Literal HTML displayed in preview of LDR reference backlinks
Open, Needs TriagePublicBUG REPORT
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Authored By

	Izno
	Tue, Apr 7, 4:45 AM

Description

Steps to replicate the issue (include links if applicable):

Customize https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Cite_references_link_one (or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Cite_references_link_many_format maybe?) to have bold wikitext
Edit and subsequently preview a section with the definitions of references for LDR defined references (such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duffield_Memorial )

What happens?:
Live preview:

Show preview button:

What should have happened instead?:
The carets should display as bold text instead, without literal HTML displayed.

Software version (on Special:Version page; skip for WMF-hosted wikis like Wikipedia):

Other information (browser name/version, screenshots, etc.):

Original discussion at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#HTML_bold_tags_displayed_literally_for_LDRs

This is not an issue if previewing the whole article. Live preview:

Preview button:

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
Remove not needed space from zero backlink formatter	mediawiki/extensions/Cite	master	+30 -32
Fix wrong parsing of plain text cite_reference_backlink_symbol	mediawiki/extensions/Cite	master	+2 -2
Allow HTML in the backlink up arrow symbol	mediawiki/extensions/Cite	master	+3 -3
Remove bad parsing of plain text help panel headings	mediawiki/extensions/WikiEditor	master	+1 -1

Customize query in gerrit

Event Timeline

Izno created this task.Tue, Apr 7, 4:45 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptTue, Apr 7, 4:45 AM

Izno updated the task description. (Show Details)Tue, Apr 7, 4:49 AM

Johannes_Richter_WMDE subscribed.Tue, Apr 7, 7:47 AM

matmarex subscribed.Tue, Apr 7, 2:19 PM

DLynch added a project: Parsoid.Tue, Apr 7, 4:00 PM

awight added a project: WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2026-03-17-all-of-the-beans.Wed, Apr 8, 9:41 AM

I haven't been able to reproduce this locally yet, but there are two strange details worth mentioning already: the customized message is using ''''' to format text, but the problematic rendering shows an HTML tag <b>. And when I section-edit and preview a ref usage which is defined in a LDR outside of the section, I see an error (which is also problematic) rather than the raw tag: "<ref> tag with name ldr1 cannot be previewed because it is defined outside the current section or not defined at all."

Interesting: I still can't reproduce the issue locally, but I can see it on enwiki.

Locally:

@Izno Okay, it seems to be caused by customization of this message: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Cite_reference_backlink_symbol -- The workaround is to remove the tags there, until a code fix can be deployed.

awight claimed this task.Wed, Apr 8, 10:12 AM

awight moved this task from Sprint Backlog to Doing on the WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2026-03-17-all-of-the-beans board.

Change #1268912 had a related patch set uploaded (by Awight; author: Awight):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Allow HTML in the backlink up arrow symbol

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1268912

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Wed, Apr 8, 10:21 AM

awight removed awight as the assignee of this task.Wed, Apr 8, 10:22 AM

awight moved this task from Doing to Tech Review on the WMDE-TechWish-Sprint-2026-03-17-all-of-the-beans board.

Change #1268940 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):

[mediawiki/extensions/WikiEditor@master] Remove bad parsing of plain text help panel headings

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1268940

Change #1268943 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Fix wrong parsing of plain text cite_reference_backlink_symbol

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1268943

Change #1254112 had a related patch set uploaded (by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE); author: Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE)):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Remove not needed space from zero backlink formatter

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1254112

In T422458#11798157, @awight wrote:

And when I section-edit and preview a ref usage which is defined in a LDR outside of the section, I see an error (which is also problematic) rather than the raw tag: "<ref> tag with name ldr1 cannot be previewed because it is defined outside the current section or not defined at all."

This message is intended (if suboptimal).

In T422458#11798224, @awight wrote:

@Izno Okay, it seems to be caused by customization of this message: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Cite_reference_backlink_symbol -- The workaround is to remove the tags there, until a code fix can be deployed.

The me of yesteryear predicting this issue but without the prediction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Cite_reference_backlink_symbol#Set_to_^ . What is the appropriate way to avoid regressing display in this view?

Change #1268940 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/WikiEditor@master] Remove bad parsing of plain text help panel headings

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1268940

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.24; 2026-04-14).Thu, Apr 9, 2:00 AM

MSantos removed a project: Parsoid.Thu, Apr 9, 2:22 PM

MSantos moved this task from Unsorted backlog to Parsoid/VE implementation on the Cite board.

Thanks a lot for the quick responses, @Izno and @jhsoby. Both en and no are fixed for the moment and can stay like that.

Here is a possible alternative to make the character bold in the WikiEditor (2010) help panel. Unfortunately I'm not sure where that CSS should ideally go.

#wikiEditor-section-help .mw-cite-backlink > a {
    font-weight: bold;
}

Change #1268912 abandoned by Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE):

[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Allow HTML in the backlink up arrow symbol

Reason:

Fixed on-wiki for the moment.