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The Citation/quick is a fast-cite alternative to {{cite web}} or {{cite news}} or {{cite book}}, for use in large articles using Citation style 1. To allow extreme speed, only the basic parameter names are supported, such as "last3=" or "first3=" rather than "surname3=" or "given3=" (etc.), and "author=" but not "author1=" (see below: Limited parameters supported). For rare parameters, the original cite templates can still be used, and mixed within an article. To view all parameter names, see: Template:Cite_web/doc.

Usage: {{citation/quick |web |title=Xxx | url=http://example.com/ | date=1 May 2009 |accessdate=1 June 2012}}

{{citation/quick |book |title=Xxx | chapter=Chapter 3: Issues |url=http://example.com/ | date=March 1998}}

Parameter 1 can be: web, news, book, or journal. Because only 2 author-link parameters are supported, wikilinks for author3 (etc.) must be hand-coded, such as

author3 = [[Arthur C. Clarke|A. Clarke]]

To use rare parameters, then the original full templates should be used, instead, such as using the full {{cite book}} to list editor names or show an authormask.

The parameter "pages=n" will auto-adjust to show "p." for a singular lone page number, or "pp." for a plural page-range. Parameter "page=" always shows the "p." prefix.

In articles which contain more than 300 formatted references, the speed of formatting a large article, during 2009, reached 30–60 seconds for logged-in users, so the {citation/quick} template can be used to run 10x faster (3–6 seconds) when reformatting an article. Many large articles experienced similar long delays during 2009–2012, due to using numerous large templates. Also, there have been some cases where other large templates, in the same articles, have exceeded template resources, and so {citation/quick} could be used in those articles to allow hundreds more citations without exceeding the template limits.

Limited parameters supported[change source]

To allow extreme speed, only the major parameters are supported:

title, work, journal (or: newspaper)
author, author2, author3, author4,... author8
authorlink, authorlink2 (but not: authorlink3, etc.)
last, first, last1, first1, last2 (or coauthors), first2 ... last8, first8
ref=harv, ref=x
publisher, agency, location (or place), volume, issue/number, edition
editor (when no author/last), chapter, format, page, pages
url, archiveurl, archivedate, doi, isbn, issn, pmid, pmc
date, day, month, year, accessdate/acc, quote, notes

The following sets of parameters are not supported:

Not supported: magazine, periodical, encyclopedia, contribution
Not supported: authors, coauthor, author9, last9, first9 (or higher)
Not supported: authormask, author-link, authorlink1, author1-link (or higher)
Not supported: editor-last, editor-link, editor1, editor1-last (or higher)
Not supported: surname, given, surname1, given1 (or higher)
Not supported: series, version, volumename, publication-place
Not supported: trans_title, article, publication-date
Not supported: at, arxiv, asin, bibcode, jfm, jstor, lccn, mr
Not supported: oclc, ol, osti, rfc, ssrn, zbl, id, etc.
Not supported: postscript, laysummary, laysource, laydate
Not supported: episode, transcript, transcripturl

For a full description of all parameter names, see: Template:Cite_web/doc.

Examples[change source]

The operation is very similar to {{cite web}} and related templates.

For using {{citation/quick}}:

Markup: {{citation/quick |web |title=Study 17 of life |work=Studies Online

| year=1999 | url=http://example.com/ | accessdate=1 June 2009}}

Result:

Example with 3 authors, compared to {{cite journal}}:

Markup: {{citation/quick |journal |last1=Smith |first1=Joe |last2=Doe |first2=John H.

|last3=Jones |first3=Mary |title=Growth of dawn creatures |journal=Life Journal

|page=2345-47 | url=http://example.org/ |accessdate=2012-07-10}}

Result:

Compare: {{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Joe |last2=Doe |first2=John H.

|last3=Jones |first3=Mary |title=Growth of dawn creatures |journal=Life Journal

|page=2345-47 | url=http://example.org/ |accessdate=2012-07-10}}

Result: Smith, Joe; Doe, John H.; Jones, Mary (June 1980). "Growth of dawn creatures". Life Journal. 6 (235). London: Acme: 2345-47. Retrieved 2012-07-10.

Other benefits[change source]

The Template:Cite_quick was primarily designed to be fast, for use in major articles, viewed over 5,000 times per day, or frequently edited. However, there are other benefits:

Reduces template include-size by 60% which avoids error "include size too large".
Allows up to 1,000 citation templates, versus 380 of {cite_web} in large pages.
By running faster, stops 60-second timeout "wp:Wikimedia Foundation error".
Avoids missing dots "." by ignoring parameter "separator=" which omits dots.
Works on any browser by avoiding CSS classes which duplicate URL links on older browsers.
Auto-adjusts for singular "pages=n" to show "p." but then "pp." for range.
Provides for quickly adding new parameters, as one template, rather than 24 forks of {cite_web}.

There are other minor benefits as well.

Newer features[change source]

Because Template:Cite_quick began with extremely minimal parameters, there were later additions:

13 October 2012: Parameter "editor=" was added when no "author/last=" to show with ", ed.".
13 October 2012: Changed to show "last1=" else "author=" in case empty "author=".
15 October 2012: Fixed to swap archiveurl as "Archived" & "url=" as "the original".
17 October 2012: Expanded to quickly show non-bolded volume when prefix "volume=vol...".
19 October 2012: Changed page to show ": " when journal page number.
19 October 2012: Added pmid/pmc at doi/archiveurl, split from pages/page 2x faster.
19 October 2012: Added last5 to last8, first5 to first8 (as same speed).
1 November 2012: Parameter "ref=" or "ref=harv" (Harvard referencing) was added.
26 November 2012: Parameters "authorlink" & "authorlink2" were added (but not: authorlink1, author-link, author1-link, author2-link, etc.).

When parameters were added, they were first checked in many timing tests to ensure that the processing speed was not significantly slowed, so {citation/quick} remains quick.

Limited parameters supported[change source]

Examples[change source]

Other benefits[change source]

Newer features[change source]

See also[change source]