Read bibliographic records with their identity fields from the local database

Returns, for every non-trashed regular item, the fields that zotSameItem() compares: DOI, title, date and its year, the family name of the first author, and whether the item carries a file. Attachments, notes and annotations are not records and are excluded. See zotLocalQuery() for synchronization and read-only details.

Usage

zotLocalRecords(
  library = NULL,
  path = file.path(Sys.getenv("HOME"), "Zotero", "zotero.sqlite")
)

Arguments

library: NULL for every library, "user" for the personal library, or a numeric group id.
path: Database file.

Value

A data.table with itemKey, groupID (0 for personal), itemType, title, doi, date, year, author and hasFile.

Details

author is the family name of the creator of type author with the lowest order; a record without an author has NA there and can only match by DOI or file. hasFile is TRUE when a child attachment is an imported or linked file (linkMode 0, 1 or 2); a linked URL is not a file. year is the first four-digit year found in date, the same rule as zotIdentity().

Examples

Path <- tempfile(fileext = ".sqlite")
Connection <- DBI::dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), Path)
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "libraries", data.frame(libraryID = 1L))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "groups",
                  data.frame(libraryID = integer(), groupID = integer()))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "itemTypes",
                  data.frame(itemTypeID = 1L, typeName = "journalArticle"))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "items", data.frame(
  itemID = 1L, key = "AAA", libraryID = 1L, itemTypeID = 1L,
  dateAdded = "2026-01-01", dateModified = "2026-01-01"
))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "fieldsCombined", data.frame(
  fieldID = c(110L, 26L, 14L), fieldName = c("title", "DOI", "date")
))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "itemData", data.frame(
  itemID = 1L, fieldID = c(110L, 26L, 14L), valueID = 1:3
))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "itemDataValues", data.frame(
  valueID = 1:3, value = c("A record", "10.1000/x", "2026-03-01")
))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "creatorTypes",
                  data.frame(creatorTypeID = 1L, creatorType = "author"))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "creators", data.frame(
  creatorID = 1L, firstName = "Ada", lastName = "Lovelace"
))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "itemCreators", data.frame(
  itemID = 1L, creatorID = 1L, creatorTypeID = 1L, orderIndex = 0L
))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "itemAttachments", data.frame(
  itemID = integer(), parentItemID = integer(), linkMode = integer(),
  contentType = character(), path = character(), storageHash = character()
))
DBI::dbWriteTable(Connection, "deletedItems", data.frame(itemID = integer()))
DBI::dbDisconnect(Connection)
zotLocalRecords(path = Path)
#>    itemKey groupID       itemType    title       doi       date   year   author
#>     <char>   <int>         <char>   <char>    <char>     <char> <char>   <char>
#> 1:     AAA       0 journalArticle A record 10.1000/x 2026-03-01   2026 Lovelace
#>    hasFile
#>     <lgcl>
#> 1:   FALSE
unlink(Path)