The Kitchin Research Group

I have setup a reftex citation format that inserts a cite link using reftex like this.

(eval-after-load 'reftex-vars
  '(progn
      (add-to-list 'reftex-cite-format-builtin
                   '(org "Org-mode citation"
                         ((?\C-m . "cite:%l"))))))

I mostly like this, but it does not let me add citations to an existing citation; doing that leads to the insertion of an additional cite within the citation, which is an error. One way to make this simple is to add another cite format which simple returns the selected keys. You would use this with the cursor at the end of the link, and it will just append the results.

(add-to-list 'reftex-cite-format-builtin
                   '(org "Org-mode citation"
                         ((?\C-m . "cite:%l")
			  (?a . ",%l"))))

That actually works nicely. I would like a better approach though, that involves less keywork. Ideally, a single function that does what I want, which is when on a link, append to it, and otherwise insert a new citation link. Today I will develop a function that fixes that problem.

(defun insert-cite-link ()
  (interactive)
  (let* ((object (org-element-context))
	 (link-string-beginning (org-element-property :begin object))
	 (link-string-end (org-element-property :end object))
	 (path (org-element-property :path object)))    
    (if (and (equal (org-element-type object) 'link) 
               (equal (org-element-property :type object) "cite"))
	(progn
	  (goto-char link-string-end)
	  (insert (concat "," (mapconcat 'identity (reftex-citation t ?a) ","))))
      (insert (concat "cite:" (mapconcat 'identity (reftex-citation t) ",")))
      )))

That function is it! Org-mode just got a lot better. That function only puts a cite link in, but since that is all I use 99.99+% of the time, it works fine for me!

Copyright (C) 2014 by John Kitchin. See the License for information about copying.

org-mode source

Org-mode version = 8.2.6