Zotero Web Beta

AMEGE

Hi team,

I have been using the Zotero web beta, which has a much improved UI, and really a viable alternative to the app.

Struggling though with the search function. Search only seems to work if you type in the exact title. For example a paper called:

‘This is a paper about the use of zotero on Macbooks’

If I search:

‘Zotero on Macbooks’ it appears.

If I search ‘zotero, Macbooks’ it doesn’t.

Is this expected behaviour or is there some string separator I need to be using? Are AND/OR advanced search criteria supported?

dstillman

The web library isn't meant to be an alternative to the app. If you're doing any sort of significant work, you want to use the app.

Searching in the web library will be improved at some point, but it's currently limited to phrase searches. That's always been the case and hasn't changed with the new version.

AMEGE

Ok, thanks for the info.

My use case was to use it as a read-only database for the public to access literature collected and organised for COVID-19 responses. Being able to search with multiple keywords is a requisite unfortunately as people won't know what the literature is when they arrive to the new group, so wouldn't know exact search titles (although as the one who organised the readings, I don't think I can remember exact search titles either) which would reduce it to just a one word search facility.

Will keep an eye on it and hopefully.

Does the API support more advanced searches, if I was to build something on top?

dstillman

Does the API support more advanced searches, if I was to build something on top?

No — that's the current limitation.

But we should be able to add this quickly. Give us a day or two.

dstillman

Or less. The web library now performs non-phrase searches by default. You can add "quotation marks" to search for phrases, as in the client. (The web library doesn't yet pause and wait for Return when a quotation mark is entered.)

Let us know if you notice anything unexpected.

AMEGE

That’s a game changer, greatly appreciated!

Will be experimenting tomorrow. Is there a url combination I can link to that will default people to the beta, rather than the old web interface? Assuming it doesn’t default already.

adamsmith

The new interface is the default already (changed ~4 weeks ago I think)

AMEGE

Great, thanks. Will be experimenting with an install from github on our own server too. Will come back to share what we did and how it is being used if we are able to go this direction.