detectWeb is run to determine whether item metadata can indeed be retrieved from the webpage. The return value of this function should be the detected item type (e.g. “journalArticle”, see the overview of Zotero item types), or, if multiple items are found, “multiple”.

detectWeb receives two arguments, the webpage document object and URL (typically named doc and url). In some cases, the URL provides all the information needed to determine whether item metadata is available, allowing for a simple detectWeb function, e.g. (example from Cell Press.js):

function detectWeb(doc, url) {
 
	if (url.indexOf("search/results") != -1) {
		return "multiple";
	} else if (url.indexOf("content/article") != -1) {
		return "journalArticle";
	}
}

doWeb is run when a user, wishing to save one or more items, activates the selected translator. Sidestepping the retrieval of item metadata, we'll first focus on how doWeb can be used to save retrieved item metadata (as well as attachments and notes) to your Zotero library.

The first step towards saving an item is to create an item object of the desired item type (examples from “NCBI PubMed.js”):

var newItem = new Zotero.Item("journalArticle");

Metadata can then be stored in the properties of the object. Of the different fields available for the chosen item type (see the Field Index), only the title is required. E.g.:

var title = article.ArticleTitle.text().toString();
newItem.title = title;
 
var PMID = citation.PMID.text().toString();
newItem.url = "http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/" + PMID;

After all metadata has been stored in the item object, the item can be saved:

newItem.complete();

This process can be repeated (e.g. using a loop) to save multiple items.

Attachments may be saved alongside item metadata via the item object's attachments property. Common attachment types are full-text PDFs, links and snapshots. An example from “Pubmed Central.js”:

var linkurl = "http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC" + ids[i] + "/";
newItem.attachments = [{
url: linkurl,
title: "PubMed Central Link",
mimeType: "text/html",
snapshot: false}];
 
var pdfurl = "http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC" + ids[i] + "/pdf/" + pdfFileName;
newItem.attachments.push({
title:"PubMed Central Full Text PDF",
mimeType:"application/pdf",
url:pdfurl});

An attachment can only be saved if the source is indicated. The source is often a URL (set on the url property), but can also be a file path (set on path) or a document object (set on document). Other properties that can be set are mimeType (“text/html” for webpages, “application/pdf” for PDFs), title, and snapshot (if the latter is set to false, an attached webpage is always saved as a link).

Rintze: is it preferable to use document instead of url, if possible? (would this eliminate the reloading of a loaded webpage?)

Notes are saved similarly to attachments. The content of the note, which should consist of a string, should be stored in the note property of the item's notes property. A title, stored in the title property, is optional. E.g.:

bbCite = "Bluebook citation: " + bbCite + ".";
newItem.notes.push({note:bbCite});

Sometimes webpages list multiple items, e.g. when showing search results or the index of a journal issue. For these pages, web translators can be written to a) allow the user to select one or more items and b) batch save the selected items to the user's Zotero library.