KBibTeX

Z39.50

KBibTeX for KDE 3 is no longer under development.
Please use KBibTeX for KDE 4.

Using Z39.50 in KBibTeX"

Current (as of May 2008) KBibTeX snapshots contain code to query Z39.50 databases. The code is currently in beta quality and may require some manual configuration to work. Help, feedback, and testcases are welcome to improve the service.

Required libraries

To use Z39.50 in KBibTeX you need to install an additional library:

yaz is a library to query Z39.50 servers.

Development packages of above library must be present during the configuration process of KBibTeX, runtime libraries are sufficient for compiled KBibTeX versions.

After installing the above libraries, the output of configure should contain the following lines:

checking for LIBYAZ... yes
checking for LIBXML... yes
checking for LIBXSLT... yes

Configuring KBibTeX for your favourite Z39.50 server

KBibTeX contains a set of predefined Z39.50 servers. Feel free to test those servers, although some may not work if your credentials are not sufficient (e.g. not coming from an university network). If you aware of public Z39.50 servers not included in the list and if you think they may be of interest for other users, please send me the configuration data to be included in future releases.

Using Z39.50 within KBibTeX

You can search Z39.50 from within the online search dialog. Select "Z3950". You will get some widgets where you can specify your search. The list of servers will be in a drop-down list on the left; select the one you want to query. Enter a search query and start the search.

If nothing happens, check the debug output of KBibTeX. To get the debug output, start KBibTeX in a console with the following command:

kbibtex 2>&1 | tee kbibtex-output.txt

If you have an alternative way to access your Z39.50 server (e.g. a web frontend), please check which output you get there for a query. When sending a bug report, try to provide as much as possible relevant information (e.g. what happend and what should have happened instead).

If you have not done yet, I recommend that you subscribe to KBibTeX's mailing list to get informed on updates and to share your experiences with other users.

Last Updated: 17-Jun-2013 Contact: Thomas FischerRSS feed