Board Thread:Wiki discussions and announcements/@comment-3308937-20140428221750

As some of you may know I've been wanting to implement data templates for items for years now. Here's the basics:

What is a data template?
It's basically something that would let us keep things like stats, cost and availability for an item all on one page. We currently use this method for champion stats. I have made some example/trial templates that you can see at User:NeonSpotlight/Data list, namely the difference between Health's code and User:NeonSpotlight/Health.

Why use data templates?
So that we can update the numbers on multiple pages by editing just one. This not only eases editing around patch time but also would be a huge boon to making sure all the information on the wiki is up to date and factually correct.

What pages would be affected by changing to data templates?
Like with the champ stat lists (ie: List of champions attack damage) the lists for items will be the primary target for these changes. Currently every stat page (Health, Attack damage, Ability power, etc.) has a list of items on it with full descriptions for each item. It's very easy for one or more pages to get skipped over accidentally around patch time.

What are the downsides to implementing data templates?
One of the big concerns I've heard comes from User:TehAnonymous who doesn't like data templates because they make editing noticeably harder for newer editors due to it not being very intuitive. There's some things we could do to try and alleviate some of that like using comments ( <!-- ) in the source on the item page or adding a link into the item infobox to the data page. I think Bryght was working on a way to make it so we could put the data on the champion page itself but I have no clue if it works how a normal data template does or what.

There's also the whole actually making and implementing the templates thing which seems to be an issue we have when it comes to large scale changes (just look at ability details).

Discussion
Basically do you support the movement, what areas do you think could be improved, what areas are you concerned about, what problems do you foresee occurring, the usual things. 