Last modified: 2014-11-04 22:49:50 UTC
It would be much easier to maintain citations/references if the ==References== section would have its own text window on an Edit page. Thus a Section could be edited at the same time as the affected citations in References. This may be replaced in the future when someone creates more support for Citations, but would help encourage citation usage. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wikicite] [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikicite] Related: * Bug 192: footnote tag
I'm not sure if this suggestion is calling for an editable text box for references, or just a static display. I would be happy with a static display of references at the bottom of every edit preview, so that you preview the text between your <ref></ref> tags even if the section you are editing does not include the <references/> tag.
(in response to comment #1): I can only really imagine it working for a static display. It could be set so that when one previews their edit, below the preview for the page would be a references section showing the refs within the section/page they're editing.
The intent is for a window in which to edit the references. What this means depends upon the supported annotations. For <ref> it might mean edits would also alter the reference's hidden text within the article. For Wikicite database-type citations it might mean an interface with the collection of source publications.
*** Bug 19739 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Can we have a static display of <references/> first? An editable version is a nice idea, and could be linked to directly from <references/> and {{reflist}}, but it can wait.
<ref> is Extension:Cite, moving bug
A suggestion made by an IP on [[WP:VPIL]]: "Isn't a workaround extremely easy to implement? If find in string text being previewed does not include {{reflist... make the code print a {{reflist... right before displaying the wikiEditor div." Seems a bit inefficient in my mind. But a thought, at least.
These seem redundant or overlapping: Bug 2745 - Have References text edit window on Edit pages Bug 30777 - In-place editing of citations Bug 31672 - Add JS popup citation creator Does VisualEditor fill the requirements?