Considering that both CiteDrive and JabRef are based on BibTeX and have unique features, what would it be like to create a system that synchronises references between a local Bibtex file and CiteDrive, allowing for “push” and “pull” dynamics?
I understand that this seems ambitious given the competing technical landscape, but I see it as a potential win-win collaboration. CiteDrive is great for teamwork and integration with Overleaf, while JabRef excels at reference management.
This would be a Zotero/Mendeley/Endnote/citavi… Killer for all LaTeX users.
Thank you so much to bring it on the table. To tackle this: Two things need to be worked on: organizational issues and technical issues. Currently, it is, unfortunately, more an organizational issue. The JabRef maintainers are focussing on getting bugs solved - and code contributors supported. We have about 2 new contributors each month, who need to be taken care of. Especially, because we position JabRef as teaching possibility. See JabRef and Software Engineering Training | Developer Documentation for details.
Technically, we are still working on modernizing JabRef’s code to be ready for such an integration. Before, we had to fix an issue on the Java Development Kit (being around for 3 years now - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8240567).
Be assured, we will work on this, but progress is slow.
Thank you very much for the quick answer! Do I understand you correctly that there are already concrete plans to allow one to connect one’s local JabRef (bibtex file) with CiteDrive? Do you know approximately when this should be released?
As for contributions, my programming skills don’t extend beyond LaTeX, R, and XML - I am in the humanities, who just happens to love LaTeX. However, I can see how I might contribute differently, perhaps even with a donation if necessary, as the JabRef project is really great!
I think you know that quote: When it’s done . - Maybe this year, maybe next year.
TBH, I am the critical factor here - and the neext weeks, I have other things needing my prio 1 focus.
This is cool! May I ask whether you considered joining the “TeX Users Group” TUG (https://tug.org/)?
We do have three options for that:
Donate some money: donations.jabref.org - it will be used to fund the non-profit organization itself
Become a member of our organization (12€/year) - we are still working on a homepage to detail the procedre. Summary: An informal email to us that you want to join and a regular money transfer to the organization’s bank account.
It’s been a while, so I just wanted to check in—any updates on the JabRef–CiteDrive sync idea? We’d still really love to see it happen. I think it could be super helpful for a lot of LaTeX users.
I haven’t seen any kind of API on their website. At CiteDrive · GitHub some repos are open sourced, but I believe their core repositories haven’t been. Koppor will know more what we need on the technical side, but If we send users to them and expect this to work in the long term, then cooperation from their side is required. Since theirs is a profit oriented project, it stands to reason, if and how much cooperation with JabRef is feasible.
We are aware of that. Meanwhile, we prepared JabRef to be more friendly for browser plugins to work with → we have a build-in http sever.
The lack of funding still remains. We still don’t have funding for it and we also don’t have someone taking care of collecting the funding. I’m trying for myself, but currently busy with many other things.
However, I can see how I might contribute differently, perhaps even with a donation if necessary, as the JabRef project is really great!
