Adding/Editing resource types

mvatki

How feasible is it to add new zotero resource types (I don't know what they are called, examples of existing types would be "artwork, audio recording, bill, book, interview, journal article etc...")? How would this be possible? Is it possible to add to the fields that are already available for existing resource types? How would this be possible?

dancohen

Custom item types and fields are planned for an upcoming version of Zotero.

mvatki

Yes, but is there a fairly straightforward way to accomplish this through editing the software? Perhaps it is as simple as manipulating a collection of xml files?

bdarcus

Yes, but is there a fairly straightforward way to accomplish this through editing the software? Perhaps it is as simple as manipulating a collection of xml files?

I don't think any of this is in the least bit "straightforward" if you care about data portability (as I do).

dstillman

Yes, but is there a fairly straightforward way to accomplish this through editing the software?

Adding new item types and fields requires making changes to the default database tables and various core files. While this is possible if you know exactly what you're doing, it will pretty much break any future upgrade possibility for your Zotero database.

Making custom item types and fields—and data that references them—transferable, referenceable, localizable, and forward-compatible is, unfortunately, a very difficult problem. We're committed to addressing it, but it'll take a little time.

mvatki

Alright, well, thanks to everyone who has responded. I suppose that I'm very much looking toward the future. It's just a thought, but I think that it would be really great if maybe in the next release fields related to Interlibrary loaning of materials and general library things were included somehow. For instance, due dates, position in the process (having been requested, collected, analyzed, returned), patron library, lending library. I know that being able to sort entries based on this would really help me in my research process. The ability to handle this sort of tasks is really what I'm after...

sybille

Hi mvatki,

Why not use tags for organizing information about interlibrary loans?

Once you've added the tags you need and tagged the relevant items, you can then sort the tagged items using Advanced Search. You can also make search folders containing items with whichever tag or group of tags that would be useful for you.

More information about tags and Advanced Search can be found by watching the Screencast Tutorials:
http://www.zotero.org/documentation/screencast_tutorials

scot

I use collections for exactly those kind of workflow issues. So far it works. I do wish I could specify collections to "contain all items in subordinate collections", instead of making me create a saved search for each. Eventually it'd be nice to have a way to move (not just copy) items from one collection to another. Ideally someday it would be nice to sort items into collections quickly with function keys (like Thunderbird's single keypress adding of labels/tags). This would make work with lots of items easier.

scot

Hmm, Just read Dan S's post on another thread about the hidden pref for recursive collections. I like it and will give it a try.

cmrukcom

Custom item types - do we have this yet ? - as of Zotero 1.0.7. I am very interested in using zotero to store citations to workgroup-based datasets and graphs.

bdarcus

Custom item types - do we have this yet ? - as of Zotero 1.0.7. I am very interested in using zotero to store citations to workgroup-based datasets and graphs.

So then why ask for custom types, rather than for "dataset" and "graph"?

Custom types are a large can-of-worms.

cmrukcom

Because I may wish to have these item types but other users may wish to categorise their media using their own types - generic is always better than specific.

This topic title seems to suggest that it is exactly about this can of worms.

bdarcus

"Generic" is not always better; at all. It can be much worse, in fact, if you want to be able to interoperate with other users or applications. Just ask former Endnote users who relied a lot on its user-defined types and fields how easy it was to move their data to Zotero (a fault not of Zotero, but of archaic ideas of data storage and modeling).

In any case, my point was just to say that that there are really two separate issues here (custom types vs. support for graphs and datasets), and that one can ask for both.

cmrukcom

According to Dan a year ago these types were planned for an upcoming release of Zotero - so the question is - have these types been incorporated in the releases of Oct 2007- Oct 2008 and if not when they are scheduled to be available.