JabRef 4.1 Released 🎄

After more than two months of hard work, we are proud to release JabRef 4.1. Although 4.0 was imperfect, we needed to release it anyways, since more and more features of the previous version 3.8.2 stopped working. Since then we primarily focused on performance and memory issues, but were also able to add new features. Furthermore, the release also attracted some new contributors from the community and we are proud to see 12 new contributors since the last release. We are thankful for that and enjoy seeing the JabRef community growing!

Unfortunately, JabRef binaries are not digitally signed any more. We are working in a fix, but this will take some weeks to months. Until now, we used a certificate from Certum. Certum (by @asseco) used to offer Open Source Code Signing with a file-based certificate file. This is not possible any more: One needs a code signing hardware. This is especially bad for independent FOSS projects like ours, since other certificate providers have higher burdens (e.g., notarization of several documents) to obtain a hardware-free certificate, at much higher cost. Since we still want to sign all our builds and releases using cloud infrastructure, a cryptographic smart card is no option for us. Therefore, we will use our donations for obtaining a certificate that allows code signing with an encrypted file and we are confident that we will be able to obtain a new one soon. In the meantime, please check the installations instructions for your Operating System (especially MacOs), in case JabRef cannot be started.

We wish all JabRef users Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Changed

• We added the possibility to copy linked files from entries to a single output folder. #2539
• When you click the PDF icon in the file list of the entry editor, then the file is opened. #3491
• We added bracketed expresion support for file search patterns, import file name patterns and file directory patters, in addition to bibtexkey patterns.
• We now set the WM_CLASS of the UI to org-jabref-JabRefMain to allow certain Unix window managers to properly identify its windows
• In the File Annotation Tab, PDF files are now monitored for new or changed annotation. A manual reload is no longer necessary. #3292

Bug Fixes

• We fixed various reasons why JabRef would freeze.
• We fixed an issue where dropping a pdf on the entry table and renaming it triggered an exception. #3490
• We fixed an issue where automatically found files where not added with a relative paths when the bib file is in the same directory as the files. #3476
• We no longer allow to add a field multiple times in customized entry types and thereby fix an issue in the entry editor that resulted from having a field multiple times. #3046
• We fixed an issue where editing in the source tab would override content of other entries. #3352
• We fixed an issue where timestamps were not updated for changed entries. #2810

An overview of all new features and fixes can be found as usual in the changelog at GitHub.

Download Links

You can get the 4.1 version at Fosshub - or at the release section at GitHub.