Importing URL field from EndNote

dstillman
This discussion was created from comments split from: Exporting from Endnote 7 to Zotero.
  • shjenkins
    I have an old version of EndNote (X4), from which I occasionally export records in .xml format for import to the current version of Zotero. This process stopped working sometime between Wednesday of last week and today (June 13 and June 20, 2018). In particular, some of my EndNote records have a file path in the URL field in EndNote that used to be transferred to the URL field of Zotero, but no longer gets placed in Zotero's URL field. Instead, the URL from EndNote is placed in a comment in the Zotero record, which is not useful to me.

    I tried exporting the EndNote records to .txt and .rtf formats, with the same result.

    Other fields get transferred properly.

    Thanks for your help.

    Steve Jenkins
  • noksagt
    Please start a new thread. But, quickly: There have been no changes to the Endnote XML translator, Zotero does not import .rtf (and it seems likely that EndNote doesn't really export EndNote XML as an .rtf file). It may be that the EndNote-based records are exported differently fromt the way you remember (perhaps just because they are just different records). When you post in a new thread, please include a minimal example of the Endnote XML you're trying to import.
  • dstillman
    Moved to a new thread. @shjenkins, you can continue here.
  • bwiernik
    Please follow the steps for Endnote XML here exactly: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/importing_records_from_endnote

    If they don’t work, then please tell us exactly what you did and what happens.
  • shjenkins
    I followed the steps as described in the link that bwiernik provided above. The same error resulted: The path to the pdf files for this record is in a note rather than in the URL field. When I paste the EndNote .xml file into this message, the html codes appear to be stripped off. Is there another way I can send it to you, e.g., as an attachment to an email?

    Thanks again for any help you can provide.

    Steve Jenkins

  • adamsmith
    you can post it to gist.github.com create a secret gist and post the URL here. You won't need a github account.
  • shjenkins
    I have tried this again by exporting a set of EndNote records using the RefMan (RIS) output style in .txt format. This format includes a field containing the URL (labeled as UR, see below for an example). I can then import this file into Zotero, in which case the URL appears in the URL field of Zotero, as I want. If I export from EndNote in .xml format, the URL doesn't appear in the URL field of Zotero, but rather in a child note.

    Example record from mylibrary.txt file:

    TY - JOUR
    AU - Elliott, L. P.
    AU - Brook, B. W.
    DA - 2007
    KW - STRONG-INFERENCE
    MULTIPLE-HYPOTHESES
    PHILOSOPHY
    SCIENTIFIC-METHOD
    PY - 2007
    SP - 608-614
    T2 - Bioscience
    TI - Revisiting Chamberlin: multiple working hypotheses for the 21st Century
    UR - c:\data\pdf files\elliott_2007.pdf
    VL - 57
    Y2 - 29 August 2007
    ID - 11963
    ER -

    I guess this is a successful workaround.

    Thanks.
  • bwiernik
    edited July 9, 2018
    You should not store local file paths in Zotero’s URL field. That is the field that is used for citation purposes—where readers can find the full text version of the item. A local path on your computer is not appropriate to store there, and it will likely lead to incorrectly formatted citations.

    Instead, local files should be attached to Zotero as linked files (which I think is the case—it’s not a note but a linked file attachment?).
  • adamsmith
    While what bwiernik says is 100% correct, Zotero will also import regular URLs as links and that due to how Endnote handles this on export.
    Endnote XML has two url types:
    related-url and web-url. Quite appropriately, I think, Zotero imports the former as a link and the latter as a URL. Unfortunately, Endnote exports URLs to related-url. I have no idea why and I'm not sure if we want to adjust our import given this bizarre practice. On the other hand, it _is_ their format, so we can certainly consider doing that..
  • gloriousflower
    edited October 18, 2018
    adamsmith provided very useful information there. I was having the same problem with XML exported by Bookends (they call it an EndNote XML file). It also uses the tag <related-urls>. I just replaced all "related-urls" with "web-urls" and Zotero imported them into the URL field rather than as an attached note.

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