collect and normalize tags

[VladimirAlexiev]

• collect all tags. You can do it in various ways, but need to check which is better. Eg
  • Using addon zotero-tag and function "check rarely used tags", see [Feature] tag cleanup (normalize/canonicalize tags) windingwind/zotero-actions-tags#38, but you need to do it collection by collection. add "check rarely used tags" and "export tags" on library, collection, subcollection windingwind/zotero-actions-tags#39 asks for a similar function at library level
  • from the exports, using command line tools:

cd export
grep '"tag"' better-bibtex-json.json|sort|uniq
grep ' keywords ' better-biblatex.bib|perl -pe 's{keywords = \{(.*)\}}{$1}; s{,}{\n}g'|sort|uniq

• also consider collecting tag counts, which can guide you into which should be the normalized (most popular) forms,
  and which still need to be normalized (the least used ones)
• normalize the tags, eg by using OpenRefine's string clustering functions.
  Copy the original tags to a second column normalized, then use clustering to normalize that
• (OPTIONAL, depending on [Feature] tag cleanup (normalize/canonicalize tags) windingwind/zotero-actions-tags#38) produce a normalization file
  with format tag: alias, alias2, alias3 eg:

Building Information Modeling (BIM): building information modeling, Building Information Modeling (BIM), BIM, Building Information Modeling
Automated Compliance Checking (ACC): automated compliance checking, automated code checking, automated compliance checking system

[VladimirAlexiev]

@SCVFlare do you want to take a look?
First read the linked issues as I've added info there (eg Zotero can easily correct a tag using rclick on the bottom-left pane)

[SCVFlare]

Hi, added information to a readme. The problem with bulk changing the tags is possible via the api of zotero.
https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/web_api/v3/start - the API documentation.
here's sample code from the python library for zotero. For example, we can get all items from the library, iterate them and change the tags and finally update the item in the library

i = zot.items()
# see above for example of returned item structure
# modify the latest item which was added to your library
i[0]['data']['title'] = 'The Sheltering Sky'
i[0]['data']['creators'][0]['firstName'] = 'Paul'
i[0]['data']['creators'][0]['lastName'] = 'Bowles'
zot.update_item(i[0])

[VladimirAlexiev]

@SCVFlare That will work, but I think a more efficient way to update is from a JS addon: windingwind/zotero-actions-tags#38.

Zotero has "tag rename & merge" UI functionality:

I hope a JS addon can do a similar thing, whereas the API doesn't have any functions on tags

So far the issue asks for normalization through replacement. It would also be great to have tag enrichment: subconcept -> superconcept, eg

CityGML -> GML
IndoorGML -> GML
Prolog -> logic programming, Answer Set Programming (ASP)
B-Prolog -> Prolog # and thereon the other two superconcepts

[VladimirAlexiev]

@SCVFlare https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Zotero#Scripts gives as example:

• https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/client_coding/javascript_api#exampleitem_field_changes
• that refers to a list of fields https://api.zotero.org/itemFields?pprint=1 but I don't see "tag" or "topic" there.

How does that compare to your API research? Can you update your example to show how to edit tags?

[SCVFlare]

Hi @VladimirAlexiev,

The JavaScript API is much more powerful than the web API and may have exactly what you're searching for, however, I can't find it.
The ItemFields does not indeed have a tag field.

However, I managed to the same as I did with the web API above - find all the items with the tag and replace it.
Here's some sample code that can be run in the Developer-> Run JavaScript console.

var tag = "<your tag here>";
var s = new Zotero.Search();
s.libraryID = ZoteroPane.getSelectedLibraryID();
s.addCondition('tag', 'is', tag);
var ids = await s.search();
if (!ids.length) {
    return "No items found";
}
await Zotero.DB.executeTransaction(async function () {
    for (let id of ids) {
        let item = Zotero.Items.get(id);
        item.replaceTag(tag, "<new tag name here>");
        await item.save({
            skipDateModifiedUpdate: true
        });
    }
});
return ids.length + " tag(s) updated";

This could be appropriated in the same way. by iterating through the old tags, find the item and update in the same vain as the web API.

[SCVFlare]

Update:

I actually found the function rename function in the source code of the Tags object and it's even simpler:

var tag = "<old tag>";
var id = new Zotero.Search();
id = ZoteroPane.getSelectedLibraryID();

Zotero.Tags.rename(id,tag,"<new tag here>");