Page MenuHomePhabricator
Create Task
Maniphest T45094

Parsoid: References should be wrapped in a <sup>, not a <span>
Closed, ResolvedPublic
Actions

Description

Canonical HTML (from PHP parser):

<sup id="cite_ref-Forty_47-0" class="reference">
  <a href="#cite_note-Forty-47"><span>[</span>47<span>]</span></a>
</sup>

Output from Parsoid:

<span id="cite_ref-Forty-46-0" class="reference" about="#mwt408" typeof="mw:Object/Ext/Cite" data-parsoid="…">
  <a href="#cite_note-Forty-46">[47]</a>
</span>

I have no idea if the inner spans have any value, but the outer span should be a sup element instead.

(Also, the names of the cites are indexed from 0 in names but 1 in label - 46 vs. 47, whereas in PHP parser they're indexed from 1 in both; not sure if this is a problem.)

Details

Reference
bz43094
SubjectRepoBranchLines +/-
MWReferenceNode: Generate 'sup' tags by defaultmediawiki/extensions/Citemaster+51 -51
Support references wrapped in <sup> instead of <span>mediawiki/services/cxservermaster+48 -5
Allow mw-ref rules apply to any elementmediawiki/extensions/Citemaster+12 -12
Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Event Timeline

• bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Low.Nov 22 2014, 12:44 AM
• bzimport added projects: Parsoid, good first task.
• bzimport set Reference to bz43094.
Jdforrester-WMF created this task.Dec 13 2012, 9:20 PM
matmarex added a comment.Dec 13 2012, 10:05 PM

The inner spans come from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Cite_reference_link&action=edit .

• GWicke added a comment.Jun 12 2013, 10:35 PM

About sup and sub in the HTML5 spec:

"These elements must be used only to mark up typographical conventions with specific meanings, not for typographical presentation for presentation's sake. For example, it would be inappropriate for the sub and sup elements to be used in the name of the LaTeX document preparation system. In general, authors should use these elements only if the absence of those elements would change the meaning of the content."

This does not seem to be the case here, and styling is more flexible with spans. Since we will require some CSS adjustments anyway we might as well clean this one up too.

Closing as WONTFIX for that reason.

kaldari reopened this task as Open.Mar 26 2015, 9:58 PM
kaldari subscribed.

I have to disagree with @GWicke's comment above. Using <sup> for reference numbers is semantically correct. Reference numbers are considered a standard type of superscript notation (like asterisks and daggers). Even if we didn't present them as such, they should still be defined as superscript content. In fact, I can't really think of any use of <sup> that is more semantically correct than using it for footnote numbers (which is probably why this use is given as an example of proper use of the <sup> tag at places like w3schools.com).[1]

  1. http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_sup.asp
matmarex updated the task description. (Show Details)Jul 11 2015, 2:23 PM
matmarex set Security to None.
• GWicke added a comment.Jul 22 2015, 7:59 PM

Even if we didn't present them as such, they should still be defined as superscript content.

This seems to agree with the notion that it would *not* change the meaning of the content if they were not rendered as superscript.

Either way, I think this is a border line case with both options being somewhat sub-(or sup?)optimal. I wished something like <cite> had semantics closer to what we are looking for.

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptJul 22 2015, 7:59 PM
cscott subscribed.Jul 22 2015, 8:11 PM

I think <sup> is reasonable; you can always use CSS to remove the superscript-ness, but using <sup> means that naïve content consumers (ie, with the default HTML stylesheet) will display things in a reasonable manner.

ssastry added subscribers: Esanders, Catrope, • santhosh, • Mattflaschen-WMF.Jul 30 2015, 5:29 PM

@Esanders, @santhosh, @Catrope, @mattflaschen any concerns / thoughts about making this change from your perspectives? Whenever we do this, it will be a HTML version bump on the Parsoid end.

Esanders added a comment.Jul 30 2015, 6:01 PM

Superscript for references appears to be a style guide recommendation that varies from place to place, rather than an agreed notation, like CO<sub>2</sub>, or E=mc<sup>2</sup> - there doesn't even seem to be agreement on square vs round brackets.

MarkTraceur unsubscribed.Jul 30 2015, 6:24 PM
• Mattflaschen-WMF added a comment.Aug 1 2015, 3:12 AM
In T45094#1495195, @ssastry wrote:

@Esanders, @santhosh, @Catrope, @mattflaschen any concerns / thoughts about making this change from your perspectives? Whenever we do this, it will be a HTML version bump on the Parsoid end.

If VE will support both old and new format, it will be okay. I don't think we do anything with Parsoid versions yet.

Arlolra removed • GWicke as the assignee of this task.Feb 5 2016, 5:28 AM
• Mattflaschen-WMF unsubscribed.Feb 5 2016, 4:32 PM
Arlolra subscribed.Feb 9 2017, 4:49 AM

@Jdforrester-WMF Tackling T114256 makes me think maybe I should do this as well. Will this change break VE? Anything to coordinate?

Restricted Application added a subscriber: TerraCodes. · View Herald TranscriptFeb 9 2017, 4:49 AM
Jdforrester-WMF added a comment.EditedFeb 9 2017, 7:04 PM
In T45094#3012151, @Arlolra wrote:

@Jdforrester-WMF Tackling T114256 makes me think maybe I should do this as well. Will this change break VE? Anything to coordinate?

Hmm. Right now Cite's VE code will match anything with mw:Extension/ref (https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki-extensions-Cite/blob/master/modules/ve-cite/ve.dm.MWReferenceNode.js#L45) but will emit a <span> (https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki-extensions-Cite/blob/master/modules/ve-cite/ve.dm.MWReferenceNode.js#L107); if Parsoid will cope with spans and convert them to sups it should work fine, and then we can convert Cite over to emit only spans once production Parsoid is fully using the new node.

Aklapper removed a project: good first task.Aug 9 2017, 11:09 AM
ssastry assigned this task to Sbailey.Nov 22 2017, 7:08 PM
gerritbot subscribed.Dec 16 2017, 2:51 AM

Change 398616 had a related patch set uploaded (by Sbailey; owner: Sbailey):
[mediawiki/services/parsoid@master] T45094 span to sup change

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/398616

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Dec 16 2017, 2:51 AM
gerritbot added a comment.Jan 1 2018, 9:21 AM

Change 401371 had a related patch set uploaded (by Santhosh; owner: Santhosh):
[mediawiki/services/cxserver@master] Support references wrapped in <sup> instead of <span>

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/401371

gerritbot added a comment.Jan 2 2018, 2:00 PM

Change 401501 had a related patch set uploaded (by Esanders; owner: Esanders):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Allow mw-ref rules apply to any element

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/401501

Esanders added a comment.Jan 2 2018, 2:09 PM

It looks like Parsoid already ingests any tag with the correct RDFa attribute, so we can switch over VE default output immediately.

gerritbot added a comment.Jan 2 2018, 2:12 PM

Change 401503 had a related patch set uploaded (by Esanders; owner: Esanders):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] MWReferenceNode: Generate 'sup' tags by default

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/401503

gerritbot added a comment.Jan 2 2018, 9:11 PM

Change 401501 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Allow mw-ref rules apply to any element

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/401501

gerritbot added a comment.Jan 2 2018, 9:57 PM

Change 401371 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/services/cxserver@master] Support references wrapped in <sup> instead of <span>

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/401371

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.31-release-notes (WMF-deploy-2018-01-09 (1.31.0-wmf.16)).Jan 2 2018, 10:00 PM
gerritbot added a comment.Jan 3 2018, 3:54 PM

Change 401503 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] MWReferenceNode: Generate 'sup' tags by default

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/401503

matmarex unsubscribed.Jan 3 2018, 9:24 PM
• Mholloway subscribed.Jan 8 2018, 8:49 PM
• Mholloway mentioned this in T184476: Update or stop bundling ext.cite.style in the Android app.Jan 8 2018, 8:55 PM
gerritbot added a comment.Jan 16 2018, 6:41 PM

Change 398616 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/services/parsoid@master] Fix for T45094 replaces <span> with <sup> for references

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/398616

Stashbot subscribed.Jan 18 2018, 7:24 PM

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2018-01-18T19:24:15Z] <arlolra> Updated Parsoid to af06386 (T45094)

Arlolra closed this task as Resolved.Jan 18 2018, 7:33 PM
ssastry mentioned this in T251983: Right-to-Left directionality problem with refs.May 22 2020, 9:43 PM
Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 unless otherwise noted; code licensed under GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0 or later and other open source licenses. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Code of Conduct. · Wikimedia Foundation · Privacy Policy · Code of Conduct · Terms of Use · Disclaimer · CC-BY-SA · GPL