Sub-referencing

Hi! Thanks for testing the new Sub-referencing feature developed by Wikimedia Deutschland.

What can you already test?

In Wikitext

You can create a sub-reference using the attribute extends.
You can re-use a sub-reference using <ref name="sub-reference name"/>

In Visual Editor

You can create a sub-reference using the citation dialog.
You can re-use a sub-reference using the "re-use" tab in the citation dialog.
You can edit a sub-reference by clicking on the footnote marker in the article text.

Please note: We are currently implementing changes to the Visual Editor prototype. The citation dialog "extends"-tab might break temporarily on some days during the first two weeks of September.

What doesn't work yet

In Visual Editor, currently the only way to create a sub-reference is to use the "extends" tab in the citation dialog.
In Visual Editor, you cannot edit a sub-reference from the reference list yet.
In Visual Editor, it is currently possible to make a sub-reference of a sub-reference. This is an error and causes an error upon saving. It is not supposed to work later in the actual solution, and does not work in wikitext, either.
In Visual Editor, when you create a re-use of a sub-reference in Visual Editor and then switch to wikitext, you will find that the statement in wikitext is <ref extends="main-reference" name="sub-reference" />. This is a bug. Re-use of sub-references is not fully supported yet.
In Visual Editor <ref name="sub-reference name"/> is currently not displaying the sub-reference's Reference Preview properly. You will only see the sub-reference's details in the pop-up and not the information from the main reference while editing (it's fine once saving the edit).
We have yet to work on what happens when you delete a reference that is being re-used.

Where can you test the feature?

Here are some sample pages, which you can use for testing:

Mathematical fallacy
General Data Protection Regulation
Murder in German law
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Old Testament
Mona Lisa
Borussia Dortmund
Eriauchenus zirafy
Ogoki River
Hella
Margaret E. Bailey (already offers some sub-references you can test with)
Medieval Arabic female poets (already offers some sub-references you can test with)

You can of course create your own pages on betawiki, by copying articles which you are editing on your home wiki. The details don't really matter, it's just important that you are testing with references similar to the ones you are used to.

Please note

Betawiki is different to your home wiki:

Pages might look different (e.g. not use your preferred skin).
The project might offer some new features that are still being tested.
The project only contains some test pages and templates, not your entire wiki’s content, and not all the templates, modules, gadgets etc. you are used to.
Your regular Wikimedia login doesn’t work on beta wikis. You can either register an account – make sure to use a different password than your regular Wikimedia account – or test the feature without an account, which will display your IP address.

Where to give feedback?

Please leave your feedback on this talk page on metawiki.