Zotero Research Assistant

TODO: add term

Zotero main window

I find zotero too complicated for me, and I just use my Telekasten with Calibre for books management.

Zotero - free citation manager, it’s contains a lot of features, such as:

• UI to manage your references;
• zotero importer to import references from websites (useful to import references from Google Scholar, Amazon, etc.);
• rich plugin system to extend Zotero’s functionality (rename files, translate in PDF viewer, etc.);
• built-in PDF viewer and annotator;
• API to extend Zotero’s functional.

I use it to store my literature: books, articles, education resources, cheatsheets, feeds, etc.

Zotero has advanced search capabilities, you can search by author, title, year, tags, etc. It’s also indexing your references, so you can search by content (PDF only).

Using syncthing and “Zoo for Zotero” you can sync your references between PC and android devices. Zoo for Zotero allow set a custom attachment folder, so you can sync your attachments too (use syncthing to sync zotero attachments directory).

Better BibTeX is a plugin for Zotero that allows you to export your references to BibTeX format. It’s useful to use with LaTeX, integrate with your favorite tool, etc. I use Neovim telescope BibTeX plugin to quickly add references to my notes.

Plugins

Zotfile - useful to rename attachments, shortcut M-r to rename attachments. Mdnotes - useful to generate markdown notes from references, shortcut M-n to generate notes.

Fix url’s script example:

// [regex101 test](https://regex101.com/r/ZdzzFC/1)
const re = /^\/library\/datasets\/books\/(.*?)/;
const mode = Zotero.Attachments.LINK_MODE_LINKED_FILE;
var attArray = ZutiloChrome.zoteroOverlay.getSelectedAttachments(mode);
var attItem = new Zotero.Item("attachment");
attItem.attachmentLinkMode = mode;
var m, n, attTitle, oldFullPath, newFullPath;
m = n = 0;
attTitle = oldFullPath = newFullPath = '';
 
for (let i = 0; i < attArray.length; i++) {
    if (await attArray[i].fileExists()) continue
    m++;
    oldFullPath = attArray[i].attachmentPath;
    newFullPath = '' + oldFullPath.replace(re, '/home/inom/Inbox/$1');
    if (newFullPath === oldFullPath) continue
    attItem.attachmentPath = newFullPath;
    if (!await attItem.fileExists()) continue
    attArray[i].attachmentPath = newFullPath;
    await attArray[i].saveTx();
    n++;
}
 
return `Summary of selected linked attachment items:\n
${attArray.length} item(s) selected
${m} item(s) broken
${n} item(s) fixed\n
 
Values for last broken item:\n
attachment title:\n${attTitle}\n
old full path:\n${oldFullPath}\n
new full path:\n${newFullPath}
`;

Fix titles

1. Validate

var s = new Zotero.Search();
s.libraryID = Zotero.Libraries.userLibraryID;
s.addCondition('itemType', 'is', 'book');
s.addCondition('title', 'contains', '.cbz');
var ids = await s.search();
if (!ids.length) {
    return "No items found";
}
 
for (let id of ids) {
    let item = Zotero.Items.get(id);
    let title = item.getField('title');
    if (title.includes('.cbz')) {
        item.setField('title', title.replace('.cbz', ''));
        await item.saveTx();
    }
};