A Python script to filter exported bib file from Mendeley Desktop

filter_mendeley.py

#/usr/bin/env python

# a Python script to filter exported bib file from Mendeley Desktop
import sys
import glob
import os

# read all .bib files
bibfiles = glob.glob('*.bib')

# write filtered and merged bibfile to new file    
fbib = open('mybibfile.bib', 'w')
for bibfile in bibfiles:		
	# open bib file
	with open(bibfile, 'r') as f:
		bibtexts = f.readlines()

	# remove unnecessary fields
	removed_words = ['abstract', 'doi', 'isbn', 'mendeley-groups', 'keywords', 
					 'file', 'issn', 'url', 'archivePrefix', 'arxivId', 
					 'eprint', 'pmid', 'primaryClass']
	
	filtered = []
	for bibtext in bibtexts:		
		flag = True
		if '@misc' in bibtext:
			if 'url' in removed_words:
				removed_words.remove('url')
		
		field = bibtext.split('=')[0]		
		for word in removed_words:
			if word in field:							
				flag = False
				break
		if flag:						
			filtered.append(bibtext)

	# tidy up key-value	
	key_width = 15
	tidyup = []
	for bibtext in filtered:	
		if '=' in bibtext:
			properties = bibtext.split('=')
			key = properties[0]				
			if key.strip() == 'url':				
				key = 'howpublished'		
			
			key_len = len(key)			
			if key_len <= key_width:
				space_len = key_width - key_len			
				space = ' '
				for i in range(space_len):				
					space += ' '
				key += space
				tidyup.append('  ' + key + '=' + properties[1])
		elif '}' in bibtext:
			tidyup.append(bibtext + '\n')
		else:		
			tidyup.append(bibtext)

	for t in tidyup:				
		fbib.write(t)

fbib.close()