Biber backend and Vim-Latex

Question

I'm trying to make biblatex work with Vim-Latex (a.k.a Latex-Suite). Using bibtex as a backend works fine but using biber doesn't. I'm using Miktex 2.9 and have the following in my .vimrc file:

" Latex configuration
set shellslash
set grepprg=grep\ -nH\ $*
let g:tex_flavor='latex'
let g:Tex_BibtexFlavor = 'biber'
let g:Tex_CompileRule_pdf = 'pdflatex --synctex=-1 -src-specials -interaction=nonstopmode -file-line-error-style $*'
let g:Tex_DefaultTargetFormat='pdf'  
let g:Tex_MultipleCompileFormats='pdf'

I've also tried setting:

let g:Tex_CompileRule_bib = 'biber $*'

But I still get the "There were undefined references" warning.

Answer 1

As MarcoDaniel suggested, one possibility is to use the amazing arara tool. In order to make it work with Vim-Latex, the compiler settings in the vimrc must be:

let g:tex_flavor='latex'
let g:Tex_DefaultTargetFormat='pdf'
let g:Tex_CompileRule_pdf = 'arara -v $*'

To be to able to jump to the error location in the source window by pressing enter in the "QuickFix" window you must pass the "file-line-error-style" flag to arara, for instance like this:

% arara: pdflatex: {options: "-file-line-error-style"}

To use biber then simply add the directive: % arara: biber

Answer 2

After the answer by Paul and Werner above didn't work for me, I did the following, based on what they wrote:

In ~/.vimrc, I added:

let g:Tex_BibtexFlavor = 'biber'
let g:Tex_DefaultTargetFormat="pdf"
" The following is relevant to make LaTeX rerun after biber if necessary: 
" (include all formats for which re-running is to be enabled)
let g:Tex_MultipleCompileFormats='pdf,dvi'

In ~/.vim/ftplugin/latex-suite/compiler.vim around line 567, I did the following code replacement:

" old code:
" if runCount == 0 && Tex_IsPresentInFile('\\bibdata', mainFileName_root.'.aux')
"   let bibFileName = mainFileName_root.'.bbl'

" new code:
if runCount == 0 && Tex_IsPresentInFile('Please \(re\)run Biber on the file', mainFileName_root.'.log')
    let bibFileName = mainFileName_root.'.bcf'

The change in the second line (.bbl -> .bcf) is relevant to make biber run on the correct file. The change in the first line has the effect that biber is only executed when LaTeX outputs the usual "Please (re)run Biber on the file ..." in the .log-File. In the version suggested above by Louisa Grey, biber would run anytime the source file contains a citation; but very often this is not necessary.

Please let me know if this works for you.

Edit: Sometimes it is convenient to run biber manually, not as part of the compilation process triggered by the \ll short key. For this you can configure a new short key \lb by simply adding the following line to ~/.vimrc:

map <Leader>lb :<C-U>exec '!biber '.Tex_GetMainFileName(':p:t:r')<CR>

Answer 3

What I did was in the vim-latex plugin, in ~/.vim/ftplugin/latex-suite/texrc, I changed:

TexLet g:Tex_BibtexFlavor = 'bibtex'

to

TexLet g:Tex_BibtexFlavor = 'biber'

Then, like was mentioned by @PLK, you want biber to execute on the .bcf file (see section 3.11.1.1 of the biblatex manual), so in ~/.vim/ftplugin/latex-suite/compiler.vim around like 568, I changed

let bibFileName = mainFileName_root.'.bbl'

to

let bibFileName = mainFileName_root.'.bcf'

Let me know if that works for you.