File association with .RIS files required

[John Pye]

Binary package hint: jabref

A number of online journals provide citations in .RIS format for easy download to bibliograpy software. Jabref is able to read these files, but in Ubuntu, there is no mime-type or file association to allow the web-browser to direct this file to the Jabref application for handling.

Could a binding to the the .RIS file format possibly be added in the Ubuntu packaging of Jabref?

[John Pye (jdpipe)]

Example URL to test:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7123/full/445014a.html

(see 'export citation' link at right)

(possibly this page is not accessible if you are not within a university that has a Nature subscription).

[gregor herrmann (gregoa)]

On Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:28:25 -0000, John Pye wrote:

> A number of online journals provide citations in .RIS format for easy
> download to bibliograpy software. Jabref is able to read these files,
> but in Ubuntu, there is no mime-type or file association to allow the
> web-browser to direct this file to the Jabref application for handling.
> Could a binding to the the .RIS file format possibly be added in the
> Ubuntu packaging of Jabref?

Hi John,

I'm the maintainer of JabRef in Debian.

Thanks for your idea.

Adding a file association would be no problem (after checking if
there are others and dealing with the funny formatting); I'm just not
sure if this is really a good idea:
I just tried it with your example, and it works (despite an error on
the console). But what happens is that the .ris file is opened on
it's own / in a new empty database. That doesn't seem too helpful to
me; my assumption is that usually you would want to open (one of your)
normal databases(s) and then import the downloaded .ris file there.

What's your opinion on this question?

-- 2nd mail --

> Example URL to test:
> http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7123/full/445014a.html
> (see 'export citation' link at right)
> (possibly this page is not accessible if you are not within a
> university that has a Nature subscription).

Thanks for the example,
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7123/ris/445014a.ris works
fine without subscription.

Cheers,
gregor

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[John Pye (jdpipe)]

gregor herrmann wrote:
> Adding a file association would be no problem (after checking if
> there are others and dealing with the funny formatting); I'm just not
> sure if this is really a good idea:
> I just tried it with your example, and it works (despite an error on
> the console). But what happens is that the .ris file is opened on
> it's own / in a new empty database. That doesn't seem too helpful to
> me; my assumption is that usually you would want to open (one of your)
> normal databases(s) and then import the downloaded .ris file there.
>
> What's your opinion on this question?
>

I think that the best solution here would be a command-line switch like
"jabref --import somefile.ris" which would cause JabRef (even if it is
already running) to pop up a dialog box saying:

    The file "somefile.ris" contains 7 citations.

    (o) Import it into "mybiblio.bib" [v] (dropdown list of other auto-opened databases)
    ( ) Open it as a new database

    [x] remember my choice and use it for future RIS files opened with JabRef.

How does that sound?

I'm not sure if RIS files can contain multiple citations, but in any
case, this dialog box could be used in general for all file associations
with JabRef for file types other than .bib files (any perhaps also for
.bib files when the --import flag is provided on the command line).

Obviously this would require changes to JabRef itself (AFIAK).

[Julian Zeidler (julian-zeidlers)]

Jabref has a build in support already to handle exactly that situation.

In the adavanced JabRef properties (from Options->Preferences)
the remote operation can be activated so the first running instance of jabref listens on a port ( default 6050) for further instances that can thus pass information to the first instance. it is also possible to pass a command line option " --importToOpen" to import to the currently open database ( probably what most people will want).
Unfortunately the jabref site does not specify how to run jabref from a webbrowser, so most people a currently not able to use this feature ( I have just spent half an hour trying to find exactly information to get this to work under windows xp for my work pc).

It might be a good idea to have this option as an extra package to add jabref support to firefox (and other browsers) also explaining about the necessary change in the jabref preferences and maybe even giving the choice at install time if the references are to be opened in a new file or the already openened database.

The jabref help file states:
"Remote operation
...
If listening for remote operation is enabled, JabRef will at startup attempt to start listening to a specific port. This means that other applications can send information to JabRef through this port. JabRef will only accept local connections, to avoid the risk of interference from outside.

Binding to this port makes it possible for a second JabRef instance to discover that the first one is running. In this case, unless specifically instructed to run in stand-alone mode, the second JabRef instance will pass its command line options through the port to the first JabRef instance, and then immediately quit.

The first JabRef instance will read the command line options, and perform the indicated actions, such as reading or importing a file, or importing a file to the currently shown database. If a file is imported using the command-line option --importToOpen, the imported entries will be added to the currently shown database. If no database is open, a new one will be created."