Database custom fields OR advanced Tag function -sort and search able

PaperPiper

Hi,

A RANDOM EXAMPLE for a serious task:
Assuming one want to mange with the Zoter database the following:

3 papers about a certain device "XX-laser"
(allocated via collections and subcollections - all good!)

now consider every paper would have a slightly different output wavelength:
paper 1@ 909nm
paper 2@ 912nm
paper 3@ 914nm

and different output powers too:
paper 1@ 1.22W
paper 2@ 1.25W
paper 3@ 1.27W

and so on for many common parameters in this category of laser...

Is there any possibility / function in Zotero to sort these papers by wavelength or power?

Many thanks for any suggestion or workaround!

jack_kelly

I'm fairly new to Zotero (and loving it) and I have a similar requirement to you. I'm thinking of using tags in combination with a Python script to post-process Zotero's SQLite database.

So, in your example, you'd use tags along the lines of

paper1: "wavelength = 909", "output = 1.22"
paper2: "wavelength = 912", "output = 1.25"
paper3: "wavelength = 914", "output = 1.27"

You'd then write a script in your favorite scripting language to process Zotero's SQLite database and do whatever you wanted with the database.

Can anyone suggest a more elegant solution?

mronkko

This cannot be done with Zotero directly in an elegant way. Custom fields are a feature that might help you, but these have not been implemented and I do not know what the current plans for this are. One way to do this is to store this information in a field that you know you will never be using (e.g. Call Number) and then use this to store one of the variables that you need.

bdarcus

As a general rule, with requests like these, it's a good idea to specify why you want to do something. That can allow people to figure out different possibilities. E.g. I think you're jumping too quickly to a proposed solution, rather than defining the problem.