biblatex support

[dgalcius]

author:

book class template uses the natbib package by default.

We want to use the biblatex package (with biber instead of bibtex)
instead because it is much more flexible and modern,
and it supports separate bibliographies in each chapter.

[katyhuff]

@dgalcius (another author here) In the current template, the way your references.tex file is set up, you're producing the bibliography manually. In latex, you can either produce a bibliography by manually listing the entries of the bibliography or producing it automatically using the bibtex or biber/biblatex with a .bib file. I tend to prefer bibtex over biblatex, but either would be preferred to the current manual references.tex style.

[katyhuff]

(anyway, it's not a problem for me, because my solution is to just ignore the references.tex file and insert bibtex instead. I'm just mentioning it because the way the references.tex file is set up is probably misleading/frustrating for beginners).

[dgalcius]

@katyhuff I'm happy you are using bibtex. I do agree that bibtex setup would be better (though I am not sure if it is easier for LaTeX beginners). Biblatex poses issues at our end during conversion process, as the output should conform to Elsevier DTD (xml output). I'll amend template setup for bibtex/(biblatex) as soon as i can. Thanks.

[me10240]

(anyway, it's not a problem for me, because my solution is to just ignore the references.tex file and insert bibtex instead. I'm just mentioning it because the way the references.tex file is set up is probably misleading/frustrating for beginners).
@katyhuff : Could you tell me what files do I need to change so that I can use bibtex too ?

[katyhuff]

It's been a few years now, but....

option 1: Edit References.tex

Instead of the content currently in references.tex, include the following:

\chapter*{References}
\end{frontmatter}

  \bibliographystyle{dinat}
  \bibliography{2018-hybrid-book}

option 2: Ignore References.tex

Alternatively, in the book.tex file, replace:

\Backmatter
  \include{references}
\end{document}

with:

\Backmatter
  \bibliographystyle{plain}
  \bibliography{2018-hybrid-book}
\end{document}

Either way

In the new scenario in both cases, you reference a .bib file from whence to source the bibliography. You'll want to create such a .bib file. Name it whatever you put as the name (where I have 2018-hybrid-book, put the name of your file.). I create my .bib files automatically with a reference manager. I use Zotero, but you can use anything (mendeley, endnote, refworks, whatever...)

Additionally, you'll need to compile the document with bibtex included, like so (or similar):

latex book
bibtex book
latex book
latex book
dvipdf book

or, alternatively

pdflatex book
bibtex book
pdflatex book
pdflatex book

[dgalcius]

@katyhuff Agreed. I have updated the template slightly. Basically I commented out the reference section. Now author can choose what to use: bibtex, biblatex or plain latex.
Thanks for reminding me about the issue.

[katyhuff]

Excellent, nice work! This issue can probably be closed then! (I don't have permission to do that, so it'll be up to you @dgalcius )

[dgalcius]

The natbib package is moved from the class to the .tex template file. This way author can replace natbib with biblatex if needed.