Help:Source Helper
What is SourceHelper?
[edit]SourceHelper is a tool designed to streamline the process of adding sources to Wikinews articles. If you've used Wikipedia's auto-citation generator (or ProveIt), where you simply enter a URL or ISBN to automatically create a properly formatted citation, you'll find SourceHelper familiar. Built using the same underlying technology as Wikipedia's auto citation feature, SourceHelper has been specifically adapted and optimized for Wikinews sources and formatting requirements.
The tool works by taking the URL of an article and automatically extracting key parameters including the title, author name, publication date, and publisher. Additionally, SourceHelper provides a convenient one-click button to generate an archive URL through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Note that archive URLs are not generated automatically, you'll need to copy the archived link once it becomes available through the Wayback Machine.
SourceHelper also addresses Wikinews' specific formatting guidelines, which require sources to be arranged chronologically from newest to oldest. The tool automatically handles this organization by adding new sources to the appropriate section and sorting them by date, eliminating the need for manual arrangement.
While the tool aims to extract all source parameters automatically, it's important to understand its limitations. Just like Wikipedia's auto-citation feature, SourceHelper may occasionally miss certain details - sometimes the author name isn't detected, other times the publisher information may be incomplete. We've implemented several backup methods (detailed below) to improve parameter extraction, but there's still a possibility you may encounter missing information. However, the tool's interface makes it easy to manually add any missing parameters when needed.
The core technology powering SourceHelper is the Citoid API, the same system that drives Wikipedia's automatic citation generation. As our primary backup method, we integrate Web2Cit, a collaborative automatic citation generator specifically designed for web sources. Web2Cit complements Citoid's results and is community-controlled through user-friendly tools that lower the technical barrier for improving automatic citations. If you notice missing parameters in your source, you can contribute to Web2Cit to help improve future results. For example, if an author name is consistently missing from a particular website, you can help define what the expected output should be. More information about contributing is available on Meta, or you can watch this instructional video to learn how to participate in improving the citation database.
How to Enable / Disable
[edit]The SourceHelper gadget is enabled by default for all logged-in users. You can start using it immediately to add sources.
Open any page or article to try out the tool. Begin editing the page, and you should see a "
Sources
If you do not want to use the gadget, you can disable it in your gadget preferences by unchecking the "SourceHelper" option.
How to Use?
[edit]The design of the current dialog interface is slightly different from the images shown below. But don't worry, not in a way that will be totally unrelated or confusing.
- Click the "Source" button shown on your toolbar.
- A dialog box will open. Enter the URL for which you want to generate the source and click the "Fetch" button.
- After clicking the Fetch button, it will take a few seconds to process. The tool will fetch all the required parameters and automatically fill the form fields. Verify that the parameter data is accurate.
- To generate an archive URL, click the "Wayback Machine" button. This will redirect you to a new tab. Wait a few moments while the archive is being created. Once created, copy the link and paste it into the Archive URL field in the dialog.
- Once you've verified all the information and added the archive URL if desired, click the "Save" button in the top-right corner of the dialog box. The source template will be automatically added to the appropriate section of the article. If the page doesn't already have a "Sources" section, don't worry, the tool will first create the == Sources == heading and then add the source template underneath it.
