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--- dev:translators_reference_guide [2009/07/26 05:32] – rmzelle
+++ dev:translators_reference_guide [2017/11/12 19:53] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+<html><p id="zotero-5-update-warning" style="color: red; font-weight: bold">We’re
+in the process of updating the documentation for
+<a href="https://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-5-0">Zotero 5.0</a>. Some documentation
+may be outdated in the meantime. Thanks for your understanding.</p></html>
 ====== Zotero Translators - The Missing Manual ======
@@ Line 6: / Line 12: @@
   * [[/|Zotero]] - writers of Zotero translators naturally can't do without a copy of Zotero.
-  * [[/support/dev/scaffold|Scaffold]] - this tool offers an easy and quick way to modify and test translators, but is (currently) only compatible with Zotero 1.0.x. If you want to use Scaffold for writing translators, and Zotero 2.0 for other purposes, consider installing Zotero 1.0.x and Scaffold in a [[http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+profiles|separate Firefox profile]] or [[http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable|separate Firefox installation]].
+  * [[/support/dev/scaffold|Scaffold]] - this tool offers an easy and quick way to modify and test translators.
   * XPath tools - most translators rely on XPath to extract information from HTML web pages or from XML data files. To quickly construct robust XPaths, consider using one of the following tools:
     * [[http://getfirebug.com/|Firebug]] - a popular and very powerful tool. Very useful in inspecting the HTML structure of web pages, and finding XPaths to the elements of interest.
-    * [[http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Solvent|Solvent]] - although no longer maintained, this is the preferred XPath tool of Adam Crymble, discussed in detail in his [[http://niche.uwo.ca/member-projects/zotero-guide/chapter3.html#s3p4|'How to Write a Zotero Translator'-guide]] (including installation instructions)
     * [[http://xpath.alephzarro.com/|XPather]]/[[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6622|DOM Inspector]] - XPather, which requires the DOM Inspector extension to be installed, is mostly useful for testing XPaths. Recommended in combination with Firebug.
-===== Translator Metadata =====
-Each translator is described by several metadata fields. For the stand-alone javascript translator files in Zotero 2.0, this metadata is included at the beginning of the file in a JSON block, e.g.:
-<code>{
-	"translatorID":"fcf41bed-0cbc-3704-85c7-8062a0068a7a",
-	"translatorType":12,
-	"label":"NCBI PubMed",
-	"creator":"Simon Kornblith and Michael Berkowitz",
-	"target":"http://[^/]*www\\.ncbi\\.nlm\\.nih\\.gov[^/]*/(pubmed|sites/entrez|entrez/query\\.fcgi\\?.*db=PubMed)",
-	"minVersion":"1.0.0b3.r1",
-	"maxVersion":"",
-	"priority":100,
-	"inRepository":true,
-	"lastUpdated":"2008-12-15 00:25:00"
-}</code>
-A description of the metadata fields:
-  * **translatorID** \\ The internal ID by which Zotero identifies the translator. It is recommended to use a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Unique_Identifier|GUID]] (GUIDs can be automatically generated in [[scaffold|Scaffold]]). As the translatorID is used for automatic updating of translators, and for calling translators within other translators, using stable GUIDs is strongly recommended.
-  * **translatorType** \\ Four types of translator exist, web translators being the most common. The four types are: import (1), export (2), web (4) and search (8). The value of translatorType should be the number listed after the relevant type. Some translators belong to multiple types. In those cases, the value of translatorType is the sum of the types (e.g. an web/search translator will have a translatorType value of 12). In [[scaffold|Scaffold]] the translatorType is set with checkboxes.
-  * **label** \\ The name of the translator
-  * **creator** \\ The author(s) of the translator
-  * **target** \\ For web translators, the target should specify a [[https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Guide/Regular_Expressions|Javascript regular expression]]. Whenever a page is loaded, Zotero tests the target regular expressions of all web translators on the webpage URL. Of the matching translators, the translator with the lowest priority number will be used for that page. The translator's DetectCode function is run, and a Zotero item icon will appear in the address bar if an item is found.
-  * **minVersion** \\ The minimum version of Zotero for which the translators works properly
-  * **maxVersion** \\ The maximum version of Zotero for which the translators works properly
-  * **priority** \\ The priority number is used to determine which translator should be used, if multiple translators are found to be able to translate a certain web page. A lower number indicates a higher priority.
-  * **inRepository** \\ FIXME This probably indicates whether the translator is shipped with Zotero.
-  * **lastUpdated** \\ The date and time when the translator was last modified (format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS). Scaffold automatically updates this fields when the translator is saved (or run).
 ===== Zotero.Utilities =====
@@ Line 125: / Line 101: @@
   * <ZOTEROHELLIP> becomes &#8230;
-Zotero.Utilities.unescapeHTML
+=== unescapeHTML ===
+**Function description** \\
 https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L189
+Zotero.Utilities.prototype.unescapeHTML = function(str)
+@type String
-Zotero.Utilities.parseMarkup
+Converts all HTML entities in a string into Unicode characters.
+=== parseMarkup ===
+**Function description** \\
 https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L206
+Zotero.Utilities.prototype.parseMarkup = function(str)
+@return {Array} An array of objects with the following form:
+{
+type: 'text'|'link',
+text: "text content",
+[ attributes: { key1: val [ , key2: val, ...] }
+}</pre>
-Zotero.Utilities.isInt
+Parses a text string for HTML/XUL markup and returns an array of parts. Currently only finds HTML links (<a> tags)
+=== isInt ===
+**Function description** \\
 https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L247
+Zotero.Utilities.prototype.isInt = function(x)
+@deprecated Use isNaN(parseInt(x))
+@type Boolean
-Zotero.Utilities.getPageRange
+Tests if a string is an integer
+=== getPageRange ===
+**Function description** \\
 https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L260
+Zotero.Utilities.prototype.getPageRange = function(pages)
+@param {String} Page range to parse
+@return {Integer[]} Start and end pages
-Zotero.Utilities.lpad
+Parses a page range
+=== lpad ===
+**Function description** \\
 https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L283
+Zotero.Utilities.prototype.lpad = function(string, pad, length)
+@param {String} string String to pad
+@param {String} pad String to use as padding
+@length {Integer} length Length of new padded string
+@type String
-Zotero.Utilities.itemTypeExists
+Pads a number or other string with a given string on the left
+=== getLocalizedCreatorType ===
+**Function description** \\
+https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L342
+Zotero.Utilities.prototype.capitalizeTitle = function(string, force)
+@param {String} string
+@param {Boolean} force Forces title case conversion, even if the capitalizeTitles pref is off
+@type String
+Cleans a title, converting it to title case and replacing " :" with ":"
+==== Other functions ====
+=== itemTypeExists ===
+**Function description** \\
 https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L297
+Zotero.Utilities.prototype.itemTypeExists = function(type)
+@param {String} type Item type
+@type Boolean
-Zotero.Utilities.getCreatorsForType
+Tests if an item type exists (FIXME: what is the use case for this?)
+=== getCreatorsForType ===
+**Function description** \\
 https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L311
+Zotero.Utilities.prototype.getCreatorsForType = function(type)
+@param {String} type Item type
+@return {String[]} Creator types
-Zotero.Utilities.getLocalizedCreatorType
+Find valid creator types for a given item type (FIXME: what is the use case for this?)
+=== getLocalizedCreatorType ===
+**Function description** \\
 https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L327
+Zotero.Utilities.prototype.getLocalizedCreatorType = function(type)
+@param {String} type Creator type
+@param {String} Localized creator type
+@type Boolean
-Zotero.Utilities.capitalizeTitle
+Gets a creator type name, localized to the current locale (FIXME: what is the use case for this?)
-https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L342
 Zotero.Utilities.processAsync
 https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/utilities.js#L361
+To Do:
+processDocuments, HTTP.doGet, HTTP.doPost, getItemArray
 ===== Item properties =====
@@ Line 159: / Line 202: @@
 Especially for screen scraper translators, knowing which item types (''book'', ''journalArticle'', etc) and item fields (''title'', ''url'', etc) exist in Zotero can be very helpful. Fortunately, the possible item properties can be found in the following source code file (types are listed as "itemTypes" entries, fields as "itemFields"):
-https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/branches/1.0/chrome/locale/en-US/zotero/zotero.properties#L154
+http://aurimasv.github.io/z2csl/typeMap.xml
 Note that the different item types make use of different combinations of item fields (e.g. the ''book'' item type has the field ''ISBN'', while the ''journalArticle'' item type lacks this field).