Issue with BibTeX export

There seems to be a problem with the BibTeX format that is produced by Zotero. If I export entries as BibTeX, the resulting bib-file does not produce LaTeX output (at least via Lyx).
However, if I open the same bib-file with JabRef, save it, and use the resulting bib-file, It works flawlessly.
  • You could run a diff...

    Are you using the latest version of the BibTeX translator? In Zotero 1.0.* it's only available via Reset Translators and Styles in the Advanced pane of the Zotero prefs. (This doesn't apply to any other translators.)
  • I am having trouble with Exporting refs from ENX1 as BibTex Export and importing them to Zotero -- all refs in category Book Section fail to import transfer properly. Nothing comes over but the author's last name.
  • Upgraded to 1.0.6, reset translators and styles, problem remains, opening and saving in jabref still does the trick. Problem might be related to file size or long lines, since LaTeX (or LyX) complains that file size exceeds buffer size. In addition, Zotero 1.0.6 refuses to export a subset of entries that earlier versions of the program did export.
  • After upgrading to 1.07 and resetting tranlators and styles I'm still unable to use BibTeX export. The problem seems to depend on certain entries, since some selections work, while others do not. The German error message says:
    "Ein Fehler ist aufgetreten bei dem Versuch, die ausgewählte Datei zu exportieren"
    Any ideas about what went wrong?
  • It seems that the problem was related to the name of an attachment. After re-naming the attachment, export works again. Still, the resulting file is unusable within LyX, so the original problem remains...
  • The German error message says:
    "Ein Fehler ist aufgetreten bei dem Versuch, die ausgewählte Datei zu exportieren"
    Any ideas about what went wrong?
    When you get this message, the actual error should show up in Report Errors in the Actions (gear icon) menu.
    After re-naming the attachment, export works again.
    What were the two names?
    Still, the resulting file is unusable within LyX, so the original problem remains...
    Run a diff on Zotero's output and JabRef's resaved output and see what's different.
  • edited August 20, 2008
    I have the same problem: The export from Zotero to BibTeX format does not work for @incollection types correctly. I inspected the resulting output and noticed that Z converts the booktitle into journal and does not export the editors at all. See the example export.

    @incollection{baumgartner_die_2008,
    address = {München},
    title = {Die zukünftige Bedeutung von Online-Lernen für lebenslanges Lernen},
    abstract = {
    },
    journal = {Online-Lernen - Handbuch für das Lernen mit dem Internet},
    publisher = {Oldenbourg},
    author = {Peter Baumgartner},
    editor = {Ludwig Issing and Paul Klimsa},
    year = {2008},
    keywords = {pb-pub},
    pages = {505--513},
    comment = {Test Incollection
    }
    }

    I'm not a expert with BibTeX format but I think there may be a confusion with the @inbook type (e.g. part of a book like chapter or section of book without a title). Then the export would be correct. (Frankly speaking I do not understand why @inbook exists at all, as it does not represent a citeable source. Why not use instead @book with either authors or editors or - if it is an independent contribution - to use the @incollection type?).

    The format @incollection is used very often so please have a look into this issue. As it stands now, one can't produce valid BibTex output.

    (I reset the translators)
  • edited August 20, 2008
    This is an add-on to my previous posting:

    I looked into the BibTex specification and it says:

    @incollection:
    required fields: author, title, booktitle, publisher, year
    optional fields: editor, volume or number, series, type, chapter, pages, address, edition, month note.

    @inbook:
    required fields: author or editor, title, chapter and/or pages, publisher, year
    optional fields: volume or number, series, type, address, edition, month, note

    So the field "journal" is wrong in any case.

    As a workaround for exporting into BibTex I used the @inproceedings type (conference paper instead of book section), exchanged in the output file @inproceedings with @incollection and added the series number manually where it was necessary (not very often).
  • All the keywords changed in the output. For example, I have two keywords. And then after exporting, they changed into these :

    %K undefined
    undefined
  • heromyth: This is a known issue in the Sync Preview and is fixed on the trunk. Please check the known issues page before reporting Sync Preview issues, and post them to the Sync Preview category.
  • Issue in author names format in bibtex.

    Some author names are composed (Prof. Le Tallec, Yves). The complete last name is Le Tallec.
    The exported bibtex format for the author name field is as follows
    author name= {Yves Le Tallec and ...}
    resulting in biblio reference like "Tallec, Y.L.;..." which is wrong.

    It's worth changing the export in bibtex as:
    author name= {Le Tallec, Yves and ...}
    Then bibtex deals correctly with composed names.
  • Hi,

    I haven't found any bug report on that. I hope it will be fixed in the 1.5 version cause to my mind it is a serious matter when you work with latex and Zotero
  • micha... did you ever figure this out?

    My BibTex export works, but my girlfriend's doesn't... and I can't figure out why. Here's the sequence...

    Export the file from zotero - WON'T COMPILE
    Export the file from zotero, open with JabRef, make no changes, save file - WILL COMPILE

    I couldn't come up with two many things that could do that... maybe some weird line breaks or something...?

    She originally imported her stuff through a bibtex file - it had previously been stored in refworks.

    Anybody have any thoughts on where to look?

    Thanks,

    Mike
  • Can you take a diff between the zotero-exported .bib and the .bib saved from JabRef?
  • Sorry that I didn't answer earlier. However, currently JabRef 2.4.2 even refuses to open a my Zotero-generated BibTeX-files and complains about EOF-errors that I were not able to solve by manually editing. So I could not currently "take a diff" even if I knew how to do that...
  • edited December 9, 2008
    Hi all,

    Does anyone know how to fix the "composed-last-name" matter I reported above?

    Zotero exports inappropriately the author name (when this one is composed) in the bib file:

    "Yves, Le Tallec" have to be exported as
    author name= {Le Tallec, Yves...
    and not
    author name= {Yves Le Tallec...

    I guess it's a little modification in the Zotero code, but it would be a significant correction to my mind.
    Regards
  • It seems that this is still not solved and bibtex export is still in the form of "first name" " last name" while it would be much better to be "last name", "first names" ...
    any good reason for this?
    thanks for an answer
  • Regarding the composed last names. I've had exactly the same problem and came up with the same solution, i.e. use "last name", "first name".

    This is easy to fix by editing the BibTeX.js file. Just change line number 2015 into:
    creatorString = creator.lastName + ", " + creator.firstName;
  • Dear All,
    I´m having sevaral probems to export Zotero>Latex (I´m using Zotero 2.1.8, LyX 2.0, WindEdit 6.0, and JabRef2.6):

    1) as mentioned, trying to use the exported library directly in a latex compiler (LyX or WinEdit) won´t work. It is necessary to fist open it in JabRef and save. Has this been solved? is anyone working on this?
    2) Many of my references are in portuguese, so I have characters such as: "à", "á", "ã", "ç". They all go wrong when Zotero Export´s them. I have to manually correct them in Jabref to the LaTeX equivlents ( " \´a ", " \'a ", " \~a ", "{\c c} ).
    3) I tryed LyZ, wich actually includes the refs in Zotero (with the Zotero call name for the ref), but when you compile all references become "(?)". I think this problem is a consequence of problem 1.

    I´ve seached several discussions on this and found no answer. I´m a big fan of Zotero and I´m helping to develop the Brazilian Citation style (ABNT) in Zotero. But now that I have to submit a papper in Latex, exporting my references from Zotero has become a big hassle, that I´m even considering moving to a JabRef or Mendlye. Please let me know if there are ways to solve this because I really love using Zotero.
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