Export from remote group library

[Orbion-J]

Is it possible to export a (group) (public/private?) remote library to a .bib file without having to install or use the zotero app?
If not, is there a cli that could be used to get a .bib from a library ?

I am collaborating with several people and we would like to have our bibilography in one place. I figured zotero groups would be perfect for this but we still need to have a synchronized bib file. For now, each of us is using the automatic export, with the same options, so that the bib file generated is the same (and we have it in our git repo). But this is rather cumbersome and it requires precise setup for each collaborator. I wondered if there was another easier solution.

Thank you in advance for your answer !

[retorquere]

If you're OK with using a running desktop-zotero in the solution it is very doable. I would have to make a fairly simple change and then you could use curl or whatnot to fetch a library with given settings which you could stick in a shared batch script. I can get that done within the week. If you want 100% repeatable results you would have to (auto-)pin the citation keys but I'd recommend that in any case for group work.

If you want it fully automated without any interaction that is sort of possible, I use a fully automated Zotero for my test suite, but that's more complicated to set up.

It would be technically possible for me to make that work without Zotero involved at all but it'd be a non-trivial amount of work, so that's not a short-term solution.

[Orbion-J]

Thank you for your quick answer

If I understand correctly, the first solution would only require the collaborators to have the zotero app running on their computer but no automatisch export configuration. That would already be really nice. If I hide everything in a bash script and in a make file, the collaborators would only have to be sure that the app is running.

When you say "without any interaction" you mean without a query or something like that? I'm not sure what would be the benefits. I just want my collaborators to have the smallest amount of set up to do.

Of course, if there was a way to get the synchronized bib without running the zotero app it would be awesome but if you need hard work to do so, your first solution is already way better than what we do for now.

[retorquere]

Option 1 would indeed be something you could stick in a bash/makefile (only a makefile would do I think), ran while Zotero is running. Or you could have it set up in crontab. But in any case it would be periodical.

I didn't express myself really well for the 2nd option -- the 2nd option would include the 1st option but can set up zotero to run unattended on some computer and would produce a bib file on dropbox or whatnot, but now that I'm thinking it all out that's going to get complex/fragile fairly quickly. Forget that option.

The 3rd option would use the Zotero online API combined with what would become a standalone version of the BBT translators. That'd be a fair amount of work. I can't give you any kind of ETA on that other than "not soon".

[Orbion-J]

Ok thanks, I understand. If you can easily allow for option 1, it would be fantastic.

[retorquere]

Alright, please open an issue for that. My build tooling is built around issues.

[retorquere]

I have a fix lined up but I need that issue for test rollout.