citeproc-js-server

citeproc-js-server is a Node-based server that generates citations and bibliographies using citeproc.js.

For optimal performance, you should maintain separate directories with JSON styles/locales. This can be done by running the included xmltojson.py:

./xmltojson.py ./csl ./csljson
./xmltojson.py ./csl-locales ./csljson-locales

Or only those updated within the last 5 minutes:

xmltojson.py --changed 300 ./csl ./csljson
xmltojson.py --changed 300 ./csl-locales ./csljson-locales

And point cslPath and localesPath in config/local.json to point to the json directories.

Also note that the citation server automatically watches the style and locale directories to automatically use the new versions when they're pulled. This is subject to platform caveats

Setting up citeproc-js-server

Step 1

Get citeproc-js-server

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/zotero/citeproc-js-server.git
cd citeproc-js-server
npm install

Step 2

Start the server:

npm start

If all is well, you will see:

info Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8085

Step 3

Now to test the server using the sampledata.json file provided in the citeproc-js-server sources. Try posting it to your server, from a separate console:

curl --header "Content-type: application/json" \
  --data @sampledata.json -X POST \
  'http://127.0.0.1:8085?responseformat=html&style=modern-language-association'

You should see a response similar to this:

<div class="csl-bib-body">
  <div class="csl-entry">Abbott, Derek A. et al. “Metabolic Engineering of <i>Saccharomyces
    Cerevisiae</i> for Production of Carboxylic Acids: Current Status and Challenges.” <i>FEMS
    Yeast Research</i> 9.8 (2009): 1123–1136. Print.</div>
  <div class="csl-entry"><i>Beck V. Beck</i>. Vol. 1999. 1999. Print.</div>
  <div class="csl-entry">---. Vol. 733. 1999. Print.</div>
  ...
</div>

Configuration

citeproc-js-server uses node-config for configuration. Configuration parameters can be specified in config/local.json or other files and formats supported by node-config.

citeproc-js-server now supports CSL styles that has been converted to JSON. This improves performance significantly on style initialization, and somewhat on style execution over the JSDOM XML parsing mode. Local styles can be converted ahead of time, which improves performance even futher. Otherwise both local and remote styles will be converted at run time.

There is a Python script, xmltojson.py, to convert a single file or a directory, including the option to only convert files that have been modified within a specified time limit, to better handle periodic pulling of style/locale changes. To use pre-converted json styles, just point the cslPath preference at the directory of converted styles.

Running the tests

Start citation server

npm start

Run a test with all independent styles in the csl directory:

node ./test/testallstyles.js

Using the web service

The service responds to HTTP OPTIONS or POST requests only.

When sending a request, various options should be set in the query string of the URL, and the CSL-JSON data should be sent in the content body.

The following query string parameters are recognized:

• responseformat - One of html, json, or rtf (value is passed through to citeproc.js). Default is json.
• bibliography - Default is 1.
• style - This is a URL or a name of a CSL style. Default is chicago-author-date.
• locale - Default is en-US
• citations - Default is 0.
• outputformat - Default is html.
• memoryUsage - If this is 1, and the server has debug enabled, the server will respond with a report of memory usage (and nothing else). Default is 0.
• linkwrap - Default is 0
• clearCache - If this 1, then the server will clear any cached style engines, and reread the CSL styles. This can only be sent from the localhost. Default is 0.

The POST data JSON object can have these members:

• items - either an array or a hash of items
• itemIDs - an array of identifiers of those items to convert. If this is not given, the default is to convert all of the items.
• citationClusters
• styleXML - a CSL style to use

Included libraries

csl

CSL citation styles, included as a Git submodule

csl-locales

CSL locales, included as a Git submodule

citeproc-js

The citeproc-js citation processor

Logging

We're using npmlog, which has these levels defined:

• silly -Infinity
• verbose 1000
• info 2000
• http 3000
• warn 4000
• error 5000
• silent Infinity

The level at which the server runs is specified in the config file, as the logLevel parameter.

In the code, to create a log message at a particular level, for example,

log.warn("Uh-oh!");