Importing bib file to zotero the fields are being mixed

rsprabha

BBTs test import/export format. Where is this?
What is BBT? Is it an application that needs to be installed?

emilianoeheyns

BBT is my zotero extension and can be found at https://retorque.re/zotero-better-bibtex/

Among the (maybe too) many things it does, it installs a number of import/export handlers (commonly known as translators). There is one that I had strictly intended as an internal test facility called "BetterBibTeX JSON". Keep the previous caveats in mind. It doesn't change often, but it can change without notice. To see what the format looks like, select a sample of items in your library and export them to that format.

emilianoeheyns

The question is how should my bibtex file look for getting the three fields into PA/NPA/Themes into the Extras field.

Trying to reverse engineer, whatever I put into the extras field in the UI when exported in Bibtex go in as Notes.
note = {tex.PA: India
tex.NPA: Karnataka
tex.Theme: bandipur}

That's by a standard-Zotero export. The tex. lines are only recognized by BBT; you have to select "Better BibTeX" (yeah a bit conceited in retrospect) when exporting rather than "BibTeX". For this you need to have BBT installed.

emilianoeheyns

BTW if this roundtripping of custom fields is all you need, don't bother with the test im/export format. BBTs Better BibTeX and Better BibLaTeX do this by default.

emilianoeheyns

@dstillman on that note (haha) given the use of the extra field for such extra-field data, might it be a consideration to not export it to the "note" field if "export notes" is off?

rsprabha

1. I have installed the BBT add-on.
2. In the extras section I added the following:
PA: India
NPA: Karnataka
Theme: Project Tiger
3. I exported the document in better BibTex format.
4. The Fields that I put into Extras goes into notes:
journal = {Biodiversity Information Science and Standards},
keywords = {IBP,TDWG},
language = {en},
note = {PA: India
NPA: Karnataka
Theme: Project Tiger}
}
5. And when I import it back, these go into notes, but in Extras I see some Citation Keys
Citation Key: vattakavenDecadeIndiaBiodiversity2019
tex.copyright: 2019Thomas Vattakaven, Harikrishnan Surendran, Prabhakar Rajagopal

What is happening.
We would like to know how to prepare the Bibtex file so that teh extra fields go into "Extras"

emilianoeheyns

You're still getting things mixed up.

2. In the extras section I added the following:
PA: India
NPA: Karnataka
Theme: Project Tiger

That should be
tex.PA: India
tex.NPA: Karnataka
tex.Theme: Project Tiger

We would like to know how to prepare the Bibtex file so that the extra fields go into "Extras"

But what you describe in https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/356422/#Comment_356422 is not preparing the bibtex file -- you're apparently preparing the zotero item so that you can create a bibtex file -- by exporting to it. If you talk about manually typing stuff in the extra field, you are necessarily talking about preparing stuff in zotero, not bibtex.

Import

When you want to import bibtex into zotero, have them in bibtex as

PA = {India},
NPA = {Karnataka},
Theme = {Project Tiger}

on import, BBT will turn this into

tex.PA: India
tex.NPA: Karnataka
tex.Theme: Project Tiger

note the leading tex. markers.

export

When you want to export bibtex from zotero, have them in the zotero extra field as

tex.PA: India
tex.NPA: Karnataka
tex.Theme: Project Tiger

You currently have

PA: India
NPA: Karnataka
Theme: Project Tiger

in the zotero extra field, without the leading tex. markers, and export that. Without the leading markers, these particular lines don't mean anything to any exporter. There are a few that do mean something without lading markers, but not these.

When you say "how to prepare the bibtex file", you are necessarily talking about import.

You must decide at which end you want to start (going from existing bibtex into zotero, or from zotero to bibtex), then I can help you, but you keep switching the point under discussion. Undoubtedly not deliberately, but it's making it very hard to explain.