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Go from attachment to Bookends entry?

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 11:32 am
by alanterra
I don't know if others agree with me, but wouldn't it be great if there was a way to go from an attachment (like a pdf) to the Bookends entry for that paper?

Right now, the only way I can do it easily is copy the file name, paste it into the bookends search (All Fields), and then backspace to get rid of the file extension, and perhaps the unique number that Bookends assigns in the case of multiple attachments. And that only works if I let Bookends name the attachment and I use a naming scheme that is compatible with a search. (E.g., naming the attachment "Smith 2010 A study of error" works, but naming it "Smith AB 2010 A study of error" doesn't work because "AB" isn't an indexed word for the entry in Bookends.)

This isn't too difficult, if you use the right attachment naming scheme, but I was thinking that if there was an "Open with... Bookends" option in the Finder, and it would go to that file's entry in the top Bookends' database if it exists (and put up a not-found error if it doesn't exist), it would add another way to easily manage your references.

Imagine doing a search in Finder (or, better, in a dedicated app like Houdah Search) in your attachments folder, finding the document you want, and then being to directly edit the entry in Bookends for that paper.

Re: Go from attachment to Bookends entry?

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 12:14 pm
by Jon
Bookends only stores the attachment name, there is no magic link. The Live Search field doesn't have an option for searching attachments, but that's not a bad idea. I'll look into adding that.

As for "open with Bookends", that wouldn't work because that would tell Bookends to attach the PDF (that's how "Print To Bookends" works).

Jon
Sonny Software

Re: Go from attachment to Bookends entry?

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 6:40 pm
by alanterra
Thx

Re: Go from attachment to Bookends entry?

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:36 pm
by Phiala
I also would really like to be able to find a reference within Bookends by searching the attachment's file name. It would facilitate my desired workflow. What I am actually aiming for is being able to search a set of filenames and add those files to a group. There are some fairly sophisticated full-text search tools available for PDFs, and I'd like to be able to leverage their strengths and those of Bookends simultaneously.

The best option I've come up with so far is searching, for instance in HoudahSpot, exporting the file names, and using a script to turn them into the format

attachments REGEX 'filename1\.pdf|filename2\.pdf|filename3\.pdf'

to use in a smart SQL search.

This works adequately, though it would be nice to require fewer steps.

The spotlight search directly in Bookends doesn't seem to be as easily customizable as in HoudahSpot.

Re: Go from attachment to Bookends entry?

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:44 pm
by Jon
It's easy enough to search for attachment name in Bookends with SQL search. I wouldn't do a Regex search for all in one string, though, I'd do one at a time and AND them in the regex search. Also, use (?im) in the regex search to get case insensitive searches that work in fields with multiple lines.

Jon
Sonny Software

Re: Go from attachment to Bookends entry?

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:48 pm
by Phiala
Automatically combining a series of filenames with | as the separator is very easy, though, and works as expected in a search. It's not very human-readable, but that's fine for something I only need once. Do you have some other reason for preferring the AND approach? My current smallish project had 84 files to locate and flag.

With my current workflow, exporting the names from HoudahSpot search, the case-insensitive modifier isn't needed because case is preserved. But in a more flexible workflow, that's certainly a good thing to remember.

Re: Go from attachment to Bookends entry?

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:58 pm
by Jon
No, but your example above showed a slash, not a pipe. If the search works for you no need to change.

Jon
Sonny Software

Re: Go from attachment to Bookends entry?

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 6:02 pm
by Phiala
Ah, I see what you're looking at - I escaped the . in filename.pdf out of long regex habit, even though in this case it doesn't make any difference to the results, but there are pipes | between filenames.

Re: Go from attachment to Bookends entry?

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 8:36 am
by Jon
Sorry, you're right, I looked quickly and missed those.

Jon
Sonny Software