Template:Refn/doc

Purpose

This template is used to create footnotes in Wikipedia, as an alternative and complement to the <syntaxhighlight lang="HTML" inline></syntaxhighlight> tags, including but not limited to the pipe trick, template substitution and another "nested" set of <syntaxhighlight lang="HTML" inline></syntaxhighlight> tags. For example, the following does not work as expected:

1. <syntaxhighlight lang="HTML" inline></syntaxhighlight> (Generates: [[Help:Footnotes|]] instead of a wikilink)
2. <syntaxhighlight lang="HTML" inline></syntaxhighlight> (Generates: {{SUBST:TODAY}} instead of the date that the edit was made)
3. <syntaxhighlight lang="HTML" inline></ref></syntaxhighlight> (Generates: Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). </ref>)

Replacing the outermost <syntaxhighlight lang="HTML" inline></syntaxhighlight> set with {{Refn}} allows for the use of the markup elements listed above.

Usage

{{refn|group=groupname|name=name|Contents of the footnote}}

• groupname: Groupname per WP:REFGROUP; if not specified, then the main and nested references will be rendered into the same reference list
• name: Reference name per WP:REFNAME

Names for footnotes and groups must follow these rules:

• Names are case-sensitive.
• Names must not be purely numeric; they should have semantic value so that they can be more easily distinguished from each other by human editors.
• Names must be unique—you may not use the same name to define different groups or footnotes.
• Please consider keeping reference names simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals. Failing that, including if spaces are used, the following technical restrictions become relevant:
  • Quotation marks are optional if the only characters used are letters A–Z, a–z, digits 0–9, and the symbols !$%&()*,-.:;<@[]^_`{|}~. That is, all printable ASCII characters except #"'/=>?\.
  • Inclusion of any other characters, including spaces, requires that the reference name be enclosed in quotes; for example, name="John Smith".
  • The quote marks must be the standard straight keyboard marks ("); curly or other quotes will be parsed as part of the reference name.
  • Quote-enclosed reference names may not include a less-than sign (<) or a double straight quote symbol ("). These may be escaped with < and ", respectively.
• You may optionally provide reference names even when the reference name is not required. This makes later re-use of the sourced reference easier.

Examples

Footnotes with citations

Markup	Renders as
An example. Another example. A third example. Repeating the first example. <div style="color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 1.17em; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;">Notes</div> <div class="reflist " style=" list-style-type: decimal;"> </div> <div style="color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 1.17em; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;">References</div> <div class="reflist " style=" list-style-type: decimal;"> </div>

Substitution

The first example shows that substitution does not work in a regular <syntaxhighlight lang="HTML" inline></syntaxhighlight> tag (the |access-date= does not appear correctly). The second example shows that the |access-date= is substituted correctly within {{refn}}.

Markup	Renders as
<div class="reflist " style=" list-style-type: decimal;"> </div>	{{refn|{{cite web |access-date={{Subst:TODAY}} |title=Languages |work=Apache HTTP Server |agency=Ohloh |publisher= Black Duck Software |url=https://www.ohloh.net/p/apache/analyses/latest/languages_summary}}}} {{reflist}}
<div class="reflist " style=" list-style-type: decimal;"> </div>

Errors

If the reference or note content is missing, then Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content. will be displayed.

If the note content contains an equals sign (=), the equals sign will be interpreted as setting off a named parameter and cause an error. This can be worked around by using a numbered parameter, for example:

Markup	Renders as
{{refn|1+1=2}}
{{refn|1= 1+1=2}}

See also

{{#lst:Help:Cite errors/Cite error group refs without references|rlt}}

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData documentation for this template used by VisualEditor and other tools; see the monthly parameter usage report for this template.

TemplateData for Refn

This template is used to create footnotes in Wikipedia, as an alternative and complement to the <ref> tag.

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
content	1	The content of the footnote.	Content	suggested
name	name	The name of the footnote. Corresponds to the "name" attribute of the <ref> tag.	String	optional
group	group	The reference group. Corresponds to the "group" attribute on the <ref> tag.	String	optional