#501 Support for CSL

[Simon Spiegel]

With Zotero developing and getting more and more popular I think it would be worthwile to think about support for CSL, the data format Zotero uses and which will AFAIK also be part of OpenDocument 1.2.

Information is a bit scattered over the net, but some is here: http://dev.zotero.org/csl_syntax_summary

I do realize that this wont be implemented overnight, but I think it's worth to think how BibDesk could fit into the CSL world. In June Zotero server should be released; from the roadmap:

Zotero 2.0 will offer users the ability to share collections with others through the Zotero Server. Users will be able to create collaborative groups and share notes and tags along with their bibliographic metadata. Data will be available at different access levels (e.g. read-only).

I think it would be quite interesting if and how BibDesk could be integrated into such a setup, if it could also exchange data with a Zotero server. I realize that this is outside the scope of this feature request, but thinking about CSL is definitely a good start.

[Christiaan Hofman]

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I would like to see BibDesk support CSL. So anyone who wants to join and implement it is welcome.

[Adam Maxwell]

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A dedicated editor to create/edit CSL styles would be nice, but I don't see how support for Citation Style Language is relevant to BibDesk, except as a replacement for templates.

http://dev.zotero.org/creating_citation_styles

If you want BibDesk to read zotero's data store, this page

http://dev.zotero.org/accessing_zotero_data_using_an_sqlite_client

indicates that zotero uses an sqlite database for data storage and you could (in theory) write a read-only client for it. The release date for Zotero 2.0 is now Sept. 2008 whereas it was originally slated for summer/fall 07, so it appears to be vaporware.

http://www.zotero.org/documentation/development_roadmap

[Christiaan Hofman]

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Sorry, my confusion. I thought this was about zotero importers, which could be useful. If it is for exporters, I don't think this should be so relevant to bibdesk.

[Simon Spiegel]

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Sorry, I wasn't clear myself.

In my understanding, several things are involved here:

- Zotero uses its own data format. If BibDesk could import and export it this would surely be nice.
- Zotero will provide server services. Integrating BibDesk into such a setup would definitely be extremely useful (and although this hasn't been released yet, calling it vaporware seems a bit harsh to me).
- Zotero uses its own styling language CSL. Adding this to BibDesk's template system would probably mean quite some work, but it would definitely be a good thing, because I expect CSL to become more and more popular during the next months and years. There already is a public repository for CSL styles, and once OpenOffice will feature ODF 1.2 support there is no doubt that this will turn into a big thing.

But I realize that most of this is outside the scope of this particular feature request

[Christiaan Hofman]

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I don't think we should add another templating system like CSL. This means that CSL styles should be translated to our templates. Perhaps someone could write a little translation utility for that.

[Adam Maxwell]

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>- Zotero uses its own data format. If BibDesk could
>import and export it this would surely be nice.

AFAICT, Zotero doesn't use a data format, per se; it uses an sqlite database. Writing to that database is a Very Bad Idea. Reading from it is possible, but doesn't seem terribly worthwhile if Zotero provides a way to export your data to some format that BibDesk already reads (does it?).

>- Zotero will provide server services. Integrating
>BibDesk into such a setup would definitely be
>extremely useful (and although this hasn't been
>released yet, calling it vaporware seems a bit harsh to me).

I don't think there's enough concrete information to say that this would "definitely be extremely useful." It sounds like it might be potentially useful to a few people, but until the Zotero project produces the server it's hard to tell how useful it will be. I call it vaporware because it was slated for release last year and the schedule keeps slipping.

Citeproc can use a MODS XML flat file as a data source, so you may just be able to export that from BibDesk and use it. I don't see any need for CSL itself in BibDesk, unless for the translation that Christiaan mentioned; even that wouldn't help you with OpenOffice.org or other CSL-using apps.

http://bibliographic.openoffice.org/citeproc

[Simon Spiegel]

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Just to keep this up to date: A preview of Zotero 1.5 which includes syncing via a server is available here: http://www.zotero.org/documentation/sync_preview

[BibDesk User]

I am a new BibDesk user and I'm starting to use it to manage my own bibliographic database.

I too would like to see some kind of utility that translates CSL files into BibDesk export templates, so that I won't have to write my own templates if I want to export to bibliographic styles that are not currently available as BibDesk export templates.

[Simon Spiegel]

FWIW, citeproc-js, the javascript implementation of the CSL processor which will be part of the next big Zotero release, runs now under WebKit/Safari: http://groups.google.com/group/citeproc-js/browse_frm/thread/cd6fcadb27b022de I don't know if this is of any use for BibDesk but at least it doesn't depend entirely on Firefox anymore.

[Anonymous]

I'd like to give this a little bump. Given that CSL is becoming the de facto open citation standard, I think this would be useful if integrated into the templates functionality.