Great news. As you are working on item fields, perhaps you can also consider implementing the suggestion for an UI option to hide/unhide unused fields:
I'm very impressed. I had used Extra for many things before realizing what it was for, and I was worried that these would cause errors when a message at the bottom said it would now populate the new fields from Extra, but no. Thanks a million!
> There's not yet a mechanism to transfer data in Extra to newly added fields, but we're planning to add that in a later version. Please resist the urge to manually transfer data from Extra!
I strongly encourage others to follow this advice. I have a very large database (4,17 GB) and let Zotero run its course during the transition to the new 8.0 beta. Not a hitch. I did, however, let it run without interruption, albeit in the background. My experience is, this always reduces later complications.
This is a VERY welcome new change. Finally, universal DOI and other fields! Thank you!
It would be really nice if users were able to rearrange the order of fields in the info pane (maybe something they could do in settings?) or hide certain unused fields. For instance, the original place/publisher/date field is great when I need it, but it's not relevant for 95% of my book items. The same is true for DOI, citation key (not sure what this is), url, accessed, archive, etc. All these added fields really overwhelm the info pane when they're not in use. They also push down the short title and language fields—which I use for every single one of my items—so that now I have to scroll to reach them.
This is fantastic news! Brillant. Can I ask for one clarification regarding this: "Note that these fields are not compatible with old versions, so updated items won't sync to Zotero 7 or the mobile apps. We'll have updates for those apps in a few days, as soon as we've determined that things are working well."
So for users of mobile apps: Should we wait with updating zotero until the updates for thes apps are out? Or does it simply mean that the content of the new field will not sync *now*, but will automatically sync later once updates for these apps are out, and therefore we can safely upgrade our desktop apps?
After launching Zotero 7.0.31, the progress bar appears and remains stuck for an extended period. I quit Zotero using Ctrl + Q. No progress bar appears when I launch Zotero again. I’m wondering how to check whether all of my items were fully migrated. Thanks for the new feature. :)
@RamonMi: Did it stall with the circular progress bar visible or after the circular progress bar was replaced with a journal-article icon? If the latter, a plugin was processing the updates. (Older versions of BBT would've been slow there, but the latest version should be faster.) Zotero itself should continue the Extra field migration automatically if it's interrupted.
@animusastralis: We added a Part Number (mapped to a dedicated CSL field) for Journal Article. If that isn't what you're looking for, start a new thread and explain what you're trying to put there.
@dstillman: I'm a bit confused how it is mapped to CSL variables. E.g. APA uses the `number` variable for article numbers; will it work, or does the CSL style need editing to use `Part Number`?
Zotero itself should continue the Extra field migration automatically if it's interrupted.
Thanks for your clarification. I have installed the latest BBT before updating to Z 7.0.31. Unfortunately, I didn't notice if there was a circular progress bar or a journal article icon. After reading the GitHub issue linked above, I realize that there may be no relevant content in my Extra fields. Anyway, after relaunching Zotero, no migration process started—so I assume the migration has already been completed.
Original Place, Original Publisher, and Original Date for books
Original Title would also be great to have. In philosophy it is common, when referencing a translation of a work, to also cite the original title in the original language. E.g., title: Capital, original title: Das Kapital
@dstillman Thank you so, so much for these updates! I had no idea these were coming and discovered this form due to the pleasant surprise.
I don't find it so big a deal but I'd second @matt.quintana that it'd be nice to be able to rearrange the categories in the pane according to preference (or perhaps even to hide categories).
As you mentioned new additions would be simple, one addition I'd prefer for Books is having an abbreviation panel for Series (like with Journal Abbr). That way, it wouldn't be necessary to enter "collection-title-short: ABBREVIATION" in the Extra field.
I was wondering when you will update the support page "Zotero Item Types and Fields". I'm a bit confused about the purpose of one or two of these new fields, e.g. "Format".
PS: I would love the "Title" field to be split up into "Title" and "Subtitle".
hi, can someone explain to me why these "new fields" 1. are taking up so much space i can't see the fields i need 2. why for books the fields are now misordered (date, publisher, place)? this is massively confusing and really unhelpful as an update. like jandavid, i too urgently want a way to hide these empty fields and even better to be able to reorder fields. barring that, is there a way to roll back to the previous version?
2) We've said above in this thread that we'll be adding the ability to hide fields, and we may add the ability to reorder as well. But people have been waiting many years for these new fields, so we weren't going to delay longer to release them.
3) What exactly do you feel is misordered? There's no inherently correct order in a list of metadata fields. These are semantic fields, not components of a bibliography entry in a specific citation style (and citation styles vary in terms of order for Date and Publisher).
4) No, you can't roll back. Field changes like these have to be made at the same time across all Zotero platforms, so older versions won't sync anymore.
To be clear, these fields are necessary for correct citations for various items. That's the point of them.
I for one welcome the update and the new fields, and look forward to the ability to automagically hide the empty ones (ProCite used to be able to do this waaaaaay back in the day). The fact that it is being done in phases/waves and not all at once is just good pragmatic roll-out process. Bravo, Zotero team!
I did notice something odd since the new update -- the Citation Key field appears twice in my implementation. I suspect this may be an artifact of using BetterBibTeX as part of my setup, but I'll defer to @emilianoeheyns who would know better than anyone whether this is so (and perhaps how to hide one of them?).
@dstillman Don't be discouraged! The updates are great. Thank you!!
I'd really love to see an option for multiple publishers (especially two, though rarely three) and joint series. In my field of theology, it's common to have multiple publishers. If there is a current workaround for it via the Extra field, I'm unaware of it.
One final idea while I'm at it. Short of manually adjusting the data entry when entering a citation (which prevents automatic updates to the specific citation), there's no way of preventing a period from being added to a footnote (which is problematic if you want to incorporate a citation into a sentence), e.g., "The latest updates according to Stillman, 'Zotero Is My Favourite,' 193 are the work of many years." I'd love to see an option for toggling period, comma, or no punctuation after a citation (similar to the "hide author" button).
(Sorry if this isn't the place for making such suggestions.)
Upgrade Storage
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/82021/hide-certain-info-fields
I strongly encourage others to follow this advice. I have a very large database (4,17 GB) and let Zotero run its course during the transition to the new 8.0 beta. Not a hitch. I did, however, let it run without interruption, albeit in the background. My experience is, this always reduces later complications.
This is a VERY welcome new change. Finally, universal DOI and other fields! Thank you!
It would be really nice if users were able to rearrange the order of fields in the info pane (maybe something they could do in settings?) or hide certain unused fields. For instance, the original place/publisher/date field is great when I need it, but it's not relevant for 95% of my book items. The same is true for DOI, citation key (not sure what this is), url, accessed, archive, etc. All these added fields really overwhelm the info pane when they're not in use. They also push down the short title and language fields—which I use for every single one of my items—so that now I have to scroll to reach them.
"Note that these fields are not compatible with old versions, so updated items won't sync to Zotero 7 or the mobile apps. We'll have updates for those apps in a few days, as soon as we've determined that things are working well."
So for users of mobile apps: Should we wait with updating zotero until the updates for thes apps are out? Or does it simply mean that the content of the new field will not sync *now*, but will automatically sync later once updates for these apps are out, and therefore we can safely upgrade our desktop apps?
Thanks guys. That's all I can tell you.
Ctrl + Q. No progress bar appears when I launch Zotero again. I’m wondering how to check whether all of my items were fully migrated. Thanks for the new feature. :)See the GitHub issue I linked above for the discussion of why Part Number was added.
Original Titlewould also be great to have. In philosophy it is common, when referencing a translation of a work, to also cite the original title in the original language. E.g.,title: Capital,original title: Das KapitalI don't find it so big a deal but I'd second @matt.quintana that it'd be nice to be able to rearrange the categories in the pane according to preference (or perhaps even to hide categories).
As you mentioned new additions would be simple, one addition I'd prefer for Books is having an abbreviation panel for Series (like with Journal Abbr). That way, it wouldn't be necessary to enter "collection-title-short: ABBREVIATION" in the Extra field.
PS: I would love the "Title" field to be split up into "Title" and "Subtitle".
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u5877315/dex0fex7p1fssw8pk7ej.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u5877315/h8x4gotz20ahiudr8i9l.png
1) https://www.zotero.org/support/forum_guidelines#etiquette — you can just explain the issue you're facing without the combative, hyperbolic tone.
2) We've said above in this thread that we'll be adding the ability to hide fields, and we may add the ability to reorder as well. But people have been waiting many years for these new fields, so we weren't going to delay longer to release them.
3) What exactly do you feel is misordered? There's no inherently correct order in a list of metadata fields. These are semantic fields, not components of a bibliography entry in a specific citation style (and citation styles vary in terms of order for Date and Publisher).
4) No, you can't roll back. Field changes like these have to be made at the same time across all Zotero platforms, so older versions won't sync anymore.
To be clear, these fields are necessary for correct citations for various items. That's the point of them.
I did notice something odd since the new update -- the Citation Key field appears twice in my implementation. I suspect this may be an artifact of using BetterBibTeX as part of my setup, but I'll defer to @emilianoeheyns who would know better than anyone whether this is so (and perhaps how to hide one of them?).
I'd really love to see an option for multiple publishers (especially two, though rarely three) and joint series. In my field of theology, it's common to have multiple publishers. If there is a current workaround for it via the Extra field, I'm unaware of it.
One final idea while I'm at it. Short of manually adjusting the data entry when entering a citation (which prevents automatic updates to the specific citation), there's no way of preventing a period from being added to a footnote (which is problematic if you want to incorporate a citation into a sentence), e.g., "The latest updates according to Stillman, 'Zotero Is My Favourite,' 193 are the work of many years." I'd love to see an option for toggling period, comma, or no punctuation after a citation (similar to the "hide author" button).
(Sorry if this isn't the place for making such suggestions.)