Wikipedia:TemplateData/Tutorial

Template data is a way of storing information about a template—such as parameter names, or a description of the template—so that the VisualEditor can retrieve it and populate the template editor with it. It does not change anything about the actual template with which it appears, and nothing you can do with template data will affect the functionality of or "break" any existing Wikipedia template (though mistakes that appear in the template data might cause editors to use the associated template or its parameters incorrectly, so care is still needed). Template data is controlled by MediaWiki's TemplateData extension, which allows users to write small bits of structured data to a template page, or to be transcluded into that template page (such as on the standard documentation page). Once a template has this structured data, it can be displayed properly in the VisualEditor. While this may sound complex, it's actually very easy.