Controlling date formatting in data import

ssalo

Is there a way to control data formatting when importing? The original cataloger entered "1966 July-October" in the ProCite date field for a journal article. After import into Zotero, the date reads "31 July 10, 1966." Is there no way within Zotero to prevent that from happening? I understand that Zotero has no global edit function.

adamsmith

could you post the actual export file (RIS, I assume) of that item? Zotero doesn't do date ranges well, but I don't think this would happen with 1966 July-October in a date field.

ssalo

Thank you, Adam. First, where would I post the file? Second, we are talking about a large file with many examples of the format. Yes, the import file is in RIS, of course.

I was wondering, if there is no way of controlling how Zotero imports the dates, I suppose I could do a series of global edits within ProCite so I would have only the year in the date field and the months in the issue field. For example, issue 1-2 (Jul-Oct). Would Zotero be able to handle that properly? Doing that would be fairly tedious, but less so than changing the date field item by item within Zotero.

adamsmith

Post a single sample RIS entry - from TY to ER - here (i.e. open the RIS file with a text editor and copy&paste one entry).

As for your other question - It depends on what "controlling how Zotero imports the dates" means. This is partly controlled in the import translator, which is a fairly readable javascript file (RIS.js in the translator directory of your Zotero data folder). Whether you consider that controllable depends, of course, but it's certainly not something we'd advertise as "controllable").

The issue field will just import unparsed, so as a workaround that'd work, yes.

aurimas

If you're importing from ProCite, I would highly recommend looking through this thread https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/22615/procite-to-zotero-conversion-translator-ris-and-testing/ It's long, but it can make import a lot smoother

ssalo

Thanks, Aurimas, I have read the useful thread several times. Unfortunately, I did not see anything directly related to my issue. Have I missed something?

aurimas

No, my comment was not directly related to the issue you describe, but since you have seen the thread, are you using the custom translator linked from that thread?

ssalo

Adam,

Here is a sample RIS entry:

TY - JOUR
A1 - Traverso, Georgina Jill
T1 - A Bear-Leader in Mexico City
JF - Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society
PY - 1966/07-1966/10/31
VL - 3, 45
IS - 3-4
SP - 149-150
N1 - Notes: Note
KW - Notes and Queries
ER -

So I see that the problem occurred in exporting from ProCite to RIS.

Perhaps my best bet is to use the workaround.

aurimas

I'll have to think about whether we can support such date ranges. Maybe we can do some sanity checking and leave the dates unparsed if they don't look like normal dates.

Edit: but either way, let us know if you're using the custom translator

ssalo

Aurimas, thanks, no, I was hesitant to try the custom translator. I'm pretty new to customizing.

adamsmith

yeah, that would explain where the odd 31 comes from. That said, that date simply parses as 1966 for me. @aurimas - can you replicate the mangled parsing as "31 July 10, 1966."?

aurimas

I can't, but I'm also not sure why it parses as "1966" (same as you see).

Edit: nvm, I still can't replicate, but I'll fix this.

aurimas

OK, the issue with "1966/07-1966/10/31" being parsed as "1966" should now be fixed. You can update the translator via Preferences... -> General -> Update Now

ssalo

Thank you. I'll try it out.