asymmetric "related items"

abhirkmv

I want to track which item (e.g. paper) was discovered while reading which item. I thought I could put the latter item in the related tab of the former. But that relationship is symmetrical. In general, is there a support for different kind of user-defined relationships (symmetric or asymmetric) between zotero items?

bwiernik

Not at this time, no. An overhaul of the Related items function to support more semantic relationships is generally planned, but it dependent on several other major changes to the Zotero program, so it will be some time still before it can be implemented.

If symmetric relationships won't work for you at this time, I can recommend a bit of a workaround.

First, install the Zotero Select translator from here. This translator creates a link to an item within zotero.

When you want to create an asymmetrical relationship, use the translator to generate a link to the item (either by right-clicking, choosing "Create Bibliography from Item...", and choosing "Zotero Select" or by setting "Zotero Select" as your default output option in the Export preferences pane and typing Ctrl-Shift-C).

Add this link to the item that should have the relationship by selecting it, clicking the Add Attachment button, "Attach Link to URI...", and pasting the link.

You can now open this link to go to the related item in an asymmetric fashion. If desired, you can highlight the link and click on the bold title in the right pane to change the label of the link to something readable and add notes about the meaning of the relationship.

abhirkmv

Thanks. Your work-around is good enough for now.