Add locate / article lookup engine in Zotero 5 + connector?

mSSM

I want to add oadoi.org as a lookup engine to Zotero. Given that Zotero and the Firefox plugin-connector are separate entities now, I struggle to understand how that works.

a) Can I use the Firefox plugin to lookup articles on oadoi.org?
b) How do I add a lookup engine to Zotero standalone? “Manage lookup engines” does not give me the ability to add a lookup engine.

zuphilip

a) I am not sure that works currently with Zotero 5.0. With the Firefox plugin, it was enough to go to the website https://oadoi.org/ and then in Zotero in the Locate menu to add this engine, because they have a (hidden) link for application/x-openurl-opensearchdescription+xml. @dstillman Does anything like this still work with 5.0?

b) It should be able to add this manually:

1. Go to your Zotero data directory
2. Open the subfolder 'locate'
3. Open the textfile 'engines.json'
4. Add a block for oadoi
5. Possibly restart Zotero

For a template you can look at my engines.json here https://gist.github.com/zuphilip/2d45e395c6aca8b2a2be7c8bd6273fd4#file-engines-json-L62

mSSM

If I understand correctly, if I manually added the engine to Zotero, I would only be able to make a search on oadoi from Zotero. In other words, the workflow would be:

1) Find paper using Firefox;
2) Save to Zotero using the Firefox connector;
3) Switch to Zotero;
4) Make a Search/Lookup of the saved file, which opens a tab in Firefox;
5) Save the resulting PDF and attach it to the item saved in step 2) _or_ save the resulting PDF using the Firefox connector and merge with the item from step 2).

This workflow seems a bit clunky. :-)

adamsmith

If you want to look up articles already opened in Firefox, why not use the unpaywall button -- that's what it's for. The Zotero lookup engine only adds value if you've already added items to Zotero anyway.

zuphilip

Well, I could imagine also an unpaywall/oadoi plugin for Zotero, which would then in the background search for an alternative PDF version and attach it to the item. It might even be possible to trigger this for every new saved item. But these are just some ideas, what could possibly done...

dstillman

FWIW, we have a ticket for adding locate engines to the connector save button context menu for unsaved items (which I believe was possible in Zotero for Firefox).

katrielf

On Windows 10, I can't find a locate/ directory or an engines.json anywhere. Are you sure this still exists?

bwiernik

It’s in your Zotero data directory. This defaults to C:/Users/:username:/Zotero

You can also open the folder from the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences.