Upgrade StoragePreserve original 'Date Added' for Imported Collections
When I export a Zotero Library in Zotero RDF format with notes and files e.g. for bac-up purposes, etc., and import them again, Zotero does not retain the original 'Date Added' but uses the date/time of import for the imported collection; in which case, the 'Date Modified', at least initially, is the same with date added. Although 'Date Accessed' still retains the original date accessed for websites and downloaded articles etc., this is not applicable for all item types: for instance, for article citations, which do not have any web links or downloaded pdf attachments etc., you do not have any 'Date Accessed', hence, no way of preserving the original date one has added such data to the library.
So I'd like to ask whether there is a possibility to retain the original 'Date Added' for the Zotero Library RDF exports/imports? Could there at least be an option to preserve the original Date Added when exporting&importing Zotero libraries? Thanks.
So I'd like to ask whether there is a possibility to retain the original 'Date Added' for the Zotero Library RDF exports/imports? Could there at least be an option to preserve the original Date Added when exporting&importing Zotero libraries? Thanks.
To back up your library, back up the entire Zotero data directory.
In such case, for instance, a note from the year 2008 is imported as if it is first created/added to the library on the date it is imported, as the Date Added is the same with the date imported. What I would like is an option to preserve the original Date Added for such imported items and the import date to be reflected in the Date Modified field. In this way it would be much easier to consolidate the library with all original dates etc. of such items preserved, and you retain the backward history of your own Zotero library.
Thanks again.
You can combine attached file storage by carefully copying the contents of the "storage" directories inside your Zotero data directory-- just watch out for folder name collisions (fairly unlikely) as you merge them.
Thanks:)
The problem I see with importing date added is that imports come in all flavors-- how do we distinguish imports of data from colleagues from the data you just downloaded from a journal database? We could export it, I suppose, in those formats where it makes sense (probably RDF exports, not sure about others).
My original suggestion above for exporting with original date added was also focused basically on Zotero RDF format, I still think such an option would make perfect sense. Date added is a time category which you cannot change easily (i.e. you cannot easily change the date added for an item in a Zotero library) and the original date added data is actually lost data during export/import. On the other hand, for distinguishing data from other colleagues, I think tagging & collections would help sufficiently enough; as is the case for me while using group libraries. As such, I cannot see any problems, maybe I am missing something; maybe it would be problematic for other export formats than Zotero RDF, which I scarcely use and therefore not knowledgeable of.
Anyways, returning to my feature request, I think adding an 'option' to Zotero RDF Export to preserve the Original 'Date Added' data of the exported items would be a helpful feature in terms of not losing the original date/time data pertaining to an item and hence improve the comprehension of the time scale in extensive Zotero libraries (which item is found/ added when? etc.). Thanks again:)
Entries do not have to be imported using BBT. The only thing that matters is that the dateadded/datemodified information is in the "extra" field.