Hi Mathias,
On Feb 6, 2007, at 1:18 PM, Mathias Bauer wrote:
Bruce D'Arcus wrote:
One thing that the plug-in does not do currently -- but which would
be nice -- is to allow browsing of the database from within the word-
processor. So using the MS example, imagine if instead they used the
Research Pane to be able to connnect to Zotero? They could then also
move from a citation field in document to a source record in the
bibliographic database.
If Zotero was to provide an API for this database retrieval (I'm not
sure if this what I would do in a remote interface, but anyway) we
could
implement a database cursor around it and then use this one to dump
the
content into a browser control we hopefully get ready for extension
development in 2.3 (not clear ATM).
Otherwise we would need to implement a database driver (UNO service)
that enables OOo to show the content in the database window in Writer
(the window you get when you press "F4").
I'm not so sure it'd need to be as complicated as accessing the
database per se. With SRW and SRU, for example, you're communicating
using XML.
I really would love to implement everything as a component that can be
updated independently from the main OOo code base, means an extension.
This would allow us to deliver funtionality incrementally and it would
make it easier for other developers to participate in the development.
Agreed.
Why is this an important advantage?
More "nice to have" rather than essential, but just consider the user
experience. In the current Zotero-in-Word approach (a first beta), to
browse and insert citations, or to change the citation style, you must
move over to Firefox. It would be better to be able to stay within the
word-processor to do that.
You should consider that we (the Writer team developers) won't have the
resources to implement everything discussed here in the near future. If
you wanted to have something done earlier it would be a good idea to
plan for "external" contributions and a development cycle that does not
need a complete alignment with the OOo releases.
OK.
So if the browser control wasn't ready in time I would go for the
driver
even if it was more work to do than hacking the stuff directly into the
Writer code base.
OK, let's talk about this some more once I hear from Thomas and the
Zotero guys (and any other interested third-party developers).
This is why I've focused on the metadata work in ODF (so it can store
the data), and have been thinking in terms of a generic API. I have
basically been assuming the bibliographic app sends the requested
citation source metadata -- and maybe optional formatted strings --
to the word-processor. But we can certainly discuss other options.
If the Zotero guys agreed upon using "ODFish" data transfer directly I
would be glad to use that. My assumption was that we have to take what
we get from there. But that may be wrong.
I think there's room for conversation about the best approach (they
probably think the same about OOo).
BTW: how is the metadata work going? Do you still think we should have
explicit bibliographic data in ODF or are you fine with bibl. data
being
just another kind of metadata?
I think we need an explicit citation field (which was already approved;
I just want to adapt it for the new generic metadata support), and to
have some guidelines about how to use the generic RDF support that will
almost surely be in ODF 1.2. So it's a bit of a mix in that sense, but
much closer to the generic end of things from a programming
perspective.
FYI, I started a wiki page at the Zotero dev wiki:
<http://dev.zotero.org/docs/word-processor_integration>
That in turns links to a page on the API:
<http://dev.zotero.org/docs/api>
.. where I the abstract API ZOOM, which is implemented in open source
code that implements three different protocols, one of which is SOAP
(SRW; the RESTful version is SRU).
Thanks, I will have a look as soon as I will have some time. OK, I will
do it if I fall prey to the illusion that I have some time. ;-)
Yes, I know that one :-)
Thanks again,
Bruce
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