Bibtex export

A place to discuss Bookends for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
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Sayyaar
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:03 pm

Bibtex export

Post by Sayyaar »

Is there a way to share / export citations as a list of bibtex references? I get that I can copy individual citations in bibtex format, but it would be really handy to select an arbitrary number of citations and export them as a single .bib file. As far as I can tell at the moment, sharing a list of references is limited to email using RIS format.
Serge
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:09 pm

Re: Bibtex export

Post by Serge »

Thank you for your feature request!
Serge
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:09 pm

Re: Bibtex export

Post by Serge »

BibTex export in Bookends v3.3.4.
It should work via the standard Share action with one limitation - you should choose ‘Save to Files’ action to save as a file to iCloud Drive or other app folders. And then open this file from there for further actions.
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Sayyaar
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:03 pm

Re: Bibtex export

Post by Sayyaar »

Thanks very much for this. I have already put it to good use for an article I am currently writing, with nearly 100 references, and it works well.

For anyone else who is interested in why I want bibtex on iOS, I'll add this brief explanation.

I write primarily on my iPad using pandoc markdown. Once the file is ready, I upload it to a linux server for conversion via pandoc. (Many editors can do this, but I find that Textastic on the iPad is really easy to use for uploading and downloading from a remote server.) The server also has all my custom pandoc templates and academic fonts. At the same time, I collect all my references in a group in Bookends for iOS and, thanks to the handy new bibtex export, I can create the .bib file, which I then upload to my server along with the markdown file. Pandoc can use the .bib file directly (and also convert it to other useful formats, if needed).

I used to have to rely on the mac version of Bookends for bibtex export, but now an all-iPad workflow is possible, which is super convenient, especially if I need to make substantial additions to an existing bibliography.

One caveat: if you are used to the bibtex export on the mac version, you should know that the CSL-based bibtex export on iOS does NOT use the citekey in the User1 field. It generates the citekeys automatically as something like: Brock_1982, and sometimes it makes mistakes by leaving spaces in citekeys. The exported citekey is also different from the pandoc citation export option that Bookends for iOS provides. I'm not sure if it is possible to change this without a new CSL style, but a little regex magic makes it possible to quickly revert citekeys to the desired form.

Thanks, Serge, for the new export option. It's just what I needed.
iandol
Posts: 465
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Re: Bibtex export

Post by iandol »

Thank you for your description of your workflow! I think it would be good to try to standardise so that the citekeys are equivalent in BiBTeX output from iOS and macOS.

Serge, would this just require a custom CSL format, or is there more that needs to be done?
Serge
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:09 pm

Re: Bibtex export

Post by Serge »

We will update a preinstalled bibtex style to use the user1 field if available or to generate Brock1982 (LastnameYear) citeKey.
mk7
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:08 am

Re: Bibtex export

Post by mk7 »

Hi @Sayyaar, this might be a little off topic, and you'll have to excuse my ignorance, but I'm interested in how you get pandoc running on a remote server like that. What's required to set up something like that? Does it actually do all the pandoc conversions for you, bibliography and all? I would love to be able to write completely on iOS but this has been the one major issue for me.
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