Exporting database with Zotero so urls will be exported to bibtex with \url command

grrrbytes
This is a cross-post from tex.stackexchange.com (http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/73757/exporting-database-with-zotero-so-urls-will-be-exported-to-bibtex-with-url-comm). They told me to ask the question here. Question:

When exporting a database or collection within Zotero to BibTeX, a URL will not be enclosed with the \url command, thus rendering links not clickable in Lyx when hyperref enabled. Is it possible to make Zotero exporting url's with the \url command automatically?
  • adamsmith
    If this is considered standard BibTeX it's certainly not very hard to add - I'd like to here from noksagt or one of the other experts, though, before implementing it.
    This says http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=setURL \url works with Plain TeX, which is good. I'm a little concerned that it requires a package, though - this needs to work smoothly among a broad set of implementations.
  • noksagt
    No, this url wrapping should not be done. There are BST styles that already wrap in \url or \href & this could break those. One occasionally sees the wrapping in bibtex files, but it is probaby less common than unwrapped URLS. URLs are not wrapped by other popular programs, such as JabRef and bibutils and is not advised by the BibTeX FAQ, BibLaTeX, or others.
  • noksagt
    And note that Joseph Wright's answer doesn't seem to state we are doing anything wrong. We use the format adopted by LyX on their own site:
    http://wiki.lyx.org/uploads/Examples/simpleUseOfBibTeX/references.bib
  • grrrbytes
    Tnx for that. Isn't making this a difficult-to-find-but-documented-power-user configuration an option?

    Otherwise: what do you suggest to make hyperlinks clicable within references without manually wrapping all links in (sometimes very large) databases in the \url command?
  • adamsmith
    I can't help much with the TeX question - though from Q23 in the FAQ it sounds like appropriate bibtex styles will place the URL in \url, but I'm not an expert.

    Beyond that, I don't think the power-user option is worthwhile - it's quite a hassle to implement - it needs to be in the translator as well as at least two other places in the Zotero code - and you can just do this on your side with a one line sed script, which is almost like a power-user configurable option ;-).
  • noksagt
    Yes: Either use a different BST file or modify the BST file you're using.

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