Show Zotero Unique Reference ID in the user interface

ehingeraviatek
I know there have been already some discussion about it.

But I would like to see an option to display the unique zotero ID for each record in the Standalone UI.

I mean the id which is e.g. displayed as the "itemkey" in the link of the webinterface
.../items/itemKey/9K72IVFF

I can not see any drawback for (optionally) displaying this to the enduser. However I think it is really convenient having an easy way to reference between entries in the zotero database and other applications - or just when making notes by hand.

Florian
  • dstillman
    Where would you like it to be displayed? In a column? Can you elaborate on the use case here?
  • dstillman
    Also, it's not particularly elegant, but you're aware you can see the key in the URL if you generate a report? We'll also probably be adding a way to quickly view the item on zotero.org.
  • ehingeraviatek
    Hi
    thank you for your respond

    1) It would be enough to be displayed in the info pane of the record, optionally it might be nice to have it displayed as a column in the table view.

    2) two cases exist where I would need the key
    - we internally use a database with profiles of companies, universities, etc. In this database I would like to reference the sources of the data, which is handled by Zotero.

    - when creating reports with PowerPoint or another software which has no direct plugin, making a note with the used source in the slides before compiling a bibliography at the end.

    3) Where can I see the URL when generating a report? When I open the report by a right mouse click "generate Report for the selected item" I can not find the key anywhere.

    Thanks
    Florian
  • dstillman
    Where can I see the URL when generating a report?
    Sorry, missed that you were in Standalone. In Standalone it's not visible.
  • Fionaussie
    Any progress yet on displaying the unique id in the stand alone version?
  • adamsmith
    See this thread:
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/8306/testing-zoteroselect/
    likely requires some tinkering and depending on what you need the ID for you may have to change the translator, but it gives you the basic idea.
  • cbuddenhagen
    edited September 5, 2013
    Long time user of your super reference manager.

    Please make it possible to view unique identifier by adding it as an optional column.
  • adamsmith
    what do you need this for? I may have a solution for you depending on use case. I don't think the internal identifiers are ever going to get a column - they're not really human readable...
  • cbuddenhagen
    Have duplicates, want to delete the right one since one is used in a linked word document I have. Thanks.
  • adamsmith
    Why not use the built-in duplicate detection? Or if that doesn't catch them, select both-->right-click--> merge items. That will preserve links to Word documents.
  • cbuddenhagen
    Thanks for the reminder about duplicate detection- I have used it before, and remember when it was not an option. Great tool. You guys are awesome. Often with months or years between similar research projects and 100s of references I add duplicate records. I used the merge function with success for this specific word linking problem.
  • CH 53
    I'd also greatly appreciate having unique item identifiers - preferrably serial numbers - available for quick handling of items in various environments, e.g. handwritten (!) notes.
  • adamsmith
    have a look at this: http://zoteromusings.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/zotero-item-uris-from-client/
    But as I say - the unique IDs really aren't very good for this type of thing - They're tend digit alphanumeric codes, I doubt you'll want to use those in handwritten notes.
  • Greg.Schofield
    I would endorse the need for an unusual problem.

    I will have webdav storage on Google Drive, but I need to use the pdfs for references to map displays, for this I need to reference them using Google's id system, but to do so I need to find them first. The Google id becomes a hyperlink opening the pdf at the right page as a reference to the data associated with the map reference and timeline.

    Item Ids getable in some way would be great.
  • adamsmith
    see above for how to get itemIDs, though I don't think I fully understand what you're trying to do. I don't think we'll ever display itemIDs in a column in the display, though. Given how they look, that would just create confusion.
  • Greg.Schofield
    adamsmith thanks,

    My problem is finding the itemkey without show file and then getting OS properties, to use the wedav zip files.

    I do not have clue how to do this to satisfy everyone, but I could use a "generate report", if it included it within the attachment reference, that would do nicely as all the information could be automatically retrieved by parsing the html.

    Greg
  • adamsmith
    did you read my post about item IDs?
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/24725/show-zotero-unique-reference-id-in-the-user-interface/#Item_14
    Generating a report from an attachment will also display its item key (as part of the URI) if you're using the Standalone version.
  • Greg.Schofield
    adamsmith you are very patient with an idiot.

    I glanced at the reference and missed the point. Thanks you have solved another problem that was not a problem. I think I can work with this fix. However generate report is begging for a itemID, then I could do whole groups, but what you have given me is enough, for it was a pain and mistake ridden.

    Gratefully yours,

    Greg
  • adamsmith
    you can use the export translator for multiple items, too, so that'd solve that issue as well.
  • Greg.Schofield
    adamsmith

    That does solve all but one problem, I will try fiddle with the script and see if I can get the filename included, then I can make the rest automatic.

    I have been using zotero for years now, almost on a daily basis, but obviously have not really understood its underlying elegance.

    Thanks again, Greg
  • adamsmith
    (the item title can be called using item.title in the js file, should be easy to add in any way you want to).
  • Greg.Schofield
    adamsmith again thanks.

    I will give it an inexpert fiddle and see what I can come up with.

    Greg
  • abrabacabra
    I too would like to view the item ID somewhere in the user interface.

    My use case: I want to include Zotero sources in geographic data. I need the unique ID to fetch the source information using a Python library wrapper.
  • bwiernik
    @abracabra See here: https://zoteromusings.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/zotero-item-uris-from-client

    Also, the Zutilo plugin can copy item URIs
  • enthusiast
    I use the Wordpress plugin Zotpress a lot. It is a great way of creating reference lists on web pages. However, it requires me to insert the "itemKey" on every place where I refer to a publication so I need a quick way of identifying these om multiple items. The best way would be if I can get the itemKey as a column in the standalone version of Zotero. I understand that a column with the itemKey is not user friendly for most of your users. However, it is very useful for some and I don't see a problem if this column is hidden by default but can be shown for those who wish to do so.
  • adamsmith
    I don't see why the solution(s) suggested above wouldn't satisfy that use case. If anything, a column in Zotero would be fairly useless for copying item keys and typing them into ZotPress seems exceedingly error-prone to me.
  • enthusiast
    At first I did not understand the advice above. I read more carefully and made it work. It is an acceptable solution. Thanks!
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