[refactor] Find a way to create a unique reference list item id in VE
Open, Needs TriagePublic
Actions

Description

Parsoid domToWikitext relies on Cite's AnchorFormatter::getNoteTextIdentifier to give reference list item content span an id like mw-reference-text-<normalized-name>-<global-sequence> for named refs or just mw-reference-text-<global-sequence> for unnamed refs, where the reference name has been normalized in a non-reversible way and the global sequence is an integer not indexed anywhere else. Sub-references point to these items by data-mw.mainBody which is used to get the main footnote body when serializing a main+details ref tag as wikitext. Currently, this ID is stored in MWReferenceNode as refListItemId.

This task is about designing and implementing a better ID or other DOM selector—for example by using the reference number to identify refs, since this is a piece of unique and well-formed data which is known at the time of usage: mw-reference-text-<group-name>-<footnote-number>

DOM ID should support any character except whitespace, so we may need to use a 1:1 mapping on group name such as URL escaping.

Note that the reflist item ID is currently used in several places:

Anchor target for footnote marker links
Parsoid domToWikitext
Reference Previews
Mobile ref previews

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
[WIP] [refactor] Serialize main+details without synthetic ref	mediawiki/extensions/Cite	master	+6 -5
Normalize whitespace/underscores in group/name much earlier	mediawiki/extensions/Cite	master	+51 -52
[WIP] Exploring issues with serializing refs	mediawiki/extensions/Cite	master	+6 -13

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects
Search...

Status	Assigned	Task
Duplicate	None	T411856 [Epic] Avoid unintended content loss due the usage of synthetic ldr's
In Progress	None	T397501 [Epic] Fix issues with {{reflist}} or missing references lists and main+details sub-references
Open	None	T406858 [refactor] Find a way to create a unique reference list item id in VE

Event Timeline

awight created this task.Oct 9 2025, 12:50 PM

Restricted Application removed a project: Patch-For-Review. · View Herald TranscriptOct 9 2025, 12:50 PM

awight updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 9 2025, 12:54 PM

Change #1194679 had a related patch set uploaded (by Awight; author: Awight):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] [WIP] Exploring issues with serializing refs

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1194679

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Oct 9 2025, 1:24 PM

awight mentioned this in T406869: [Epic] VisualEditor must stop relying on synthetic LDRs to access main content.Oct 9 2025, 1:44 PM

Change #1194661 had a related patch set uploaded (by Awight; author: Awight):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] [WIP] [refactor] Serialize main+details without synthetic ref

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1194661

awight updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 10 2025, 10:06 AM

awight updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 10 2025, 10:14 AM

awight updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 10 2025, 10:33 AM

Change #1195235 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Normalize whitespace/underscores in group/name much earlier

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1195235

awight assigned this task to thiemowmde.Oct 13 2025, 8:07 AM

awight moved this task from Sprint Backlog to Doing on the WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2025-09-30-Crème-Brulée-with-Berry-Ice-Cream board.

awight added a project: WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2025-10-14-Choco-Soufflé.Oct 14 2025, 8:23 AM

Tobi_WMDE_SW moved this task from Sprint Backlog to Doing on the WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2025-10-14-Choco-Soufflé board.Oct 14 2025, 8:25 AM

Tobi_WMDE_SW removed thiemowmde as the assignee of this task.Oct 21 2025, 8:12 AM

Tobi_WMDE_SW moved this task from Doing to Sprint Backlog on the WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2025-10-14-Choco-Soufflé board.

awight moved this task from Sprint Backlog to Watching / Stalled on the WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2025-10-14-Choco-Soufflé board.Nov 7 2025, 10:56 AM

thiemowmde mentioned this in T409909: Enforce whitespace normalization in reference names much earlier.Nov 12 2025, 11:39 AM

thiemowmde added a subtask: T409909: Enforce whitespace normalization in reference names much earlier.

I just realized that the idea to use only the reference group + name to identify it on a page doesn't work, not even with T409909 fixed. Here, this is a valid document, split into two independent sections, both with a [1] reference.

<ref name="a">Test</ref>
<references />
<ref name="a">Something else</ref>
<references />

This is used on help pages. The only way to distinguish these is the global id, which is global per document and not reset between such reference sections.

WMDE-Fisch moved this task from Incoming to Dev-Work on the Cite (Sub-referencing) board.Dec 5 2025, 11:27 AM

WMDE-Fisch removed a parent task: T397501: [Epic] Fix issues with {{reflist}} or missing references lists and main+details sub-references.Jan 12 2026, 1:44 PM

WMDE-Fisch added a parent task: T397501: [Epic] Fix issues with {{reflist}} or missing references lists and main+details sub-references.

WMDE-Fisch removed a subtask: T409909: Enforce whitespace normalization in reference names much earlier.

WMDE-Fisch renamed this task from [refactor] Reference list item DOM ID must be calculable to [refactor] Find a way to create a unique reference list item id in VE.Jan 12 2026, 1:49 PM

awight added a project: WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2026-01-20-Carrots-of-many-colors.Jan 22 2026, 8:28 AM

WMDE-Fisch removed a project: WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2026-01-20-Carrots-of-many-colors.Jan 26 2026, 10:10 AM

awight mentioned this in T395083: VE: Cannot render main content from inline main+details when {{reflist}} is used.Mar 3 2026, 8:27 AM

Change #1194661 abandoned by WMDE-Fisch:

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] [WIP] [refactor] Serialize main+details without synthetic ref

Reason:

the underlying code is different now and I think the problem less server

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1194661