[Refdb-users] ANN: RefDB 0.9

[<mar...@mh...>]

Hi all,

RefDB version 0.9 is available for download at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/refdb

This is a new major release with a number of significant
changes. Please make sure to read the documentation. The manual has a
few hints about upgrading, and the source archive has a file called
"UPGRADING" which explains how to upgrade without losing your data. If
you fail to follow these instructions, the new version will not work
with your existing data and configuration files.

I'd also like to point out that there is a new build dependency. You
must have libdbi 0.6.7 (released just yesterday, available at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/libdbi) installed on your
system. Earlier versions of this library will not work.

Bugfixes:

- Fixed another segfault in refdbib

- Changing databases in the web interface now actually works

- All list* client commands now list everything if no regexp is given
  as an argument.

Improvements:

- RefDB now uses a database abstraction library (libdbi). Both MySQL
  and PostgreSQL are supported as SQL database servers. Support for
  additional servers is in preparation.

- PostgreSQL users can choose between several character encodings
  including Unicode for each database. They also enjoy transaction
  support.

- Reference databases now store a unique citation key in addition to
  the automatically assigned ID for each reference. This is a mnemonic
  string supplied by the user or auto-generated from the first author
  and the publication year.

- The getref command uses a new tag :CK: to query the new citation key
  field.

- SGML and XML documents can now use a greatly simplified short
  notation for citations. All you need to do is create a citation
  element and list the IDs or citation keys. A new tool refdbxp
  automatically expands the short to the full notation.

- All configuration files are now installed in a subdirectory "refdb"
  of sysconfdir to unclutter the latter.

- A new import filter for MARC data was added.

- RefDB now offers an optional automatic keyword scan. The title and
  abstract fields of new references are scanned for existing keywords
  and all matches are added to the database.

- A new teix backend allows export of reference data as TEI XML
  datasets.

- The output of the db31 backend is improved.

- All RefDB backends now treat non-abbreviated first and middle names
  correctly.

- Deleted references are replaced by invisible skeleton entries. This
  greatly simplifies restoring a database with the same ID sequence from
  either a RIS or a SQL dump.

- Bibliography styles can now be exported as XML files.

- A set of example files: reference data in various formats, test
  documents with RefDB citations.

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. If you have problems with
this version, with upgrading, or with the documentation, please
complain on this list. It can be fixed. I'd greatly appreciate
comments about the MARC import filter, as this certainly needs further
development. If you use USMARC data, please let me know about data the
script can't handle properly. Maybe this can be fixed too.

Best regards,
Markus

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
mar...@ca...
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de