Dear Morten, dear Joeran, dear JabRef developers, being an active user of JabRef since many years, managing 1000+ papers with it, I first want to thank you, Morten, and all other developers for a tremendously useful piece of software!
Although I never really made it to the developer's camp, please allow me to share - from a user's point of view - my two cents on Joeran's proposal: As a reference database tool, JabRef has reached a pretty mature and feature-complete state. Yet, when it comes to handle and *link* the information *in* the papers... it misses features. No criticism, this is not what JabRef is about. I know, there are groups, and you can even create groups based on keywords - I use both features - but this is just not really modelling the way papers (or pieces of information) are linked together (in my head). I discovered DocEar a while ago and liked the concept. I never came to use it extensively because it failed to import my bib file. Yet, I think that both projects could profit from joint forces and resources. 'JabEar' would be a tool I would love to have and work with! -Martin > On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 5:42 AM, Joeran Beel <b...@docear.org > <mailto:b...@docear.org>> wrote: > > Hello Morten, > hello JabRef developers, > > we are really sorry to hear that you won't be able to lead > the JabRef development any more. We, of course, can't volunteer to > lead the JabRef development, as we are developing our own reference > manager "Docear". However, we would like to ask you, Morten, and/or > the remaining developers, if you would be interested in a closer > partnership, or, if you don't find a new leader, if you are > interested in joining forces? > > If you look at JabRef and Docear you will probably realize > that Docear is rather complex to use and JabRef is missing some > important features e.g. for PDF management (which Docear offers). We > believe that joining Docear and JabRef would result in an extremely > powerful (yet rather easy to use) reference manager. Of course, we > already integrated JabRef in Docear but it's more like having a mind > mapping software (Docear) and a reference manager (JabRef) > separately, only that they are both shown in the same window. Here > is, how we think a real "JabEar" could look like: > > In our opinion, JabRef needs better integration of PDF annotations. > Imagine, you created some annotations in a PDF file... > > [ http://www.docear.org/temp/email.pdf ] > > ... then, they could be displayed in JabRef like this > > [ http://www.docear.org/temp/email.pdf ] > > Ideally, a click on the annotation in the left panel opens the PDF > file at the page the annotation was made; you could rename > annotations in JabRef, and they were automatically renamed in the > PDF file, etc. > > In addition, we would love to see the PDF and file management in > general to be improved in JabRef. It would be awesome if JabRef > would monitor directories for new PDF files, and create new entries > in the table automatically, ideally based on metadata extracted from > the PDF and complemented by data retrieved from e.g. Google Scholar > (most of this is already possible with Docear. Hence, integrating > such features in JabRef shouldn't be too hard). > > Now, the maybe most important step would be that the data structure > of JabRef is exactly represented in the Docear mind maps. This could > look like this: > > [ http://www.docear.org/temp/email.pdf ] > > In the mind map, exactly the same "groups" are available as in > JabRef (see JabRef screenshot). Each "group" in the mind map > contains the same PDFs as in JabRef and each PDF contains its > annotations as child nodes with the BibTeX/Reference data attached. > Currently, Docear users need to maintain two data structures (their > BibTeX file and their mind maps). The new "JabEar" would have only > one data structure but two different views on it (the JabRef-Table > view, and the Docear mind-map view). This also means, when users > change data (e.g. a group name) in the mind map, this would be > reflected in the BibTeX file, and vice versa. This way, users would > have an amazing variety of options and the new "JabEar" would > satisfy all current JabRef and Docear users, and would attract new > users that found Docear too complex, and JabRef too feature-poor for > PDF management. > > This was just the overall idea, but if you like it, we would love to > discuss this in further detail (if you live in Germany or Europe, we > might even meet in person). > > In case, you don't like the idea of > merging Docear and JabRef entirely, you might be interested in a > closer cooperation for some add-ons. Right now we are doing a call > for donation to improve our PDF metadata retrieval but our users are > not very generous > ;-) > http://www.docear.org/2014/01/23/call-for-donation-automatic-pdf-metadata-extraction-and-renaming/ > > <http://www.docear.org/2014/01/23/call-for-donation-automatic-pdf-metadata-extraction-and-renaming/> > If > you would be interested in such a metadata retrieval, you might ask > your users to donate too (and then include the PDF metadata > extraction in JabRef). We will also soon start a call for donation > for a LibreOffice and OpenOffice Add-On that is similar to > Docear4Word http://www.docear.org/software/add-ons/docear4word/overview/ > <http://www.docear.org/software/add-ons/docear4word/overview/> but > for Open/LibreOffice. We already found a developer and we believe > that such an add-on would be of great value for our (and JabRef's) > users. If you are interested in a common call for donation, we could > setup an extra page if you like, or you could just start your own > call. Of course, the final add on would not necessarily have to be > called "Docear4LibreOffice" but we could also rename it to > BibTeX4LibreOffice (this way you could offer it easily on your > webpage without pointing your users to Docear ;-). > > Best, > Joeran > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Android apps run on BlackBerry 10 Introducing the new BlackBerry 10.2.1 Runtime for Android apps. Now with support for Jelly Bean, Bluetooth, Mapview and more. Get your Android app in front of a whole new audience. Start now. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=124407151&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Jabref-devel mailing list Jabref-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/jabref-devel
