[Item] note links

[windingwind]

Insert the selected notes' links.
Author: @windingwind

# This template is specifically for importing/sharing, using better 
# notes 'import from clipboard': copy the content and
# goto Zotero menu bar, click Edit->New Template from Clipboard.  
# Do not copy-paste this to better notes template editor directly.
name: "[item] note link"
content: |-
  // @author windingwind
  // @link https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/discussions/243
  // @use-markdown
  [${topItem.getNoteTitle()}](${Zotero.BetterNotes.api.convert.note2link(topItem)})

[macrospecter]

This sounded like a really helpful template, but it's now outdated (since it refers to Knowledge4Zotero). Would it be possible to get an update? I tried fiddling with it but can't get it to work. Thank you!

[windingwind]

Updated for the latest beta version (v1.1.4-4).

[macrospecter]

Is it possible to create a version of this template that automatically selects the open note or its parent item as the source of the link, rather than requiring selection of the item in a popup? I've been using a variation of this template for some time to put a link to the open note at the start of every note (so that I can open it again from within my markdown editor after it exports), but it takes awhile to sort through the relevant articles and find the one that's open.

[macrospecter]

Thanks for the reply! My File menu doesn't have the Create Note from Template option, but I was able to do as you suggest by using the + button > New Item Note from Template option within the Zotero PDF reader. So that's a solution for new notes.

But I have one question about how to adapt the text template for adding links to existing notes. I've been using a template (a variant of one of yours) that inserts the item link as a hyperlink over the item's author, title, and year. I'm pasting the template immediately below. Could you perhaps point me in the right direction for modifying this template to use the text template for the link to the target note (I guess: ${linkText}), rather than the function that grabs a link to the specified library item? I tried editing it myself but I must be missing something.

${await new Promise(async (resolve) => {
async function getPDFLink(item) {
const att = await item.getBestAttachment();
if (!att || !att.isPDFAttachment()) {
return "";
}
key = att.key;
if (att.libraryID === 1) {
return zotero://open-pdf/library/items/${key};
} else {
groupID = Zotero.Libraries.get(att.libraryID).id;
return zotero://open-pdf/groups/${groupID}/items/${key};
}
}
const creators = topItem.getCreators();
let content = "";
const title = topItem.getField("title");
const year = topItem.getField("year");
if (creators.length === 0) {
content = "no author";
} else if (creators.length === 1) {
content = ${creators[0].lastName}, ${title}, ${year};
} else {
content = ${creators[0].lastName} et al., ${title}, ${year};
}
// The getPDFLink is from above
const link = await getPDFLink(topItem);
let str = <a href="${link}">${content}</a>;
resolve(str);
})}

[windingwind]

1. You can find the available variables of the text template here: https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/blob/master/docs/about-note-template.md#text
2. There is a targetNoteItem. You can call Zotero.BetterNotes.api.convert.note2link(targetNoteItem) to get the link of that note item. Wrap the code inside ${}, following the construction here: https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/blob/master/docs/about-note-template.md#script-in-note-template
3. Write the template in MarkDown with // @use-markdown:

# This template is specifically for importing/sharing, using better 
# notes 'import from clipboard': copy the content and
# goto Zotero menu bar, click Edit->New Template from Clipboard.  
# Do not copy-paste this to better notes template editor directly.
name: "[text] current note link"
content: |-
  // @author windingwind
  // @link https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/discussions/243
  // @use-markdown
  [Current Zotero Note](${Zotero.BetterNotes.api.convert.note2link(targetNoteItem)})

[windingwind]

And here is a more complicated version that adds support to the preview feature in the template editor. In the real run they are equivalent.

# This template is specifically for importing/sharing, using better 
# notes 'import from clipboard': copy the content and
# goto Zotero menu bar, click Edit->New Template from Clipboard.  
# Do not copy-paste this to better notes template editor directly.
name: "[text] current note link"
content: |-
  // @author windingwind
  // @link https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/discussions/243
  // @use-markdown
  ${{
  if (_env.dryRun) {
    // For preview
    sharedObj.note = Zotero.getActiveZoteroPane().getSelectedItems()[0];
  } else {
    sharedObj.note = targetNoteItem;
  }
  return "";
  }}$
  [Current Zotero Note](${Zotero.BetterNotes.api.convert.note2link(sharedObj.note)})

[macrospecter]

Thanks a lot! Understanding what the targetNoteItem object is will help a lot in writing other templates.

However, when I follow the instructions to import from the clipboard either of the templates that you generously offered above, I get the error that the copied template is "invalid." I tried really stripping down the code and only using the name/content lines and ${Zotero.BetterNotes.api.convert.note2link(targetNoteItem)}, but even that didn't work. Could this be because I'm on BN 1.0.4?

[windingwind]

I can't remember how 1.0.4 handles importing, but it doesn't make sense if you can import the one I updated in the original post but failed with the ones above.

What is even that didn't work? Any errors?

If the variable targetNoteItem is not available on 1.0.4, you may need to use the latest beta (prerelease), which requires Zotero 7 beta.

The support for Zotero 6's BN is not over, but new features will no longer be added to the Z6 version.

[macrospecter]

Sorry for the delay. I've been testing this on my two mac computers, and I'm getting inconsistent results. Finally the template worked on one computer, with virtually nothing changed; I just tried inserting the template (which I'd previously imported) again and the note link appeared as desired. Today I tried it on my other computer, and got the same issue as I originally had on the first computer. Here is the error, which appears upon trying to insert the template at cursor: "SyntaxError: missing ) after formal parameters." It also appears in the "preview" window of the template editor. On the first computer, the one where the template is now working, I had gotten this same error before. I had also gotten a different error: a small Better Notes popup in the right hand side of my Zotero window, right after I made the Template from the clipboard, that said that the template was "invalid."

I'm sorry, I seem to have had these inconsistency issues a lot with templates. They don't work for days, and then sometimes they do work. I hate to trouble you about them, but I'm wondering if there's some systematic issue.