Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Named references

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This is a Wikipedia project page for those interested in the topic of allowing named references in VisualEditor.

Currently, VE automatically adds numeric ref names with a colon prefix, i.e., ":0", ":1", ":2", and so on. There has long been interest in having VE support meaningful named references. The goal of this page is to be a central location which summarizes, or links to, all information of interest on this topic.

The main project page for VisualEditor is Wikipedia:VisualEditor, which has numerous subpages. There are similar pages on MediaWiki, starting with mw:VisualEditor. In general, the set of MediaWiki pages are more up to date, and WMF members tend to look at and possibly respond at the pages there more than at Wikipedia.

If you find a bug or other new problem, please raise a Phabricator ticket to report it, after first searching open Phabricator tickets about VisualEditor to make sure it hasn't been reported already.

Tools available to mitigate the problem include:

• RefRenamer – this script places a link in your Tools sidebar, and when clicked while on an article page, opens a dialog box containing all VE-style numeric references on the page, along with proposed Lastname-YYYY replacement names. It knows how to disambiguate collisions, and you can override to any named reference of your choice. A powerful tool, able to change hundreds of numeric references on a page. Presents a preview pane with diff, and if all looks good, you can Publish the changes.

You can help, by finding articles having VE-style numeric references, and fixing them using the RefRenamer script.

You can use an advanced search to obtain a list of articles with VE-style numeric references in need of adjustment. The following link will generate a search result page containing up to 50 articles with VE numeric ref names:

• generate search result page with VE numeric names (r=76) Purge server cache

Click any result, to view an article that could use improvement with RefRenamer. Purge this page to generate a different list of articles from the link, every time you purge.

A 2019 wishlist proposal to allow the user to name references was rejected for being too complex while the foundation proposed an alternate proposal of better automatic reference names that could be accepted if submitted in another wishlist survey.

Wikipedia (Help, and Project):

• Help:Footnotes#Footnotes: using a source more than once (= WP:NAMEDREFS)
• Help:VisualEditor
• Help:VisualEditor#Using standard cite templates
• Help:Wikitext#References and citing sources
• Wikipedia:Citing sources
• Wikipedia:VisualEditor, a how-to guide
• Wikipedia:VisualEditor/FAQ
• Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback

WikiMedia

• mw:VisualEditor – home page for VE on Mediawiki
• mw:Help:VisualEditor/FAQ
• mw:Help:VisualEditor/User guide#Editing references
• mw:Help:VisualEditor/User guide#Re-using an existing reference
• mw:VisualEditor/Feedback
• mw:wiki/2017 wikitext editor, editing wikicode from VE

Meta

• m:Community Wishlist Survey 2017/Editing/VisualEditor
• m:Community Wishlist Survey 2019/Citations/VisualEditor: Allow references to be named
  • m:Community Wishlist Survey 2019/Results, item #5
  • m:Community Wishlist Survey 2019/Status report 1#Named References in VE
  • m:Community Tech/Status report for 2019 wishlist#Named References in VE
• m:Community Wishlist Survey 2022/Editing/VisualEditor should use human-like names for references
• m:Community Wishlist Survey 2023/Editing/VisualEditor should use proper names for references
• m:Community Tech/Allow references to be named in VisualEditor

Discussions (in any project)

• mw:Talk:VisualEditor/Design/Reference Dialog/Archive 1#Named references (2013)
• Help talk:VisualEditor#Ref names (2016–2021)
• Wikipedia talk:Citing sources/Archive 40#Tech Talk on Zotero and citations (2016)
• Wikipedia talk:Citing sources/Archive 47#Visual Editor and Numerical reference names (2018)

Phabricator Report VE bugs in Phabricator: here. (Ticket statuses as of 07:03, 10 October 2023 (UTC); non-exhaustive list)

⟶ VE Project overview page to track all VE issues

• T52568 (2013-07-02) open, low  – VisualEditor: Be able to name references manually in the reference dialog
• T92432 (2015-03-11) open, low  – Come up with a better way to auto-label references
• T243300 (2020-01-21) closed, resolved – Spike: Investigate Named References in VE
• T245199 (2020-02-13) open, needs triage – Named References in VE: Determine Potential Design Options
• T312050 (2022-07-04) open, needs triage – VisualEditor changed reference names when reusing/copying references
• T323419 (2022-11-18) open, needs triage – VE spontaneously adds numeric names to refs in sections not touched by a user edit