Import Zotero collections to Bookends

[graemeaustin]

Hi

I'm migrating my Zotero library over to Bookends and have successfully brought all references and their attachments into BE.

I have a number of collections in Zotero, some with 50+ articles in them. So I would like to know if there is an automated way I can bring them into BE as manually adding folders and groups is going to be a massive time suck which I'd like to avoid.

TIA

Graeme

[Jon]

Zotero doesn't export that information so there is no way for Bookends to know Zotero organized the references. The new ability to set up a watch folder for Zotero exports will help, but you'd still have to export/import one collection at a time.

https://www.sonnysoftware.com/support/u ... other-apps

If you can assign a unique identifier to each member of the collection in Zotero (e.g. a keyword) that is exported, you could create smart groups in Bookends that will mimic the collections, which may help a bit.

Jon
Sonny Software

[graemeaustin]

Jon

Thanks for the response.

I’ll see if I can take advantage of a custom key in Zotero.

If I reimport a bunch of references with this key, what’s the most efficient way for me to deduce them in BE? I tried importing without attachments and then found the dupes in the library. If the only dupes were the ones I’ve imported, can I make a hit list out of half of the dupes, move them into a new group and then delete the other half?

Or…?

Thanks

Graeme

[Jon]

I'd just import them into a clean new library.

If you've added or edited reference in Bookends already, I'd do an SQL search (or smart group) to find the ones added after a particular date, export them as "Bookends" files, then import them to the new library. We have built-in SQL smart groups that show you the way to find references added after a certain date (e.g. in the last 2 weeks), which you can modify easily.

Note that should NOT export/import the PDFs from Zotero again. You already have them. Just the metadata.

Jon
Sonny Software

[graemeaustin]

Jon

Thank you.

An update for those who come to this thread later:

I exported a collection one at a time from Zotero and imported into BE using the RIS filter. Then I found all dupes in BE and added them to the hit list.

This meant that only the collection refs were in the hit list, with and without attachments. So I dragged the lot into a new static group. Then I deselected the refs with attachments and clicked on the hit list again so that all I had were the unwanted dupes. I deleted them and checked there were no dupes in the library (just to be safe).

Then rinse and repeat for all collections.

For ex Zotero users, I’ve found that you can’t add refs to a folder, only to a group. So that takes a bit of getting used to. But all is good.

Graeme