CSL 1.0

mgw854
Hi all,
I'm rather new to Zotero, but I instantly fell in love with it. The MLA format is my usual, and I have never trusted any of the online citation websites to properly format a piece. The one currently provided with Zotero is good, but it is not completely accurate nor comprehensive. I have found very little information as to the format of a CSL file. I did, however, find the manual for CSL 1.0, which it seems will be coming down the pike shortly. I think I have an understanding of the format, but I want to be able to see the results to make sure everything is accurate, much like you can currently do in the style editor. As of this point, however, CSL 1.0 styles are not supported. Does anyone know of a way to check these styles?
  • fbennett
    edited February 15, 2010
    If you're willing to work with command line tools outside of the browser, you can use the citeproc-js test suite, documented in the processor manual. The first step would be to install the Mercurial version control tool, and fetch the processor source from its home on BitBucket. The source contains lots of example tests, in the ./tests/std/humans directory. If you need help getting started writing your own tests against the MLA style, post a note back to this thread after you have the basic tools in place, and we'll be happy to advise.

    (EDIT: I should also mention that the current style repository will be automatically converted to CSL 1.0 format when the new processor is deployed in Zotero, so work put in on the current MLA style will not be wasted.)
  • adamsmith
    also, we're always interested in improving styles - what's currently wrong with MLA?
    Information on the current csl format is here
    http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/csl_syntax_summary
  • mgw854
    @fbennett
    I've installed the citeproc-js test suite, and I've successfully run the run-rhino.bat script. However, I'm not sure how to continue. I've browsed the (massive) test/std/humans directory, but I'm not sure how to run the tests against a style and a list of items. Could you please provide me with some direction?

    @adamsmith
    For instance, I have found that after a date, the "n. pag." isn't separated. It looks like "15 Feb. 2010n. pag." instead of "15 Feb. 2010. n. pag." TV Broadcasts return their type as "Print", when it should be "Television". Interviews don't take into account the interviewer when provided. These are just some minor things I've seen that could really push people away from using Zotero--things I think that I could easily repair if I had the right understanding.

    I've tried to read the CSL syntax summary, but I just couldn't get enough understanding out of it. None of the CSL versions are well-documented (e.g. PHP), but 1.0 does have a very nice start. Plus, since that's where Zotero is headed, I'm focusing on that. But thanks for the link!
  • adamsmith
    edited February 15, 2010
    mgw - csl is really quite simple - that's one reason for the lack of ample documentation (the other one being that it's newer and used less than php - that's setting the bar quite high).
    You may want to look at

    chrome://zotero/content/tools/csledit.xul

    which allows you to see the effect of changes to csl code real time - most of us find that the easiest way to learn. It will be some time until csl 1.0 is implemented in Zotero and then much is going to stay the same - including, afaict, everything that will affect how the issues above are handled. So I'd encourage you to play around a bit - it's not like csl 1.0 is going to change everything - so most of what you learn will remain valid and with the test pane you have a perfect learning sandbox. Also, of course, we'd like to get MLA as right as possible as soon as possible.
  • fbennett
    @mgw854: I'll modify the scripts a little to make it easier to run custom tests, and add a cookbook tutorial to the manual. Bear with me for a day or two, but should have something for you soon.
  • fbennett
    @mgw854,

    It took more work than I at first expected, but a friendlier tool for running CSL tests is now ready. If you update your archive with "hg pull; hg update", you should find a script "test.py" at the top level of the archive.

    You can now copy a style file into the ./tests/styles/ directory, and incorporate the style CSL into a test by reference, by putting the filename with the .csl extension into the CSL block of the test file.

    If you decide to work with the test suite and run into problems, feel free to put a note on this thread. I'll be happy to help you sort things out.
  • l2lafitte
    I too came across the problem with the variable "interviewer", which Zotero 2.1 seems to ignore.

    It worked perfectly well in zotero 2.0.9, and the style is validated in CSL 1.0

    Such items are in the data base and referred to in footnotes citations
  • adamsmith
    l2lafitte - open a new thread and specify the style and item type(s) you're using
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