Feature: Add "Copy Field Content" submenu to entry context menu #13280

yoasaaa · 2025-06-09T00:53:52Z

Summary of changes

This PR adds a new "Copy Field Content" submenu under the existing "Copy..." context menu option for bibliography entries.

Changes made:

Added new StandardActions enum values for field-specific copy operations (COPY_FIELD_CONTENT, COPY_FIELD_AUTHOR, COPY_FIELD_JOURNAL, COPY_FIELD_DATE, COPY_FIELD_KEYWORDS, COPY_FIELD_ABSTRACT)
Extended CopyMoreAction class to handle new field copy operations with proper error handling and user feedback
Added specialized copyJournalField() method to handle both journal and journaltitle field compatibility
Modified RightClickMenu to include the new submenu
Implemented test coverage for all new field copy operations

Menu structure:

Copy...
├── Copy title
├── Copy field content →
│ ├── Author
│ ├── Journal
│ ├── Date
│ ├── Keywords
│ └── Abstract
├── ─────────────────────────
├── Copy citation key
├── ...

Screenshots

Before:

After:

Steps to test

Unit tests were added to verify the functionality of each new "Copy Field Content" option:
- Copy Author
- Copy Journal
- Copy Date
- Copy Keywords
- Copy Abstract
All test cases are located in: jabgui/src/test/java/org/jabref/gui/edit/CopyMoreActionTest.java

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.

…r in tests, add null safety check for createCopyFieldContentSubMenu method and use Localization.lang() for internationalization of field display names

trag-bot · 2025-06-09T02:12:09Z

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

@@ -20,6 +20,12 @@ public enum StandardActions implements Action {
    COPY_CITATION_HTML(Localization.lang("Copy citation (html)"), KeyBinding.COPY_PREVIEW),
    COPY_CITATION_TEXT(Localization.lang("Copy citation (text)")),
    COPY_CITATION_PREVIEW(Localization.lang("Copy preview"), KeyBinding.COPY_PREVIEW),
+    COPY_FIELD_CONTENT(Localization.lang("Copy field content")),
+    COPY_FIELD_AUTHOR(Localization.lang("author")),


The label 'author' should be in sentence case, but it is already in lowercase. Ensure consistency with other labels which are in sentence case.

Is this ever displayed, the screenshots don't contain lower cased.

trag-bot · 2025-06-09T02:15:24Z

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

+        Menu copyFieldContentMenu = factory.createMenu(StandardActions.COPY_FIELD_CONTENT);
+
+        // Ensure we never return null
+        if (copyFieldContentMenu == null) {


Using exceptions for normal control flow is not recommended. Instead of checking for null and throwing an exception, ensure that the method creating the menu never returns null.

What is this? Just remove the whole if block.

koppor · 2025-06-09T16:25:49Z

@yoasaaa This is not an issue, but an idea of you? The new sub menu adds new fields, which it is OK. However, could you more elaborate on the "why" of this change, please?

koppor · 2025-06-09T16:27:06Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/edit/CopyMoreAction.java

+        List<BibEntry> selectedBibEntries = stateManager.getSelectedEntries();
+
+        List<String> fieldValues = selectedBibEntries.stream()
+                                                     .filter(bibEntry -> bibEntry.getField(field).isPresent())


You need to du getFieldOrAlias IMHO.

Did you check for date handling? You know, there is year, month, day, and also date. If only year is present, what does date copy do? (It should copy the year -and I hope that getFieldOrAlias supports that)

koppor · 2025-06-09T16:28:04Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/edit/CopyMoreAction.java

+                                                     .filter(bibEntry -> bibEntry.getField(field).isPresent())
+                                                     .map(bibEntry -> bibEntry.getField(field).orElse(""))
+                                                     .filter(value -> !value.isEmpty())
+                                                     .collect(Collectors.toList());


Use Collectors.joining instead of String.join("\n", fieldValues); below.

koppor · 2025-06-09T16:28:56Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/edit/CopyMoreAction.java

+                                                       .filter(bibEntry ->
+                                                               bibEntry.getField(StandardField.JOURNAL).isPresent() ||
+                                                               bibEntry.getField(StandardField.JOURNALTITLE).isPresent())


Use getFieldOrAlias instead of this hack. - I think, the method can be removed completely

koppor · 2025-06-09T16:29:38Z

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

+        Menu copyFieldContentMenu = factory.createMenu(StandardActions.COPY_FIELD_CONTENT);
+
+        // Ensure we never return null
+        if (copyFieldContentMenu == null) {


What is this? Just remove the whole if block.

koppor · 2025-06-09T16:30:55Z

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

@@ -20,6 +20,12 @@ public enum StandardActions implements Action {
    COPY_CITATION_HTML(Localization.lang("Copy citation (html)"), KeyBinding.COPY_PREVIEW),
    COPY_CITATION_TEXT(Localization.lang("Copy citation (text)")),
    COPY_CITATION_PREVIEW(Localization.lang("Copy preview"), KeyBinding.COPY_PREVIEW),
+    COPY_FIELD_CONTENT(Localization.lang("Copy field content")),
+    COPY_FIELD_AUTHOR(Localization.lang("author")),


Is this ever displayed, the screenshots don't contain lower cased.

…ng and update required localization entries to JabRef_en.properties

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

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/edit/CopyMoreAction.java

trag-bot · 2025-06-10T12:22:59Z

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

@@ -178,6 +178,8 @@ private static Menu createCopySubMenu(ActionFactory factory,

        copySpecialMenu.getItems().addAll(
                factory.createMenuItem(StandardActions.COPY_TITLE, new CopyMoreAction(StandardActions.COPY_TITLE, dialogService, stateManager, clipBoardManager, preferences, abbreviationRepository)),
+                createCopyFieldContentSubMenu(factory, dialogService, stateManager, clipBoardManager, preferences, abbreviationRepository),


The method createCopyFieldContentSubMenu is added but lacks any null checks or use of Optional for its parameters, which could lead to NullPointerExceptions if any parameter is null.

yoasaaa · 2025-06-10T12:33:58Z

@yoasaaa This is not an issue, but an idea of you? The new sub menu adds new fields, which it is OK. However, could you more elaborate on the "why" of this change, please?

Yes, it’s not an existing issue. It is a small usability improvement I thought could be helpful. JabRef currently allows copying the title, but not other commonly used fields. From my experience, users often need to copy author names to search for their other publications, or copy keywords and abstracts for note-taking. I selected these fields (Author, Journal, Date, Keywords, Abstract) based on what I found most useful in my own experience.

Also, this is part of a university assignment where we're required to add a new feature to an open-source project.

jabref-machine · 2025-06-10T12:59:15Z

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trag-bot · 2025-06-10T13:00:35Z

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

yoasaaa added 3 commits June 8, 2025 17:42

feat: add 'Copy Field Content' submenu to entry context menu

9687367

fix: fix label case consistency, replace String.join with StringJoine…

38a72ce

…r in tests, add null safety check for createCopyFieldContentSubMenu method and use Localization.lang() for internationalization of field display names

feat: add localization keys for copy field content feature

56cb497

trag-bot bot reviewed Jun 9, 2025

View reviewed changes

koppor reviewed Jun 9, 2025

View reviewed changes

fix: use getFieldOrAlias(), replace String.join with Collectors.joini…

e07c314

…ng and update required localization entries to JabRef_en.properties