Reference Tooltips - MediaWiki
Jump to content
From mediawiki.org
Translate this page
Languages:
Bahasa Indonesia
Tiếng Việt
polski
português do Brasil
svenska
русский
فارسی
ગુજરાતી
中文
粵語
閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gí
reference tooltip
; the hand-shaped cursor is hovering over a footnote link '[19]'. The Reference tooltip displays the footnote contents without requiring a click, or even scrolling down to footnote 19.
The
Reference Tooltips
is a gadget that shows
footnotes
when you hover over them.
A hint appears right on the line, without the need to scroll down the page.
This feature is enabled by default on many wikis and users can disable it by accessing the feature's options, which sets a cookie; logged-in users can disable it permanently in the
Gadgets tab of Special:Preferences
About
edit
The script was originally developed by
User:Yair rand
in 2012 and reworked by
User:Jack who built the house
in 2019.
To install the gadget in your wiki, you need to transfer the following files there:
w:MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js
w:MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.css
Add the line:
* ReferenceTooltips[ResourceLoader|default|type=general|dependencies=mediawiki.cookie,jquery.client]|ReferenceTooltips.js|ReferenceTooltips.css
to
MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition
The options menu
Create a description for the gadget to be displayed in the user preferences by editing
MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips
on your wiki; copy-paste the content from
w:MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips
, or create your own if you wish
The gadget will then be loaded by default on the wiki.
For the normal functioning of the script, the following
dependencies
are necessary: mediawiki.cookie, jquery.client.
Extension:Gadgets
must also be loaded.
Rationale
edit
Currently, Wikimedia sites list all references at the bottom of the article.
For large articles, especially those with many references, this is sub-optimal.
Checking an article's references requires several traversals over the entire length of the article, during which time the reader will often lose their place.
Hypotheses
edit
This is a general usability feature.
It is hypothesized that readers will be more likely to visit references if they are immediately accessible without having to traverse the entire page length.
Current workflow
edit
In articles, a statement is referenced with a super-scripted, internal page link.
Clicking on this link will take the user to the bottom of the page to the whole reference list.
The specific reference is then highlighted.
The user then clicks the link there and the referenced external link is opened.
User experience
edit
When the user hovers their mouse over the super-scripted citation link in an article, a tooltip appears above that includes the reference footnote.
The user can then move their mouse into the hover and click on the link(s) there to open the external references.
Clicking on the super-scripted reference link behaves as normal (the user is brought to the reference list).
JavaScript and tablet considerations
edit
This feature requires JavaScript.
Browsers with JavaScript disabled will not have this feature.
This feature may not be usable with tablets and other touch screen interfaces without eliminating the current "click takes you to the reference list" behavior.
Settings
edit
To edit this gadget's settings, hover over a citation so that the tooltip appears, then click on the gear icon.
You can set the following options:
Whether the tooltip appears on hover or on click
Delay before the tooltip appears (by default 200 milliseconds)
Whether to show a tooltip for abbreviations inside
‎<
abbr
tags. (Example: "
abbr.
")
See also
edit
w:User talk:Yair rand/ReferenceTooltips
– discussion
Mobile design/Reference reveal
Help:Reference Previews
– alternative implementation as an extension
Retrieved from "
Categories
New Editor Engagement
Gadgets
Reference Tooltips
Add topic