insert bibtex field at point (or multiple templates for citar-insert-reference)

[tabroughton]

I would like to be able to insert a field from a reference in .bib file into my buffer at point.

I'm not sure if this is possible with citar or org-cite atm, I'm assuming not.

I see it as being a possible extension to the functionality of citar-insert-reference but instead of only using the preview template from citar-templates one would be able to add the the list of citar-templates and when using citar-insert-reference (or similar command) the template could be selected. - that's solution more than requirement, I don't really mind what the solution might be and if it is already possible I'd be interested to know how.

Reason I am thinking of this is I am developing a workflow for reasearch etc and I am using zotero. My use case at the moment is something along the lines of:

1. Find resource and import into zotero
2. Read pdf in zotero and make annotations
3. export annotations into a note in zotero and use Better Bibtex plugin to export notes in .bib file
4. I would like to be able to import those notes into an existing org-roam file (or any existing buffer).
5. Ideally I'd have a parser that can interpret the latex in the field (the exported annotation is latex in the note field) and separate out notes to select from, but I feel this would be the next step

because I'm just starting on my toolchain/workflow for academic research I'd also be interested in how other people manage their annotations whilst reading a resource and whether my idea here is already accommodated elsewhere or if there is alternative approach that might work for me.

[bdarcus]

Seems like you started with a solution rather than the problem you want to solve ;-)

It sounds like really what you want is to be able to import Zotero annotations into org-roam, ideally pretty seamlessly?

See #685 for a related issue, which is more about integrating citar and Zotero annotations. If that worked well, you could just keep the annotations in Zotero maybe?

If not, I wonder if org-noter is the better target, at least ideally? Not that it and org-roam are mutually-exclusive though.

As for your implementation question, that sort of thing is easy to do with a new command that wraps citar-get-value.

For example:

(defun ex/insert-field ()
  (interactive)
  (let* ((field (completing-read "Field: " '("author" "editor" "note" "title")))
         (citekey (citar-select-ref)))
    (insert (citar-get-value field citekey))))

[bdarcus]

This says Better BibTeX exports these as LaTeX notes.

Here's an (untested) example adapted from org-roam/org-roam-bibtex#178 (comment) that should work, to convert those notes to org.

(defun ex/latex-note-to-org (citekey)
  "Convert Better BibTeX exported LaTeX notes to org." ; Zotero annotations
  (let* ((note (citar-get-value "note" citekey))
         (pandoc-command "pandoc --from latex --to org")
         result)
    (with-temp-buffer
      (shell-command (format "echo \"%s\" | %s" note pandoc-command)
                     (current-buffer))
      (setq result (buffer-substring-no-properties (point-min) (point-max))))))

Just need to figure out how to hook it up with some specific output (insert into buffer, integrate into capture template, etc.).

Effectively, this is a sort of filter run on some content. It may be possible to adapt something like this to the new citar-org-roam capture template support.

I created an issue for this at emacs-citar/citar-org-roam#43.