Customized Item
Hi all;
I'm quite new at this, but let me start by saying what a great tool Zotero is.
What I wanted to know is if there is a way to make customized items in Zotero?
Let's say I have some sort of database already done with a certain number of fields and names allready defined (and I do :) ), how can I import this into Zotero without having to adjust my fields to the ones in any item available? I mean, if I allready have some kind of classification system/method wich makes sense to me, it would be easier to use some sort of template with the same field.
Please feel free to move this around since I'm not sure I've posted it in the correct place.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers.
I'm quite new at this, but let me start by saying what a great tool Zotero is.
What I wanted to know is if there is a way to make customized items in Zotero?
Let's say I have some sort of database already done with a certain number of fields and names allready defined (and I do :) ), how can I import this into Zotero without having to adjust my fields to the ones in any item available? I mean, if I allready have some kind of classification system/method wich makes sense to me, it would be easier to use some sort of template with the same field.
Please feel free to move this around since I'm not sure I've posted it in the correct place.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers.
This may mean that you will need to take a lot of care in importing your data, but at least you can then be sure that it can be exchanged and cited reliably.
It could be called blank or something and would include perhaps three or four named fields, like for instance: Name, Author, Year, Summary and afterwards about 10 or 15 fields only with numbers as titles and all text type with a reasonable number of characters:
Publication Title/Name:
Author(s):
Year:
Summary:
1:
2:
3:
...
9:
10:
that way a certain flexibility would be available for us users
I could then, when sharing my Zotero exported file include some sort of "understandable" explanation file like:
Field nÂș Purpose
1 This field contains keywords in original language
2 This field contains keywords in english
....
Don't know if this makes any sense to you but I would find it most welcome and usefull, and it wouldn't compromise the db sharing, as far as I can see.
Cheers.
Not if mean to use within a closed circle of friends/users, not saying I'd use for everything, I'm currently using zotero's standard items for its general purpose, but in this particular case, I would/could also use it for sharing any sort of library/data collection, since I could define wich data goes onto wich field.
One of my intentions is for example to collect portuguese legislation (I'm portuguese, hence my english), I don't quite see where I could insert these sort of documents, in wich item category I mean.
Just saying it would make zotero more flexible, besides everyone could still use, no matter what definition i assign to each field, as long as I'd include in that library a document intitled "READMEFIRST" (or instructions or whatever) in wich it would be defined each field, I mean in that document fields description would de filled (ex: field 1: Theme).
The data in the fields would be customizable, but defined by each collector.
Cheers.
With a view to moving that conversation forward, I've extracted a set of mapping tables that show which item types and fields in Zotero currently correspond to which item types and variable names in CSL. (Note that the CSL "legislation" type isn't even referenced by the Zotero "statute" type, which seems to invite a bit of housecleaning.)
Just a minor hair-splitting comment here. That zotero has few and tightly-controlled types is a design decision. Yes, it has the advantages noted. But it's not the only way things could be done.
One could argue for entirely the opposite approach: let users customize however they like, recognizing that you're giving them the rope to hang themselves. No doubt all hell would break loose in terms of interoperability. But, one could argue, in the long run the "crowd" would do a better job defining types. And, those who need obscure types and are currently out of luck could roll their own. (Obviously any customizing likely means types and styles both.)
I'm not suggesting the zotero project do that, just that there's more than one way to approach the problem. However, given the strategy followed by zotero, I couldn't agree more that
Try posting a list of fields that you would need for each item type and an example of how it would be cited, and perhaps we can find a way for you to model your data successfully in Zotero.
For legal materials, there is a group for working out conventions for which item types and fields are appropriate for particular types of content, and for working up proposals for new item types where the existing infrastructure really can't cope with the case. The traffic in the group is not very heavy, but material that you add there will persist as part of collective memory whenever there's a push for revision. Please feel free to join.
edit: I see that Frank is faster than I am in responding to Zotero forum notifications.