Help:CS1 errors

This page describes the error messages emitted by Module:Citation/CS1, what they mean, and suggests how editors might resolve the errors.

In 2013, Wikipedia editors upgraded the Citation Style 1 series of templates using the meta-template {{Citation/core}} into a single Lua module as part of WP:LUA. The benefits of the upgrade are enhanced performance, reduced complexity and redundancy, and for the purposes of this page, improved error detection and reporting.

|accessdate= requires |url=

<section begin=accessdate_missing_url_help_text />

The |accessdate= parameter is used to identify the date that the web resource addressed by |url= was accessed. Without |url=, |accessdate= is meaningless. When |url= is omitted or left blank, the |accessdate= value is not displayed.

To resolve this error, provide a value for |url= or remove |accessdate=.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL.<section end=accessdate_missing_url_help_text />

|archiveurl= and |deadurl=no requires |url=

<section begin=x_help_text />

This error message should probably be removed. |archiveurl= always requires |url= regardless of the state of |deadurl=

Editors often preemptively locate an archived copy of a web resource and include the archive's url in a CS1 citation. When they do, they may set |deadurl=no to indicate that the original source url is still active. |deadurl= controls how the CS1 citation is formatted. Omitted or empty |deadurl= has the same effect as |deadurl=yes.

To resolve this error, provide a value for |url=. For web resources archived at archive.org, the original url can be found in the |archiveurl= value; for resources archived at webcitation.org, the original url is included in the archive header.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with archiveurl citation errors.<section end=x_help_text />

|archiveurl= requires |archivedate=

<section begin=archive_missing_date_help_text />

|archivedate= identifies the date that the web resource was archived.

To resolve this error, provide a value for |archivedate=. For web resources archived at archive.org, the archival date can be found in the |archiveurl=; for resources archived at webcitation.org, the cache date is included in the archive header.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with archiveurl citation errors.<section end=archive_missing_date_help_text />

|archiveurl= requires |url=

<section begin=archive_missing_url_help_text />

A properly formatted citation that includes |archiveurl= and |archivedate= requires |url=. When the citation includes |deadurl=no, the ordering of elements in the rendered citation is changed to put the original url first. This error message is not displayed by {{cite web}}.

To resolve this error, provide a value for |url=. For web resources archived at archive.org, the original url can be found in the |archiveurl= value; for resources archived at webcitation.org, the original url is included in the archive header.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with archiveurl citation errors.<section end=archive_missing_url_help_text />

Bad DOI specified

<section begin=bad_doi_help_text />

When CS1 citations contain |doi=, a test is done to see if the prefix portion of the DOI value contains the proper "10." registry identifier. Further validation of the DOI is not performed.

To resolve this error, ensure that the |doi= value is correct.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with DOI errors.<section end=bad_doi_help_text />

Bad OL specified

<section begin=bad_ol_help_text />

When CS1 citations contain |ol=, a test is done to see if the last digit of the value is one of three characters: A (authors), M (books), or W (works). Further validation of the OL identifier is not performed.

To resolve this error, ensure that the |ol= value is correct.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with OL errors.<section end=bad_ol_help_text />

|displayauthors= suggested

<section begin=displayauthors_help_text />

Prior to the introduction of Lua based citations, the citation formatting templates were designed to support no more than nine authors. If nine (or more) author parameters were specified, then the template would display 8 author names followed by "et al." to indicate that the list had been truncated. Some editors relied on this behavior to generate the "et al." labeling. For example:

The Lua based citation templates can accommodate an arbitrarily large number of author. As with the old templates, the Lua based templates can explicitly generate an "et al." with the |display-authors= parameter.

The old-style templates supported at most nine authors. The new Lua-based templates cannot know if editors created citations with exactly nine authors because there were only nine authors or, because old-style citations were limited to nine authors. This error message is triggered by citations with exactly nine authors but without |displayauthors=. To preserve the behavior of old-style citations, Lua-based citations display "et al." in place of the ninth author.

To resolve this error, add the remaining authors to the citation or set |displayauthors= to 9 or some lesser value to truncate the author list.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages using citations with old-style implicit et al.<section end=displayauthors_help_text />

|displayeditors= suggested

<section begin=displayeditors_help_text />

Prior to the introduction of Lua-based citations, the citation formatting templates were designed to support no more than four editors. Specifically, if four (or more) editor parameters were specified, then the template would display 3 editor names followed by "et al." to indicate that the list had been truncated. Some editors relied on this behavior to generate the "et al." labeling. For example:

The Lua-based citation templates can accommodate an arbitrarily large number of editors. The Lua-based templates can also explicitly generate an "et al." with the new |displayeditors= parameter, a parameter that was not available to the old-style templates.

The old-style templates supported at most four editors. The new Lua-based templates cannot know if Wikipedia editors created citations with exactly four editors because there were only four editors or, because old-style citations were limited to four editors. This error message is triggered by citations with exactly four editors but without |displayeditors=. To preserve the behavior of old-style citations, Lua-based citations display "et al." in place of the fourth editor.

To resolve this error, add the remaining editors to the citation or set |displayeditors= to 4 or some lesser value to truncate the editor list.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages using citations with old-style implicit et al.<section end=displayeditors_help_text />

Empty citation

<section begin=empty_citation_help_text />

"Empty" may mean that the CS1 citation contains no recognizable parameter identifiers. For example this citation isn't "empty" because it contains usable information, but is "empty" because it doesn't contain the necessary parameter identifiers (in this case |url= and |title=) that tell {{cite web}} how to use the information that the citation does contain:

{{cite web | http://www.foobar.com | The Foobar Bar}}

To resolve this error, add appropriate parameter identifiers. Consider the possibility that the editor meant to use another template entirely. Perhaps the editor used {{citation}} when the intent was to use {{citation needed}} or {{quote}}. In these cases replace the CS1 citation with the appropriate template.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with empty citations.<section end=empty_citation_help_text />

Extra |pages or |at

<section begin=extra_pages_help_text />

This error occurs when CS1 citations use more than one of the parameters: |page=, |pages=, or |at= – but not for more than one of the same parameter (see More than one of |param1=, |param2=, and |param3= specified). Only one of these parameters is displayed in a rendered citation. Often, editors use |pages= along with |page= to display the cited page number and the number of pages in the resource which is counter to the purpose of |pages=.

When |page= is used with either or both of |pages= or |at=, only the |page= value is displayed. Similarly, when |pages= is used with |at=, only the |pages= value is displayed.

To resolve this error, remove the inappropriate parameter.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations using conflicting page specifications.<section end=extra_pages_help_text />

|format= requires |url=

<section begin=format_missing_url_help_text />

This error occurs when CS1 citations use |format= without also providing a url for |url=. The |format= parameter is used to specify the file format of a web resource (e.g. PDF, DOC, XLS, etc.). In some cases an editor may have intended to use |type= to specify a kind of document (e.g. hard cover, paperback, pamphlet, etc.) The |format= value is always displayed.

To resolve this error, remove |format= or define |url= or change |format= to |type=.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages using citations with format and no URL.<section end=format_missing_url_help_text />

Missing or empty |chapter=

<section begin=trans_missing_chapter_help_text />

This error occurs when a CS1 citation includes an English translation of a chapter title in |trans_chapter= without also including the original language chapter title in |chapter=.

To resolve this error, provide a value for |chapter=. Consider adding |language= if not already part of the citation.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations using translated terms without the original.<section end=trans_missing_chapter_help_text />

Missing or empty |title=

There are four different error conditions that cause CS1 citations to emit this error message. The four are described below. Help links in the error message link to the appropriate description.

<section begin=bare_url_missing_title_help_text />Old error message:

This error message is emitted by all Lua-based CS1 citations except {{cite web}} that use |url= without an associated |title=. Because urls are ugly and generally uninformative, it is better to display a meaningful title than the url itself.

To resolve this error, provide a value for |title=.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations having bare URLs.<section end=bare_url_missing_title_help_text />

<section begin=citation_missing_title_help_text />Old error message:

This error message is emitted by CS1 citations where, depending on citation type (web, book, encyclopedia, etc.), any or all of |title=, |chapter=, |article=, or |booktitle=, etc. are omitted or left blank. CS1 will attempt to find an appropriate title to use from the available parameters in the citation.

Sometimes this error occurs because an editor has used a CS1 citation as a substitute for {{sfn}} or the {{harv}} family of shortened footnotes.

To resolve this error, provide a value for |title= or, when used as a shortened footnote substitute, replace the CS1 citation with an appropriate shortened footnote template.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations lacking titles.<section end=citation_missing_title_help_text />

<section begin=cite_web_title_help_text />Old error message:

This error message is emitted only by {{cite web}} citations that use |url= without an associated |title=. Because urls are ugly and generally uninformative, it is better to display a meaningful title than the url itself. When rendered these citations display the bare url followed by the error message .

To resolve this error, provide a value for |title=.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages using web citations with no title.<section end=cite_web_title_help_text />

<section begin=trans_missing_title_help_text />Old error message:

This error occurs when a CS1 citation includes an English translation of the title in |trans_title= without also including the original language title in |title=.

To resolve this error, provide a value for |title=. Consider adding |language= if not already part of the citation.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations using translated terms without the original.<section end=trans_missing_title_help_text />

Missing or empty |url=

<section begin=cite_web_url_help_text />

This is error message is emitted only by {{cite web}} CS1 citations where |url= is blank or omitted. The |url= parameter is required so that |title= can link to the web resource.

To resolve this error, provide a value for |url= or use a more appropriate CS1 citation.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages using web citations with no URL.<section end=cite_web_url_help_text />

More than one of |param1=, |param2=, and |param3= specified

<section begin=redundant_parameters_help_text />

This error occurs when a CS1 citation includes more than one parameter that map to the same meaning. For example, |author=, |last=, and |last1= are all synonyms of each other, and so no more than one of these parameters should ever be used in a single citation.

To resolve this error, remove or modify the redundant parameter(s).

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations having redundant parameters.<section end=redundant_parameters_help_text />

Text "????" ignored

<section begin=text_ignored_help_text />

Unlike many Wikipedia templates, the CS1 citations do not use unnamed or positional parameters. When a citation contains text between vertical bars and that text does not contain an equal sign (=), the text is ignored and an error message emitted. This is true even when the text is the name of a valid parameter.

This error is also caused by vertical bars that are part of urls or titles. When vertical bars occur in urls, replace each vertical bar with %7c. When vertical bars occur in parameter values that are not urls, replace each vertical bar with |.

To resolve this error, remove the extraneous text, add '=', add an appropriate parameter name to complete the parameter, or properly encode vertical bars in urls and titles.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations using unsupported parameters.<section end=text_ignored_help_text />

Unknown parameter "????=" ignored

<section begin=parameter_ignored_help_text />

This error message is emitted by CS1 citations when the name portion of a parameter's |name=value pair is not recognized as a valid name. Typically this is caused by spelling or typographical errors.

To resolve this error, ensure that the parameter's name is correctly spelled and that there are no characters other than spaces between the parameter's name and the leading vertical bar (|) or the trailing equal sign (=).

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations using unsupported parameters.<section end=parameter_ignored_help_text />

Unknown parameter |XXXX= ignored (|xxxx= suggested)

<section begin=parameter_case_help_text />

This error message is emitted by CS1 citations when the name portion of a parameter's |name=value pair is not recognized as a valid name because one or more characters is the wrong case. With very few exceptions CS1 citation parameters are lower case. Some, like |isbn= can be either lower or upper, but not of mixed case (|isbn= or |ISBN= but not |Isbn=).

To resolve this error, ensure that the parameter's name has the correct case.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations using unsupported parameters.<section end=parameter_case_help_text />

Wikilink embedded in URL title

<section begin=wikilink_in_url_help_text />

This error message is emitted by CS1 citations that have wikilinks embedded in |title=, |chapter=, |article=, or |booktitle=, etc. while also specifying a url for that element.

Prior to the 2013 Lua upgrade to the CS1 citations, the templates would simply wrap a URL around a wikilink in |title= which causes the url description to end abruptly at the start of the wikilink, for example:

|url=http://www.foobar.com

|title=The [[Foobar]] Bar

was converted to:

[http://www.foobar.com The [[Foobar]] Bar]

giving the result:

The Foobar Bar.

Following the Lua upgrade to the CS1 citations, brackets appearing within |title= are treated as literal characters, not as wikilink delimiters. The above |url= / |title= example now gives this result:

The [[Foobar]] Bar

To resolve this error, remove wikilinks that occur within parameters that are intended to be externally linked. Alternatively, remove the external url, which will allow the internal wikilinks to work as expected.

Pages with this error are automatically placed in Category:Pages with citations having wikilinks embedded in URL titles.<section end=wikilink_in_url_help_text />