Coming soon: Reference Previews - Wikitech-ambassadors

20 Nov 2023

*//apologies for cross-posting//*

Hello everyone. A feature called Reference Previews
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews>
will soon be available on all wikis that are using the Popups extension,
precisely on all Wikipedias and some Wikivoyages. Deployment is planned for
November 21 (not on Nov 22, as announced on village pumps last week).

*What are Reference Previews?*

It’s possible that you have already seen Reference Previews, as they have
been a beta feature on many wikis since 2019 and a default feature on some
since 2021. Reference Previews are little popups for references. Such
popups have existed on wikis as local gadgets for many years. Now there is
a central solution, available globally, and consistent with the PagePreviews
feature <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Previews>.

*How do they work?*

These popups will be visible to everyone, including readers. If you don’t
want to see them, you can opt out
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews#Opt-out_feature>.
If you are using the gadgets
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets>
Reference Tooltips or Navigation Popups, you won’t see Reference Previews
unless you disable the gadget. Wikis with Reference Tooltips or Navigation
Popups as a default gadget can decide to make these gadgets no longer a
default, in order to show Reference Previews as a default instead.

*Reference types*

It’s worth noting that this new feature allows you to show the type of
reference in the popup. This type can be specified via CSS classes
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Reference_Previews#How_to_assign_a_reference_type_to_your_reference>,
either individually for each reference, or – preferably – by adding the
classes directly to the relevant citation templates.

*Links*

Interface texts for this feature can be translated here
<https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:Translate/ext-popups?group=ext-popups>.
If you’re curious, please have a look at the project page with more
information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews> (in
English), or the translated help page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Reference_Previews>. Feedback is, as
always, welcome on this talk page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews>
.

With regards from Wikimedia Deutschland’s Technical Wishes team

Johanna Strodt

-- 
Johanna Strodt
Project Manager Community Communications for the Technical Wishes project

*Community Communications Lead*