DT3 beta 1: problem when importing opml

DEVONthink
1

Dear DT3 people,

In my workflow, I’m constantly moving between DT, Bookends and Scrivener.

When I want to copy some references info (author, title, abstract, Bookends’ URI, my notes…) from Bookends to DT3, one of the best ways is to use an applescript created to export that info to an opml file and then import that file to DT3. Sometimes I import it to Scrivener too.

Normally this works quite well (see below): the text document produced has a good title (author, date, Bookends ID) and the content has the right text (title, abstract, URL, DOI, attachment name, type of reference and Bookends URI).

Uuc4CX5.png1118×784

However: when the exporting info from Bookends to opml includes some text on Bookends note field (something I include quite often), the code generated in not well imported to DT3. The imported file is transformed into a group and the main info is placed in Finder Comments (see below).

PHIol0J.png1171×747

Inside that group there’s a text document that includes the remaining info (the note’s text and citation key; image below).

Bg9idMh.png1175×587

My question: is there a way to put that Finder Comments text in another Text Document inside the Group?

I’m including a download link that will give you the applescript in question and the opml file that was used in the images above to exemplify the import problem.

Download: http://pc.cd/9NkotalK

2

Just had a look at the file and the import seems to be working as expected. As DEVONthink isn’t an outliner, outlines containing other outlines are imported as groups and the note becomes a comment.

Only by using a different script but the latest versions of Bookends finally include a user-friendly AppleScript support. Such a script could directly transfer data from Bookends to DEVONthink without having to ex/import OPML files and could e.g. set custom metadata like DOI. Here’s a basic example:

tell application "Bookends"
	set theSelection to selected publication items of library window 1
	repeat with theItem in theSelection
		set theID to id of theItem
		set theBacklink to "bookends://sonnysoftware.com/" & theID
		set theTitle to title of theItem
		set theRating to rating of theItem
		set theNotes to notes of theItem
		
		set theURL to url of theItem
		set theDOI to doi of theItem
		set thePMID to pmid of theItem
		set theISBN to isbn of theItem
		-- set theKeywords to keywords of theItem
		
		tell application id "DNtp"
			set theRecord to create record with {name:theTitle, content:theNotes, type:text, URL:theBacklink, rating:theRating} in (incoming group of inbox)
			add custom meta data theURL for "url" to theRecord
			add custom meta data theDOI for "doi" to theRecord
			add custom meta data theISBN for "is?n" to theRecord
			add custom meta data thePMID for "pmid" to theRecord
		end tell
	end repeat
end tell

And of course it’s already possible to import references via File > Import > References from Bookends… or to Cmd-Alt drag & drop references from Bookends to DEVONthink.

3

Thanks @cgrunenberg.