MakeRef

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

MakeRef is a tool to assist in the generation of reference tags. It was written by Magnus Manske and runs on the Toolforge server, here. It can be configured through subpages of this page:

Status: WORKING OK (various bug fixes and updates performed in March 2014 - see below).

Syntax[edit]

To describe a set of form data to be made into a reference, you have to give it a name ("==" heading) and two sections ("===" headings), namely "fields" and "code".

The "fields" section consists of a wiki-markup table with three columns: Name, key, and example. These can be modified:

  • A name like "*Title" indicates that the title is mandatory-
  • A key like "@key" generates a five-line textbox instead of a one-line input box. Currently, this is only used for a fixed keyname "bibtex".
  • A key can have default values. Currently, this works only for BibTex and looks like "title=bib.title". "bib" is a constant, refering to the values in the textbox with the key "bibtex".

The "code" section contains the code to be generated.

  • It can contain variables like "{$title}", which will be replaced with the value the user has entered for the "title" key.
  • It can contain conditionals. "<!title>The title is {$title}</!title>" will generate a sentence only if "title" is not blank.

One can create a new language by copying and editing an existing localization to a new page (MakeRef/LanguageCode) and calling the MakeRef tool by adding "?language=language_code" to the URL.

Bug fixes[edit]

A number of long standing issues were fixed in /EN on 20 March 2014 and in the other langauges a few days later.

Editors may wish to review the relevant Wikipedia edits made during the periods these bugs were active and manually correct any issues still remaining.