Quote:
Originally Posted by petzi
Why is ZMI restricting the import to records with attached files? I started with Zotoro many years ago. But with Calibre I have just a short history. Therefore I have many entries in Zotero for citation purposes, but the UI of Calibre is much nicer and more powerful. I started to use Calibre as a database not only for e-books but for organizing and managing my physical books as well.
So why not import meta-data from Zotero (at least) for "book"-items with no attached files to Calibre as well?
|
@petzi:
Please clarify by answering the following questions for me:
[1] Are you saying that you have Zotero metadata that should be with existing Calibre books, but there is nothing in Zotero that points at all to the Calibre books? And vice-versa?
[2] If the answer to [1] is "yes" and "yes", then how would ZMI know where to find the Zotero metadata for a Calibre book that does not exist in Zotero as a file attachment? By you manually relating them to each other?
[3] If I gave you a "magic wand" that allows you to instantly copy Zotero metadata from any single item in Zotero to any single book in Calibre by simply selecting the Calibre book and then selecting the Zotero item, would that work?
[4] If the answer to [3] is "no", what would you propose instead?
[5] If the answer to [3] is "yes", is it practical to do that 1-by-1? If not, how can it be automated (but see [2], above)?
[6] Another alternative: If I created an "empty book" in Calibre (i.e., pure metadata with no physical formats at all) for each CSV item that had no file attachments, would that be useful? Could you add some Calibre metadata to relate them to the non-empty Calibre books that you already have?
[7] If the answer to [6] is "yes, that works for me", then what Zotero item types should be used to create Calibre "empty books"? A list of the standard item types is shown below for your reference.
[8] Same as for [7], but instead of item types, should some other Zotero column be used? Or in combination with other columns? How would ZMI know what to ignore? It currently ignores all file attachments that have an extension of .html, .htm, etc. Should it not ignore those just for your scenario? Should it import those too? Other ZMI users have said they do not want those files imported into Calibre since they are not "books". Should I make it a user option to import or ignore them?
[9] Could you attach a CSV file exported from Zotero that has a very large assortment of the types of items that you were describing in your question? I need to see it for myself.
DaltonST