BibTeX Plugin

I post again in this thread about another bug as I am not sure where else it can be done:
Some references do not appear in the plugin interface (when calling the plugin to insert a reference in the text).

So I have 3 questions :wink:

  • Has anyone an idea about a possible fix?
  • Is the BibTex plugin still maintained at all?
  • Is reference handling included in the development plan of Joplin?

For the latter, I tried Zettlr after seeing one of the post of this thread and the integration with Zotero works very nicely. I kept using Joplin as I prefer a number of other features but having the possibility to add references reliably would be huge plus.

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Thank you for this fantastic plugin! It is an essential addition to Joplin for writing and processing them further for scientific publications.

I have several suggestions to improve the plugin. (But please keep in mind that I am not a programmer. Therefore, I do not know if my proposals are easy, difficult to implement, or feasible.)

  1. Using standardized short references from the CSL file

Instead of inserting the BibTex Code, I suggest using the short reference as it is defined as the standard way to reference literature in the CSL file.

For instance: Instead of using @arnold_humanities_2016, please use (Arnold & Tilton, 2016).

The proper complete reference for this example in APA 7th ed. is already displayed correctly in Joplin under "References" in the Rich Text Editor (Thank you!):
Arnold, T., & Tilton, L. (2016). Humanities Data in R: Exploring Networks, Geospatial Data, Images, and Text (Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2015 Edition). Springer.

  1. Link to the complete reference in the note, not to Google Scholar

Again this is the standard way of writing a scientific paper. It would be nice to have a backlink from the complete reference, but I do not know if this is feasible.

  1. Allow for localization

If I am writing some articles in German, I would like to have "Literatur" or "Bibliografie" as the header in the Rich Text editor instead of "References". Maybe the best way would be to have a preference setting for the content of this header.

  1. Help users to find their BibTex and CSL files with file dialog windows

Maybe it would be helpful to copy this file under the Joplin User Profile folder so that Joplin would synchronize it?

Hopefully, you have time (and pleasure) to consider these suggestions.

Added 2022-07-28

I want to add some new thoughts I came up with:

  • My suggestions in the previous post are related to the Markdown Viewer (not the Editor). But even though they have no relevance, if you are going to export your notes for a professional (latex-based) publishing tool.

  • In that case, the only important thing is the BibTeX Code that should work in the publishing software so that the reference manager of the publishing tool could get into contact with the bibliographic data.

  • The ideal solution would be a complete integration of Zotero with Joplin, requiring writing a Zotero plugin. I think in the long run, this is the way to go!

In the meanwhile, I suggest the following workaround using the BibTeX Plugin of Joplin:

  1. Download the Better BibTeX Plugin for Zotero as @ocns has already suggested and use for the export the option "Keep updated". (See image)

  2. Check the format of the BibTeX Code your publishing tool is using. (Often, professional tools use the [Pandoc Syntax].)(Pandoc - Pandoc User’s Guide). In my case (RStudio/RMarkdown), it is the syntax author (in lower case) + year.

  3. Set the Better BibTeX configuration to meet the same syntax when exporting references for the Joplin BibTeX plugin. You can find the Better BibTeX syntax here.

See the screenshot:

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Hello! I just started to use the plugin, but unfortunately, I am getting an ENOENT error on startup. The error goes:

Error: Could not open some files: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'path/to/bibfile.bib'

This error occurs even if I have not specified any path for the bib file.

I simply wanted to know if anyone else is experiencing this as well, and if so, how does one go about solving it :slight_smile:

I think this only happens if there is no path specified to a .bib file?

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@oddlyaware is right. I had the same issue until I put in the path and file. You need the file path and the file.

Im sorry to sound dumb. I just installed the plugin I have the same error. I can see in the config a place where I'm asked to profile a path to the .bib file that apparently deosn't exist.
I looked it up and made a dummy bib file to try and get started.
Now I have no idea how to create a path to the bibtex file whn I place it no dropbox along with the data. I assume thats where it needs to be if all my devices are to share it.
How do you reference the remote dropbox anyone?
Thanks in advance

Does anybody get the reference list printed on the pdf after exporting a note? It doesn't seem to work on my version despite the reference list being visible in the rich text panel. Thanks in advance

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Same here unfortunately.
Versions:

  • Joplin: 2.14.20
  • BibTeX: 0.5.0