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Overview
In Zotero >= 2.0, translators are just javascript files. While Scaffold 2.0 can ease translator development, some prefer to work directly on the filesystem. To do this, one must
- find or create a Zotero development environment
- find or create a translator development environment
- create or modify a translator file
- edit, run, test, debug
- contribute your translator
Find or create a Zotero development environment
One develops a translator to run on/against a given version of Zotero, which runs on/against a given version of Firefox. The easiest way to do this is just to use the current version of Zotero that is running in your current Firefox profile. One can identify the path to one's current Zotero directory using the Zotero UI: select the gear icon to dropdown its menu, and choose Preferences>Advanced>Show Data Directory.
While convenient, using one's current Zotero
- runs the risk of corrupting one's current Zotero data, i.e. one's saved citations.
- does not allow one to develop against another version of Firefox or Zotero.
To create a separate Zotero development environment,
- Use Firefox's Profile Manager to create a Firefox profile. (Remember below to start Firefox using that profile.) (Note that, by default, only one Firefox profile can run at any given time.)
- install the desired version of Zotero into your Firefox profile. One can install either
Find or create a translator development environment
When developing directly against the filesystem, one's translator development environment is
- one's collection of one or more translator files
- the tools one uses to work on them
Translator files
Zotero installs its translators and related code as files in the subdirectory translators. I.e.
- if the path to your Firefox profile=
${FIREFOX_PROFILE}
then the path to your Zotero is
${FIREFOX_PROFILE}/zotero
- if the path to your Zotero=
${FIREFOX_PROFILE}/zotero
then the path to your translators, and hence to your translator development environment, is
${FIREFOX_PROFILE}/zotero/translators
(See above regarding using Zotero UI to identify the path to your current Zotero.)
TODO: how to get alternate/uplevel versions of translators?
Translator development tools
TODO:
- Javascript-enabled tools
- XPath tools
Create or modify a translator file
Edit, run, test, debug
Enable debugging output
One must
- configure Firefox to write Zotero debugging output to a terminal emulator (e.g.
xterm
,terminal
,cmd
) - start Firefox via command-line from a terminal emulator (i.e. not via an icon)
before one can see output from, e.g., Zotero.debug() calls. See detailed instructions for linux, mac, and windows.
Contribute your translator
Once your translator works on a subset of the sites on which you believe it should work, please contribute your translator to the community.