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Fix plain text links in citations #1022

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Fix plain text links in citations #1022

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945233a
fix citation dump taking precedence over actual page content
aakashsbhatia2 Jul 25, 2026
266060d
cleanup the comments
aakashsbhatia2 Jul 25, 2026
0033194
update variable name
aakashsbhatia2 Jul 25, 2026
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20 changes: 17 additions & 3 deletions Readability.js
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ Readability.prototype = {
whitespace: /^\s*$/,
hasContent: /\S$/,
hashUrl: /^#.+/,
httpUrl: /https?:\/\/[^\s<>"')\]]+/g,
srcsetUrl: /(\S+)(\s+[\d.]+[xw])?(\s*(?:,|$))/g,
b64DataUrl: /^data:\s*([^\s;,]+)\s*;\s*base64\s*,/i,
// Commas as used in Latin, Sindhi, Chinese and various other scripts.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1307,10 +1308,12 @@ Readability.prototype = {

// Scale the final candidates score based on link density. Good content
// should have a relatively small link density (5% or less) and be mostly
// unaffected by this operation.
// unaffected by this operation. Plain-text URLs are counted here
// so a block that is mostly URLs (e.g. an endnote/citation dump)
// can't outscore genuine article prose.
var candidateScore =
candidate.readability.contentScore *
(1 - this._getLinkDensity(candidate));
(1 - this._getLinkDensity(candidate, true));
candidate.readability.contentScore = candidateScore;

this.log("Candidate:", candidate, "with score " + candidateScore);
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -2140,7 +2143,7 @@ Readability.prototype = {
* @param Element
* @return number (float)
**/
_getLinkDensity(element) {
_getLinkDensity(element, includePlainTextUrls) {
var textLength = this._getInnerText(element).length;

@gijsk gijsk Jul 28, 2026

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Let's maybe cache the return of getInnerText which may not be cheap for large nodes, given we now potentially reuse it further down?

if (textLength === 0) {
return 0;
Expand All @@ -2155,6 +2158,17 @@ Readability.prototype = {
linkLength += this._getInnerText(linkNode).length * coefficient;
});

// Optionally count plain-text URLs (e.g. citation sections) as links.
// Used when scoring a candidates so actual article content is
// given precedence over a list of links.
if (includePlainTextUrls) {
var innerText = this._getInnerText(element);
var urls = innerText.match(this.REGEXPS.httpUrl) || [];
urls.forEach(function (url) {
linkLength += url.length;
});
}

return linkLength / textLength;
},

Expand Down
10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions test/test-pages/plain-text-links/expected-metadata.json
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
{
"title": "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 27, 2026",
"byline": "Fiona Noonan",
"dir": null,
"lang": "en-US",
"excerpt": "Ukraine conducted an FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile strike on the Russian Titan-Barrikady ballistic missile development and production plant.",
"siteName": "Institute for the Study of War",
"publishedTime": "2026-06-27T22:52:28+00:00",
"readerable": true
}
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