Insert url link with org-ref-insert-cite-link

Question

I am using org-ref to insert citations in org files from a BibTeX file. In this BibTeX file, all entries have a "url" field. As I am sharing these files on Gitlab with people not using emacs, I would like to define a function that mimics org-ref-insert-cite-link, but that would include the url from the corresponding BibTeX entry in the final link, resulting in something like

[[http://url-from-key.com][cite:key]]

so that "cite:key" appears as a link that points out to the online version of the paper linked from the BibTeX entry.

Is there a built-in function in org-ref that would allow doing such a thing, and if not how should I go about defining a function that have the behavior I just described?

Answer 1

There is no function org-ref-insert-cite-link in org-ref. You must mean org-ref-insert-link.

Org-ref contains several implementations that add completion to allow interactively select values. You could write your own replacement for one of these functions depending on the framework you use. For example, write your own org-ref-ivy-insert-cite-link and use code from or-ivy-bibtex-open-url to copy the URL in to the link.