[SOLVED] Search for "Attachment File Type" + "is not" + "PDF" does not work as expected

Jody Foo
I tried to create a "Saved Search" to find my entries that do not have a PDF attached. However, searching for "Attachment File Type" + "is not" + "PDF" returns entries with PDF attachments. I could understand if it returned entries with other attachments besides the PDF, but the search returns entries with *only* PDF attachments. Is this a bug?
  • dstillman
    There's a logic to what it's doing, but the current behavior could probably qualify as a bug. Attachment File Type matches attachments that are PDFs. It doesn't match parent items. When you use "is not", it's matching the inverse of that, which is all items that aren't attachment with PDFs, and that includes top-level items, even if they happen to have child PDF attachments. (Note that difference between items in black (matches) and items in gray (non-matches).) But the matches for Attachment File Type should really be limited to attachments, even if isNot is used. I've created a ticket for this.

    In the meantime, if you add an Item Type is Attachment condition, you'll get just non-PDF attachments.
  • Jody Foo
    edited August 13, 2013
    Thanks for the information on black vs gray itemsand for creating the ticket!

    I found the solution to my problem: check the box "Include parent and child items of matching items".

    I did not understand the phrasing of the checkbox at first, but now I do. I was looking for the same thing, but my approach was to try to create a logical AND search for "Reference has attachment" + "Attachment is a PDF".

    I just tried to find a page in the documentation that describes the structure of a Zotero item, but could not (that e.g. explains what a Zotero item is and what it is not, how child and parent items work, etc). Is there one?
  • dstillman
    This is less about Zotero items in general and more about the current somewhat-muddled state of search conditions. See this post and down for probably more than you want to read about this. (It's fairly confusing because it's in the context of a separate discussion, but I explain the two different ways that various existing search conditions currently handle child items.)
  • Jody Foo
    Thanks!

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