1. Introduction
    1. Main Features
    2. Changes
    3. Installation
      1. Short installation
        1. Note for users of Bibus < 1.0
        2. Windows
          1. With OpenOffice.org > 1.9.x
          2. With OpenOffice.org 1.1.x
        3. GNU/Linux
          1. Debian packages
            1. Using OOo1.1.x
            2. Using OOo2.0
          2. Using python2.2 or narrow python2.3 (UCS-2)
          3. Using wide python2.3 (UCS-4)
      2. Complete installation
        1. GNU/Linux
      3. Required extensions
      4. Optional extensions
    4. Starting Bibus

Introduction

Bibus is a bibliographic database.
It has been developed with OpenOffice.org (http://www.openoffice.org/) in mind. This means that the database is modeled on OpenOffice.org bibliographic database engine. As such it has the features and most of the limitations of this format. However, one of the most annoying limitation which is the restriction to 80 characters of any field, has been addressed in bibus where the fields are 255 character long (or even unlimited, depending on the database engine used).
However, Bibus is in development and there are many evolutions planed for the OpenOffice.org bibliographic engine. Bibus will try to evolve alongside these changes.
Is Bibus stable enough for using it on a daily basis? As usual, Bibus is distributed WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY and you must use it at your own risk. However, since the heart of Bibus is the database engine (MySQL and SQLite) and since it is not possible to delete a reference in Bibus, I think the risk to get a catastrophic crash is very low. You must however remember to make regular backups of the database. If you use SQLite, you just have to copy the database file. If you use MySQL the easiest way is probably to use mysqldump (mysqldump -p Biblio > biblio.sql).

Main Features

Changes

For a complete listing of the changes, see CHANGELOG.

Note added after 1.1.0 release:
* contrary to what is said in the Changelog file, bibus is NOT COMPATIBLE with python-sqlite version 2.

1.1.0
* Compatible with OOo2.0 and 1.1
* Compatible with python-sqlite2
* Compatible with MySQL4.1
* Fast display of long lists
* BibTeX import from Nigel Sim <nigel.sim@jcu.edu.au>
* New translations (partial)
* Portugese translation by Vitor Figueiro <vfigueiro@gocial.pt>
* chinese translation by <max.ouyang@gmail.com>
* spanish translation by Pablo Rodriguez <ousia@gmx.net>
* German translation by Andreas Morasch <a.mor@web.de>
* Czech translation by Daniel Rajdl <rajdl@fnplzen.cz>
* Gestion of duplicates during import
* Complete rewrite of the OOo connection for portability and speed
1.0.0
* Added new styles for field formatting (free combination of bold, italic, underline, caps, smallcaps)
* New command to go to the current doc in OpenOffice
* BibliograpicType is now displayed as 'ARTICLE', 'BOOK', etc... instead of 0,1,2,...
* Double clicking a imported references allows to see all the fields
* Possibility to import references without saving them first
* Column width may now be fixed
* reference list sorting improved (up/down + arrow)
pre1.0.0
* portugese translation
* complete styles
* work with wxPython2.5
* work with mysql-python 1.1.x
* work with PySQLite 1.1.x
* remember window position and size
* simplified install (to be improved)
* many bug fixes
0.9.0
* Greatly improved styles
* First connection wizard to help setting Bibus
* First rudimentary author-date implementation
0.8.2
* maintenance release
0.8.1
* Added connection with OpenOffice.org using Pipe (in addition to TCP/IP)
* tested on Windows98, 2000 and linux

0.8.0
* First public release
* Tested on debian Gnu/linux unstable and Windows2000

Installation

Short installation

Note for users of Bibus < 1.0

The installation procedure has changed. You can still start Bibus as previously but the new procedure is more flexible. Delete the environment variable that you set for Bibus <1 then run <Bibus>/Setup/setup.py

Windows

With OpenOffice.org > 1.9.x
With OpenOffice.org 1.1.x

GNU/Linux

Debian packages
Starting with Bibus-1.0.0 you can install Bibus using apt-get. You should be able to use either OOo1.1.x or OOo2.0.
OOo2.0 has just been released in Debian unstable. For the moment you must donwload packages from the bibus site but I'm planing to make them available in the futur directly in Debian Unstable repository.
(You can replace 'switch.dl.sourceforge.net' with the address of a Sourceforge mirror near you)
Using OOo1.1.x
Using OOo2.0
Openoffice.org2.0 is available in Debian unstable, you must thus run unstable to install bibus with OOo2.
There is a conflict between the old openoffice-pyuno package available with bibus1.0 and the new python-uno package available in Debian unstable. This conflict cannot be solved directly by apt or Synaptic.
Using python2.2 or narrow python2.3 (UCS-2)
Using wide python2.3 (UCS-4)

Since python2.3, python uses UCS4 encoding for unicode strings by default. This is the case with Debian, Mandrake10 and presumably RedHat. Since OpenOffice.org use UCS2 to maintain java compatibility, you must use a UCS4 enabled python-uno bridge to communicate with OpenOffice.org. This was not possible until recently because it was not possible to compile the bridge in this mode. It is now possible with the current cvs version of OpenOffice.org.
I compiled the pyuno bridge on my Debian system using the system python in UCS4 mode and it seems to work very well. If you feel adventurous and want to have a try, do the following.
These instructions are for a Debian system but they may be easily adapted on another linux. Send me your procedure.

Troubleshouting:
pyuno-cvs-py23-ucs4 has been compiled on my Debian system using the system libraries. It depends on 3 system shared libraries that you must install on your system:

The two first libraries are presumably already present in your linux system but may have a different name and you may need to make a symbolic link for instance in your OpenOffice.org/program directory
The first library (libstlport) may require installing a package. In Debian it is libstlport4.6

Complete installation

Bibus is entirely written in Python and requires several extensions to give it its full power. The installation procedure is described in the files:

GNU/Linux

Follows the instructions included in LinuxInstall.html

WARNING: the following docs have not been upgraded for Bibus-1.0.0. Since the installation procedure has evolved, use them with caution then use the Short installation procedure.

Required extensions

Optional extensions