NAME

PBib::PBib - Something like BibTeX, but written in perl and designed to be extensible in three dimensions: bibliographic databases (e.g. BibTeX, OpenOffice), document file formats (e.g. Word, RTF, OpenOffice), styles (e.g. ACM, IEEE)

SYNOPSIS

            use PBib::PBib;
            use Biblio::Biblio;
            my $bib = new Biblio::Biblio();
            my $pbib = new PBib::PBib('refs' => $bib->queryPapers());
            $pbib->convertFile($file);

DESCRIPTION

I wrote PBib to have something like BibTex for MS Word that can use a various sources for bibliographic references, not just BibTex files, but also database systems. Especially, I wanted to use the StarOffice bibliographic database.

Now, PBib can be extended in a couple of dimensions:

• bibliographic styles such as ACM style or IEEE style.
• document format such as Plain text, (La)TeX, Word, RTF, OpenOffice
• bibliographic database format such as bibtex, refer, tib, but also database systems with different mappings to database fields.

QUICK START
SETUP BIBLIOGRAPHY DATABASE
Once you've installed the distribution you have to set up a bibliography database in order to start using PBib and PBibTk.

Several formats are supported:

• Perl:DBI databases
• bibtex files

I'd recommend to use a mysql database, this works fine for me. See the config/sample user.pbib file for some examples.

You should specify your default settings in a user.pbib file, which is searched for at a couple of places, e.g. you home directory. (Check that the HOME environment variable on windows is set.) In case you want to provide defaults for your organization, use the local.pbib file.

You can adapt the mapping of PBib fields to DB fields, see file config/OOo-table.pbib for an example if you want to use a OpenOffice.org bibliography database.

No support is given to edit the bibliography database, as there are lots of tools around. Check docs/Edit_Bibliography.sxw for a OpenOffice.org document to edit a bibliography database. (That's the form that I use.) Ensure that it's attached to the correct database (Tools>>Data Sources, Edit>>Exchange Database).

CREATE INPUT DOCUMENTS
Cite references

        In your documents, use [[Cite-Key]] (Double brackets) to place
        references in the document. These will be replaced by PBib to a
        reference according to the selected style, e.g. (Tandler, 2004).
        The CiteKey is the key defined in the bibliography database.

Generate the list of references used

Use [{}] as the place holder for the list of references.

See PBib::Intro for a more detailed description. You can find sample files in the test folder t.

Supported document formats

• MS Word .doc, .rtf .doc will be converted to .rtf before processing (requires MS Word to be installed.)
• Plain Text TeX input is currently handled as plain text, there is no specific style for TeX yet.
• OpenOffice .sxw OpenOffice Text (.sxw) uses actually a zipped XML document. (You need the Archive::Zip and XML::Parser modules to use this.)

Not yet supported:

LaTeX and TeX

        Should generate s.th. similar to BibTeX. But wait, if you write with
        TeX, you can use BibTeX!
        For now, this is treated as plain text.

HTML

For now, this is treated as plain text.

        At minimum, the correct character encoding should be ensured and
        some formatting for the References section.

XML There is support for XML, but of course the generic XML support is

        very limited. Maybe, support DocBook, or provide an easy way to
        specify the tags to be used.

RUN PBIB
Provided scripts as front ends for the modules:

bin/pbib.pl <<filename>>

Process an input document and write the converted output.

bin/PBibTk.pl [<<optional filename>>]

Open a Tk GUI that allows you to browse you bibliography database and browse the items referenced in your document.

You can use a filename.pbib config file to specify specific configuration for a file.

CONFIGURATION

You can configure PBib in a number of ways, e.g. using config files and environment variables. For detailed information, please refer to module PBib::Config.

Environment Variables
PBIBDIR

        The directory where the PBib scripts are located, e.g.
        /usr/local/bin.

PBIBPATH

Path to look for config files (and also styles), separated by ';'.

PBIBSTYLES

Path to look for PBib styles, separated by ';'.

PBIBCONFIG

Path to look for PBib config, separated by ';'.

HOME

If set, PBib looks for the user's personal config at

        $HOME/.pbib/styles
        $HOME/.pbib/conf
        $HOME

APPDATA

If set, PBib looks for the user's personal config at

        $APPDATA/PBib/styles
        $APPDATA/PBib/conf
        $APPDATA points on Windows XP to something like "C:\Documents and
        Settings\<<user>>\Application Data".

Config Files
ToDo: Explain format of config files ..., look at PBib::Config and the exsamples provided with this distribution.

DEPENDENCIES

PBib itself consists of three packages that can be used independently:

Biblio

        Provides an interface to bibliographic databases. The main class is
        Biblio::Biblio.
        Biblio::File uses Biblio::BP and Biblio::Util that encapsulate the
        "bp" package mentioned above.

PBib

Main functionality to process documents that contain references.

        PBib uses the format for references returned by Biblio, so it's well
        designed to be used together. But, PBib can be used with any hash of
        references that contains the same keys.
        The main class is PBib::PBib. The main script is pbib.pl.

PBibTk

PBibTk provides a GUI for PBib. It uses PBib and Biblio.

        The main class is PBibTk::Main. It is started with the script
        PBibTk.pl.

I've thought about deploying these as separate packages, but currently I believe that this way it's easier to install and use.

This module requires these other modules and libraries:

bp The Perl Bibliography Package "bp", by Dana Jacobsen (dana@acm.org)

        is used. An adapted version of it (with some bug fixes and
        enhancements) is included in this distribution.
        In fact, bp is really helpful to generate the hashes with literature
        references from various sources. Please check
        http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/bp/ and the bp README
        located in lib/Biblio/bp/README.

Config::General

by Thomas Linden <tom@daemon.de>

Archive::Zip and XML::Parser

for OpenOffice support.

METHODS

These methods are exported.

$conf = new PBib::PBib(options)

Supported Options:

        refs
        config
        inDoc
        outDoc
    $conv = $pbib->processFile($infile, $outfile, $config, $refs)
        Calls convertFile() & optionally opens result in editor.

$conv = $pbib->convertFile($infile, $outfile, $config, $refs)

If $infile (filename) is undef, inDoc (document) is used.

If $outfile (filename) is undef, outDoc (document) is used.

        If $config or $refs is undef, the default values are used (the ones
        passed to the constructor).
        The converter $conv is passed to the caller.

logStatistics($logfile, $conv, $options, $duration)

Write log file.

$pbib->scanFile()

Returns the foundInfo for the $infile.

AUTHOR

Peter Tandler <pbib@tandlers.de>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (C) 2002-2004 P. Tandler

For copyright information please refer to the LICENSE file included in this distribution.

SEE ALSO

bin\pbib.pl, bin\PBibTk.pl