Merge pull request #4474 from pepper-jk/html-license-ref-table-fix

feat(OutputHTML): Always print license references table

Author: AyanSinhaMahapatra

AUTHORS.rst

@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ The following organizations or individuals have contributed to ScanCode:
 - Horie Issei @is2ei
 - James Ward @jamesward
 - Jelmer Vernooij @jelmer
+- Jens Keim @pepper-jk
 - Kunal Chhabra @kunalchhabra37
 - Jillian Daguil @jdaguil
 - Jiri Popelka @jpopelka

CHANGELOG.rst

@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@ Changelog
 Next release
 --------------
 
+- Enable License References table for HTML Output without requiring
+  `--license-references` by implementing a fallback license reference
+  collection based on the behavior of v32.0.0.
+  https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode-toolkit/pull/4474
+  https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode-toolkit/issues/4101
 
 
 v32.4.1 - 2025-07-23

docs/source/cli-reference/output-format.rst

@@ -406,7 +406,9 @@ Comparing Different ``json`` Output Formats
         - Copyright and Licenses Information
         - File Information
         - Package Information
-        - Licenses (Links to Dejacode/License Homepage)
+        - License References (SPDX ID, Links to spdx/scancode/licensedb/License Homepage)
+
+    .. include::  /rst_snippets/note_snippets/output_html_license_references.rst
 
     .. figure:: data/output_html1.png
 

docs/source/rst_snippets/note_snippets/output_html_license_references.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+.. note::
+
+    For the license references table it is recommended to pass the ``--license-references`` argument.
+    However, there is a fall back implemented in case the ``license_references`` data is missing.

src/formattedcode/output_html.py

@@ -188,9 +188,13 @@ def generate_output(results, license_references, version, template):
     """
     # FIXME: This code is highly coupled with actual scans and may not
     # support adding new scans at all
+
+    from licensedcode.cache import get_licenses_db
+
     converted = {}
     converted_infos = {}
     converted_packages = {}
+    licenses = {}
 
     LICENSES = 'license_detections'
     COPYRIGHTS = 'copyrights'
@@ -223,6 +227,11 @@ def generate_output(results, license_references, version, template):
                     'value': license_expression,
                 })
 
+                if not license_references and license_expression not in licenses:
+                    license_object = get_licenses_db().get(license_expression)
+                    if license_object != None:
+                        licenses[license_expression] = license_object
+
         if results:
             converted[path] = sorted(results, key=itemgetter('start'))
 
@@ -239,6 +248,10 @@ def generate_output(results, license_references, version, template):
         if PACKAGES in scanned_file:
             converted_packages[path] = scanned_file[PACKAGES]
 
+    if not license_references:
+        licenses = dict(sorted(licenses.items()))
+        license_references = list(licenses.values())
+
     files = {
         'license_copyright': converted,
         'infos': converted_infos,