Zotero items into dendron notes

dendron-zotero.md

Zotero items into dendron notes

See demo on imgur

Prerequisites

Ensure you have these:

• Visual Studio Code
  • Dendron
  • Citation Picker for Zotero
• Zotero
  • Better BibTeX

Setup

• Change Citation Picker "Port" setting:

"zotero-citation-picker.port": "http://127.0.0.1:23119/better-bibtex/cayw?format=playground&keyprefix=[[bib.&keypostfix=]]"

• Create a hook in Dendron with these settings in dendron.yml:

    hooks:
        onCreate:
            -
                id: newbib
                pattern: bib.*
                type: js

• Replace the newbib.js hook with the file below

Usage

• Add a citation with Zotero Citation Picker
• Once you get the [[bib.smithExamplePaper2022]] links, visit them to create filled notes

newbib.js

/**
 @params wsRoot: string, root of your current workspace
 @params note: Object with following properties https://github.com/dendronhq/dendron/blob/master/packages/common-all/src/types/foundation.ts#L66:L66
 @params NoteUtils: utilities for working with notes. [code](https://github.com/dendronhq/dendron/blob/master/packages/common-all/src/dnode.ts#L323:L323)
 @params execa: instance of [execa](https://github.com/sindresorhus/execa#execacommandcommand-options)
 @params axios: instance of [axios](https://axios-http.com/docs/example)
 @params _: instance of [lodash](https://lodash.com/docs)
 */
module.exports = async function ({ wsRoot, note, NoteUtils, execa, axios, _ }) {
    // Prevent making any changes if the note already exists
    if (note.body !== "") {
        return { note };
    }

    let csl = {};
    try {
        const response = await axios({
            url: 'http://localhost:23119/better-bibtex/json-rpc',
            method: 'post',
            headers: {
                'Content-Type': 'application/json',
                'Accept': 'application/json'
            },
            data: {
                "jsonrpc": "2.0",
                "method": "item.export",
                "params": [
                    [note.title],
                    'f4b52ab0-f878-4556-85a0-c7aeedd09dfc' // GUID of translator 'Better CSL JSON'
                ]
            }
        })
        if ("error" in response.data) {
            note.body = `Zotero responded with error code \`${response.data.error.code}\`, message: \`${response.data.error.message}\`\n`;
            return { note };
        }
        csl = JSON.parse(response.data.result[2])[0]; // Skip HTTP response code and content type, get first paper
    } catch (error) {
        note.body = `Importing data from BibTeX failed with error:\n\n\`\`\`\n${error}\n\`\`\`\n`;
        return { note };
    }

    note.title = csl.title;

    var shortAuthor = "";
    if (csl.author.length === 1) {
        shortAuthor = csl.author[0].family;
    } else if (csl.author.length === 2) {
        shortAuthor = csl.author[0].family + " and " + csl.author[1].family;
    } else {
        shortAuthor = csl.author[0].family + " et al.";
    }
    note.desc = shortAuthor + ", " + csl.issued["date-parts"][0][0].toString();

    note.body =
        note.body + `\n## Abstract\n\n${csl.abstract}\n\n## Authors\n\n`;
    for (author of csl.author) {
        note.body = note.body + `- ${author.family}, ${author.given}\n`;
    }

    return { note };
};

Hi @Maarrk I followed the steps and got this in the note created, any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

---
id: 44k3mtwwd3yoy9b9l2e4qp5
title: Beaty2001
desc: ''
updated: 1667940497030
created: 1667940497030
---
Importing data from Zotero failed with error:

```
TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading '2')
```

@Sylvan54 this happens when Zotero didn't find a paper with key Beaty2001. But it doesn't make sense, if you created the link with citationpicker...

I might rework it to fail in a nicer way at some point. But you're not the first person to report this issue, I need to see if I missed a step in the instructions

Thank you for this @Maarrk . If I may, I would like to add a bug report.

Refactoring or renaming notes that are referenced by the zotero-generated bib.* note, causes the content of the note to be deleted and to throw:

Importing data from Zotero failed with error:

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading '2')

---

To reproduce:

• Generate bib.* note following the steps outlined above.
• Add a reference to the note by creating a new note, such as [[test.zotero]]
• use ctrl + enter to navigate to [[test.zotero]]
• rename note using dendron: rename note
• revisit the bib.* note

Thanks again for this use of hooks!

Thank you all for feedback, I improved the hook to solve the issues.

@Sylvan54 now the note will tell what error Zotero gave you

@alatuszam thanks for finding that, I could reproduce the issue you described so I raised #3785 upstream. The new version has this workaround at the start that exits early if the note already has something

Awesome thanks @Maarrk