Module:CitationLite

CitationLite is a lightweight Lua citation engine for Chalo Chatu. It powers minimal, stable versions of the following templates:

This module avoids the complexity of CS1/CS2 while covering the most common citation needs on Chalo Chatu. It has no external module dependencies and aims for predictable output and low error rates.

Entry points

Use {{#invoke}} only from templates. Do not call the module directly from articles.

– used by {{Cite web}}
– used by {{Cite news}}
– used by {{Cite book}}
– used by {{Cite journal}}

Supported parameters

All four entry points accept a small, consistent set of parameters. Some are ignored when not applicable.

Core: author, authors, last, first, title, date, language/lang, access-date

Source and publication: website/work, publisher, newspaper (news only), journal (journal only)

Identifiers and detail: isbn (book), doi (journal), edition (book), volume, issue/number, pages/page, year, place/location

Links: url, archive-url, archive-date, url-status (use live or dead)

Extras: quote (short inline quotation)

Notes on parameters

Authors may be provided as

|author= or |last= with |first=, or |authors= with names separated by semicolons or commas.

|language= displays as a short marker in parentheses, for example (bemba), (ny), (en). Do not use long prose.
|access-date= is free-form; the module does not parse or validate dates.
Archive handling shows links as “URL • Archived 2025-07-20 (live/dead)”. If only |archive-url= is present, it will still display the archived link.

Output style

The module emits simple inline citations wrapped in a span with a type class:

...
...
...
...

Formatting rules

Author list joins with commas and an ampersand before the last author.
Article and chapter titles use quotation marks.
Work, website, book, and journal names are italicised.
Blocks end with a final period if missing.

Examples

Web

{{Cite web
 | author       = Ministry of Information
 | title        = Government launches new portal
 | website      = Cabinet Office
 | publisher    = Government of the Republic of Zambia
 | date         = 2025-07-12
 | url          = https://www.example.gov.zm/portal
 | access-date  = 2025-09-08
 | archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20250720/https://www.example.gov.zm/portal
 | archive-date = 2025-07-20
 | url-status   = live
 | language     = en
}}

News

{{Cite news
 | author      = Reporter Name
 | title       = Power outage hits parts of Lusaka
 | newspaper   = Times of Zambia
 | date        = 2025-08-29
 | url         = https://www.times.co.zm/article/power-outage
 | access-date = 2025-09-08
}}

Book

{{Cite book
 | author    = Mulenga, John
 | title     = History of Lusaka
 | edition   = 2nd
 | publisher = ZedPress
 | year      = 2019
 | place     = Lusaka
 | isbn      = 978-1-23456-789-7
 | pages     = 45–48
}}

Journal

{{Cite journal
 | authors  = Phiri, M.; Banda, T.
 | title    = Urban growth in Lusaka
 | journal  = Zambian Journal of Planning
 | volume   = 12
 | issue    = 2
 | pages    = 101–120
 | year     = 2024
 | doi      = 10.1234/zjp.2024.012
 | url      = https://journal.example.org/urban-growth
 | access-date = 2025-09-08
}}

Error handling and maintenance

The module is defensive about missing parameters. It will not throw Lua errors for empty fields. Where both |title= and |url= are missing, maintainers may enable an optional tracking category by adding the small helper in the module source and creating

Category:Citation Lite maintenance (hidden)

This is off by default to keep article output clean.

Migration guidance

Prefer these templates for straightforward sources on Chalo Chatu.
Legacy CS1-based templates may remain where advanced fields are required; otherwise consider converting to the lightweight forms for performance and consistency.
When converting, preserve dates and archive fields exactly as written by the editor.

Limitations

No automatic date parsing or reformatting.
No complex name parsing beyond simple lists.
No S2CID, JSTOR, OCLC, or similar identifiers.
No automatic punctuation trimming inside parameters; provide clean input.

Testcases

Use the sandbox and testcases pages to validate changes:

Maintainers: keep the public interface stable. Any breaking change should be announced on the Village Pump before deployment.

-- Module:CitationLite
-- Lightweight citation renderer for Chalo Chatu
-- Supports: cite_web, cite_news, cite_book, cite_journal
-- Design goals: simple, robust, no complex date parsing, no heavy dependencies.

local p = {}

-- ========== Utilities ==========
local function trim(s)
	if type(s) ~= "string" then return s end
	return (s:gsub("^%s+", ""):gsub("%s+$", ""))
end

local function isempty(v)
	if v == nil then return true end
	if type(v) == "string" then return trim(v) == "" end
	return false
end

local function list_from(s)
	-- Accept lists split by ";", "," or ","
	if isempty(s) then return nil end
	local items = {}
	for part in tostring(s):gmatch("[^;]+") do
		table.insert(items, trim(part))
	end
	if #items == 1 and items[1]:find(",") then
		items = {}
		for part in tostring(s):gmatch("[^,]+") do
			table.insert(items, trim(part))
		end
	end
	return (#items > 0) and items or nil
end

local function join(parts, sep)
	local out = {}
	for _, v in ipairs(parts) do
		if not isempty(v) then table.insert(out, v) end
	end
	return table.concat(out, sep or " ")
end

local function wrap(spanClass, text)
	if isempty(text) then return nil end
	return string.format('<span class="%s">%s</span>', spanClass, text)
end

local function italic(s)  -- ''italics'' in wiki output
	if isempty(s) then return nil end
	return string.format("''%s''", s)
end

local function quoted(s)
	if isempty(s) then return nil end
	return string.format('"%s"', s)
end

local function extlink(url, label)
	if isempty(url) then return nil end
	label = isempty(label) and url or label
	return string.format('[%s %s]', url, label)
end

local function render_archive(url, date)
	if isempty(url) then return nil end
	local label = isempty(date) and "Archived" or ("Archived " .. tostring(date))
	return extlink(url, label)
end

local function render_url_block(url, archive_url, archive_date, url_status)
	if isempty(url) and isempty(archive_url) then return nil end
	local bits = {}
	if not isempty(url) then table.insert(bits, extlink(url, "URL")) end
	if not isempty(archive_url) then table.insert(bits, render_archive(archive_url, archive_date)) end
	if not isempty(url_status) then table.insert(bits, "(" .. tostring(url_status) .. ")") end
	return join(bits, " • ")
end

local function render_authors(args)
	-- Accept: |author=, |authors= (list), or |last= + |first=
	local authors = {}
	if not isempty(args.author) then
		table.insert(authors, args.author)
	end
	if not isempty(args.last) or not isempty(args.first) then
		local name = join({args.first, args.last}, " ")
		if not isempty(name) then table.insert(authors, name) end
	end
	if not isempty(args.authors) then
		local more = list_from(args.authors)
		if more then
			for _, a in ipairs(more) do table.insert(authors, a) end
		end
	end
	if #authors == 0 then return nil end
	if #authors == 1 then
		return authors[1]
	elseif #authors == 2 then
		return authors[1] .. " & " .. authors[2]
	else
		local last = table.remove(authors)
		return table.concat(authors, ", ") .. " & " .. last
	end
end

local function render_lang(lang)
	if isempty(lang) then return nil end
	return "(" .. tostring(lang) .. ")"
end

local function punct_concat(parts)
	-- Join with ". " and ensure final period.
	local text = join(parts, ". ")
	if isempty(text) then return "" end
	if not text:match("%.%s*$") then text = text .. "." end
	return text
end

-- Safe prefix helper to avoid nil concatenation
local function prefixed(prefix, v)
	if isempty(v) then return nil end
	return prefix .. tostring(v)
end

-- ========== Core builders ==========
local function cite_web_like(kind, args)
	-- author. "Title". ''Website/Work''. Publisher. Date. URL-Block. Accessed access-date. Quote
	local author    = render_authors(args)
	local title     = quoted(args.title or args.chapter or args.article)
	local work      = italic(args.website or args.work or (kind == "news" and args.newspaper) or nil)
	local publisher = args.publisher
	local date      = args.date or args["publication-date"]
	local urlblk    = render_url_block(args.url, args["archive-url"], args["archive-date"], args["url-status"])
	local access    = prefixed("Accessed ", args["access-date"])
	local lang      = render_lang(args.language or args.lang)
	local quote     = isempty(args.quote) and nil or ("“" .. tostring(args.quote) .. "”")

	local body = punct_concat({
		join({author, title}, ". "),
		join({work, publisher}, ". "),
		date,
		urlblk,
		access,
		lang,
		quote
	})

	return string.format('<span class="citation %s">%s</span>', kind, body)
end

local function cite_book(args)
	-- author. ''Title''. Edition. Publisher, Year. Place. ISBN. Pages. URL-Block. Accessed access-date.
	local author    = render_authors(args)
	local title     = italic(args.title)
	local edition   = args.edition
	local year      = args.year or args.date
	local place     = args.place or args.location
	local publisher = args.publisher
	local isbn      = args.isbn
	local pages     = args.pages or args.page
	local urlblk    = render_url_block(args.url, args["archive-url"], args["archive-date"], args["url-status"])
	local access    = prefixed("Accessed ", args["access-date"])
	local lang      = render_lang(args.language or args.lang)

	local publine
	if not isempty(publisher) and not isempty(year) then
		publine = publisher .. ", " .. tostring(year)
	else
		publine = publisher or year
	end

	local body = punct_concat({
		join({author, title}, ". "),
		edition,
		publine,
		place,
		prefixed("ISBN ", isbn),
		pages and ("pp. " .. tostring(pages)) or nil,
		urlblk,
		access,
		lang
	})

	return string.format('<span class="citation book">%s</span>', body)
end

local function cite_journal(args)
	-- author. "Article title". ''Journal''. volume (issue): pages, year. DOI/URL-Block. Accessed access-date. Lang.
	local author   = render_authors(args)
	local atitle   = quoted(args.title or args.article)
	local journal  = italic(args.journal or args.work)
	local volume   = args.volume
	local issue    = args.issue or args.number
	local pages    = args.pages or args.page
	local year     = args.year or args.date
	local doi      = prefixed("doi:", args.doi)
	local urlblk   = render_url_block(args.url, args["archive-url"], args["archive-date"], args["url-status"])
	local access   = prefixed("Accessed ", args["access-date"])
	local lang     = render_lang(args.language or args.lang)

	local voliss
	if not isempty(volume) and not isempty(issue) then
		voliss = tostring(volume) .. " (" .. tostring(issue) .. ")"
	else
		voliss = volume or issue
	end

	local pagestr = not isempty(pages) and tostring(pages) or nil  -- e.g., 12–34

	local after = join({
		voliss and (voliss .. (pagestr and (": " .. pagestr) or "")) or pagestr,
		year
	}, ", ")

	local tail = join({
		doi,
		urlblk
	}, ". ")

	local body = punct_concat({
		join({author, atitle}, ". "),
		journal,
		after,
		tail,
		access,
		lang
	})

	return string.format('<span class="citation journal">%s</span>', body)
end

-- ========== Entry points ==========
function p.cite_web(frame)
	local args = frame:getParent() and frame:getParent().args or frame.args or {}
	return cite_web_like("web", args)
end

function p.cite_news(frame)
	local args = frame:getParent() and frame:getParent().args or frame.args or {}
	return cite_web_like("news", args)
end

function p.cite_book(frame)
	local args = frame:getParent() and frame:getParent().args or frame.args or {}
	return cite_book(args)
end

function p.cite_journal(frame)
	local args = frame:getParent() and frame:getParent().args or frame.args or {}
	return cite_journal(args)
end

return p

Module:CitationLite

Contents

Entry points

Supported parameters

Notes on parameters

Output style

Examples

Web

News

Book

Journal

Error handling and maintenance

Migration guidance

Limitations

See also

Testcases

Navigation menu

Page actions

Page actions

Personal tools

NAVIGATION

Search

ABOUT CHALO CHATU

Tools

Navigation