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Site translators are the secret sauce that make Zotero so easy to use. Here you'll find tools and documentation to get you started creating your own site translators.
Scaffold: an IDE for Zotero translators (only compatible with Zotero 1.0.x)
Scaffold is a Firefox extension designed to help you write translators. Some people find it worthwhile to keep a separate Firefox profile running Zotero 1.0 and Scaffold if they are writing translators under Windows. (As of 1 Jul 2010, an unofficial build of Scaffold 2.0 is available here. Scaffold 2.0 will be available from zotero.org in the near future.)
How to Write a Zotero Translator
Adam Crymble's guide to writing a simple screenscraping translator for Zotero (aka HWZT) is a comprehensive guide to writing a translator using Scaffold 1.0 and Solvent, not to mention the DOM, JavaScript, and XPath. Unfortunately
- much has changed since HWZT was written, limiting its current usability.
- HWZT is not wikified, limiting its maintainability.
How to Write a Zotero Translator++
HWZT++ wikifies HWZT, and updates it by using uplevel tools. Currently (Jul 2010) HWZT++ is useful, though further work is planned, since HWZT++ is currently
- merely a list of deltas to HWZT, so one will unfortunately need to work with both resources open.
- has the functional limitation as HWZT, i.e. it uses Scaffold (2.0) to write a screenscaper.
Zotero Translators - The Missing Manual This missing manual aims to expand on Adam Crymble's introductory tutorial, discussing the functions in Zotero.Utilities, describing how translators can call other translators, and more.
A more technical (but fairly outdated) guide additionally covering the creation of import and export translators can be found here