Update DOI in general tab should trigger a refresh after switching to citations tab

[LangInteger]

Screen.Recording.2025-12-31.at.03.15.26.mov

Is your suggestion for improvement related to a problem? Please describe.

After updating the DOI in the General tab in a BibEntry, old papers cited by the file and papers that cite this file are still shown after switching to the Citations tab. To reproduce the problem, follow the steps (as in the video):

• new empty library
• add example entry
• go to general tab to check the original DOI is there
• go to citations tab. The papers cited by the file and papers that cite this file will be automatically loaded
• go to general tab, update the DOI to another different one, e.g., 10.1145/782941.782993
• go to citations tab, the papers cited by the file and papers that cite this file are still about the old DOI
• the user can switch the fetcher to trigger a refresh for papers cited by the file, while there is no way to refresh papers that cite this file

Describe the solution you'd like

After the DOI is updated, the data fetcher used earlier in citations tabs should automatically search papers cited by the file and papers that cite this file again.

Additional context
N/A

[LilianMJ]

Hi, I’d like to work on this. Could you assign it to me?

[jabref-machine]

👋 Hey @LilianMJ, looks like you’re eager to work on this issue — great! 🎉 It also looks like you don't know how to assign issues to yourself. Please read our CONTRIBUTING.md to find out how. It will also guide you in other aspects of contributing to JabRef.

[LilianMJ]

/assign-me

[jabref-machine]

👋 Hey @LilianMJ, thank you for your interest in this issue! 🎉

We're excited to have you on board. Start by exploring our Contributing guidelines, and set up your local development workspace by following the steps in our workspace setup guidelines to get started smoothly.

For questions on JabRef functionality, you can consult the JabRef Guru. For questions related to the codebase, please start using DeepWiki.

In case you encounter failing tests during development, please check our developer FAQs!

Still facing issues or having more questions? Feel free to ask here on GitHub or on JabRef's Gitter chat. Please don't hesitate to open a (draft) pull request early on to show the direction you are heading towards if unsure.

Happy coding! 🚀

[LilianMJ]

@LangInteger

Could you point me to the class/method that handles the refresh/reload of the Citations tab?

I'm looking into a solution for #14769 (auto-refresh after DOI change in General tab).

Thanks for your help!

[LangInteger]

@LilianMJ Hi, thanks for asking.

I found this problem when I was working in a related issue #14757. My code change is at #14764. You can find the related code in #14764.

However, I did not have a solution in my mind to trigger such refresh/reload when there is a change happens in another tab (the DOI field).

I'd like to invite @calixtus and @subhramit for a discussion. Is there a standard pattern to achieve such functionality (this looks like event publishing and subscribing to me) in JabRef?

[calixtus]

Properties and bindings?

[LangInteger]

Properties and bindings?

@calixtus Thanks
@LilianMJ In case you are not familiar with the developer doc, here is the link to the properties and bindings: https://devdocs.jabref.org/code-howtos/javafx.html#properties-and-bindings