problems using apa6e with biblatex-apa

Question

As in apa6e and biblatex-apa I'm trying to use apa6e and biblatex-apa together and having problems.

Before I arrived at these problems, over the course of many hours of much reading, I first managed to get BibTeX working as expected in a simple input file (by modifying sample2e.tex). Then I managed to get apa6e working as expected based on the author's example in apa6e.pdf (which uses apacite). But when I try to get apa6e working with biblatex-apa, I end up with problems.

Here's my input file:

\documentclass{apa6e}

\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

% biblatex
\usepackage[style=apa]{biblatex}
\bibliography{biblatex-apa-test-references}

\title{An Example Document}
\shorttitle{Psychology: the end}
\author{Silly Name} 
\authornote{\dots}
\abstract{\dots}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

This is an example input\cite{7.01:2} file.  Comparing it with
the output it generates can show you\cite{7.01:3a} how to
produce a simple document of your own.

\printbibliography

\end{document}

Attempting to typeset this in TeXShop by running LaTeX, then BiBTeX (which based on console messages, does seem to correctly call biblatex rather than BiBTeX), then LaTeX again, I get the following error message which I am having great difficulty (no doubt due to my lack of experience with TeX and co.) decoding.

(./test6.aux) (/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/psnfss/ot1ptm.fd)
*geometry* driver: auto-detecting
*geometry* detected driver: pdftex
(./test6.bbl)
Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 18--18
 []\OT1/ptm/m/n/12 An Ex-am-ple Doc-u-ment 

Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 18--18
 []\OT1/ptm/m/n/12 Silly Name 

Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 18--18
 []\OT1/ptm/m/n/12 Author Note 
[1{/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-var/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}]
Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 18--18
 []\OT1/ptm/m/n/12 Abstract 
[2]
Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 18--18
 []\OT1/ptm/m/n/12 An Ex-am-ple Doc-u-ment 

Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 25--25
 []\OT1/ptm/b/n/12 References 
./test6.tex:25: Undefined control sequence.
<argument> \mkbibdateapalongextra 
(/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/psnfss/ot1pcr.fd)
(/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/psnfss/ot1ztmcm.fd)
(/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/psnfss/omlztmcm.fd)
(/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/psnfss/omsztmcm.fd)
(/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/psnfss/omxztmcm.fd)
Overfull \hbox (8.03372pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 25--25
[][]  \OT1/ptm/m/n/12 Gilbert, D. G., Mc-Cler-non, J. F., Ra-bi-novich, N. E., 
Sugai, C., Plath, L. C., As-gaard, G., ... Botros, 
./test6.tex:25: Undefined control sequence.
<argument> \mkbibdateapalongextra 
                                  {year}{month}{day}\iffieldundef {endyear}{...
l.25

I tried many different sources in several different *.bib files before eventually trying the .bib database shown above and included with biblatex-apa. All trials gave a similar error.

Can someone help? I'm impressed that the poster above was able to do anything with apa6e and biblatex-apa, and if I only had her problem of having the reference page title show up in bold, I'd be really happy.

If you need to know, my tools are from a fresh installation of MacTeX that I immediately updated using the TeX Live Utility. I've checked my versions for apa6e (v0.3) and biblatex-apa (v4.2), and I think these are current.

Answer 1

The problem with your sample document is that you are missing the line

\DeclareLanguageMapping{american}{american-apa}

This should appear after you have loaded biblatex.

If you are still having problems with your sample document, the following sample document works correctly with a standard MacTeX/TeXShop setup. (Although I was able to get your example to work.) Try this and see if it works for you. The {filecontents} environment is just a way of including a specific bib file within the source document. You wouldn't need it for your actual document.

\documentclass[endnotes]{apa6e}
\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes} 
\usepackage[style=apa]{biblatex} 
\DeclareLanguageMapping{american}{american-apa}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\title{A title}
\author{An Author}
\shorttitle{A title}
\authornote{}
\abstract{An abstract}

\begin{filecontents}{apa-test-bib.bib}
@book{Saussure1995,
    Author = {Ferdinand de Saussure},
    Origyear = {1916},
    Publisher = {Payot},
    Title = {Cours de Linguistique G{\'e}n{\'e}rale},
    Year = {1995}}

@book{Labov1972,
    Address = {Philadelphia},
    Author = {William Labov},
    Publisher = {University of Pennsylvania Press},
    Title = {Sociolinguistic Patterns},
    Year = {1972}}

\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{apa-test-bib.bib}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

This is some text. \cite{Saussure1995,Labov1972}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Answer 2

If using polyglossia (needed if using luaLaTeX/XeTeX for the Times New Roman TTF fonts), the line becomes:

\DeclareLanguageMapping{english}{english-apa}

(Source: http://mirrors.ucr.ac.cr/CTAN/macros/latex/contrib/biblatex-contrib/biblatex-apa/biblatex-apa.pdf, pg 5)

I am Using LyX with biblatex, and my preamble is:

\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{english}
\usepackage[style=apa, natbib=true, sortcites=true, sorting=ynt, backend=biber]{biblatex}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{english}{english-apa}
\addbibresource{References.bib}

If using LyX - make sure to remove the default loaded Natbibapa from the Modules under Document -> Settings. I have created a Biblatex-citation-styles module as given at: https://wiki.lyx.org/BibTeX/Biblatex

#\DeclareLyXModule{Biblatex-citation-styles}
#DescriptionBegin
#A prerequisite for using the biblatex package. This module simply
#enables the author/year citation styles without actually loading natbib.
#Biblatex itself needs to be loaded manually. Cf.
#http://wiki.lyx.org/BibTeX/Biblatex
#DescriptionEnd

Format 11

# this is biblatex actually
Provides natbib         1

The is saved as biblatex.module under ~/.lyx/layouts