BibTex Parser

Bibtex Parser is PHP library that provides an API to read .bib files programmatically.

Install

composer require renanbr/bibtex-parser

Usage

1. Create an instance of RenanBr\BibTexParser\ListenerInterface;
2. Create an instance of RenanBr\BibTexParser\Parser;
3. Attach the Listener to the Parser;
4. Parse a file calling parseFile(), or a string calling parseString();
5. Get data from the Listener (it depends on the implementation).

Sample:

$listener = new RenanBr\BibTexParser\Listener;
$parser = new RenanBr\BibTexParser\Parser;
$parser->addListener($listener);
$parser->parseFile('/path/to/example.bib');
$entries = $listener->export();

$entries[0]['type'];         // article
$entries[0]['citation-key']; // Ovadia2011
$entries[0]['title'];        // Managing Citations With Cost-Free Tools
$entries[0]['journal'];      // Behavioral {\&} Social Sciences Librarian

Below we have the example.bib source file used in the sample above.

@article{Ovadia2011,
    author = {Ovadia, Steven},
    doi = {10.1080/01639269.2011.565408},
    issn = {0163-9269},
    journal = {Behavioral {\&} Social Sciences Librarian},
    month = {apr},
    number = {2},
    pages = {107--111},
    title = {Managing Citations With Cost-Free Tools},
    url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01639269.2011.565408},
    volume = {30},
    year = {2011}
}

Listener

As you may noticed, this library provides RenanBr\BibTexParser\Listener as a RenanBr\BibTexParser\ListenerInterface implementation. Its features are:

• It replaces raw values according to their abbreviations, when this exists.
• It concatenates values when necessary;
• If the first key has null as value, it interprets the key name as a value of "citation-key" instead;
• It provides the export() method, which returns all entries found.

API

Parser

class RenanBr\BibTexParser\Parser
{
    public function parseFile(string $file);
    public function parseString(string $string);
    public function addListener(RenanBr\BibTexParser\ListenerInterface $listener);
}

Both parseFile() and parseString() may throw a RenanBr\BibTexParser\ParseException. The parseFile() may even throw a native ErrorException if file given can't be read.

ListenerInterface

interface RenanBr\BibTexParser\ListenerInterface
{
    public function bibTexUnitFound(string $text, array $context);
}

The $context variable gives informations about the text found. The context keys are:

• $context['state'] contains the current Parser's state. Its value may assume:
  • Parser::TYPE
  • Parser::KEY
  • Parser::RAW_VALUE
  • Parser::BRACED_VALUE
  • Parser::QUOTED_VALUE
• $context['offset'] contains the text beginning position. It may be useful, for example, to seek a file;
• $context['length'] contains the original text length. It may differ from string length sent to the listener because may there are escaped values.