formatted citations from web interface

parezcoydigo

One of the things that has held me back from fully using zotero is it's limits in playing well with programs outside of firefox. In particular, I'm a mac user who loves devonthink and scrivener. Both of those programs allow the live importation of web pages (ie, not as archive files), and I wonder if zotero's new web interface could offer a solution for citation management in programs like these.

If the web page of a given source included a user-determined formatted citation that could be cut/paste or drag/dropped into notes files in DT, that would be very cool. As it stands now, I can link devonthink folders to a source, from within DT with zotero as an entry in the database. And I can also, of course, manually construct the needed citation. But, drag/drop would approximate the word/OO plugin without the need to make such a plugin.

noksagt

http://www.zotero.org/support/creating_bibliographies#drag_and_drop_quick_copy

parezcoydigo

noksagt-- thanks, but of course I know how to do that from the zotero app while it's open in firefox. And it is, I will say, an awkward solution. That's not what I was describing above.

Devonthink can display a webpage from its internal browser (obviously not firefox). Rather than working in multiple applications at once, I'm talking about being able to pull citations out from whatever browser one finds oneself in. This would be particularly useful in devonthink by putting the citation management in the research database- a database that is far superior to the note-taking capacities of zotero, for example.

here's a screenshot: http://www.chadblack.net/Syllabus/zotero_in_dtpo.jpg

Scrivener can do the same thing with its built-in browser capability. So, what I'm describing is having access to citation management without having to go back to firefox.

bdarcus

And how are you imaging that would work in ways not specific to particular applications or platforms? E.g .what you describe as a limitaton is actually a by-design feature.

parezcoydigo

Most all research database applications have built-in browser capabilities. This would put zotero in those databases. Obviously, in building bibliographies, one would still be tied to firefox. But, the web interface frees access to one's bibliographies and their citations from dependence on firefox-- ie, opening new ways for more applications and platforms to interact with zotero- with the information stored in zotero- without having to play the game of closed/proprietary api's.

I was inspired to think about the possibilities after reading this post.

I understand that the limitation to firefox is a by-design feature, all I'm suggesting is that including a formatted citation on the output page of individual sources in the web interface would increase functionality.

adamsmith

hmm - I'm still a little confused of what you want.
You do note that Zt. relies on a lot of the internal architecture of FF to work (database structure etc.) right - so Zt. won't just be able to 'jump' to another browser?

If what you want is an import option from you Zotero library to Scrivener, DT, or whatever, I would think that that would be a job for those programs to perform via plugin or the like.

Also, I think by referring to "playing nice" when talking about how open source software interacts with proprietary software you're pretty sure to irk some people...

dstillman

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, this thread is getting far more complicated than necessary. Formatted citations on the web interface are planned. They'll happen once a current rewrite of the CSL processor is finished, which, among other things, will make the processor faster and more modular than Zotero's current processor, allowing it to be used in a server context.

parezcoydigo

Thanks Dan.

Not trying to irk anyone. (And, if I'm not mistaken, Word is a proprietary software.) All I was trying to suggest is that the web server interface innovation of 1.5/2.0 offers a new way for apps that have built-in browser capabilities to interact with zotero libraries. This removes the problem of open/closed interactions for those types of applications- and by those types I'm speaking of qualitative research databases like DT, but not just DT. Maybe the confusion was in the term web interface-- I meant that in distinction to the application's regular interface within FF.