An potential function can be added to Translator

XuHM
In the area of most of experimental science, the publishers usually publish the main body of paper/article in their journal, and they leave the experimental section and/or other supplementary information (supporting information) online. When the users use Site Translator of Zotero to add new items to their library, the main body (PDF files) and metadata can be saved, but the users need to download the supplementary information (supporting information) and attach it to the items manually.
Zotero can further save users' time if the Translator can do this work automatically (or add an option button). Besides PDF files, supplementary information (supporting information) may include some other types of files. Usually, the PDF files (including experimental details and important figures and tables) is the most important and useful part, and it is good enough if the Translator can download the PDF file in supplementary information and attach it to the items automatically.
Thanks.
  • DWL-SDCA
    Several years ago I requested of publisher A&I departments (and of journal editors whom I know well and by writing to groups like the CBE) that they coordinate a standard system that indicates articles with online supplemental information. Then and currently the availability of supplemental material is indicated in various ways. Indeed, more often than not, the public abstract doesn't even indicate that a supplement is available much less provide a link to it. The only way to know of a supplement is to obtain a full text version. While there was interest among the A&I folks there was little interest among the editors. I still think that users of my database would greatly appreciate an indicator that supplements are available -- so much so that I believe knowing of the presence of a supplement could help users make decisions about which articles to download and read.
  • XuHM
    In experimental science (such as chemsitry, materials science and engineering, biology and physics), online supplemental information is nearly essential, because the experimental section is too long to put it into the hard copy of journals. The website of different journals belonging to a certain publishing group (such as Nature publishing group, Wiley, American Chemical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry) usually use the same system and we can find the supplemental information in the same place. I know it is heavy and complicated to modify all the Translators, but can we modify some Translators which are used most frequently to support downloading the supplemental information automatically?
    Or maybe you means that in the website the 'indicator' for the place of supplemental information is usually not clear/obvious comparing with the 'indicator' for PDF files of body text?
    Actually, I concentrate on chemistry and materials science, and don't know much about programming.
  • adamsmith
    This is actually available, though only for the Firefox add-on (and may thus be temporarily unavailable when Zotero 5.0 comes out, though connector compatibility is planned).

    Set the respective hidden preference to true:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/preferences/hidden_preferences#translator_preferences
    This currently should work on

    HighWire 2.0

    Nature Publishing Group

    ScienceDirect

    Cell Press

    ACS Publications

    Though we don't test it regularly.
  • XuHM
    OK, that is fine. Does 'only for the Firefox add-on' mean that Zotero standalone (with a Firefox extension) cannot use this function? I set the respective preference to true in Zotero standalone (with a Firefox extension), and it doesn't work.
    Hope to see this function be added to Zotero standalone soon.
  • XuHM
    I install both Zotero standalone and Zotero for Firefox. At first, I just set the respective perference in Zotero standalone to true, and the Translator cannot download the supplementary information. Then, I also set the respective perference in Zotero for Firefox (in add-on of Firefox) to true, and the translator download the supplementary information from Nature successfully. This is interesting. But the 'ACS Publications' Translator fails to download the supplementary information with the same condition.
    I cannot find the hidden preference of 'ACS.highResPDF' in both Zotero standalone and Zotero for Firefox.
    Thanks.
  • adamsmith
    Right, this only works with the Firefox add-on with Standalone closed. As I said above, it's planned to make it work for connectors, but can't tell you when that will be the case.
    It's possible it's broken in ACS; I can take a look but that's not high priority, so might take a little.
    The ACS.highResPDF preference you need to manually add. It doesn't exist by default.
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