feat: support open reference at google scholar #13153

brandon-lau0 · 2025-05-20T09:20:26Z

Summary of Changes

This PR adds a new "Search Google Scholar" feature to JabRef, similar to the existing "Search ShortScience" functionality. The feature allows users to quickly search for a selected entry's title in Google Scholar directly from the main table's context menu. The search engines are moved under the "Search..." tab in the right click menu for better organization.

In addition, we make Google Scholar and Short Science links configurable in the Preferences tab, under a new section named "Search Engine URL Templates". One of the comments mentioned, in the issue, that "the URL should be configurable. Reason: We cannot maintain JabRef for all site URLs; and the list of sites might be oppionated." This allows users to customize their URL templates, such as adding additional query parameters like author or strings.

The following shows the link the user is directed to after clicking "Search Google Scholar".

Closes #12268.

Bullet Pointed List of Changes:

Added new search Google Scholar option
Moved search engines to a "Search" sub-menu in right click menu
Allow "Search Google Scholar" and "Search Short Science" URLs to be configurable in Preferences under the "Search Engine URL Templates" section

Collaborators

@lydia-yan @yoasaaa @brandon-lau0 @FlyJoanne

Mandatory checks

I own the copyright of the code submitted and I license it under the MIT license
Change in CHANGELOG.md described in a way that is understandable for the average user (if change is visible to the user)
[/] Tests created for changes (if applicable)
Manually tested changed features in running JabRef (always required)
Screenshots added in PR description (if change is visible to the user)
Checked developer's documentation: Is the information available and up to date? If not, I outlined it in this pull request.
Checked documentation: Is the information available and up to date? If not, I created an issue at https://github.com/JabRef/user-documentation/issues or, even better, I submitted a pull request to the documentation repository.

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/actions/StandardActions.java

koppor · 2025-05-20T11:20:47Z

Update following are wrong comments; the feature is about opening using the web browser

~~Please investigate org.jabref.logic.importer.fetcher.GoogleScholar and read on at https://devdocs.jabref.org/code-howtos/fetchers.html.~~

~~Also look at #7075~~

~~You can try to work on JabRef#695.~~

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/maintable/SearchGoogleScholarAction.java

jablib/src/test/java/org/jabref/logic/util/ExternalLinkCreatorTest.java

jabref-machine · 2025-05-30T23:47:48Z

Your code currently does not meet JabRef's code guidelines. We use Checkstyle to identify issues. You can see which checks are failing by locating the box "Some checks were not successful" on the pull request page. To see the test output, locate "Tests / Checkstyle (pull_request)" and click on it.

In case of issues with the import order, double check that you activated Auto Import. You can trigger fixing imports by pressing Ctrl+Alt+O to trigger Optimize Imports.

Please carefully follow the setup guide for the codestyle. Afterwards, please run checkstyle locally and fix the issues, commit, and push.

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/maintable/SearchGoogleScholarAction.java

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/maintable/SearchShortScienceAction.java

jablib/src/main/java/org/jabref/logic/importer/ImporterPreferences.java

koppor

Small comment on the tests

(I currently don't have much time to dive into this PR, but wanted to give a little pice of work to move this PR forward)

koppor · 2025-05-31T08:44:49Z

jablib/src/test/java/org/jabref/logic/util/ExternalLinkCreatorTest.java

@@ -29,25 +50,34 @@ private boolean urlIsValid(String url) {

    @Test
    void getShortScienceSearchURLEncodesSpecialCharacters() {
+        ImporterPreferences stubPreferences = new StubImporterPreferences();


Typically, this is done with mock and when. See other classes. Can you try this?

Yep, I removed the StubImporterPreferences and replaced it with mock.

koppor · 2025-06-01T19:17:53Z

jabgui/src/main/resources/org/jabref/gui/preferences/websearch/WebSearchTab.fxml

+                         fx:id="catalogEnabledColumn"
+                         text="%Enabled"


this is no off lines 50/51.

Why the additoinal indent / reformat?

It is hard to review code which makes formatting changes.

I'm not too sure why it shows up as a diff in GitHub. Locally, I didn't make any changes to Lines 50 and 51, but it shows up as an indent formatting change here. I've tried a couple times to resync with the original, but it didn't seem to work. Do you have any ideas for why this may be the case?

koppor · 2025-06-05T02:34:42Z

@brandon-lau0 May I ask if you are going to continue to work on this? - There are merge conflicts to resolve and tests made properly. If not, it is allright for us; we can then ask another student to continue.

trag-bot · 2025-06-08T01:14:26Z

jablib/src/main/java/org/jabref/logic/util/ExternalLinkCreator.java

+                    author.ifPresent(a -> uriBuilder.addParameter("author", a));
+                    return uriBuilder.toString();
+                } catch (URISyntaxException ex) {
+                    throw new AssertionError("ShortScience URL is invalid.", ex);


Using exceptions for control flow is not recommended. Exceptions should be used for exceptional states, not normal control flow.

This would never happen. Note that this URL is hardcoded. It's only used since Java enforced checked exceptions.

trag-bot · 2025-06-08T01:14:27Z

jablib/src/main/java/org/jabref/logic/util/ExternalLinkCreator.java

+                    author.ifPresent(a -> uriBuilder.addParameter("author", a));
+                    return uriBuilder.toString();
+                } catch (URISyntaxException ex) {
+                    throw new AssertionError("Default Google Scholar URL is invalid.", ex);


Using exceptions for control flow is not recommended. Exceptions should be used for exceptional states, not normal control flow.

brandon-lau0 · 2025-06-08T02:08:12Z

@brandon-lau0 May I ask if you are going to continue to work on this? - There are merge conflicts to resolve and tests made properly. If not, it is allright for us; we can then ask another student to continue.

Thank you for your patience. I just resolved the merge conflicts and the tests to use mocks.

brandon-lau0 · 2025-06-08T02:10:32Z

jabgui/src/main/resources/org/jabref/gui/preferences/websearch/WebSearchTab.fxml

@@ -78,12 +101,12 @@
                         text="%Catalog"
            />
            <TableColumn minWidth="120"
-                    fx:id="customApiKey"
-                    text="Key"/>
+                         fx:id="customApiKey"


Similar formatting issue as previous comment. Unsure why a diff shows here. I'm not able to see the changes locally.

Maybe, your IDE hides white spaces?

jablib/src/test/java/org/jabref/logic/util/ExternalLinkCreatorTest.java

trag-bot · 2025-07-07T21:06:47Z

@trag-bot didn't find any issues in the code! ✅✨

jabref-machine · 2025-07-07T21:13:46Z

JUnit tests of jablib are failing. You can see which checks are failing by locating the box "Some checks were not successful" on the pull request page. To see the test output, locate "Tests / Unit tests (pull_request)" and click on it.

You can then run these tests in IntelliJ to reproduce the failing tests locally. We offer a quick test running howto in the section Final build system checks in our setup guide.

Yubo-Cao

Great work! I have tried out your PR, and basically everything works.

Yubo-Cao · 2025-07-08T00:04:12Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/maintable/MainTable.java

@@ -180,10 +181,10 @@ public MainTable(MainTableDataModel model,
        // force match category column to be the first sort order, (match_category column is always the first column)
        this.getSortOrder().addFirst(getColumns().getFirst());
        this.getSortOrder().addListener((ListChangeListener<TableColumn<BibEntryTableViewModel, ?>>) change -> {


Do not create white space changes unless necessary.

Yubo-Cao · 2025-07-08T00:04:55Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/maintable/MainTable.java

@@ -576,13 +577,13 @@ public void setCitationMergeMode(boolean citationMerge) {
    }

    private void updatePlaceholder(VBox placeholderBox) {


The same comments go to the rest of the changes in this file. Do not create whitespace changes unless necessary.

Yubo-Cao · 2025-07-08T00:06:07Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/maintable/SearchGoogleScholarAction.java

+        stateManager.getActiveDatabase().ifPresent(databaseContext -> {
+            final List<BibEntry> bibEntries = stateManager.getSelectedEntries();
+
+            if (bibEntries.size() != 1) {


The check is unnecessary, since the bibEntries.size() != 1 would not possibly occur in the context of where this action is used. Note that if, more than one entry is selected, the menu button would automatically turn to disabled mode.

Yubo-Cao · 2025-07-08T00:32:58Z

jabgui/src/main/resources/org/jabref/gui/preferences/websearch/WebSearchTab.fxml

+        <columnResizePolicy>
+            <TableView
+                    fx:constant="CONSTRAINED_RESIZE_POLICY"/>
+        </columnResizePolicy>


I don't think they are in the JabRef_en.properties?

Yubo-Cao · 2025-07-08T00:33:39Z

jablib/src/main/java/org/jabref/logic/util/ExternalLinkCreator.java

+                    author.ifPresent(a -> uriBuilder.addParameter("author", a));
+                    return uriBuilder.toString();
+                } catch (URISyntaxException ex) {
+                    throw new AssertionError("ShortScience URL is invalid.", ex);


This would never happen. Note that this URL is hardcoded. It's only used since Java enforced checked exceptions.

Yubo-Cao · 2025-07-08T00:37:00Z

jablib/src/main/java/org/jabref/logic/util/ExternalLinkCreator.java

-            return uriBuilder.toString();
+
+            String urlWithTitle = baseUrl.replace("{title}", title);
+            return author.map(a -> urlWithTitle.replace("{author}", a)).orElse(urlWithTitle);


Not sure if you want to escape the URL for the variable replacement. In the most typical use cases, where the user declares the {title} as a part of the query parameters, it would make more sense to have it URL encoded.

Furthermore, we don't actually check if a URL is invalid here. This led to the issue, where the user could plausibly have the URL template filled in with mailto:{title}@xxxx.com or arbitrary URL, plausibly creating an injection risk. Alternatively, the lack of error message for invalid URL maybe is less ideal. On Linux platform, the xdg-desktop-portal would handle this exception and say something on the line of, "Cannot find application to open XXXX URL", rather than pointing out that the preference is misconfigured.`

trag-bot bot reviewed May 20, 2025

View reviewed changes

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/actions/StandardActions.java Show resolved Hide resolved

koppor changed the title ~~feat: support searching via google scholar~~ feat: support open reference at google scholar May 21, 2025