Template talk:Cite web/sandbox4

This is the discussion talk-page for: Template:Cite_web/smart.

Also see: Help_talk:Citation_style_1, with topics about format.

Also see: Template_talk:Citation/core, about the common core template.

Purpose of {Cite_web/smart}

The Template:Cite_web/smart is an attempt to totally upgrade {Cite_web} to be both faster and handle all complex {Cite} parameters being supported, now and in the future. The tactic is to check for rare parameters in {Cite_web/smart} and only then invoke {Citation/core}; otherwise, {Cite_web/smart} would perform like fast-cite {Cite_quick} to format the parameters in the same pattern as Citation_style_1, but not really using {Citation/core} when only common parameters are used. For common parameters {Cite_web/smart} has been tested to run 4x faster than {Cite_web}, while for rare parameters, it has run about the same speed, or formatting 17 cites per second. The planned integration is: #REDIRECT of {Cite_web} to invoke {Cite_web/smart}, for all among the 1.6 million articles which use Template:Citation/core. Note well: Although {Cite_web/smart} looks like a "fork" of {Cite_web}, it is really designed to be the next generation, perhaps ready by mid-August 2012. For people who wanted to test a template, then all assistance is welcomed. It will be used in over 1 million articles (transcluded into 1,128,784 pages, June 2012), so that is why testing has been so much more critical: {Cite_web/smart} is not in the little league of {Cite_quick} to be used in a few hundred slow articles. Instead, {Cite_web/smart} is the big-league replacement for {Cite_web}, which people have been wanting for years. After testing and protecting, then the upgrade involves a redirect of {Cite_web} to invoke {Cite_web/smart}. Similarly, there would be a {Cite_news/smart} to upgrade {Cite_news}, etc. -Wikid77 (talk) 18:53, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

Delinking of Template:Citation/core

Because {cite_web/smart} only invokes Template:Citation/core to process relatively rare parameters, then in some articles, there would no longer be a link to {Citation/core}, and its total transclusion count would drop, when more small articles are reformatted which use only the common citation parameters. -Wikid77 (talk) 18:53, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

100% compatible and extended

Users have emphasized the need to support all prior parameters. The idea is to keep {Cite_web} 100% compatible with the prior parameters, plus also allow for new parameters, now that {Cite_web} will be much faster. Perhaps people forget that aspect: the prior slow performance of {Cite_web} also thwarted other new parameters, due to obvious fears that more options would mean "even slower". Instead, {Cite_web} can be made faster in this new {Cite_web/smart} version, but also allow other major extensions to be added. For example, perhaps a new short parameter "urlw" could be added so "urlw=xx.com" would be shorthand for full URL "http: //www.xx.com". With the current version, a new parameter "urlw=" would mean even slower, but this new version could quickly support such a convenient new option due to speed gained elsewhere. Another plan is to warn the user of common misspelled parameters. So, the focus is "100% compatible and extended". -Wikid77 13:12, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Comparing Cite_web/smart to Cite_web June 2012

The following compares the size to the {cite_web} revision of June 2012.

Test	Type	Transcludes	Preprocessor node count	Post-expand include size	Argument size
Help:Citation Style 1/mass test/cite web smart	{{cite web/smart}}	1500	219,002	993,000	373,500
Help:Citation Style 1/mass test/cite web smart	{{cite web/smart}}	700	102,202	463,400	174,300
Help:Citation Style 1/mass test/cite web ref	{{cite web}} wrapped in <ref>	606	655,036	2,048,000	1,523,330

The above table compares {cite_web/smart} to {cite_web}. The tests of {cite_web/smart} were limited to 1,500 transclusions, as adequate to show how 1,500 still uses less than half of the available template resources. So, the post-expand include size is 993,000, or less than half of the 2,048,000 include-size limit which stopped {cite_web} at only 606 transclusions, rather than 1,500. With 700 cases, the include-size was 463,400 as only one-quarter the limit, even though 700 is more than the 606 cases where {cite_web} crashed. Beyond these tests, it is important to note that {cite_web/smart} supports all parameters of {cite_web}. So, the following example is a reminder of supporting all prior parameters:

• {{cite_web/smart | title=Page title | author1=J. Won |date=9 May 2007

| authormask=3 | url=http://x.com | others=Mary Doe, CSI |asin=435}}

Result:
{{cite_web/smart | title=Page title | author1=J. Won |date=9 May 2007 | authormask=3 | url=http://x.com | others=Mary Doe, CSI |asin=435}}

The maximum limit for {cite_web/smart} would be 3,000 tranclusions, due to the time limit for reformatting pages. -Wikid77 (talk) 04:07, 14 August 2012 (UTC)