For a Zotero Web API client to present an editing UI to its users, it must know what combinations of Zotero item types, fields, and creator types are valid. Clients can request this data from the Zotero API.

As schema changes are currently rare, clients should cache type/field data for a period of time (e.g., one hour) without making further requests. Subsequent requests for new data should then include If-Modified-Since headers containing the contents of the Last-Modified header from the original response. If no changes have occurred, the server will return a 304 Not Modified and clients should continue to use cached data for the same period of time. [Conditional requests – i.e. If-Modified-Since – are not yet implemented.]

User-friendly type/field names will be returned in English by default. Clients can request names in other languages by passing a locale parameter (e.g., GET /itemTypes?locale=fr-FR).

Note: the entire schema, including translations for all locales, can also be downloaded as a single file at https://api.zotero.org/schema. See the GitHub repository of the schema for caching instructions.

GET /itemTypes
If-Modified-Since: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:30:17 GMT

[
  { "itemType" : "book", "localized" : "Book" },
  { "itemType" : "note", "localized" : "Note" },
  (…)
]

GET /itemFields
If-Modified-Since: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:30:17 GMT

[
  { "field" : "title", "localized" : "Title" },
  { "field" : "url", "localized" : "URL" },
  (…)
]

Note: API consumers intending to write to the server should generally use /items/new combined with /itemTypes instead of this request.

GET /itemTypeFields?itemType=book
If-Modified-Since: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:30:17 GMT

[
  { "field" : "title", "localized" : "Title" },
  { "field" : "abstractNote", "localized" : "Abstract" },
  (…)
]

GET /itemTypeCreatorTypes?itemType=book

[
  { "creatorType" : "author", "localized" : "Author" },
  { "creatorType" : "editor", "localized" : "Editor" },
  (…)
]

GET /creatorFields
If-Modified-Since: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:30:17 GMT

[
  { "field" : "firstName", "localized" : "First" },
  { "field" : "lastName", "localized" : "Last" },
  { "field" : "name", "localized" : "Name" }
]

GET /items/new?itemType=book
If-Modified-Since: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:30:17 GMT

{
  "itemType" : "book",
  "title" : "",
  "creators" : [
    {
      "creatorType" : "author",
      "firstName" : "",
      "lastName" : ""
    }
  ],
  "url" : "",
  (...),
  "tags" : [],
  "collections" : [],
  "relations" : {}
}

GET /items/new?itemType=note
If-Modified-Since: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:30:17 GMT

{
  "itemType" : "note",
  "note" : "",
  "tags" : [],
  "collections" : [],
  "relations" : {}
}

TODO: attachment creation (see File Uploads)