Help talk:CS1 errors

&lt;param>= has numeric name, triggered by author=e-TF1
The help page says “This error is reported when a name-list parameter ... has an assigned value that is composed solely of digits and / or punctuation” but the author e-TF1 does not appear to be in that category. The full citation is. The author name appears that way in the source code for the cited page so is likely to be intentional. Should I ignore the error, change the way the author is written, or change the way the cite template is used here? Thanks --Northernhenge (talk) 22:48, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Maintenance messages are not errors; were there are error, you would see with a help link to the numeric name help text.  Your example template does not emit such a message.  The maintenance message CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list is emitted because   includes a digit.  The message also includes a link to  where you can find a description of what the message means.
 * Were it me, I would rewrite the template like this:
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 01:48, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying and assisting. I have thought of maintenance messages as errors, but they’re clearly different from each other. --Northernhenge (talk) 10:55, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 01:48, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying and assisting. I have thought of maintenance messages as errors, but they’re clearly different from each other. --Northernhenge (talk) 10:55, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying and assisting. I have thought of maintenance messages as errors, but they’re clearly different from each other. --Northernhenge (talk) 10:55, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

Can we please reinstate "work=" for "cite book"?
Right now there are 27,193 pages (Category:CS1 errors: periodical ignored) that are effected by having "work=" dropped by the "cite book" template. Since this is leaving alot of maintenance work for editors if done manually, I propose that "work=" be reinstated until a backup plan can be put into place. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 19:12, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
 * We have fixed much larger error piles in the past. There is no deadline. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:46, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

How do you find the location of an error?
Apologies if this is a dumb question. I'm looking at a page with dozens of { {cite book templates. If you click edit and then preview you get an error at the top of the page saying one or more cite book templates has errors, and the help topic links to this page. Trouble is that I have absolutely no clue where the error or errors are. How are you supposed to figure out the error location so you can fix things? Just the first error location would be fine, then I could fix that one and go on to the next one... Efbrazil (talk) 16:53, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Error messages are not hidden so they should be visible to you. Maintenance messages (which are not errors) are hidden.  You have to enable display of those messages by following the instructions at.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 17:01, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for helping Trappist. I tried adding error visibility to my css page and used shift+F5 but still don't see anything. I tried searching on the word "error" on the page after refreshing, and I tried scanning the page, but no luck. The article in question is Climate change mitigation. I only see the error warning message if I click "edit" and then "preview". Can you take a look and see if the errors are obvious to you, and if so how you see them? Efbrazil (talk) 19:26, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * That article shows an error at reference #279 (Cardenas): " ". – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:28, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Did you find that error by visually scanning the references for red text? Since there are hundreds of references that wasn't working for me.
 * As a side note, it's crazy to me that the error message at the top of the page doesn't link to the first instance of the error. Efbrazil (talk) 19:34, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I use CTRL+F and search for  to find error messages and   to find maintenance messages.
 * The preview messages were originally designed and implemented to link to the first instance of the error. But, for technical reasons, we could not implement it in a way that didn't violate the html standard so you have to look for the messages.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 19:41, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Why not report the first reference number that fails in the error message? Once Jonesey95 said to look at reference 279 it was all straightforward. Efbrazil (talk) 19:46, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Because each template is processed independently and there is no mechanism to allow Lua modules to 'remember' stuff from a previous call.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 21:41, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Then perhaps the error message could report the first 50 characters of the offending template? Then the user can then copy and paste that text to search the textarea window. So show something like this:
 * Script warning: A template that begins with "{ {Cite book |author1=Garrett, L. |author2=Lévite, " has errors (help).
 * Alternatively, if the script knows what line number the template error is on it could report that. Just give the user something! Efbrazil (talk) 16:32, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Module:Citation/CS1 does not know the actual name of the template in the wikitext; the name could be the name of a redirect. The module does not get a wikitext representation of the template; could be written in vertical or horizontal format; whitespace may or may not exist around pipes, around parameter names, around the assignment operator , around parameter values so, for the purposes of CTRL+F searching:
 * is not the same as:
 * is not the same as:
 * is not the same as:
 * Module:Citation/CS1 does not know the position of the template within the wikitext so cannot provide a line number.
 * From a rendered citation with an error or maintenance message, you can hover over the title extlink, right click > Copy link address, and then paste that into the CTRL+F search window. Doesn't work for identifier links.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 21:59, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks! It's clear you know this system well. Could you write a section at the beginning of the CS1 errors page giving explicit step by step instructions on how to find the error on the page? Right now there's endless description on what can cause errors, but no instructions on how to find the location of the error. Efbrazil (talk) 16:29, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Your advice:
 * I use CTRL+F and search for  to find error messages and   to find maintenance messages.
 * That advice was precious for me too, and thank you for it; but I needed some time to find it.
 * I have added that your advice to the Help:CS1 errors#Error and maintenance messages section of the article, hopefully in an admissible way. If I missed something (I have put the quoted statement in blocquote, and now I see <code parameter didn't apply there so I used italic...), please correct it. Marjan Tomki SI (talk) 11:55, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 21:59, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks! It's clear you know this system well. Could you write a section at the beginning of the CS1 errors page giving explicit step by step instructions on how to find the error on the page? Right now there's endless description on what can cause errors, but no instructions on how to find the location of the error. Efbrazil (talk) 16:29, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Your advice:
 * I use CTRL+F and search for  to find error messages and   to find maintenance messages.
 * That advice was precious for me too, and thank you for it; but I needed some time to find it.
 * I have added that your advice to the Help:CS1 errors#Error and maintenance messages section of the article, hopefully in an admissible way. If I missed something (I have put the quoted statement in blocquote, and now I see <code parameter didn't apply there so I used italic...), please correct it. Marjan Tomki SI (talk) 11:55, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

"|volume= has extra text": NO, please rewrite code!
Hi. Very often, the "volume" is more than a number, but the template is coded in a manner that doesn't allow for that and it leads to horrible red "admonishments" in the ref section. Example: a large work which has "volumes" split into several "parts", each bound separately, each with a title of their own, like "Volume V/Part 1: Galilaea and the North". So not a journal with "volume" plus "number", but a book. The template must accomodate for that, not force the editor to cut down the ref or twist their brain for improvised solutions - and in the end to give up the template altogether and write & format everything by themselves by hand. Already the language of this "help" page is so technical that I give up after a few sentences, and I'm quite familiar with science and, I wish to believe, far from functionally illiterate.

Please help, it's been a problem for far too long. I cannot code, but I know the principles and it can't be that much of a big deal. The same goes for all the template rigidities, which work like a Procrustean bed for (or actually against) the editor. Thank you! Arminden (talk) 15:32, 4 April 2024 (UTC)


 * @Arminden: Hi there! It seems you were referring to a reference on the Qision article.  I changed Volume V/Part 1 to V/Part 1 to remove the error.  The error is only to say that you shouldn't start the volume parameter with the word "Volume" or an abbreviation of "Volume".  You won't see an error if you use something like V/Part 1: Galilaea and the North. GoingBatty (talk) 17:45, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you ! It makes perfect sense (repetition). In other cases there's more guesswork needed, at some point you get enough of it. Usually I recheck my edits, if I see "vol.: Volume" I'm sure to remove the repetition. It's this pedantic way of coding for robots that kills mr, and presuming that your code got all possible options covered, which is obviously never the case. If they allowed a minimal wiggle room, we'd all have to gain from it.
 * Now we have "vol. V/Part 1", so I'll go back and change Part to lowercase, too. So double-checking & staying flexible is needed anyway.
 * Thanks again! Arminden (talk) 18:07, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 24 April 2024
A section link is broken in Help:CS1 errors. Where it says:

Change it to: 73.37.211.177 (talk) 08:28, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅ Well spotted! -- John of Reading (talk) 09:46, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Script warning: One or more templates have maintenance messages; messages may be hidden (help).
This section doesn't say how to resolve the base or core issue at all. It just say, Oh, install script you don't have power to do into your wikipedia. Can we get how to resolve one of these errors because I don't see where the error is on the page and it doesn't help you to flag where the error is, which is a lot less useful that a lot of the current programs. Screw it, I'm posting it, 'cause there is no apparent error I can find in any of the citations.--KimYunmi (talk) 20:10, 9 June 2024 (UTC)
 * See the big (help) link? Click that. &#32; Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 21:22, 9 June 2024 (UTC)
 * If you want more specific help, you'll have to be more specific about where you're seeing that message. &#32; Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 21:28, 9 June 2024 (UTC)