Key generator not so automatic

JabRef 5.0-dev–snapshot–2019-01-05–master–e1cfec9c5 Windows 10 10.0 amd64 Java 1.8.0_172

I have enabled the automatic key generator with the following pattern:

[auth:lower]_[veryshorttitle:lower]_[year]

Whenever I add a new entry manually, starting with entry of Author, then Title, and Date, the resulting key generated is always __. I always need to delete this in order to have the key re-generated.

What should be the desired operation is that as soon as an entry is entered, that is relevant for the bibkey generated, the key should be automatically re-generated. Even if some entry points are still missing. I am not sure though whether this re-generation should occur only one leaves a field. If the re-generation is continuous, it might cause some higher CPU usage, I assume, but it would be nice to have it continuously scanned. Another issue might be how to respect once edited keys to remain the same.

[tobiasdiez]

I see where you are coming from but I believe that automatically updating leads to more frustration. It’s a good idea when you add new entries. However, imagine you edit older ones and then your latex build fails just because you changed a year and forgot that the bibtexkey updates automatically… For this reason, I think, editing the key should be conscious process.

That being said, with your configuration you should be able to overwrite the key without the need to clear the field before. Is this not working for you?

[Siedlerchr]

Do you have “Overwrite existing keys” enabled? Then you an simply press CTRL + G to regenerate the key