It's fairly common to find publications without authors -- for example, newspaper articles. The citation formats I'm familiar with frown on using terms like "Anon." to indicate that there is no author; the author's name should simply be left out.

However, the Bibliography module apparently doesn't let you create an entry without an author. One reason I consider this is a bug is that you can edit the "Author" field in common field types, and remove the "Required" flag. However, this doesn't actually do anything, as there is a test in biblio.module (biblio_validate() function): 

 if (!$node->biblio_authors) {
    form_set_error('biblio_authors', t('You must supply at least one author name
'));

How can I get around this?

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#7 biblio.patch607 bytesjohn bickar

Comments

rjerome’s picture

rjerome commented

Hmm, good point, I'll fix that.

Ron.

pathscollide’s picture

pathscollide commented

Hi Ron -- You're providing an amazing level of support for this module!

How would you recommend getting around this issue (i.e. how could I patch it) -- or could you let us know when you've patched the 4.7-dev branch? Is the latter basically safe to use?

Thanks!

rjerome’s picture

rjerome commented

If you just comment out those lines like this... 

/*
  if (!$node->biblio_authors) {
    form_set_error('biblio_authors', t('You must supply at least one author name'));
  }
*/

it should work without authors.
Ron.

john bickar’s picture

john bickar commented

I tried commenting out the lines you suggested, and I still cannot create a publication without an author. In my instance, I have imported publications from RefWorks (RIS format), and I have one without an author. When I got to change the publication type to a custom type (Journal) that I created, it will not let me change to that type without filling in the author(s) field. I get the following error message: "Authors field is required."

When I try unchecking the "required" checkbox in Biblio Settings>Type customization, the "required" checkbox re-checks itself after I save.

I'm using the 5.x dev version, BTW.

Thanks for all your hard work - Biblio is an awesome module!

john bickar’s picture

john bickar commented

EEBKC*

Administer>Site configuration>Biblio settings>Field defaults

Need to uncheck the author field's "required" checkbox for the biblio module as a whole before you can uncheck it for individual types.

:D

*(Error Exists Between Keyboard and Chair)

pathscollide’s picture

pathscollide commented
Version: 4.7.x-2.6 » 5.x-1.4

This inconvenient little bug still exists in the Drupal 5 branch.

john bickar’s picture

john bickar commented
Version: 5.x-1.4 » 5.x-1.9
Status: Active » Needs review
StatusFileSize
new biblio.patch607 bytes

Patch attached for Drupal 5.3, Biblio 5.x-1.9.

Helmut Neubauer’s picture

Helmut Neubauer commented
Version: 5.x-1.9 » 5.x-1.13

I've still the problem if I use the author field as common (not required).

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

subscribing

bekasu’s picture

bekasu commented

Upgrade to Biblio 6x.
Marking issue closed.

rjerome’s picture

rjerome commented
Status: Needs review » Closed (fixed)