Listing of fields in advanced search and middle column

bjohas
edited March 16, 2021
Whatever fields are planned (https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15636/changes-to-fields-and-item-types-for-zotero-5-1/p15), could it be ensured that
(1) they can be selected for display in the 'middle column'
(2) they can be searched using smart folders / advanced searches?

For example, I can't list 'institution' in the middle column, or use it in a smart search. It might be that it's mapped onto another field, but I would love to have (1) and (2) - it's very useful for checking records etc.

(@adamsmith - do you want to move your contribution here as well?)
  • adamsmith
    Right, so to be clear, all fields are available via advanced search (if you want institution, you'd have to search for item type Report and field Publisher) and at least institution is available in the same way for the middle panel.

    Making every field available under its own name would create absolutely massive lists to navigate and would also arguably be less useful for the middle panel since, e.g., institution only applies to 2 item types.
  • bjohas
    edited March 16, 2021
    After a bit of investigation... Yes, the advanced search / saved search has all fields, it's just not obvious that they are there. In the advanced search / saved search, could there be a clickable link (e.g. underneath the selector, or at the bottom of the window) that goes to a page (such as https://www.zotero.org/support/searching) which has the correspondences? Maybe the link could even say: "Can see a field? Need help?"

    Suggestion 1: Have the list of correspondences added to the Zotero documentation, and link it from the context where it's required.

    (By the way: In https://aurimasv.github.io/z2csl/typeMap.xml#map-report 'report type' is 'genre'. However, for the search, this maps to 'type'. So we probably need an update to that map? Or am I misunderstanding?) Edit: it's the middle column that matters on that list.

    For the middle panel - unless I'm mistaken, there are still values that cannot be displayed, e.g. DOI or Type. I am not advocating to display everything (i.e., all variations), but would it not make sense to be able to select 'DOI' or 'Type'? I've certainly wanted to do it.

    Suggestion 2: Make sure that each field can be reached via an 'aggregate type'. Ideally, there would be a link to the same help info somewhere, but UI-wise, I'm not sure where that would be.

    Part of the problem is that trial and error is quite tedious... If there was a way to export an item with the mapped fields, it would be easy to look up.
  • dstillman
    edited March 16, 2021
    You can hover over the base fields in the search drop-down to see what item type–specific field names are mapped to them. All fields are mapped.
    For the middle panel - unless I'm mistaken, there are still values that cannot be displayed, e.g. DOI or Type.
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/84563/sort-columns
  • bjohas
    Follow-up discussion here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/88392/idea-for-how-to-show-hide-columns-in-middle-pane
  • bowendwelle
    Assuming that "Year" is sort of a pseudo-field that gets pulled from Date (?), it sure would be nice to have the option of pulling it instead from Original Date. Is that possible?
  • Justasking
    It has been asserted repeatedly that all fields are available in the advanced search, though may need to be found hovering over other fields listed. I need to find all translations of a particular book, but could not find any way of searching for "translator" - neither could I find the related fields "author", "editor", "series editor", "contributor" - which I would have expected to be listed as subtypes under "creator" in the advanced search. Am I missing something here?
    I am extremely thankful for Zotero - huge help in my research work!
  • adamsmith
    No, you're correct that you can't search for different creator types at the moment.
  • PChemist
    Displaying the URL field in the middle (item list) pane is necessary for clean-up purposes.
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