JabRef
v6
v6
  • JabRef Bibliography Management
  • Installation
  • Getting started
  • Collect
    • Add entry manually
    • Add entry using an ID
    • Add entry using reference text
    • Searching externally using Online Services
    • Add entry using PDFs
    • Add PDFs to an entry
    • Browser Extension
    • Import
      • Custom import filters
      • Import inspection window
  • Organize
    • Edit an entry
    • Groups
    • Keywords
    • Mark and grade
    • Comment on an entry
    • Searching within the library
    • Complete information using online databases
    • Manage associated files
    • Manage field names and their content
    • Best practices
    • Cleanup entries
    • Check integrity
    • Find duplicates
    • Merge entries
    • Save actions
  • Cite
    • BibTeX and biblatex
    • Pushing to external editor application
    • Export to Microsoft Word
    • OpenOffice/LibreOffice integration
  • Share
    • Sharing a Bib(la)TeX Library
    • Shared SQL Database
      • Migration of pre-3.6 SQL databases into a shared SQL database
    • Export
      • Custom export filters
    • Send as email
  • AI functionality
    • AI providers and API keys
    • AI preferences
    • AI troubleshooting
    • Running a local LLM model
  • Configuration
    • Customize the citation key generator
    • Customize entry types
    • Customize general fields
    • Customize key bindings
    • Library properties
    • Entry preview setup
    • Manage external file types
    • Manage protected terms
    • The string editor
  • Advanced information
    • Main Window
    • Entry Editor
      • Links to other entries
      • The Bibtex / Biblatex source tab
      • The 'owner' field
      • Time stamp field
      • LaTeX Citations Tab
    • About BibTeX and its fields
    • Strings
    • Field content selector
    • URL and DOI links in JabRef
    • Command line use and options
    • Automatic Backup (.sav and .bak) and Autosave
    • XMP metadata support in JabRef
    • Remote operation
    • Custom themes
    • Journal abbreviations
    • New subdatabase based on AUX file
    • How to expand first names of an entry
    • Debugging your library file
    • Resources
    • License
    • Knowledge
      • MS Office Bibliography XML format
      • Comparison of the Medline (txt), Medline (xml), and RIS format
      • EndNote Export Filter
  • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Linux
    • Mac OS X
    • Windows
  • Discussion Forum
  • Contribute to JabRef
    • How to Improve the Help Page
    • How to translate the JabRef User Interface
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • Prerequisite
  • Editing Help Pages directly in the browser
  • 1. Start editing
  • 2. Make your changes
  • 3. Saving the changes
  • Advanced Contribution Hints
  • Advanced editing
  • CI
  • Notes on links workflow
  • Tables
  • How to regenerate SUMMARY.md from scratch
  • How to rename files

Was this helpful?

Edit on GitHub
Export as PDF
  1. Contribute to JabRef

How to Improve the Help Page

PreviousContribute to JabRefNextHow to translate the JabRef User Interface

Last updated 1 month ago

Was this helpful?

Here is a quick start guide on how to improve help pages in the .

Prerequisite

The JabRef help pages are hosted at with integration to GitHub, which provides version control based on . In order to edit or create a JabRef help page, you need a GitHub account. You can sign up for free. If you already have an account, please make sure that you are signed in.

Editing Help Pages directly in the browser

The easiest way to fix small errors, or to add additional information, is to edit a help page directly in your browser, using the following steps.

1. Start editing

At the top of each help page, you can find the GitHub icon with "Edit on GitHub" link. Just click the link to show the source of the page.

This leads you to the GitHub page associated with the help page:

To actually edit the page, click on the pencil icon, as highlighted above.

2. Make your changes

The window to edit the page at GitHub looks like this:

In order to review your changes, click on the "Preview changes" tab:

3. Saving the changes

To save the changes, create a so-called "Commit" by scrolling down and pressing the "Propose File Change" button:

Please note: The message you provide here will be visible in the history of the help page, so please consider your change and provide a meaningful description of your changes.

As the last step, submit the changes you have made back to the JabRef team:

Just press the "Create Pull Request" button, and confirm the creation of the request on the next page.

Advanced Contribution Hints

Advanced editing

To edit more than one file at a time, add screenshots, and for other more advanced changes, we recommend that you checkout this repository locally and create a Pull Request of your changes using the standard git and GitHub workflow.

CI

Two CI jobs (called "workflows" in GitHub terminology) are triggered each time you push or pull request.

  • Lint workflow checks for minor Markdown formatting style issues.

  • Check links workflow checks for broken links, e.g. to images or external resources.

On PRs, you are able to view the results directly on the PR (though you have to wait for a maintainer to approve running the workflow). You can also view the results on the local fork of the repo that you pushed to (which you are recommended to check first so you can fix mistakes before the maintainer has to look at it).

On your local fork, you can check the results of the workflows in the Actions tab > All actions panel on Github as shown below. Click on a specific workflow and its run to check the results.

Notes on links workflow

Links to external resources that aren't essential should be added to .lycheeignore. Resources can change URL or be taken down, and it isn't the best use of contributor resources to constantly keep fixing them, so try to spare us the headache!

Note that check links may fail on links which you did not modify in your changes, in which case you can ignore them. Just do make sure that you don't introduce any additional broken links.

Tables

How to regenerate SUMMARY.md from scratch

How to rename files

The gitbook integration changes some of the file names and appends "(1) (2) (1)" or something like this. If one fixes that in the GitHub repository, then the next sync rewrites the names again. The only solution we've found so far is manually replacing the images using the GitBook UI: Left to the image you have a hamburger with a "replace" option.

In case GitBook was fixed, with some command line magic, this could be solved:

  1. Create a script renaming all images: fd -e png -x bash -c "echo '{}' | sed 's/\([^(]*\)\(.*\).png/mv \"\\1\\2.png\" \"\\1.png\"/' | sed 's/ \.png/.png/'" | sort > fix-filenames.sh. Execute in en/.gitbook. Otherwise, fd does not find any file.

  2. Repeat for gif instead of png.

  3. Create a script doing the renaming in all .md files: fd -e md -x bash -c "echo sed -i '\"s/assets\/\([^%]*\)\(.*\).png/assets\/\\1.png/\"' {}" > fix-mds.sh. Execute in the root repository. You can also do manually in VSCode using ( \(\d\))+.png as RegEx.

  4. Repeat for gif instead of png.

On Ubuntu, use fdfind (and install it using sudo apt install fd-find).

Most text can be simply added/edited in this field as plain text. However, you can style your contribution by using . Markdown is a rather easy way to format text without the need for complex markup, such as with HTML. You can find an introduction to markdown or .

That's it! The JabRef team will review your changes and publish them on .

TEMPORARY NOTE: until is fixed, you will actually find a lot of broken links.

The best way to enter tables is to use this for Markdown. It has the nice feature to generate markdown tables from different sources, e.g. you can directly copy the table from a spreadsheet or upload a csv file. Just copy and paste the generated markdown into the documentation.

Use .

markdown
here
here
docs.jabref.org
issue #533
Table Generator
https://github.com/koppor/gitbook-summary-generator
JabRef User Documentation
GitBook
git
here
Edit view at GitHub
Edit view at GitHub
Save changes
Create Pull Request
Actions tab on Github