Template talk:Cite DANAS

Edit request DANAS

Moved from Template talk:DANFS

Discussion copied from Template talk:DANFS

There is a publication similar to this one, also from the Naval History & Heritage Command, that covers aircraft squadrons instead of ships. It would be useful if it had a template, plus a cite template. Some specifics:

• The publication in question is Dictionary of American Naval Aircraft Squadrons (DANAS), published in two volumes, with maybe more to come.
• The online version of Volume 1 consists of about 30 online files, shown HERE. There are a few special files (such as THIS very informative one for title page, "about" information, etc.) and about thirty files, each covering a dozen or so squadrons. Volume 2 is similar, and can be found HERE.
• Because of this layout, readers would have to be linked to a specific chapter (instead of a specific ship, as in DANFS), then scroll to find the squadron they are interested in. This is easy and straightforward, but some instructions might be useful.
• There doesn't seem to be an alternate version such as the Hazegray version for DANFS.
• There doesn't seem to be a need to combine references to two sources, as the Naval Vessel Register for DANFS.
• The work lists a LOT of squadrons; maybe more than DANFS lists ships.
• The information for each squadron is extremely detailed, and seems to be more authoritative and useful than that in DANFS.
• Unlike DANFS, which had many unidentified authors, each of the two volumes was written by a single author. One was a professional historian at the History & Heritage command, the other was a retired Captain in the Medical Service Corps.
• The work also includes, separately, detailed information about the aircraft used by the various squadrons.

I just found DANAS yesterday, while working on articles about some squadrons. It may be an undiscovered gold mine for Wikipedia. If it gets a template, I'm willing go go through the various articles about squadrons and aircraft, and incorporate the template as needed (this is a huge job, but I'm willing to start it). With a few examples, I'm guessing that others with a Naval Aviation interest would also get engaged in the project. Lou Sander (talk) 14:30, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

Retitled this section because there are several sections above with the same title.

I can easily see how to make a citation template that would be a wrapper template for {{cite book}}, perhaps as {{cite DANAS}}:

{{cite DANAS |volume=1 |article=VA-114 |page=206 |section=va125153}}

where:

|article= is the squadron name (perhaps the parameter should be |squadron= (or whatever an abbreviation of squadron is)

|section= is the unique part of the url for the chapter section

http://www.history.navy.mil/download/va125153.pdf

which would then produce:

{{cite book |chapter=Va-114 |title=Dictionary of American Naval Squadrons |volume=1 |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/download/va125153.pdf#page=13 |format=pdf |page=206 |work=[[Naval Historical Center]] |publisher=Department of the Navy |location=Washington, DC |first=Roy A. |last=Grossnick |date=1995}}

which renders as:

Grossnick, Roy A. (1995). "Va-114". Dictionary of American Naval Squadrons (pdf). Vol. 1. Washington, DC: Department of the Navy. p. 206. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

I think that a bit of research and some simple code can modify the url so that when clicked, the reader is taken to the correct page in the pdf document. This works in Chrome; haven't tried other browsers.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:22, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

Maybe/probably there should be a template for each volume, since they have different authors, and maybe other differences I'm not aware of yet. I like "article" over "squadron" because there are articles on specific aircraft, etc. It would be most excellent if the reader could be taken to a page in the pdf document. Possibly the cite template could take them there, but the general one could take them to the index page for the proper volume, and/or to the "about" PDF page, (whatever it's called in the book).

I'm a reasonably competent and prolific editor, but I don't know much about templates, and it probably wouldn't be productive for me to learn. OTOH, I'm glad to help with this in any way I'm capable of. (Once the template is enabled, I can see myself doing 20, 50, or 100 articles about these squadrons. They'd probably be stubs to begin with, but there are many people with a Naval Aviation interest who might want to expand on them.) Lou Sander (talk) 16:38, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

Ok, I've added |volume= to the above and will begin plotting out the template.

Is there much need for a generic This article contains content taken from ... DANAS type of template? I personally dislike those because after a few edits the text that was take from such sources has been modified sufficiently that it is no longer the text from the source.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 16:59, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

Naraht has created a basic {{DANAS}} template, which I've used in VAK-208 and VAK-308. I see your point about many edits changing things, but personally I like the idea of being able to put everyone on notice about public domain text. No copyright problems with it, then.

Until a cite template is made (IF it's made), I've put some examples and assistance HERE. If one is clever enough, one can change the title= and url= to point to the appropriate chapter name and URL. It requires less cleverness just to point the reference to the proper volume. I was clever in VAK-208 and VAK-308. It takes a bit of work, but it's SO cool to click the reference and go straight to the proper chapter! Lou Sander (talk) 02:02, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

There is now a version, mostly untested, of {{cite DANAS}} that supports volume 1 only. First test are at Template:cite DANAS/testcases. Appendix 2 is not yet supported. After the bugs have been wrung out of this version, then I'll add volume 2. Volume 1 is the more complex because the constituent files aren't all in the same place.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:30, 4 February 2014 (UTC)