Skip to contents

zotFunc

Download complete Zotero group libraries via the Zotero Web API v3, in any of Zotero’s export formats, and keep the local copies up to date by re-downloading only groups that changed on the server.

Installation 

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("rkrug/zotFunc")

Usage

Download a group 

library(zotFunc)

# Public group "Nature Futures Framework" as BibTeX
get_group(4937409, path = "nff", output_format = "bibtex")

The records are saved in pages of 100 (one file per page). Next to them, get_group() writes four small files:

File Content
.id the group id
.name the group name
.version the group’s library version at the start of the download
.format the output format (json for the default JSON)

Update a download

Because the group id and the format are stored in the folder, the folder is all you need:

get_group(path = "nff")
#> Group 4937409 in `nff` is up to date - nothing downloaded.

The download is only replaced when the library version on the server is newer. Use force = TRUE to download anyway, or update = FALSE to refuse touching an existing download. A folder that is not a previous download is never deleted unless you pass overwrite = TRUE. Giving a different output_format downloads the group again in the new format. An error is raised if the folder holds a different group, or if the server version is older than the downloaded one.

To check without downloading:

group_outdated("nff")
#> 4937409
#>   FALSE

Download all groups of a user

Public groups work without an API key; for private groups you need a key with read access (create one here):

get_groups_from_user(
  zotero_user_name = "ipbes",
  path = "ipbes_groups",
  output_format = "bibtex",
  api_key = Sys.getenv("ZOTERO_API_KEY")
)

Each group goes into its own sub-folder and is updated as described above. The user is stored in .user_id and .user_name, so later runs only need get_groups_from_user(path = "ipbes_groups", api_key = ...).

Other helpers