An integrator has come across webpage references in his test data that
produce no output in the Chicago author-date style, because they are
unauthored, the “anonymous” string is rendered as a locale term
grouped with the date, and the date is absent in the sample data.
Zotero currently issues a warning popup for empty citations, but if
the citation has multiple references, and some of them will render,
the citation goes in with no warning. No output is produced for the
problem cites, and there is no visual hint that an intended reference
has gone missing. If the citation contains other references that
produce output, no warning popup is presented: the problem cites are
just dropped from the output.
There is a small Zotero issue here – the popup should be triggered by
an empty cite, rather than an empty citation – but there is a
CSL/processor implementation issue as well. For server-side and
batch-processing systems currently in development, there is not an
opportunity for user interaction, and so no hint of trouble in the
finished document.
Would it be acceptable to have the processor replace empty cites with
a warning string? It might be unsightly, but it might be better than
seamlessly dropping content from the finished output. Any thoughts on
what ought to be done for this? If it is not felt to be a CSL issue,
I can liaise with the citeproc-js group and implement whatever
solution people there are comfortable with.
Frank