Help:Cite

The Wikipedia footnotes system has the ability to detect errors. This page documents the error messages and provides an understanding of the problem and solutions.

Overview
Cite.php is the software extension for the footnotes system. Two HTML-style tags are used to define and show the references.

Single use footnotes are defined by enclosing content within :
 * content

A footnote used multiple times may be defined with a name:
 * content

To invoke a named footnote:
 * 

Footnotes may be defined in groups:
 * content

Names and groups may not be a numeric integer. The quotes are optional unless the name includes a space, punctuation or other mark. It is recommended that names be kept simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals.

To display the reference list, after all of the  tags, include:

To display footnoted defined in a group. include:
 * 

A common practice is to use the template reflist to include the tag with some formatting options.

Error messages
The messages will show as bold red.

Tools
refTools can be enabled via Preferences → Gadgets → refTools. It includes an error checking tool for common problems.

Cleanup categories
Most of the error messages include broken ref, which puts the page that triggers the error into Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting.

The internal message "Cite error group refs without references" puts the page that triggers the error into Category:Wikipedia pages with broken references.

Technical information
Internal messages are generated by the Cite.php extension and shown as a MediaWiki message. See the Parser hooks section of Special:Version for the installed version of Cite.php. These messages are in the MediaWiki space and can be modified only by admins.