In this tutorial we will use several pieces of software for writing translators. The following programs are all freely available and come from reputable sources. Please download and install them before continuing.
Zotero is an add-on for the Firefox web browser; therefore, to use Zotero, we must first install Firefox.
You can have multiple web browsers installed on your computer, and installing Firefox won't remove other web browsers.
Zotero runs within Firefox. Once installed, Zotero automatically runs whenever Firefox is in use. Open Zotero by clicking on the Zotero logo icon in the bottom right corner of the browser window. If you have never used Zotero, you can watch a video to help you get started.
Be sure you have the most up-to-date version of Zotero.
Scaffold is a tool designed specifically for writing and testing Zotero translators. With Scaffold you can quickly test translator code, and modify existing translators or create new ones. Also, translator development won't interfere with your normal Zotero usage, as no items are saved to your Zotero library when you run translators in Scaffold.
Once installed, launch Scaffold by navigating to the “Tools” menu in your Firefox window and select “Scaffold.”
You will learn in detail how to use Scaffold in Chapter 6.
Most translators navigate the underlying HTML code of webpages to extract (or “scrape”) certain information (e.g. the title of an article, or the location of a PDF). The Firefox add-on Firebug allows you to inspect HTML code and helps you find the relevant parts of a webpage. A second add-on, FirePath, adds additional features to Firebug: this add-on allows you to test directions for finding certain information (these directions are written in the XML Path Language (XPath)).
Once Firebug is installed, you can activate it by clicking on the bug icon in the bottom right corner of your Firefox window.
You will learn in detail how to use these add-ons in Chapter 5.
While you can edit translator code directly in Scaffold, there are several advantages of using a separate text editor (to backup progress, to take advantage of JavaScript syntax highlighting, to find syntax errors, etc.). Text editors vary greatly in complexity, so we recommend you try a few until you find one you like.
Several free text editors that can be used for editing JavaScript code: