GSoC 2024 ‐ Improved CSL Support (and more LibreOffice‐JabRef integration enhancements)

Student	Subhramit Basu
Organization	JabRef
Primary repository	JabRef/jabref
Project name	Improved CSL Support (and more LibreOffice-JabRef integration enhancements)
Project mentors	@Siedlerchr, @ThiloteE, @calixtus, @koppor
Project page	Google Summer of Code 2024 Project Page
Status	Complete

Project summary

Citation Style Language (CSL) is a popular open-source XML-based language that describes schema for formatting of citations and bibliographies. It supports thousands of citation styles popular in academia, such as American Psychological Association (APA), American Medical Association (AMA), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Modern Language Association (MLA), Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), Springer - Lecture Notes in Computer Science, American Institute of Physics, Harvard, Vancouver, Nature and so on.

JabRef's integration with LibreOffice lacked support for citing references using the Citation Style Language, which was a highly requested feature among its user base (#119), (#2146).

Refined project issue - (#8893).

This project implements this feature and also enhances the existing Jabref-OO/LO integration in four broad sub-parts:

1. Implementing a user-friendly CSL style selection functionality for citations, in-text citations and reference lists
2. Ensuring seamless adaptation of the selected CSL style to a connected LibreOffice document instance
3. Improving the existing architecture of JabRef's LibreOffice/OpenOffice integration code
4. Writing unit tests for the aforementioned features

Pull Requests to main branch:

Scope - GSoC

#11477 - CSL4LibreOffice - A [GSoC '24]

Highlights:

• Added functionality to select a CSL style from the "Select style" dialog
• Added functionality to preview the selected CSL style (in bibliography form on a test entry) in the dialog
• Added functionality to insert citations and bibliographic entries into a running LibreOffice document with the selected CSL style

#11521 - CSL4LibreOffice - B [GSoC '24]

Highlights:

• Refactored existing code, revamped and unified the backend architecture for style type selection
• Implemented preference storage for selected style (JStyle/CSL style) to make it persist across JabRef sessions
• Implemented "auto-scroll to and highlight" feature for currently selected CSL style when opening/reopening the "Select style" dialog
• Implemented a label in the dialog to keep the user informed about the currently set JStyle/CSL style
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and added fail-safety for edge cases (such as missing styles, empty selections, etc.)

#11577 - CSL4LibreOffice - C [GSoC '24]

Highlights:

• Implemented "reference marks" to fix resetting index issue for numeric CSL styles
• Added feature to auto-generate and sync a bibliography section (list of references) in the LibreOffice document based on existing citations
• Added support for in-text citations and empty citations for CSL styles
• Added support for underlined CSL styles
• Added support for alphanumeric CSL styles
• Implemented "smart spaces" feature for CSL citation insertion
• Miscellaneous refinement and additions (e.g. new icon for "add bibliography", fixed extra newlines in case of numeric styles, added auto-select last selected style tab feature, disabled irrelevant buttons when CSL style is selected, etc.)

#11636 - CSL4LibreOffice - D [GSoC '24]

Highlights:

• Refactored existing code from PR A, B and C
• Added documentation for the added classes and methods
• Added comprehensive unit tests for the added utility methods

#11535 - Make CSL Citation Adapter non-static

#11604 - Upgrade to StAX parsing for CSL style titles

#11536 - Patch: NullPointerException when accessing (absent) default CSL style file

#11622 - Update JabRef material icons pack

Outside core scope

#11635 - Persist selection of databases in SLR

#11614 - Fix authorsAlpha

#11667 - Selected SLR catalogs: maintain preferences abstraction level

#11456 - Add FAQ to devdocs (Code Howtos)

#11486 - FAQ updates

#11603 - Integrate DOI special character parsing test in existing parameterized test

#11541 - Fix OpenRewrite recipe

#11568 - Disable GUI debug log

#11587 - Improve developer documentation

Before GSoC

#11055 - Add new parser for MathSciNet search

#11157 - Add Endnote XML Exporter + Rehaul Importer

#11073 - Fix (some) fetcher tests

#11080 - Change file directory error dialog

#11084 - Fix DOI URL parsing

#11088 - Add checks and warnings in SLR for non-empty directories

#11104 - Add right click->copy functionality to event logs

#11111 - Remove warnings when importing search entries in unsaved libraries

#11152 - Fix LICENSE link

Screenshots

The "Select style" Dialog:

Light Theme
Dark Theme

Demo

Selecting a style:

Inserting citations:

Generating bibliography:

Updating bibliography:

Challenges and learning highlights

Although it is difficult to pick out a few highlights from all the learning that I had during the project, as during the entirety of it was an invaluable learning experience - whether it be during the coding activities or during the weekly interactions with my mentors, following are a few things that I enjoyed learning a lot:

1. LibreOffice programming in Java (particularly challenging: embedding "reference marks" into the text and then parsing them back)
2. The MVVM architectural design pattern
3. Storing user preferences in OS registry
4. Parsing XML files and its two popular approaches - using DOM and using StAX
5. Writing parameterized tests using JUnit 5
6. Communicating and working with a team spread across different timezones

Code statistics

Changes	During GSoC	All
(+) Lines added	3409	5981
(-) Lines removed	1044	1474

Here is a complete list of my commits to JabRef (main).

Blog post

You can check out the blog post here.