virtual collections

flxms
Hi Everybody,

after having worked with Endnote, ReferenceManager, Bibus and JabRef I am now a real enthusiast of your zotero Software, which is simply the best of them. Thank you!

Nevertheless I miss a feature from JabRef: Virtual Folders.

These are simply automatic self organizing collections that are created on the fly. What you do is simply create a Collection (i.e. named HIV) and then define some keywords/tags (ie. AIDS, immunodeficiency, ...) for it. All Articles matching these keywords are then automatically stored in this collection.

It would be nice, if one could define whether this happens based on tags, the title, the index (created from attached files) or a combination of these (i.e. for example via check boxes).

I am aware that something similar to this is already possible via the search function. In fact virtual collections are not much different from stored searches. In my experience virtual collections are a bit more comfortable to handle.

Furthermore it would be perfect, if these automatic collections could be complemented by hand as regular collections are. So one could add articles (which do not contain the keyword but belong to the collection anyway). Maybe it would be a good idea to offer a colour coude (i.e. diferent symbol color etc.) to distinguisch automatically added items from items addes by hand.

I am awaiting hyppily your comments. Best regards, Felix.
  • Jon Rubin
    Apart from being able to add items that are not part of the search to a virutal folder, exactly how are they different from a saved advanced search?
  • flxms
    Thank you for your quick reply. To be honest I wasn't aware of the zotero features of the advanced search until reading your message few minutes ago. Cool! So you are right, it is almost what I am looking for, even the way how is searched can already be controled in detail.

    So what is different to JabRefs virtual folders?

    - As far as I can see the saved-advanced-search-folder/collection is fixed to the end of the collections list (I can't drag it). It would be nice if it would behave as an ordinary collection. I'd like to use it as subfolder of other collections.

    - As mentioned above it would be great if one could not only choose among database fields for the search, but include the index (of scanned PFDs etc.) as well.

    Beside these details, it is exactly what I was despeerately looking for. Thank you again for your hint!

    Greetings from Munich, Felix
  • adamsmith
    1) is already discussed somewhere quite recently
    2) is possible by selecting "Attachment Content"
  • flxms
    Thank you again. Just missed "Attachment Content" in the long list of fields.
    In fact this reduces the feature request to this thread:

    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1027/organizing-saved-searches/

    So I am just another one who would like to vote for it ;)
  • Jon Rubin
    1) is discussed here:

    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1027/organizing-saved-searches/#Item_8

    This is one of those irritating things. A ticket doesn't ever seem to have been opened. It was first requested three years ago. I'm not a programmer, so I have no idea where it fits on the trivial to impossible scale but there's been no dev response so can't tell you any more.
  • flxms
    Ups we seem to have posted nearly in parallel... Thanks anyway for your effort: I've learned valuable facts about the advanced search.

    And maybe this issue will reach an developer this time ;)? Unfortunately I don't understand too much of the necessary programing, so I can't help out by myself. But I guess it shouldn't be to difficult to implement and would have big impact on many peoples everyday work.
  • dstillman
    This is one of those irritating things. A ticket doesn't ever seem to have been opened.
    A ticket was created two years ago, and I referenced it from another thread.
  • dstillman
    Combining threads: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1027/organizing-saved-searches/
This discussion has been closed.