Template talk:Reflist-talk

Another indentation bug—or is it template-wide? Also, info to verify.

I had wondered why the See also section had a white background instead of a green one. Well, now I know! After I added some documentation underneath the incorrectly boxed indentation example under the Limitations section, that whole entire area has a white background.

However, come to think of it, since the correctly boxed example section is after the incorrectly boxed example section, I don't know whether this is a trait of just the indentation bug or of the template as a whole.

By the way, because I was doing this on the fly, I also made two additions to the documentation that I put in hidden comments with my name and the date so myself and others could review them for accuracy before actually making them available. If it turns out they require more reviewing than I think they do, I'll remove them from the hidden comments and put them here on the talk page in their own sections. Thanks! —Geekdiva (talk) 00:54, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

Yeah, it seems {{Reflist-talk}} is breaking the styling of the transcluded documentation, causing it to terminate prematurely. Not because it's the broken-indentation example, I don't think, but simply because it's the first example of {{Reflist-talk}} being used in the documentation. If it were an example without the indentation attempt, the result likely would be the same.

So, perhaps that's another potential side-effect worth mentioning. Not because it's something that will likely affect many users of the template "in the wild", but simply because the template's own documentation contains an accidental illustration of the bug, which is currently not only unexplained, but never even mentioned! -- FeRDNYC (talk) 13:23, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

Bot proposal

There is a bot proposal for adding this template to talk pages. -- GreenC 23:06, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

The bot has completed. It added the template to about 24.5k pages. -- GreenC 03:04, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

Many thanks, GreenC! Are you aware there's a collapsed version of this box called {{sources-talk}}? It's useful when many references are quoted, for example while debating text copied directly from the article. — JFG ^talk 23:29, 11 May 2019 (UTC)

Wrapping bug fixed

NOTE: I regret not titling this section "Wrapping bug worked around", but since I linked to it from an edit summary I don't want to change the title now. As I go on to say in my explanation, I don't pretend this kludge is a valid fix for the bug.

As Geekdiva mentioned in an earlier discussion, because the documentation includes a demo of the incorrect behavior that occurs when {{Reflist-talk}} is indented with a preceding :, its transclusion onto the template page via {{Documentation}} was breaking — the "green box" that's supposed to wrap the entire documentation was terminating at that demonstration.

I have found a workaround for that bug. I discovered that, for whatever reason, an extra closing </div> tag was being added to the transcluded source following the example. By simply balancing it with an opening <div> tag, the formatting is fixed. I've included a comment in the documentation source explaining why this unclosed block is necessary.

So, the source of Template:Reflist-talk/doc, which used to contain this:

=== Incorrectly boxed example ===
If you add <code>:</code> before it, the references do not appear inside the box as expected, but rather you get an indented empty dashed box, ''followed by'' the references, which are not indented:<ref>Incorrectly boxed example reference</ref>
:{{reflist-talk}}

Now instead contains this:

=== Incorrectly boxed example ===
<div><!-- NOTE: This UNCLOSED DIV is intentional, as it's necessary to keep the Template:Documentation wrapping from breaking on this incorrect-behavior example. If it is removed, or balanced with a closing DIV tag, then the documentation will not format correctly when it is transcluded onto the Template:Reflist-talk page. See this documentation's Talk page for more information. -->
If you add <code>:</code> before it, the references do not appear inside the box as expected, but rather you get an indented empty dashed box, ''followed by'' the references, which are not indented:<ref>Incorrectly boxed example reference</ref>
:{{reflist-talk}}

...I do not pretend to know where the bug comes from that causes this behavior, and I make no pretenses about this being the "correct" fix for that bug. I only know that, from testing, the insertion of the unbalanced opening DIV tag is a seemingly-effective workaround. If someone can hunt down and squash the underlying cause, eliminating the need for this workaround, please do implement a better fix. -- FeRDNYC (talk) 08:35, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Explanatory note

Please make the template create the following, with the explanatory note:

• {{Reflist-talk}}<!-- Template:Reflist-talk creates a section-level reference list box. Please add comments and references for this section's discussion above this template. -->

I got this text from this edit by User:GoingBatty and thought it was better than the note I often leave behind. -- BullRangifer (talk) 02:25, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

Pinging GreenC. I don't know if you're the right person, but no one is replying to this. -- BullRangifer (talk) 18:15, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

Templates do not work that way. It might be added by bot though if I ever ran the bot again that adds this template. It could add the template and tack on the wikicomment at the same time. - GreenC 21:23, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

That would be nice. -- BullRangifer (talk) 03:51, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

Help

Ayuda Alejandroaguilar89 (talk) 06:32, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

@Alejandroaguilar89: with what? Just saying "help" doesn't tell us what you need help with. Plus this is just a template talk page, and your edits so far don't indicate anything related to potential use of this template. You are probably better off going to the Help Desk. - wolf 08:14, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

Left margin

I think that, in the TemplateStyles, margin: auto 2em; should be changed to margin: auto 0;. A demonstration of this is in the sandbox. This removes the side margins so that it does not appear indented. Because indentation is commonly used in talk pages, the side margins of this template are confusing. Tol (talk | contribs) @ 22:16, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

 Implemented due to no opposition for more than a year. Tol (talk | contribs) @ 20:40, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

Inquiry more than anything

Why does the template when indented "fall out" of the reftalk box that envelopes it?

:{{reftalk}}

References

versus

{{reftalk}}

References

Qwerty284651 (talk) 19:48, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

Please see the section of the documentation entitled "Do not indent this template". – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:54, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

I need some help...

I feel like the answer to this question should also be added to the template documentation.

Anyways, the question is that when you have a talk page thread containing not just one, but multiple messages with references in them, do I add this template after every message containing reference(s), or do I only add it once at the very end of the entire talk page thread / section?

If the answer to this question is to put it after every message containing refs, then do I put it before the signature, or after?

One thing I have definitely noticed with this template is that when you try to indent it, it will break. — AP 499D25 (talk) 14:13, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

I would say to put it at the very end of each section where relevant. Sometimes that means moving it because people place comments after the code. Otherwise, the refs appear in following sections or the bottom of the page where there are no references. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 14:19, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

I generally add a comment to keep it at the end. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 23:39, 23 April 2023 (UTC)