Keep "Select All" export up to date with Better BibTeX

dstillman

This discussion was created from comments split from: Unable to export my publications to bibtex.

michaelaye

Can one keep a "select all" export up to date? It would seem that a new entry to a previously "Select All" export is just not part of that selection, and therefore the "keep updated" is impossible like that?

dstillman

Please start new threads for new issues — the thread you posted to is about a totally different issue. I've moved this to a new thread.

Also please be sure to specify when you're referring to plugin functionality. This is a Better BibTeX question.

michaelaye

I disagree that it is a "totally different issue". The workaround for being unable to export "My publications" was given as "Select all"-> Export. If then the "Keep updated" functionality is not working, it's not a good workaround, which is why people trying this workaround should be made aware of that caveat.

dstillman

The other thread is about a particular issue when trying to export — in any format — from the special My Publications collection in the left-hand pane. That's it. It doesn't even have anything to do with BibTeX, let alone Better BibTeX.

You're asking a question about a specific feature of the Better BibTeX plugin.

That's why these things are totally different issues and why posting to that thread wasn't appropriate. It's fine — this was your first post — but please don't argue with us when we say that something belongs in a new thread. You can link to an existing thread to provide context for your question, but posting to an existing thread with a different question that no one was discussing just makes the forums more confusing for everyone, which is why we ask people not to do it.

Your question doesn't even particularly belong in these forums — it's a BBT question and should be asked of the BBT developer on GitHub. But he often answers BBT questions here, so I moved it to a new thread for you.

dstillman

In any case, the BBT documentation says "Keep Updated" is limited to a library, group, or collection. And even if it did support auto-exporting for other arbitrary sets of items, which it doesn't seem to, that wouldn't include other, unselected items, as you say.

So if you're actually trying to keep a BibTeX file for My Publications updated using BBT, then either the general export issue discussed in the other thread would need to be fixed or BBT would have to add support for exporting My Publications specifically (but ideally someone putting time towards this would just help fix the underlying issue).

emilianoeheyns

I can take a look at auto-exporting My Publications (for which you'll indeed habe to open an issue on github) , but it might be impossible for the same reasons selected items or searches are not supported; bbt auto-exports remember the container being exported and its "changes affecting this container" that trigger auto-export. A set of selected items doesn't have a persistent way to point at them, so there's nothing to remember. Search appears container-ish but for purposes of export actually isn't, hence no auto-export.