How to automatically include PDFs from my bib file

Question

I use the BIB list generated by Mendeley, with contains an item called "file" with the path to the PDF of each entry.

I need to generate a compilation of papers and I would like to do it automatically in the following manner.

\usepackage{biblatex}
\usepackage{pdfpages}

\fullcite{foo}
\includepdf{\readfilefrom{foo}}.

So, what I'm looking for is a function that given a bib item, it will return the path saved in the file entry of my bib file.

Example of bib entry:

@inproceedings{foo,
address = {Aachen, Germany},
author = {Masiero, Bruno },
booktitle = {DAGA},
file = {:D\:/Users/masiero/Documents/My Dropbox/Literature/pdf/Masiero, Fels_2011_Equalization for Binaural Synthesis with Headphone.pdf:pdf},
month = mar,
title = {Equalization for Binaural Synthesis with Headphone},
year = {2011}
}

Some other examples of the file field would be:

file = {:D\:/Users/masiero/Documents/My Dropbox/Literature/pdf/Masiero, Pelzer\_2010\_Study of Phase Reconstruction Methods Employed at Room Acoustic Simulation.pdf:pdf},

file = {:D\:/Users/masiero/Documents/My Dropbox/Literature/pdf/Masiero, Pollow\_2010\_A review of the compressive sampling framework in the lights of spherical harmonics applications to distributed spherical arrays.pdf:pdf},

file = {::D\:/Users/masiero/Documents/My Dropbox/Literature/pdf/Masiero, Pollow, Fels\_2011\_Design of a Fast Broadband Individual Head-Related Transfer Function Measurement System.pdf:pdf},

file = {:D\:/Users/masiero/Documents/My Dropbox/Literature/pdf/Masiero, Qiu\_2009\_Two Listeners Crosstalk Cancellation System Modelled by Four Point Sources and Two Rigid Spheres.pdf:pdf},

file = {:D\:/Users/masiero/Documents/My Dropbox/Literature/pdf/Masiero, Ribeiro, Nascimento\_2008\_Transducer Placement Strategy for Active Noise Control of Power Transformers\_Fortschritte der Akustik -- DAGA.pdf:pdf},

Answer 1

Assuming you file field brings only the exact location of a file without spaces, a possible solution with biblatex and biber would be:

1. Remap (following Audrey's answer to Add new field to biblatex entries) the file field into a custom field biber and biblatex can understand (e.g. usera);
2. Create a bibmacro that calls includepdf (from the pdfpages package);
3. Append that to cite bibmacro (or create a new cite command).

First, I created a foo.pdf file from the following .tex file (in my /tmp/ dir):

\documentclass{standalone}
\begin{document}
Foooooooooo!
\end{document}

Then I created a MWE:

\documentclass{article}

% This is to create our dummy bib file
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
  @article{foo,
    author = {A. Author},
    title = {Title},
    journal = {A Journal},
    volume = {x},
    year = {2012},
    file = {/tmp/foo.pdf}
    }
\end{filecontents}% end bib file
                  % (change the pdf location accordingly)

\usepackage[style=verbose,backend=biber]{biblatex}% I'm used to verbose style;
                                                  % with numeric, the result is weird.
  \addbibresource{\jobname.bib}% Loads the bib file created with filecontents (above)

% This changes a 'file' field into a 'usera' field which biber\biblatex can understand:
\DeclareSourcemap{% I took this from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/65403/5872
  \maps[datatype=bibtex]{
    \map{
      \step[fieldsource=file,fieldtarget=usera]
      }
    }
  }

\usepackage{pdfpages}% This package allows us to include pdf files (or pages)

% We create a bibmacro to include the pdf...
\newbibmacro{file}{%
  \iffieldundef{usera}{}{%
    \includepdf{\thefield{usera}}
  }}

\usepackage{xpatch}% This package allows us to patch (bib)macros

% ... and then we tell the 'cite' bibmacro to call it:
\xapptobibmacro{cite}%
  {\usebibmacro{file}}{}{}

\begin{document}

\cite{foo}

\end{document}

And here's the output (Sorry, I don't know how to handle these images very well yet, I tried to at least crop it):

EDIT: Instead of patching the cite' bibmacro withxpatch`, you can also define a new citation command, say:

\DeclareCiteCommand{\fullcite}[]
  {\usebibmacro{prenote}}
  {\usebibmacro{citeindex}%
   \usebibmacro{cite}
   \usebibmacro{file}}
  {\multicitedelim}
  {\usebibmacro{postnote}}
\DeclareMultiCiteCommand{\fullcites}{\fullcite}{\multicitedelim}