edit error unmatched ref tags

Question

After a merge, I combined the information on the two profiles. When attempting to save, I received the following error message.  When I click "save anyway" to save the merging changes, you won't see this error message. Anyone know where the error is?

Warning: Check the data.

1. The biography has unmatched <ref> tags.

SAVE ANYWAYIf you are saving without changes consider an explanation in the text.   [more info]

From the help pages

In all following references you can just use this:

<ref name="birth certificate" />

Done this way, all subsequent footnotes for this same source will point to the same footnote at the bottom of the page. Note that " in the "birth certificate" example above is a quotation mark, not two apostrophes.

(Other methods for using the same source multiple times have been variously proposed and used. All methods other than the above are not recommended. See Alternative Sourcing Methods for more on this.)

Comments

I don't remember ever having a problem finding the reason for this error. I checked the edit text box content twice and couldn't find anything wrong. My best guess is there is a single quote in a citation, but if that is the problem, the trouble is with the syntax checker.

---

Thanks Julie. Oddly, when I put </ref> after the two subsequent citations, the error disappeared but that is contrary to the instructions given for subsequent citations.

---

I think the issue might have been related to the spaces you included in the "ref name" tags. The tag <ref name= "White" /> might not work the same as <ref name="White"/>. (Something to test.)

---

That's it exactly... an html tag can have multiple name=value pairs of parameters. These parameters are separated by spaces. So any spurious spaces will cause syntax errors -- in this case, since it couldn't figure out the next parameter, it couldn't find the ending tag.

---

though in this case, it seems the syntax checker is stricter than the actual browser, because the browser seemed to display the refs correctly even with the extra spaces.

perhaps its a bug in the syntax checker

---

I don't use the <ref name= "White" /> style so it wasn't me who did it. I was merely cleaning up after a merge.

---

Thank you for this question, Jackie.  I had not been aware that I could name a reference and use the name to point all related items to the same source.  Now I know something new, and I actually needed that on a lengthy profile that I just worked on.  I'll go back and streamline it.

Answer 1

I corrected the spacing of two ref tags (/>)and did not get a message of ref tag errors.

Comments

that "correction" was not actually necessary. the error went away when I removed the space next to the equal sign.

Answer 2

I have made every change suggested in this thread - the profile still gets the unmatched <ref> tags message.  I Usually 'save anyway' and ignore it.  It's VERY annoying.

Falzone-26

Comments

the problem was with the space between the "name" and the "=" in the tag, and you inadvertently made it worse by rearranging the opening and closing tag brackets. not all the changes seem to be appearing here: https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Falzone-26&diff=57930581&oldid=57924290

it should have been <ref name="FAG"> not <ref name ="FAG">

also, your find-a-grave template had 5 tildes instead of 4. I changed that too, but of course, it then attributed the change to me (since that's what the 4 tildes do -- attribute a change to the one making the edit)

---

Dennis - it's 5 tildes with the FAG template, which adds 'Retrieved, time, and date' to the template.

---

ok... I haven't read the template spec in detail.

you might was to edit and resave it then.