jabref Documentation

1. Project Overview & Quickstart (JabRef/jabref) Copy Chapter

File: README.md Copy Chapter

JabRef Bibliography Management [](https://apidia.net/java/JabRef/main)

JabRef is an open-source, cross-platform citation and reference management tool.

Stay on top of your literature: JabRef helps you to collect and organize sources, find the paper you need and discover the latest research.

Features Copy Chapter

JabRef is available free of charge and is actively developed.
It supports you in every step of your research work.

Collect Copy Section

• Search across many online scientific catalogues like CrossRef, Google Scholar, IEEEXplore, INSPIRE-HEP, Medline PubMed, MathSciNet, Springer, arXiv, and zbMATH
• Import options for over 15 reference formats
• Easily retrieve and link full-text articles
• Fetch complete bibliographic information based on ISBN, DOI, PubMed-ID and arXiv-ID
• Extract metadata from PDFs
• Import new references directly from the browser with one click using the official browser extension for Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Vivaldi

Organize Copy Section

• Group your research into hierarchical collections and organize research items based on keywords/tags, search terms, or your manual assignments
• Advanced search and filter features
• Complete and fix bibliographic data by comparing with curated online catalogs such as Google Scholar, Springer, or MathSciNet
• Customizable citation key generator
• Customize and add new metadata fields or reference types
• Find and merge duplicates
• Attach related documents: 20 different kinds of documents supported out of the box, completely customizable and extendable
• Automatically rename and move associated documents according to customizable rules
• Keep track of what you read: ranking, priority, printed, quality-assured

Cite Copy Section

• Native BibTeX and BibLaTeX support
• Cite-as-you-write functionality for external applications such as Emacs, Kile, LyX, Texmaker, TeXstudio, Vim and WinEdt.
• Format references using one of thousands of built-in citation styles or create your own style
• Support for Word and LibreOffice/OpenOffice for inserting and formatting citations

Share Copy Section

• Many built-in export options or create your export format
• Library is saved as a simple text file, and thus it is easy to share with others via Dropbox and is version-control friendly
• Work in a team: sync the contents of your library via a SQL database

Installation Copy Chapter

Fresh development builds are available at builds.jabref.org.
The latest stable release is available at GitHub.

Please see our Installation Guide.

JabKit Copy Chapter

JabRef offers a CLI application.

You can run it using JBang.
We provide details at .jbang/README.md.

You can also run JabKit using docker:

docker run ghcr.io/jabref/jabkit:edge --help

Bug Reports, Suggestions, Other Feedback Copy Chapter

We are thankful for any bug reports or other feedback.
If you have ideas for new features you want to be included in JabRef, tell us in the feature section of our forum!
If you need support in using JabRef, please read the user documentation, especially the frequently asked questions (FAQ) and also take a look at our community forum.
You can use our GitHub issue tracker to file bug reports.

An explanation of donation possibilities and usage of donations is available at our donations page.

Contributing Copy Chapter

Want to be part of a free and open-source project that tens of thousands of researchers use every day?
Please take a look at our guidelines for contributing.

Building from Source Copy Chapter

Please see Building from source for instructions on how to build JabRef from sources.

Research and Education Copy Chapter

JabRef welcomes research applied to it.
The current list of papers where JabRef helped to enhance science is maintained at https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/wiki/JabRef-in-the-Media.

The JabRef team also fosters to use JabRef in Software Engineering training.
We offer guidelines for this at https://devdocs.jabref.org/teaching.html.

When citing JabRef, please use the following citation:

@Article{jabref,
  author  = {Oliver Kopp and Carl Christian Snethlage and Christoph Schwentker},
  title   = {JabRef: BibTeX-based literature management software},
  journal = {TUGboat},
  volume  = {44},
  number  = {3},
  pages   = {441--447},
  doi     = {10.47397/tb/44-3/tb138kopp-jabref},
  issn    = {0896-3207},
  issue   = {138},
  year    = {2023},
}

DOI (also includes full text): 10.47397/tb/44-3/tb138kopp-jabref.

Sponsoring Copy Chapter

JabRef development is powered by YourKit Java Profiler

File: docs/index.md Copy Chapter

nav_order: 1 layout: home Copy Chapter

Overview on Developing JabRef

This page presents all development information around JabRef.
In case you are an end user, please head to the user documentation or to the general homepage of JabRef.

Starting point for new developers Copy Chapter

On the page Setting up a local workspace, we wrote about the initial steps to get your IDE running.
We strongly recommend continuing reading there.
After you successfully cloned and build JabRef, you are invited to continue reading here.

JabRef's development strategy Copy Chapter

We aim to keep up to high-quality code standards and use code quality tools wherever possible.

To ensure high code-quality,

• We follow the principles of Java by Comparison.
• We follow the principles of Effective Java.
• We use Design Patterns when applicable.
• We document our design decisions using the lightweight architectural decision records MADR.
• Each external pull request is reviewed by at least two JabRef Core Developers.

Continuous integration Copy Chapter

JabRef has automatic checks using GitHub actions in place.
One of them is checking for proper formatting of the code.
Consistent formatting ensures easier reading of the code.
Thus, we ensure that all of JabRef's code follows the same code style.

Binaries are created using gradle.
In case of an internal pull request, they are uploaded to https://builds.jabref.org.
These binaries are created without any checks to have them available as quickly as possible, even if the localization or some fetchers are broken.
You can fnd the deployment workflow runs at: https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/actions?workflow=Deployment.

Branches Copy Chapter

The main branch is the main development line ("trunk") and is intended to incorporate fixes and improvements as soon as possible and to move JabRef forward to modern technologies such as the latest Java version.

Other branches are used for working on and discussing improvements with the help of pull requests. One can see the binaries of each branch at https://builds.jabref.org/. Releases mark milestones and are based on the main branch at that point in time.

How JabRef acquires contributors Copy Chapter

• We participate in Hacktoberfest.
• We participate in Google Summer of Code.
• We are very happy that JabRef is part of Software Engineering trainings.
  Please head to Teaching for more information on using JabRef as a teaching object and on previous courses where JabRef was used.

Next reading Copy Chapter

Please head to Architecture and Components to read on the high-level architecture and JabRef's (logical) components.

File: docs/README.md Copy Chapter

JabRef Developer Documentation

The developer documentation is created using the Jekyll Theme Just the Docs.

Local Development Copy Chapter

For local development, follow the Jekyll installation instructions.
Installing the latest version of ruby followed by gem install bundler should be enough.

Afterwards, run

bundle install
jekyll serve --livereload

and go to http://localhost:4000/ in your browser.

On Windows, using a dockerized environment is recommended:

docker build . -t jrjekyll
docker run -p 4000:4000 -it --rm --volume="C:\git-repositories\jabref\docs":/srv/jekyll jrjekyll jekyll serve -H 0.0.0.0 -t

• With Ctrl+C you can stop the server (this is enabled by the -it switch).
• In case you get errors regarding Gemfile.lock, just delete Gemfile.lock and rerun.
• The current Dockerfile is hand-crafted.
  The Jekyll Docker image did not work end of 2022 (because Ruby was too new).

Execute linting action Copy Chapter

You can execute the linting action as if it was executed by GitHub by executing following command.

act --rm --platform ubuntu-latest=fwilhe2/act-runner:latest -W .github/workflows/tests.yml -j "markdown"

That command uses act, which brings GitHub actions execution to the developer machine.

2. Official Technical Reference & Guides (JabRef/jabref-website) Copy Chapter

JabRef static site

A minimal Nuxt static-site project for the JabRef landing page. It uses Vue components and Nuxt static generation, but includes no server routes, database, authentication, GraphQL, or runtime API calls.

Acknowledgements Copy Chapter

The Vue implementation is based on the JabRefOnline project, created by Tobias Diez.

Project layout Copy Chapter

• pages/index.vue contains the landing-page content: hero copy, download and support links, community cards, and the list of feature sections.
• components/FeatureSection.vue is the reusable Vue component used for each feature row.
• public/assets/ contains the main product images and logo. Files in public/ are served unchanged below the configured site base path.
• public/img/ contains browser icons and the favicon asset.
• assets/main.css contains the small site-wide style sheet, including the automatic dark-theme colors.
• assets/legal-notices.html and assets/privacy-policy.html contain the bundled legal text as simple semantic HTML.

Adding or changing content Copy Chapter

Change page copy or links Copy Section

Edit pages/index.vue. The file is organized in the same order as the page: hero, features, download, community, and support. Update an anchor's href to change a destination.

Add a feature Copy Section

1. Put the feature image in public/assets/.
2. Add a FeatureSection inside the #features section in pages/index.vue.
3. Pass its title, image path, and meaningful alternative text. Add reverse to place its image on the left on larger screens.

Example:

<FeatureSection
  title="Search"
  image="/assets/feature-search.png"
  image-alt="JabRef search results"
  reverse
>
  
    <li>Describe the feature.</li>
  
</FeatureSection>

Add an image Copy Section

Copy an image to public/assets/ and reference it with /assets/filename.ext. The provided assetUrl() helper prefixes it with the configured base path; no import or build configuration is needed.

Create a new page Copy Section

Nuxt creates routes from files in pages/:

1. Create a Vue single-file component. For example, pages/about.vue becomes /about.
2. Add the page content to its <template>.
3. Reuse components from components/ directly; Nuxt auto-imports them.
4. Add a <NuxtLink to="/about">About</NuxtLink> where the page should be discoverable, such as the navigation or footer.
5. Run pnpm generate. The generated page will be at .output/public/about/index.html.

Example:

<template>
  <main class="container legal-page">
    <h1>About JabRef</h1>
    JabRef is a free and open-source reference manager.
  </main>
</template>

For a nested route such as /help/install, create pages/help/install.vue.

Create a homepage section Copy Section

Homepage sections are in pages/index.vue, in the order they appear on the site.

1. Add a new <section> with a unique id, such as id="news".
2. Use the container class to align it with the rest of the page.
3. Add a navigation link with href="#news" if visitors should jump to it from the header.
4. Add section-specific CSS to assets/main.css under a clearly labelled comment.

Example:

<section id="news" class="container support">
  
    <h2>Latest news</h2>
    Read updates from the JabRef project.
  
</section>

To add a product feature row, use the existing FeatureSection component instead:

<FeatureSection
  title="Search"
  image="/assets/feature-search.png"
  image-alt="JabRef search results"
  reverse
>
  
    <li>Describe the feature.</li>
  
</FeatureSection>

Commands Copy Chapter

pnpm install
pnpm dev
pnpm generate
pnpm preview

Deploy the generated .output/public directory to any static host.

Do not open .output/public/index.html with a file:// URL. Nuxt's generated
JavaScript and CSS use web-server paths. Run pnpm preview locally, then open
the localhost URL it prints; static hosts provide the same path handling.

Deployment base path Copy Chapter

The site base path is configurable with NUXT_APP_BASE_URL at build time:

# Preview the GitHub Pages project URL locally
NUXT_APP_BASE_URL=/jabref-website/ pnpm generate

Local builds default to /. The GitHub Actions workflow defaults to
/jabref-website/, which is required for the temporary GitHub Pages URL. When
the custom domain is ready, create the repository Actions variable
NUXT_APP_BASE_URL with the value /; the next deployment will use the domain
root without a source-code change.

Continuous integration Copy Chapter

GitHub Actions runs on pull requests and pushes to main. The workflow in
.github/workflows/build.yml runs pnpm generate and uploads .output/public
as the GitHub Pages artifact, then deploys pushes to main to GitHub Pages.