Group names must be unique

[michael-siebers]

JabRef versions 3.8.2, 4.0-dev (snapshot--2017-08-16--master--37d4b2502)

I originally posted this as #1873. There I described two problems. One of these has been solved so the original issue was closed. As the other still prevails I create a new issue.

General Problem: Group memberships are decided by name only. If there are two groups with the same name (anywhere in the group tree) an entry can either be a member of all these groups or a member of none.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create two groups with the same name.
2. Assign an entry to one of the groups.

Example Files:
for version 3.8.2
for version 4.0

[lenhard]

Hi @cogsys-michael

Disallowing duplicate group names is by design. There is a lengthy discussion on this in #1495 and there should at least be a warning message when you try to create a group with a duplicate name in the current dev version.

We can leave this issue open, because closed issues are somehow hard to find via a search engine. However, I am afraid that this will not be changed unless someone steps forward and implements it. This is your chance to have a big impact on the project!

[michael-siebers]

Hi @lenhard

I was not aware of the discussion in #1495. Now that I have read up, I got your point.

I can confirm that there is a warning message in the current dev version when creating a group with a duplicate name. However, you may think about some warning message when opening a bib with duplicate group names. As of now, that is silently ignored (keeping all groups).

And, when I find the time I will grab my chance.

[lenhard]

Thanks for the feedback!

I agree that having a warning message about duplicate group names when opening a file would be a good thing. Plus, it might not be too hard to implement. Let's use this issue to track the progress on that as well.

[stefan-kolb]

I have tested the described behavior, but cannot reproduce it.
There is a warning message if there already exists a duplicate.

[OlafKleinBerlin]

Helllo,
I am sorry, but I have to disagree. I have created a file contain two groups with subgroups whose name coincide:
group-testing-bad.txt
While loading this file (after changing type back to bib) into jabref 4.3.1, I could **not observe ** any warning message. Therefore, I suggest to re open this issue.