citeproc-node

Setting up a standalone citeproc-node server

Step 1

Get citeproc-node

git clone --recursive https://github.com/zotero/citeproc-node.git
cd citeproc-node

Step 2

Start the server:

node lib/citeServer.js

If all is well, you will see:

info Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8085

However, you might see, instead, the following error:

...
Error: Unable to load shared library /blah/blah/contextify.node
...

If so, follow the instructions at the top of the error message, which on a Linux system might read something like this:

 To rebuild, go to the Contextify root folder and run
'node-waf distclean && node-waf configure build'.

So, do this:

cd node_modules/jsdom/node_modules/contextify/
node-waf distclean &&  node-waf configure build

If the command gives an error the first time, try it again. If that does not help, try this while you are still in the contextify directory:

cd .. && rm -r contextify
git clone https://github.com/brianmcd/contextify.git
cd contextify && npm rebuild

Step 3

Now to test the server using the sampledata.json file provided in the citeproc-node 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

Configuration parameters are specified in the citeServerConf.json file.

Running the tests

Start citation server

node ./lib/citeServer.js

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

node ./test/testallstyles.js

Included libraries

csl

Included as a Git submodule.

csl-locales

Included as a Git submodule.

citeproc-js

Thanks to citeproc-js taking nodejs into account it is now included as is as citeproc.js, and it should be possible to use updates or modifications to citeproc.js by simply replacing the file with a different build.

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!");

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