Biber, Biblatex, and APA Style

Question

I am trying to use biblatex, biblatex-apa, and biber in my document, but I think the dreaded biblatex update from last year or so is tripping me up.

My case is most like this one, but I cannot use the suggested answer to change my backend to bibtex, as biblatex-apa requires biber be the backend. However, when I do change the backend to bibtex and don't use the APA style, it compiles without error, though not in the format necessary for the journal.

Ideally I'd like help making these programs, biber, biblatex-apa, and biblatex play nice with my XeLaTeX (2016), but I guess if there's a comparable way of getting APA-like or similar enough formatting while using backend=bibtex, that would be okay too.

Thank you!

Sample document text:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[style=apa, backend=biber]{biblatex}
\DeclareLanguageMapping{american}{american-apa}
\addbibresource{mybib.bib}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\cite{foo}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

The code generated when compiled is like so:

This is XeTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-0.99996 (TeX Live 2016) (preloaded format=xelatex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./xz-zz-xing.tex
LaTeX2e <2016/03/31> patch level 3
Babel <3.9r> and hyphenation patterns for 3 language(s) loaded.
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
Document Class: article 2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size12.clo))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/geometry/geometry.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/keyval.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifpdf.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifvtex.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ifxetex/ifxetex.sty))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/xecjk/xeCJK.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3kernel/expl3.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3kernel/expl3-code.tex)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3kernel/l3xdvipdfmx.def))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3packages/xtemplate/xtemplate.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3packages/xparse/xparse.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3packages/l3keys2e/l3keys2e.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/fontspec/fontspec.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/fontspec/fontspec-xetex.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/fontenc.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/euenc/eu1enc.def)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/euenc/eu1lmr.fd))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/xunicode/xunicode.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/tipa/t3enc.def
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/euenc/eu1lmss.fd))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/graphicx.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/graphics.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/trig.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-cfg/graphics.cfg)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-def/xetex.def))))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/fontspec/fontspec.cfg)))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/xecjk/xunicode-addon.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/xunicode/xunicode.sty
*** Reloading Xunicode for encoding 'EU1' ***
) (/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/xecjk/xunicode-extra.def)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/xecjk/xeCJK.cfg))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/babel.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel-english/english.ldf
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/babel.def
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/xebabel.def))))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/csquotes/csquotes.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/etoolbox/etoolbox.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/csquotes/csquotes.def)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/csquotes/csquotes.cfg))
(/usr/share/texmf-site/tex/latex/biblatex/biblatex.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/iftex/iftex.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/pdftexcmds.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/infwarerr.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifluatex.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ltxcmds.sty))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/oberdiek/kvoptions.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/kvsetkeys.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/etexcmds.sty)))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/logreq/logreq.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/logreq/logreq.def))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ifthen.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/url/url.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/xstring/xstring.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/xstring/xstring.tex))
(/usr/share/texmf-site/tex/latex/biblatex/blx-dm.def)
(/usr/share/texmf-site/tex/latex/biblatex-apa/dbx/apa.dbx)
(/usr/share/texmf-site/tex/latex/biblatex/blx-compat.def)
(/usr/share/texmf-site/tex/latex/biblatex/biblatex.def)
(/usr/share/texmf-site/tex/latex/biblatex-apa/bbx/apa.bbx
(/usr/share/texmf-site/tex/latex/biblatex/bbx/standard.bbx)
! Illegal parameter number in definition of \blx@defformat@d.
<to be read again> 
                   3
l.368 ...{\usebibmacro{name:apa:last-first}{#1}{#3
                                                  }{#4}{#5}{#7}?}}
? 
! Illegal parameter number in definition of \blx@defformat@d.
<to be read again> 
                   4
l.368 ...ebibmacro{name:apa:last-first}{#1}{#3}{#4
                                                  }{#5}{#7}?}}
? 
! Illegal parameter number in definition of \blx@defformat@d.
<to be read again> 
                   5
l.368 ...macro{name:apa:last-first}{#1}{#3}{#4}{#5
                                                  }{#7}?}}
? 

It carries on like that for many more lines until it decides to start tackling the document, which compiles without more problems, but with a wacky bibliography.

Also, when I run biber, I get lots of warnings but no errors, and there is not a compatibility issue, as my biblatex is 3.4r-1, and my biber is 2.5, which are compatible according to the compatibility matrix in the PDF documentation.

I hope this is enough information to get some help!

Answer 1

The problem is due to a version mismatch.

You are running biblatex 3.4 and Biber 2.5. But only biblatex-apa 6.6. The correct biblatex-apa version for your biblatex would be 6.9.

On a non-repository system of TeX live (see e.g. How to install “vanilla” TeXLive on Debian or Ubuntu?) you could simply use tlmgr to update all packages involved to the correct CTAN versions. The CTAN versions (almost) always match, currently we have biblatex 3.7, Biber 2.7 and biblatex-apa 7.4.

Since you are stuck with your non-updatable TeX distribution, you will have to install the correct version of biblatex-apa manually. Get it from https://github.com/plk/biblatex-apa/releases/tag/v6.9 and follow the instructions (Method 3: 'Install manually') from How do I install an individual package on a Linux system?.