bib2tex

A Python package to create a subset of BibTeX entries based on an author's name (and an entrytype). The result is converted into a LaTeX list in which the author can get highlighted with an underline. The list is sorted from new to old.

The motivation for writing this package was to create a tool that generates lists with own publications for e.g. a curriculum vitae.

Demonstration

Let us assume the BibTeX file data.bib contained the following entry in addition to entries by other authors:

@TechReport{Rossum1995,
  author           = {van Rossum, Guido},
  institution      = {Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI)},
  title            = {Python tutorial},
  year             = {1995},
  address          = {Amsterdam},
  month            = may,
  number           = {CS-R9526},
  groups           = {python},
  url              = {https://ir.cwi.nl/pub/5007/05007D.pdf},
}

To obtain a list with all entries containing Guido van Rossum in your BibTeX data, simply call bib2tex and provide the path to the data.bib file, a prompt will request an author name:

bib2tex -i data.bib
Enter the author name for filtering BibTeX entries: Rossum

The resulting LaTeX list is stored in the file rossum.tex in the current working directory and contains the following:

\begin{itemize}
  \item G.~van Rossum: ``Python tutorial'', Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI), 1995.
\end{itemize}

If the BibTeX data contains multiple entries for the author, they will be added as items to the LaTeX itemize environment.

You can specify a BibTeX entry type to narrow down the result list, or define custom types to obtain a list with a subset of a certain BibTeX entry type. Furthermore, format schemes can be added to adjust the formatting of the LaTeX item string if desired. There are more options to influence the conversion and run the command withouth any need for an interaction.

Installation

Install bib2tex from the Python Package Index using pip:

pip install bib2tex

Dependencies

• click (to provide the CLI)

Usage

CLI

The CLI can be called with the command bib2tex, if the package is installed. Run it with the --help option to get the following usage information and a list of all options:

Usage: bib2tex [OPTIONS]

  bib2tex - A command line utility to generate LaTeX lists from BibTeX data.

  Sorted lists are generated based on an author's name and entry types
  (optional). They are either merged into a LaTeX item environment and written
  into a file, or stored in individual files as LaTeX item environment.

  The files are written to the output directory and are named based on the
  filter options. If no entry type is declared, the filename is 'author.tex',
  while it is 'author_entrytype.tex' if you filter for one entry type, and
  'author_entrytype1-entrytype2...entrytypeN.tex' if multiple entry types are
  declared.

Options:
  -i, --bibtex-path FILE      (input) Path to the BibTeX file.  [default:
                              /path/defined/as/BIB/env/var; required]
  -o, --output-dir DIRECTORY  Path to output directory for LaTeX files.
                              [default: .; required]
  -a, --author TEXT           Author name for filtering entries.  [required]
  -c, --case-sensitive        Case sensitive filtering.
  -d, --definitions FILE      Path to a JSON file with custom type
                              definitions.
  -e, --entry-type TEXT       Specify entry type for filtering; declare
                              multiple times for batch conversion.
  -f, --force                 Perform the conversion without confirmations.
  -m, --merge                 Merge individual lists into one list (batch).
  -r, --reverse               Sort entries from old to new.
  -s, --format-scheme TEXT    Scheme name for LaTeX item formatting.
  -u, --underline             Underline the author in the LaTeX item.
  -v, --verbose               Print verbose output.
  --item TEXT                 Options for LaTeX item, e.g. "[--]".
  --itemize TEXT              Options for LaTeX itemze, e.g. "[itemsep=3pt]".
  --schemes-dir DIRECTORY     Path to a folder holding custom format schemes.
  --version                   Show the version and exit.
  -h, --help                  Show this message and exit.

  by Cs137, 2024 - development on Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/Cs137/bib2tex

Example

In order to obtain all articles for the author MyName from the default BibTeX file, call the CLI as follows:

bib2tex -a MyName -e article

The generated list is stored in the file myname.tex and the example assumes that the --bibtex-path is defined via the environment variable BIB. Provide a path to it if the variable is undefined (-i path/to/example.bib). Call the CLI with the --verbose | -v option to show log messages in the shell.

Configuration

The path to the default BibTeX file can be defined with the environment variable BIB.

Format scheme

A format scheme is used to define the structure of BibTeX entries when converted to LaTeX list items. Default format schemes exist for all valid BibTeX types, and they are sourced from the directory format_schemes.

Custom format schemes can be defined in a JSON file named with the format scheme name. If a format scheme is missing for a certain entry type, the default format scheme is taken into account. The format scheme string consists of valid capitalised BibTeX tags wrapped in <> and is defined for each BibTeX entry type.

Underneath is a typical format scheme string, keep in mind that the availability of BibTeX tags depends on the entry type when defining new format schemes.

<AUTHOR>: ``<TITLE>'', <YEAR>, DOI: \href{https://doi.org/<DOI>}{<DOI>}.

Feel free to create a pull request to add new format schemes, and ensure your schemes follow the required structure and placeholders.

Custom types

In order to allow more complex filter tasks, custom entry types are introduced. A custom type is based on a valid BibTeX entry type and has certain keywords in defined BibTeX fields.

Create a JSON file containing a dictionary for each custom type you want to declare. The dictionaries must contain the properties shown in the example underneath. If a file with custom definitions is provided to the CLI, it accepts the custom types declared in it as entry types to filter for as well.

{
  "dataset": {
    "bibtex_type": "misc",
    "format_schemes": {
      "default": "<AUTHOR>: ``<TITLE>'', <YEAR>, <LICENSE>, DOI: \\href{https://doi.org/<DOI>}{<DOI>}."
    },
    "search_strings": {
      "notes": "data set"
    }
  }
}

The key search_strings is assigned to a dictionary, which holds a mapping in order to identify custom entries in entries of the specified bibtex_type. In the sample above, an entry type is considered as dataset, if it is a BibTeX entry of type misc and the BibTeX field notes contains the string data set, multiple search_strings can be defined in the dictionary.

Format scheme strings can be declared in the format_schemes dictionary for the custom type. The key corresponds to the name for the format scheme, ensure to provide a default scheme for each custom type declared. Those may contain field names that are not conform with BibTeX, like license in the example above.

Assuming the file my_types.json contains the example shown above and the BibTeX data contain entries corresponding to the defined search strings, those could be converted into a LaTeX list using the following command:

bib2tex -a MyName -d my_types.json -e dataset -v

Notes

• Author's first names are always listed with initials, this is currently not configurable.
• Check the bib2tex.converter:to_latex function for a conversion without CLI. (Make click/CLI optional ?)

Changelog

All notable changes to this project are documented in the CHANGELOG.md file.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.