Grieth,

I've created a basic translator for AustLII (http://www.austlii.edu.au/) that you can build upon.

Step 1: Download and install Zotero's Scaffold Utility here:
http://dev.zotero.org/docs/scaffold

Step 2: Fill out the "Metadata" tab something like this:
http://mckinney.sw.googlepages.com/scaffold-metadata.png

Step 3: Cut and paste code below into the "Detect Code" tab like this:
http://mckinney.sw.googlepages.com/scaffold-detect-code.png

Step 4: Cut and past code below into the "Code" tab like this:
http://mckinney.sw.googlepages.com/scaffold-code.png

Step 5: Click the "Save to Database" icon on the toolbar (second from left).

Step 6: Test some AustLII cases.

Good luck!

--bill

============== translator code =================

function detectWeb(doc, url) {
var namespace = doc.documentElement.namespaceURI;
var nsResolver = namespace ? function(prefix) {
if (prefix == 'x') return namespace; else return null;
} : null;

var austliiRegexp = /^http:\/\/www\.austlii\.edu\.au\/au\/cases\/.+/
if(austliiRegexp.test(url)) {
return "book";
} else {
var aTags = doc.getElementsByTagName("a");
for(var i=0; i<aTags.length; i++) {
if(austliiRegexp.test(aTags[i].href)) {
return "multiple";
}
}
}
}
function scrape(doc) {

var namespace = doc.documentElement.namespaceURI;
var nsResolver = namespace ? function(prefix) {
if (prefix == 'x') return namespace; else return null;
} : null;

var courtArray = new Array();
courtArray ['FCAFC'] = 'Federal Court of Australia - Full Court (FCAFC)';
courtArray ['FCA'] = 'Federal Court of Australia (FCA)';
courtArray ['FamCA'] = 'Family Court of Australia (FamCA)';
courtArray ['FMCA'] = 'Federal Magistrates Court of Australia (FMCA)';

var newItem = new Zotero.Item("case");
newItem.title = doc.title;
newItem.url = doc.location.href;

var titleRegexp = /^(.+)\s+\[(\d+)\]\s+(\w+)\s(\d+)\s+\((\d+)\s+(\w+)\s+(\d+)\)/
var titleMatch = titleRegexp .exec(doc.title);
if (titleMatch ) {
newItem.caseName = titleMatch[1] + " [" + titleMatch[2] + "] " + titleMatch[3] + " " + titleMatch[4];
newItem.dateDecided = titleMatch[7] + " " + titleMatch[6] + " " + titleMatch[5];

if (courtArray[titleMatch[3]]) {
newItem.court = courtArray[titleMatch[3]];
} else {
newItem.court = titleMatch[3];
}


} else {

newItem.caseName = doc.title;
newItem.dateDecided = "not found";
}

newItem.complete();
}

function doWeb(doc, url) {
var austliiRegexp = /^http:\/\/www\.austlii\.edu\.au\/au\/cases\/.+/
if(austliiRegexp.test(url)) {
scrape(doc);
} else {

var items = Zotero.Utilities.getItemArray(doc, doc, austliiRegexp);
items = Zotero.selectItems(items);

if(!items) {
return true;
}

var urls = new Array();
for(var i in items) {
urls.push(i);
}

Zotero.Utilities.processDocuments(urls, scrape, function() { Zotero.done(); });
Zotero.wait();
}
}

Bill,

If you are satisfied with this translator, we would be pleased to roll it out into the general Zotero distribution. Please let us know whether it's ready.

Bill,

Sounds good. Thanks for all of your hard work. It's terrific to have people in the community taking the initiative to expand Zotero's functionality.

Grieth,

1) I'll take a look at adding search link capability. It should be feasible.

2) I agree with you about bloat for expanding court abbreviations. Ultimately they would be better located in a SQLite table. I'll try to see if page scraping might work as you suggest.

3) Yes, for now the judge can only be added as a "contributor" I guess. Another possibility is to add it as a note. I really believe that each country should have its own case schema, but that is a lot to ask of the Zotero people right now. As an American lawyer, I have an opinion about what the case fields should be for the U.S., but I am clueless about other countries.

Re: Idiots Guide - unfortunately, translator authoring is a bit tricky. Zotero's Scaffold tool is big step in the right direction. A good book on javascript and regular expressions will be the most help. O'Reilly is a good source for both of these topics - see: http://www.oreilly.com/

Also, it is really unfortunate that websites like AustLII don't expend a little bit more effort adding some semantic information so that complex page scrapping wouldn't be required. You might suggest to them that they add some basic "META" tags to the HTML for things like judge, catchwords, etc. Cornell's LII does this to some degree and it makes the job so much easier.

Bill,

I tried simply adding

int postion = austliiRegexp.indexOf("?");
If (position>1){
austliiRegexp = austliiRegexp.substring(0,position);
}

at some apparently strategic points, but couldn't get the translator to work. Is it possible to simply reload the page after this expression is used to convert the address, or is that more problematic?

I agree.
The only pattern to finding the judge name is that is usually is to the right of certain words like Judge, judges or coram - but not always. I noticed that a lot of times this is in a table format as well. I think your right that the best bet is AustLII adding meta data.

Getting something functional is a good start. If people start using it, AustLII may work on the meta data.

Looking forward to the revised translator - I wish I could be more help there.

Looks great Bill. Fantasic work.

Have you heard from Sean about whether the fields might be altered to include the judge name and more appropriately provide for legal materials?

regards

Grieth

Hey Dan,

I saw the thread on the dev group about adding custom types. It looks like a tricky area and will need input from a bunch of stakeholders. "Universally applicable" is a key phrase since legal citation and context varies country to country (eg: common law vs. civil law, etc.). My guess is that "universally applicable" is an unattainable goal in many use cases. The attempt to maintain a controlled vocabulary will also be tricky during a time in which social tagging predominates.

In any case, I think a good, non-controversial first step would be to add "Judge" to the author types. Also, I was doing some work on a bill-resolution translator and would like to see "Cosponsor" added as well.

If you all get any further on the "adding custom type" project, let me know since I would like to add Treaties to the itemTypes as well.

Keep up the good work.

Cosponsor should go in "bill" itemType (sponsor is already there).