Nesting <ref> tags in <ref> tags is historically forbidden, and needs to stay forbidden, unless we actively make the decision to lift this limitation. At the moment the prototype (see T378814) allows nesting.
<ref details="additional details <ref> sub content </ref> "> main content </ref>
| Status | Subtype | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | None | T424501 Fix deployment blockers for global sub-ref | |||
| Open | None | T380979 Block nesting <ref> tags in the details syntax |
Unfortunately, nested refs are allowed and we've seen them on the wikis. The trick is to use {{#tag:ref, here's an example:
https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/User:Adamw/nested-refs
Article body text{{#tag:ref|Footnote body<ref>Subfootnote body</ref>}}Good, we even counted them with the scraper under the metric nested_ref_count. There are 400k on English Wikipedia alone, if our scraper is to be trusted!
That sounds like the right order of magnitude, there are 240k transclusions of template:efn the vast majority of which will have at least one reference.
Change #1129202 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Add test case for nested <ref> inside the details="…" attribute
Change #1129202 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Add test case for nested <ref> inside the details="…" attribute
Change #1129791 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Add missing name attribute to recently added parser test
Change #1129791 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Add missing name attribute to recently added parser test
Current state:
Change #1259001 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Add test cases for nesting (sub)refs inside details syntax
Just noting that we currently mention the possibility to combine nested references and sub-references on our project page because some community members asked about it https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/Sub-referencing#Nesting_sub-references – we should revisit that if we decide to make any changes to the current state.
Change #1259031 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Block nesting (sub)refs in the details attribute
Well, it's currently broken and unusable anyway, at least in Parsoid. Maybe we are talking about two different classes of "nesting"?
I was referring to the option "Nesting refs via the main content" which is technically unrelated to this ticket (and which works in Parsoid). Our project page makes no mention of nesting refs in the details attribute so far. Just wanted to mention that we should check if the statements on our project page is still correct when making changes in this ticket.
Change #1259932 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Move check for nested <references> tags into Validator
Change #1259933 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Report nested <references> tags in Parsoid as well
Change #1259001 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Add test cases for nesting (sub)refs inside details syntax