Changing 'Attached file “some file”. Reference metadata not found online.'

[ryanjamurphy]

Is there any way to get Bookends to provide a more useful title when it fails to import metadata for a new item?

The title field becomes populated with the statement

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Changing 'Attached file “some file”. Reference metadata not found online.'

This is sad, because it makes it hard to use this field in e.g., OpenURL Search queries. Unsurprisingly, Google fails to find items with that title, but it has a 100% success rate at finding

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some file

.

[Jon]

If the metadata isn't found then the title isn't found either. So Bookends uses the name of the PDF (which is ofter garbage).

You do a Global Change -> Find/Replace to remove 'Reference metadata not found online.' from all your references.

Jon
Sonny Software

[ryanjamurphy]

Thanks for the swift response. It is never garbage for me, because I use a particular process to create the file I'm importing. It would be extremely helpful to just leave it as the PDF, or at least let the user decide if the noisy statement is necessary.

[Jon]

The statement is useful because it appears in the column view and users can see immediately that the metadata wasn't imported. They can they perform an Autocomplete Paper if they want to get it. So it has a purpose and is put in the title field by design.

As I said, it's a matter of 30 seconds to remove that information from all your references, if present, with Global Change.

Jon
Sonny Software

[ryanjamurphy]

Sadly, 30s x 5-10 times a day makes for a very infuriating experience, so it is a much bigger deal than the workaround you're offering makes it seem!

[ryanjamurphy]

Alternatively: I know I can use <title>, <doi>, and <pmid> in OpenURL searches—is there a way to use filename or attachment name or something? What I'm hoping for is a way to use the attachment's info in OpenURL search quickly and easily, without having to copy and paste info from the file.

[ryanjamurphy]

Found a faster route than the find-replace option: scripting! This is fine. Thanks Jon.

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tell application "Bookends"
	tell front library window
		set selectedPubs to selected publication items
		if selectedPubs is not {} then
			set aPub to first item of selectedPubs
			set publicationAttachments to attachment items of aPub
			if publicationAttachments is not {} then
				set theAttachment to first item of publicationAttachments
				set attachmentName to name of theAttachment
				set title of aPub to attachmentName
			end if
		end if
	end tell
end tell

[Jon]

You've come up with a nice solution.

Jon
Sonny Software

[msteffens]

This makes me happy! It's a great example of why scriptability is so useful in a productivity app such as Bookends! It empowers users by giving them lots of flexibility to achieve custom or alternate solutions.