''extra information''}} so, otherwise all unnamed parameters should be called using their 'names' like |1= |2= etc.

Template documentation

Associated template documentation may be worth retaining, for example for references to alternative templates.

1. Use {{hat}}/{{hab}} to collapse usage instructions which are no longer relevant
2. Remove any categories (possibly convert them to See Also links)
3. Add a {{historical}} template as in this example for {{expand}}: {{Historical|category=no|brief=yes|comment=This template was [[Template:Deleted template|deprecated]] following deletion discussion archived at [[Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2010_December_16#Template:Expand]]}}
4. If used with {{Ambox}} which has the |name= parameter present for the |subst= parameter, |doc=no must also be passed to {{Ambox}} and <noinclude>{{documentation}}</noinclude> manually placed at the end of the template code.

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Deleted template/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.