This is an old revision of the document!
LibreOffice Plugin Wire Protocol
The LibreOffice plugin uses a simple wire protocol to communicate with Zotero. (The Word for Mac and Word for Windows plugins both run in process, and use AppleEvents and COM respectively to communicate with the word processor.) The below documentation applies to Zotero LibreOffice Integration 3.5.3 and newer.
Basics
The Firefox or Zotero Standalone process operates a server on port 23116, which the extension residing within LibreOffice connects to. All frames consist of a 32 bits specifying the transaction ID, a big-endian 32-bit integer specifying the length of the payload, and the payload, which is either UTF-8 encoded JSON or an unescaped string beginning with “ERR:”.
There are two types of commands: integration command, sent by the word processor to Zotero initiate an operation (e.g., to add a new citation), and word processor commands, sent from Zotero to the word process to retrieve data from a document or to make changes to the document. Integration commands are sent from the word processor to Zotero, and must never receive a response. Word processor commands are sent from Zotero to the word processor, and must always receive a response.
Transaction ID
The transaction ID allows Zotero to determine whether the given frame is a response to another frame. When the client sends an integration command, it must send 0 as the transaction ID. Word processor commands always specify a non-zero transaction ID, and the response to these commands must maintain the same transaction ID.
An example
In order to add a citation to a document, LibreOffice sends the following:
TRANS ID LENGTH PAYLOAD HEXADECIMAL 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 22 61 64 64 43 69 74 61 74 69 6F 6E 22 INTERPRETATION 0 11 "addCitation"
Zotero then responds by asking for the active document, and supplying the API version it supports:
TRANS ID LENGTH PAYLOAD HEXADECIMAL 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 24 5B 22 41 70 70 6C 69 63 61 74 69 6F (...) INTERPRETATION 1 36 ["Application_getActiveDocument", 3]
The client then sends a response consisting of the API version it supports and the document ID:
TRANS ID LENGTH PAYLOAD HEXADECIMAL 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 24 5B 22 41 70 70 6C 69 63 61 74 69 6F (...) INTERPRETATION 1 6 [3, 1]
You can observe frame payloads sent between Zotero and LibreOffice in the Zotero debug output.
Integration Commands
These commands are sent from the word processor to Zotero, and do not receive a response. The command payload is always a quoted string.
Command | Description |
---|---|
“addCitation” | Add a new citation |
“editCitation” | Edit an existing citation |
“addBibliography” | Add a new bibliography |
“editBibliography” | Edit an existing bibliography |
“refresh” | Refresh all fields in the document, verifying that they match expectations |
“removeCodes” | Remove field codes from the document |
“setDocPrefs” | Change the citation style or other document parameters |
Word Processor Commands
These commands are sent from Zotero to the word processor. They must always receive a response. The command payload is always JSON-encoded in the form
[COMMAND_NAME, [...PARAMETERS...]]
If the request is successful, the client must send a response with a JSON-encoded payload. This response is often code>null</code> if the command returns no output, but may also be an array, an integer, a string, or a boolean value depending on the command.
If the request is unsuccessful, the client must send a response with the payload:
ERR:(Error string goes here).
Zotero will cancel the current operation, log this error, and present it to the user using the Document_displayAlert command if possible.
Application_getActiveDocument
Gets information about the client and the currently active document.
Parameters
protocolVersion | int | The version of the wire protocol supported by Zotero. Since Zotero determines whether the client's protocol version is compatible and shows an appropriate error if necessary, it is unlikely that the client needs to make use of this. |
Returns
protocolVersion | Integer | The version of the protocol supported by the client. |
documentID | Integer|String | An ID corresponding to the document that is currently active |
Document_displayAlert
Shows an alert.
Parameters
documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
dialogText | String | The text to display inside the dialog. |
icon | Integer | One of:DIALOG_ICON_STOP = 0 DIALOG_ICON_NOTICE = 1 DIALOG_ICON_CAUTION = 2 |
buttons | Integer | One of:DIALOG_BUTTONS_OK = 0 DIALOG_BUTTONS_OK_CANCEL = 1 DIALOG_BUTTONS_YES_NO = 2 DIALOG_BUTTONS_YES_NO_CANCEL = 3 |
Returns
(Integer) The index of the button pressed, according to the value of buttons sent as a parameter.
DIALOG_BUTTONS_OK | OK = 1 |
DIALOG_BUTTONS_OK_CANCEL | CANCEL = 0 OK = 1 |
DIALOG_BUTTONS_YES_NO | NO = 0 YES = 1 |
DIALOG_BUTTONS_YES_NO_CANCEL | CANCEL = 0 NO = 1 YES = 2 |
Document_activate
Brings the document to the foreground. This is a no-op on non-Mac systems.
Parameters
0 | documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
Returns
null
Document_canInsertField
Indicates whether a field can be inserted at the current cursor position.
Parameters
0 | documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
Returns
(Boolean) Whether a field can be inserted.
Document_setDocumentData
Stores a document-specific persistent data string. This data contains the style ID and other user preferences.
Parameters
(Array)
0 | documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
1 | dataString | String | The data string |
Returns
null
Document_getDocumentData
Retrieves data string set by [#setDocumentData].
Parameters
0 | documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
Returns
(String) The document data string.
Document_cursorInField
Indicates whether the cursor is in a given field. If it is, returns information about that field.
Parameters
0 | documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
1 | fieldType | String | The type of field used by the document, either ReferenceMark or Bookmark |
Returns
Either null, indicating that the cursor isn't in a field, or (Array)
0 | fieldID | Integer|String | A unique identifier corresponding to this field |
1 | fieldCode | Integer|String | The code stored within this field |
2 | noteIndex | Integer | The number of the footnote in which this field resides, or 0 if the field is not in a footnote. |
Document_insertField
Inserts a new field at the current cursor position.
Parameters
0 | documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
1 | fieldType | String | The type of field used by the document, either ReferenceMark or Bookmark |
2 | noteType | Integer | The type of note specified by the style:NOTE_IN_TEXT = 0 NOTE_FOOTNOTE = 1 NOTE_ENDNOTE = 2 If noteType is not NOTE_IN_TEXT, the implementation should create a new note before inserting the field |
Returns
(Array)
0 | fieldID | Integer|String | A unique identifier corresponding to this field |
1 | fieldCode | Integer|String | The code stored within this field. Since no data has been set, this should be empty. |
2 | noteIndex | Integer | The number of the footnote in which this field resides, or 0 if the field is not in a footnote. |
Document_getFields
Get all fields present in the document.
Parameters
0 | documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
1 | fieldType | String | The type of field used by the document, either ReferenceMark or Bookmark |
Returns
(Array)
0 | fieldID | Array(Integer|String) | Unique identifiers for each field |
1 | fieldCode | Array(Integer|String) | The code stored in each field |
2 | noteIndex | Array(Integer) | The number of the footnote in which each field resides, or 0 if the field is not in a footnote |
Document_convert
TODO
Document_setBibliographyStyle
TODO
Document_complete
Indicates that the given documentID will no longer be used and associated resources may be freed.
Parameters
documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
Returns
null
Field_delete
Deletes a field from the document (both its code and its contents).
Parameters
documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
fieldID | Integer|String | The fieldID, as originally returned by Document_cursorInField, Document_insertField, or Document_getFields |
Returns
null
Field_select
Moves the current cursor position to encompass a field.
Parameters
documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
fieldID | Integer|String | The fieldID, as originally returned by Document_cursorInField, Document_insertField, or Document_getFields |
Returns
null
Field_removeCode
Removes the field code from a field, leaving it as plain text.
Parameters
documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
fieldID | Integer|String | The fieldID, as originally returned by Document_cursorInField, Document_insertField, or Document_getFields |
Returns
null
Field_setText
Sets the (visible) text of a field.
Parameters
documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
fieldID | Integer|String | The fieldID, as originally returned by Document_cursorInField, Document_insertField, or Document_getFields |
text | String | The text |
Returns
null
Field_getText
Gets the text of a field.
Parameters
documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
fieldID | Integer|String | The fieldID, as originally returned by Document_cursorInField, Document_insertField, or Document_getFields |
Returns
(String) The text
Field_setCode
Sets the (hidden, persistent) code of a field.
Parameters
documentID | Integer|String | The documentID, as originally returned by Application_getActiveDocument |
fieldID | Integer|String | The fieldID, as originally returned by Document_cursorInField, Document_insertField, or Document_getFields |
code | String | The field code |
Returns
null