I am considering migration of my CITAVI-database to JabRef. BibTex works just fine, but some important fields in my CITAVI-database are not migrated, e.g. »Quotes / Comments« into »Comments«. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Please clarify:
Did you create the bibtex file with Citavi or otherwise?
Jabref gives the option to import bibtex, ris and other file formats. If Citavi is not able to create proper bibtex files, you might wanna try creating a .ris-file instead (or another format) and then try to import that one with Jabref.
I exported the file directly from CITAVI - where I was not asked wether or not I wished to export the quotes and so on, too. So, I suggested that I have exported ALL data.
I tried the RIF-format, too – to the same result.
I can confirm that comments are partly not exported by Citavi and at the same time data is partly not imported by Jabref.
This is the test file i created in Citavi:
and
I created the field ‘comments’ from ‘Custom field 1’.
-
When exported as bibtex:
- This is what i can see in the file with my text-editor:
% This file was created with Citavi 6.10.0.0 @article{test., author = {test} }- This is what is imported by Jabref:
% This file was created with Citavi 6.10.0.0 @article{test., author = {test} }Obviously Jabref can’t import comments if Citavi does not export comments.
Here, the fault lies with Citavi, not Jabref. -
When exported as BibLateX:
- This is what Citavi exports:
% This file was created with Citavi 6.10.0.0 @article{test., author = {test}, usera = {test comment}, userb = {custom field 2}, abstract = {}, note = {test notes} }‘usera’ is probably ‘custom field 1’. The name-change of ‘custom field 1’ to ‘comments’ was not retained during the export process.
- This is what Jabref imports:
% This file was created with Citavi 6.10.0.0 @article{test., author = {test}, usera = {test comment}, userb = {custom field 2}, abstract = {}, note = {test notes} }Note that in this case too, Jabref does show an empty comments section in the entry editor, even though quite a little bit of data was imported:
-
When exported from Citavi as .ris:
- This is what Citavi exports:
TY - JOUR AU - test T1 - U3 - test notes M4 - Citavi ER -- This is what Jabref imports:
@Misc{test, author = {test}, }So in this case, the export by Citavi is lacking, but also the import by Jabref is lacking.
Maybe if you fiddle with custom export filters in Citavi, you might be able to export more, but i don’t have time to try that now.
@yaji If your comment is embedded into the usera and userb field, you could try the JabRef function of Renaming/appending the field contents to another field
Edit → Manage field names and content and then try with Append to Fields “comment”
Thanks a lot for your ideas. Unfortunately, there is no way to match fields like »quotation« or »comment« with fields in the export-target-file: the fields are simply not available for export 
Thanks a lot for your ideas. Unfortunately, there is no way to match fields like »quotation« or »comment« with fields in the export-target-file: the fields are simply not available for export
@yaji Can you check the bibtex source, if the field gets exported at all? Or under a different name?
Have you checked Citavi 6 Manual ?
Dear Christoph, thanks a lot. I followed the instructions in the CITAVI-manual, of course, but in the fiel-mapping-menu in the export-feature of CITAVI, the fields »quotations« and »comments« are not choosable at all. No wonder then that die BibTex-File (which I checked in JabRef) no such field or its content appear at all. Or is there another way to check the Bib-Tex-File and find out that the above mentioned fields are exported anyway? Would be grateful for any hint. Regards, Guido
Hi,
this seems not supported via the export, but maybe you can try to import the file into zotero and export it as bibtex again?
https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/import-from-citavi
But I agree it would be cool to have a Citavi Importer
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Hey Guido, checking if the fields are exported can be done by opening the exported file with a ‘text-editor’.
Currently i use the windows inbuilt “editor” or also notepad++ (Downloads | Notepad++) for this. You can find alternatives (for other operating systems) here: https://alternativeto.net/software/notepad-plus-plus/?license=free
Hi there, Thilote,
yes, I checked that by simple searching for a string existing in the CITAVI-original-»quotations« - NOTHING FOUND. This fits with the fact that in the Export-menu in CITAVI the fields I am talking about are simply not shown. I wish there was a workaround, as I hate to be dependant on one system. Anyway, thank you for sharing your ideas. Best regards, Guido
If anyone is still looking for a solution, there is a crude workaround:
- Open the
Knowledgetab in Citavi - Click the
Compilationbutton in the menu bar - Choose
Save with options…
The output will not be in the desired format, but this will at least give you access to the data outside of Citavi.
@ryan-carpenter @yaji
since a while JabRef also has a Citavi-Importer in the latest dev and therefore in the next release index - powered by h5ai v0.29.0 (https://larsjung.de/h5ai/)
It accepts citavi backup files in version v5 and v6.
Edit// I think it does not yet accept comments, but if you tell me the field names or could provide a sample citavi file backup file (send it to vorstand@jabref.org) and I will try to add it
Remember to make a backup of your bib library if you try out the new version.
I am not sure if a simple solution is possible for users with a standard Citavi license. Knowledge items are simply not available to select for export. Likewise, they are unavailable as fields to add to a custom style. Presumably, Citavi’s db-server license allows admins to access the database, but I don’t have such a license and coaxing data out of enterprise installations seems far beyond what anyone should expect of JabRef maintainers.
It may be possible to get knowledge items out using a custom macro. I have not looked at that and don’t have any expertise with the language (C# I think). Fortunately, I also do not have a collection of knowledge items in Citavi. I saw this limitation very early and avoided getting entrenched in the system. I have added my comments to the this conversation because I have compassion. 
It would be very easy not to notice Citavi’s inconspicuous “Compilation” report. It is also easy not to notice the excel exporter in Citavi’s table view. Adding all available fields to the export is essentially a one-click operation and requires no knowledge of custom exporters. As far as I know, this is the only means available by default to export all data (sans knowledge items) in tabular format. NB: You are out of luck if you want one of those columns to include formatted references. For that you need to export using one of the citation styles and paste the formatted references into the exported spreadsheet (or reconstruct from the fields in the spreadsheet, of course).
It’s great that JabRef can import Citavi backups. I expect that you already have all the avaialble fields, but if not I can provide a list.
Citavi backup files e.g. ctv6bak are just zip files which contain an XML file.
In our test files I noticed that there is a xml field containing knowledge-item:
As I have not citavi, I would appreciate it if you could help to verify the knowledge items, especially the fields KnowledgeItemType or QutoationIndex are not self-explanatory
You can create a backup add the extension .zip and open the XML file.
This is how it looks like in our sample dbs:
<KnowledgeItem id="84c2aab6-1ac9-4de1-81c6-8d4a21bb148c">
<CreatedBy>s</CreatedBy>
<CreatedOn>2017-05-17T12:07:51</CreatedOn>
<ModifiedBy>s</ModifiedBy>
<ModifiedOn>2017-05-17T12:07:51</ModifiedOn>
<CoreStatement>Summary of NGO definition and its problems (NGOisation, exclusion)</CoreStatement>
<CoreStatementUpdateType>1</CoreStatementUpdateType>
<KnowledgeItemType>0</KnowledgeItemType>
<PageRange><![CDATA[<sp>
<n>153</n>
<in>true</in>
<os>153</os>
<ps>153</ps>
</sp>
<ep>
<n>154</n>
<in>true</in>
<os>154</os>
<ps>154</ps>
</ep>
<os>153-154</os>]]></PageRange>
<PageRangeNumber>153</PageRangeNumber>
<PageRangeNumeralSystem>30</PageRangeNumeralSystem>
<QuotationIndex>8</QuotationIndex>
<QuotationType>1</QuotationType>
<ReferenceID>c2d35798-c0e2-48b4-9d4d-534daad53de0</ReferenceID>
<Relevance>0</Relevance>
<TextSourceTextFormat>1</TextSourceTextFormat>
<Text>"In everyday English usage, the term ‘NGO’ connotes a non-governmental, non-profit, cause-driven association motivated by altruistic intent rather than pecuniary or political gain. NGOs are the good guys. However, scholars who scrutinized the habits of North–South NGO funding already warned us not to think that ‘non-governmental’ is synonymous with ‘democratic.’6 Many scholars and activists have critically interrogated prototypes of NGOs or CSOs as units of civic engagement: this construc- tion, they argue, constitutes a potentially potent classificatory scheme that excludes mass or spontaneous mobilization. One perceptive critic of devel- opment aid argued that civil society promotion amounts to the profession- alization and institutionalization of certain patterns of knowledge.7 The construct of the NGO, originally meant to distinguish independent advocacy from inter-governmental transactions, is problematic.8 The//governmental/non-governmental binary is a convenient dummy variable defining civic energies aphophatically for what they are not. Inside the industry there are a range of rhyming variations distinguishing para- statal qua-NGOs, government-organized GONGOs, royally-organized RONGOs, donor-oriented DONGOs, World Bank initiated BINGOs, and even entrepreneurial B-Y-O (bring-your-own) “bringos.”9 But they all call themselves NGOs, even in Arabic, where in lieu of translation the identical acronym is often rendered in text in Latin alphabet letters or in speech as pronounced in English. Overall, the ubiquitous neologism of the NGO is an imprecise linguistic expression that is left, as we will see, for various governments and donor agencies to define bureaucratically and ideologically. In practice, an NGO is something registered as such with national governments, the United Nations, or donor agencies. In compar- ing and contrasting criteria for inclusion and patronage, this chapter illustrates the politics and paradoxes of ‘NGOization.’ Many observers deduced that political aid stimulated a proliferation of professional, rather than grassroots, NGOs."</Text>
<TextIsComplex>false</TextIsComplex>
<TextFormatted> (rtf formatted text)..... </TextFormatted>
</KnowledgeItem>
I prepared a file for you but do not have it to hand; will share as soon as I can. The type and index in question make a collection of collections out of each knowledge-item. In other words, the knowlege items and their contents repeat. I populated all the available fields to make it easy to recognise how the structure works. I presume that further details should move to Github. Please let me know if you would prefer to continue here instead.
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@ryan-carpenter Thank you very much! Yes, let’s continue on github Citavi Importer should import comments and quotations (knowledge items) · Issue #9025 · JabRef/jabref · GitHub