Restart search button in citation-relation panel should bypass the cache

[LangInteger]

User description

Closes #14757

I have made one change:
- 1. Only show the "Restart search" button when the fetch failed

• 2. Let the “Restart search” button to bypass the cache

Steps to test

• 1. start -> New empty library
• 2. add example entry
• 3. only the only newly added entry
• 4. check DOI exists in the General panel
• 5. switch to Citations panel
  • both the "cite" and "cited by" have a restart search button
  • click the button, the search will start with bypassing local cache

Please refer to the video below:

test2.mov

Mandatory checks

• I own the copyright of the code submitted and I license it under the MIT license
• I manually tested my changes in running JabRef (always required)
• [/] I added JUnit tests for changes (if applicable)
• I added screenshots in the PR description (if change is visible to the user)
• I described the change in CHANGELOG.md in a way that is understandable for the average user (if change is visible to the user)
• [/] I checked the user 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 updating file(s) in https://github.com/JabRef/user-documentation/tree/main/en.

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PR Type

Bug fix

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Description

• Only show restart search button when citation fetch fails

• Trigger searches for both cite and cited sides when switching fetchers

• Hide refresh button on successful search completion

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Diagram Walkthrough

flowchart LR
  A["Fetcher Changed"] --> B["Search Both Sides"]
  B --> C["Cite Search"]
  B --> D["Cited By Search"]
  C --> E{Success?}
  D --> E
  E -->|Yes| F["Hide Refresh Button"]
  E -->|No| G["Show Refresh Button"]
  F --> H["Show Import Button"]
  G --> H

Loading

File Walkthrough

	Relevant files
Bug fix	CitationRelationsTab.java Fix dual-side search and refresh button visibility              jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/entryeditor/citationrelationtab/CitationRelationsTab.java Added second searchForRelations call to trigger searches for both cite and cited sides when fetcher changes Modified onSearchForRelationsSucceed to hide refresh button on successful search completion Removed refresh button from being shown after successful search results +3/-2
Documentation	CHANGELOG.md Document citation-relation panel fixes                                      CHANGELOG.md Added bullet point formatting to existing fix entry Added new changelog entry documenting the citation-relation panel fix for issue "Restart search" should restart search #14757 +2/-1

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🟢	No security concerns identified No security vulnerabilities detected by AI analysis. Human verification advised for critical code.
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🟡	🎫 #13109 🔴 Add pseudonymization functionality to the CLI Make org.jabref.logic.pseudonymization.Pseudonymization available on the command line interface Implement similar CLI experience as the consistency check Follow the implementation pattern of org.jabref.cli.CheckConsistency class
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🏷️ - Compliance label

[qodo-free-for-open-source-projects]

PR Code Suggestions ✨

Explore these optional code suggestions:

Category	Suggestion	Impact
Possible issue	Cancel both background search tasks Cancel the citedByTask in addition to the citingTask when the citation fetcher changes. This prevents potential race conditions and unnecessary background processing. jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/entryeditor/citationrelationtab/CitationRelationsTab.java [467-473] // Cancel any running searches so they don't continue with the old fetcher if (citingTask != null && !citingTask.isCancelled()) { citingTask.cancel(); +} +if (citedByTask != null && !citedByTask.isCancelled()) { + citedByTask.cancel(); } entryEditorPreferences.setCitationFetcherType(newValue); searchForRelations(citingComponents, citedByComponents); searchForRelations(citedByComponents, citingComponents); [To ensure code accuracy, apply this suggestion manually] Suggestion importance[1-10]: 8 __ Why: The suggestion correctly identifies that when the fetcher is changed, the citedByTask is not cancelled, unlike the citingTask. This could lead to unnecessary resource usage and potential race conditions, as both tasks are re-triggered by the PR's changes.	Medium
Update

[calixtus]

I think this PR does not closes the issue. The issue description states:

If citations were successfully (!) fetched, there is no possibility to "Restart" the search. The button just refreshes the display.

This PR disables the restart button after the citations have been fetched.

[LangInteger]

I think this PR does not closes the issue. The issue description states:

If citations were successfully (!) fetched, there is no possibility to "Restart" the search. The button just refreshes the display.

This PR disables the restart button after the citations have been fetched.

@calixtus

The issue states that after citations are successfully fetched, there is no real possibility to “Restart” the search, and the button becomes misleading.

Since a restart is not supported in that state, this PR hides/disables the button once the fetch succeeds and only shows it when an error occurs during the fetch process.

I’m happy to consider alternative approaches if you have a different suggestion in mind.

[calixtus]

I see. What if the user selects the other provider to search for citations?

[LangInteger]

I see. What if the user selects the other provider to search for citations?

Screen.Recording.2025-12-31.at.01.37.26.mov

The left citation side will be refreshed, and the restart button may appear again if that refresh fails.
Check the above video for this scenario.

[calixtus]

@koppor is this the behavior you desire? I think it's ok, since the result of a search for citations probably won't change that quickly

[calixtus]

Btw the title of the issue was " 'Restart search" should restart search"

[github-actions]

Your pull request conflicts with the target branch.

Please merge with your code. For a step-by-step guide to resolve merge conflicts, see https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/addressing-merge-conflicts/resolving-a-merge-conflict-using-the-command-line.

[LangInteger]

switch the fetcher will not trigger refresh from the remote

[LangInteger]

the last parameter has been updated to false

[subhramit]

Hey @LangInteger !
is this PR ready for review?

[LangInteger]

@subhramit Hi, yes this PR is ready for review. As mentioned in the introduction, it does two things:

• 1. Only show the "Restart search" button when the fetch failed
• 2. Let the “Restart search” button to bypass the cache

However, I do want to confirm with @koppor , do you want both changes, or the second one is enough?

[koppor]

2. Let the “Restart search” button to bypass the cache

Only this, because the user might want to see if there are new cites.

[LangInteger]

2. Let the “Restart search” button to bypass the cache

Only this, because the user might want to see if there are new cites.

@koppor Ok. I have removed changes for 1.
The change is not unit-test friendly. So I did not add any test cases. Is that ok?

[koppor]

The change is not unit-test friendly. So I did not add any test cases. Is that ok?

Yes, this is OK. -- UI tests are hard. If you are curious, you could try out http://www.sikulix.com/ or https://pyguibot.wordpress.com/. But both are not maintained currently, but promising 😅

Please merge upstream/main and resolve the merge conflicts. @LangInteger

[koppor]

Maybe more user targed:

Suggested change

	- Restart search button in citation-relation panel should bypass the cache [#14757](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/14757)
	- Restart search button in citation-relation panel now refreshes using external services. [#14757](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/14757)

[LangInteger]

udpated

[LangInteger]

@koppor

• comments added. I agree I should leave those comments in source code instead of only in the PR
• I will try UI test http://www.sikulix.com/ or https://pyguibot.wordpress.com/ when I have time
• upstream/main merged
• changelog updated

After merging upstream/main, I have to add the file jablib/src/main/resources/ltwa/ltwa_20210702.csv on my local machine to run the jabgui. This is done by executing:

xx@Mac-mini jabref % git submodule update --init --remote
Submodule 'abbrv.jabref.org' (https://github.com/JabRef/abbrv.jabref.org.git) registered for path 'jablib/src/main/abbrv.jabref.org'
Submodule 'csl-locales' (https://github.com/citation-style-language/locales.git) registered for path 'jablib/src/main/resources/csl-locales'
Submodule 'csl-styles' (https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles.git) registered for path 'jablib/src/main/resources/csl-styles'
Submodule 'jablib/src/main/resources/ltwa' (https://github.com/JabRef/ltwa.git) registered for path 'jablib/src/main/resources/ltwa'
Cloning into '/Users/liulang/gitrepo/github/jabref/jablib/src/main/abbrv.jabref.org'...
Cloning into '/Users/liulang/gitrepo/github/jabref/jablib/src/main/resources/csl-locales'...
Cloning into '/Users/liulang/gitrepo/github/jabref/jablib/src/main/resources/csl-styles'...
Cloning into '/Users/liulang/gitrepo/github/jabref/jablib/src/main/resources/ltwa'...
Submodule path 'jablib/src/main/abbrv.jabref.org': checked out '91f15ce2f885b735149fd65bdfcc869b1ea22fa1'
Submodule path 'jablib/src/main/resources/csl-locales': checked out 'cc53ee1fb4bc425898329b112b34aff250f43321'
Submodule path 'jablib/src/main/resources/csl-styles': checked out '8c60c99fb51e64ac0c510451555f20878e7aa531'
Submodule path 'jablib/src/main/resources/ltwa': checked out '880536620bc5c42f48647fb66c87fec181e107d3'

The file is added to the repo's submodule in #14892. If the exist of ltwa_20210702.csv becomes a prerequisite for the jabgui gradle run task, does that mean the git submodule command should be included in the developer guilde - setup a local workspace?

[koppor]

* I will try UI test [http://www.sikulix.com](http://www.sikulix.com/) or [pyguibot.wordpress.com](https://pyguibot.wordpress.com/) when I have time

Nice!

After merging upstream/main, I have to add the file jablib/src/main/resources/ltwa/ltwa_20210702.csv on my local machine to run the jabgui.

Yes

Simply

git submodule init --update

does the job. We posted it into the community chat (gitter.im)

does that mean the git submodule command should be included

Thank you for checking - but no

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The issue only arises for contributors already having a clone. For newcomers --recurse-submodules is enough.