Import externally generated sqlite to zotero

canda84

I need to import data from a Microsoft SQL Server database (.mdf). I've managed to generate an .sqlite format from it, but can't find a way to integrate it to my zotero.sqlite database.

Their structures are quite different, but I intended to merge at least some of the data (e. g. my "ItemData" field from the "Items" table to be imported to "NoteData" field from "Notes" table), instead of manually copying it.

Any idea would be welcome!

Thank you,
Alexandra

adamsmith

you can't import an sqlite into Zotero in any easy way. When you click on Import, you can see a list of all import formats currently supported by Zotero in the file selector dialog.
You'll need to export your mdf file in one of those formats and import it in Zotero. sqlite is a _very_ flexible database format, so that unfortunately doesn't help at all.

canda84

Thanks for your reply!

So I've tried, and got it half way. Now I have an XML file and can't find some tool to convert it to any importable format.

dstillman

There's not really any "half way" here. SQLite, XML—these are just generic data formats, so "having" data in those is meaningless. Unless you have a tool to convert your data into a standardized bibliographic format, you're not really any closer to getting the data into Zotero. If the .mdf is just from a custom database, you would likely have to read the specs for the various reference formats supported by Zotero and write code to do the conversion to one of those yourself. What generic data format the data is in matters only to the extent that you're more comfortable writing a script to process one particular format of data.

canda84

You're right, I've figured it out eventualy. I was not familiar with the XML concept.

I tried to apply the RDF structure of a file exported from Zotero to the XML I got from the convertion of the MDF. I'm not really a programmer (only have some background in old fashion web coding), so I only knew to 'replace all' the tags in order to reach a similar structure.
Then I saved the XML as RDF.

It was probably wrong since Zotero still didn't recognize the file. No ideas further :)

Thanks for your support!

canda84

I've generated this rdf; it has the exact structure as an importable rdf i've tested, still zotero says the file format is not supported. Any idea why?

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/7521514/zotero/zotero-import-test.rdf

I would really appreciate some help, otherwise I'll have to copy/paste for over 900 notes...

Thanks in advance!

canda84

I finally succeeded.

For the future it would be extremely useful a tool that reports the errors that block the import procedure. In this case, Zotero reported an rdf file as 'not supported' simply because it contained in it other html tags than it's own. They should be tracked and reported to the user, instead of the user tracking them through thousands of line codes.

Thanks anyway,
Alexandra

fbennett

Zotero doesn't contain an RDF validator, but there is one available online here:

http://www.w3.org/RDF/Validator/