Zotero Addon Template

This is an addon/plugin template for Zotero.

Documentation(Chinese, provides English translation)

👍You are currently in bootstrap extension mode. To use overlay mode, plsase switch to overlay branch in git.

👁 Watch this repo so that you can be notified whenever there are fixes & updates.

Features

• TypeScript support;
• Build addon settings and versions automatically;
• Build and reload code in Zotero automatically;
• Release to GitHub automatically(using release-it);
• Extensive skeleton;
• Some sample code of UI and lifecycle.
• ⭐Compatibilities for Zotero 6 & Zotero 7.(using zotero-plugin-toolkit)

Quick Start Guide

• Fork this repo;
• Git clone the forked repo;
• Enter the repo folder;
• Modify the settings in ./package.json, including:

  version,
  author,
  description,
  homepage,
  releasepage,
  updaterdf,
  addonName,
  addonID,
  addonRef

Be careful to set the addonID and addonRef to avoid confliction.

• Run npm install to set up the plugin and install dependencies. If you don't have NodeJS installed, please download it here;
• Run npm run build to build the plugin. The xpi for installation and the built code is under builds folder.

Plugin Life Cycle

1. When install/enable/startup triggered from Zotero, bootstrap.js > startup is called
   • Wait for Zotero ready
   • Prepare global variables ctx. They are available globally in the plugin scope
   • Load index.js (the main entrance of plugin code, built from index.ts)
   • Register resources if Zotero 7+
2. In the main entrance index.js, the plugin object is injected under Zotero and events.ts > onInit is called.
   • Initialize anything you want, including notify listeners, preference panes(initPrefs), and UI elements(initViews).
3. When uninstall/disabled triggered from Zotero, bootstrap.js > shutdown is called.
   • events.ts > onUninit is called. Remove UI elements(unInitViews), preference panes(uninitPrefs), or anything created by the plugin.
   • Remove scripts and release resources.

Examples

See https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-plugin-toolkit for more detailed API documentations.

Menu (file, edit, view, ...) & Right-click Menu (item, collection/library)

File Menu

574ce88b9f/src/views.ts (L52-L60)

Item Menu

574ce88b9f/src/views.ts (L23-L51)

insertMenuItem resolved the input object and inject the menu items.

You can choose an anchor element and insert before/after it using insertPosition and anchorElement. Default the insert position is the end of the menu.

Preference, for both Zotero 6 and Zotero 7 (all in bootstrap)

Zotero 6 doesn't support preference pane injection in bootstrap mode, thus I write a register for Zotero 6 or lower.

You only need to maintain one preferences.xhtml which runs natively on Zotero 7 and let the plugin template handle it when it is running on Zotero 6.

Zotero 7

Zotero 6

574ce88b9f/src/views.ts (L63-L82)

Call registerPrefPane when it's on Zotero 6.

Note that <preferences> element is deprecated. Please use the full pref-key in the elements' preference attribute. Like:

<checkbox label="&zotero.__addonRef__.pref.enable.label;" preference="extensions.zotero.__addonRef__.enable"
/>

The elements with preference attributes will bind to Zotero preferences.

Remember to call unregisterPrefPane() on plugin unload.

574ce88b9f/src/views.ts (L88-L90)

Create Elements API

The plugin template provides new APIs for bootstrap plugins. We have two reasons to use these APIs, instead of the createElement/createElementNS:

• In bootstrap mode, plugins have to clean up all UI elements on exit (disable or uninstall), which is very annoying. Using the createElement, the plugin template will maintain these elements. Just removeAddonElements on exit.
• Zotero 7 requires createElement()/createElementNS() → createXULElement() for remaining XUL elements, while Zotero 6 doesn't support createXULElement. Using createElement, it switches API depending on the current platform automatically.

There are more advanced APIs for creating elements in batch: creatElementsFromJSON. Input an element tree in JSON and return a fragment/element. These elements are also maintained by this plugin template.

Directory Structure

This section shows the directory structure of a template.

• All .js/.ts code files are in ./src;
• Addon config files: ./addon/chrome.manifest, ./addon/install.rdf;
• UI files: ./addon/chrome/content/*.xul. The overlay.xul also defines the main entrance;
• Locale files: ./addon/chrome/locale/*.dtd;
• Resource files: ./addon/chrome/skin/default/__addonRef__/*.dtd;
• Preferences file: ./addon/chrome/defaults/preferences/defaults.js;

  Don't break the lines in the defaults.js

│  .gitignore
│  .release-it.json # release-it conf
|  tsconfig.json    # https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/jsconfig#
│  build.js         # esbuild
│  LICENSE
│  package.json     # npm conf
│  README.md        # readme
│  update.rdf       # addon update
│
├─.github           # github conf
│
├─addon             # addon dir
│  │  chrome.manifest  #addon conf
│  │  install.rdf   # addon install conf
│  │  bootstrap.js  # addon load/unload script, like a main.c
│  │
│  └─chrome
│      ├─content    # UI
│      │  │  preferences.xhtml
│      │  │
│      │  ├─icons
│      │  │      favicon.png
│      │  │      favicon@0.5x.png
│      │  │
│      │  └─scripts
│      └─locale     # locale
│         ├─en-US
│         │      overlay.dtd
│         │
│         └─zh-CN
│                overlay.dtd
│
├─builds            # build dir
│  └─.xpi
│
└─src               # source code
    │  index.ts     # main entry
    │  module.ts    # module class
    │  addon.ts     # base class
    │  events.ts    # events class
    │  views.ts     # UI class
    └─ prefs.ts     # preferences class

Build

# A release-it command: version increase, npm run build, git push, and GitHub release
# You need to set the environment variable GITHUB_TOKEN https://github.com/settings/tokens
# release-it: https://github.com/release-it/release-it
npm run release

Alternatively, build it directly using build.js: npm run build

Build Steps

1. Clean ./builds
2. Copy ./addon to ./builds
3. Esbuild to ./builds/addon/chrome/content/scripts
4. Replace __buildVersion__ and __buildTime__ in ./builds/addon
5. Zip the ./builds/addon to ./builds/*.xpi

Debug

1. Copy zotero command line config file. Modify the commands.

cp zotero-cmd-default.json zotero-cmd.json

2. Setup addon development environment following this link.

3. Build addon and restart Zotero with this npm command.

4. Launch Firefox 60

5. In Firefox, go to devtools, go to settings, click "enable remote debugging" and the one next to it that's also about debugging(or press shift+F8).

6. In Zotero, go to setting, advanced, config editor, look up "debugging" and click on "allow remote debugging"

7. In Firefox, click the hamburger menu in the top right -> web developer -> Connect...

8. Enter localhost:6100

9. Connect

10. Click "Inspect Main Process"

npm run restart

You can also debug code in these ways:

• Test code segments in Tools->Developer->Run Javascript;
• Debug output with Zotero.debug(). Find the outputs in Help->Debug Output Logging->View Output;
• UI debug. Zotero is built on the Firefox XUL framework. Debug XUL UI with software like XUL Explorer.

  XUL Documents:
  https://www.xul.fr/tutorial/
  http://www.xulplanet.com/

Development

Search for a Zotero API
Zotero docs are outdated or incomplete. Searching the source code of Zotero is unavoidable.
Clone https://github.com/zotero/zotero and search the keyword globally. You can search the UI text in .xul/.dtd files, and then search the keys of the text value in .js/.xul files.

⭐The zotero-types provides most frequently used Zotero APIs. It's included in this template by default.

Disclaimer

Use this code under AGPL. No warranties are provided. Keep the laws of your locality in mind!

If you want to change the license, please contact me at wyzlshx@foxmail.com

Part of the code of this repo refers to other open-source projects within the allowed scope.

• zotero-better-bibtex(d.ts)

Zotero Addons Build with the Template

• zotero-better-notes: Everything about note management. All in Zotero.

• zotero-pdf-preview: PDF Preview for Zotero.

• zotero-pdf-translate: PDF Translation for Zotero 6.

• zotero-tag: Automatically tag items/Batch tagging

• zotero-theme: Customize Zotero theme