Alex: Created page with "{{Documentation}} This template is for inserting references that may require more complex content than just plain text with links - the most common use-case is nesting references. ;About Normal tags cannot directly contain any parser/preprocessor functions. This includes standard parser functions, particularly `#if` and similar, as well as other tags. For parser functions..."

2024-10-16T23:43:52Z

Created page with "{{Documentation}} This template is for inserting references that may require more complex content than just plain text with links - the most common use-case is nesting references. ;About Normal <code><nowiki><ref></nowiki></code> tags cannot directly contain any parser/preprocessor functions. This includes standard parser functions, particularly <code><nowiki>#if</nowiki></code> and similar, as well as other <code><nowiki><ref></nowiki></code> tags. For parser functions..."

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{{Documentation}}
This template is for inserting references that may require more complex content than just plain text with links - the most common use-case is nesting references.

;About
Normal <code><nowiki><ref></nowiki></code> tags cannot directly contain any parser/preprocessor functions. This includes standard parser functions, particularly <code><nowiki>#if</nowiki></code> and similar, as well as other <code><nowiki><ref></nowiki></code> tags. For parser functions, a way to counter this is to use a template to abstract the function. An alternative method is to use the <code><nowiki>#tag</nowiki></code> parser function - which is what this template does, more cleanly.

In addition, preprocessor extensions (like <code><nowiki><ref></nowiki></code> tags) must be nested in this way.

==Usage==
<pre>{{Refn|reference content}}</pre>

Refn also supports the two most commonly used extra parameters, <code>name</code> and <code>group</code>:
<pre>{{Refn|reference content|name=ref name|group=ref group}}</pre>

;Nesting
As mentioned, the most common use-case is nesting references. When nesting references, the outer <code><nowiki><ref></nowiki></code> tags must be replaced by this template - the innermost tag can remain a <code><nowiki><ref></nowiki></code> tag, but Refn cannot be inside a <code><nowiki><ref></nowiki></code> tag at all. The standardised CiteX templates (e.g. [[Template:CiteGeneral]]) all utilise this method already, so are nestable.
<pre>{{Refn|outer reference content{{Refn|nested reference for the outer reference content}}}}</pre>

Note that the references will be in ordered in parsing order, which is the innermost to the outermost - this is generally not the most logical order for reading, so making footnotes of footnotes or citations of citations is not advised - mix groups.

===Examples===
;Markup
<pre>* text {{Refn|reference content 1}}
* text 2 {{Refn|outer reference content{{Refn|nested reference for the outer reference content}}}}
* text 3 {{Refn|outer refn<ref>inner reftag</ref>}}

;Reflist
<references /></pre>
;Result
* text {{Refn|reference content 1}}
* text 2 {{Refn|outer reference content{{Refn|nested reference for the outer reference content}}}}
* text 3 {{Refn|outer refn<ref>inner reftag</ref>}}

;Reflist
<references />

Here you can clearly see the inner tags sorted before the outer tags.

==See also==
* {{wp|Template:Refn|This template on Wikipedia}}

{{Citations}}
<includeonly>[[Category:Reference templates]]</includeonly>

Template:Refn/doc - Revision history