The shortcut is one for Bookends not Tinderbox. You would do better to ask this question in the Bookends forum.
FWIW, it makes no difference if I press Cmd+Opt before or after I start the drag in Bookends , I get the same result. You may perhaps have some utility running that interferes with shortcuts (I’ve had some some issues with PopClip, for instance).
I’ll try to explain it differently. Bookends never fails to export the reference. Tinderbox is importing it as a plain text note, not as a reference with all the data. It seems to me that first I need to know what Tbx needs to receive in order to turn it into a bibliographical entry with the Reference prototype, and then figure out how I can get that out of Bookends.
That fine detail is under-the-hood stuff better asked directly of tech support (this is only a user-to-user forum).
FWIW, I must press Option+Command before dragging for it to work properly.
Pressing shift, control, or command don’t allow me to properly drag away from Bookends.
Interestingly, in my experiments pressing various keys to write this reply, I found the behavior somewhat inconsistent insofar as it didn’t always port over. It seemed to stop importing at all and I had to quit TBX to get it to work properly again. I never had that problem before, but I normally don’t attempt to do so many in a row like that. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I’m not sure who/what (developer? framework?) dictates where modifiers keys work differently (or not) depending on whether the modifier(s) are pressed before or during the drag. Other than explicit documentation, I don’t know how to find this out except by trial and error. Does the Bookends manual cover this?
I might have found it.
Apparently the RIS file is the way to do it.
It doesn’t.
It says:
If you Option-Command-drag a reference into a Tinderbox 5.11 or later document, Tinderbox will assign it to the Reference prototype and import the formatted reference and the reference metadata from Bookends (as well as creating a hypertext link).
If you hold down the Command and Option keys and drag and drop a notecard, the contents of the notecard are used to create the hypertext link.
Hypertext links can be copied to the clipboard and pasted into another application with Edit → Copy Hypertext Link (as a “live” link or as text). A link will be created to the first selected reference or group. If a notecard is selected, the menu will change to Edit → Copy Notecard As Hypertext Link.
The content of the hypertext link (the human-readable part) for a reference is the reference title by default. You can change this by using a format, which can be set in Preferences. For groups, it is always the name of the group.
FWIW, I originally posted on the Bookends forum regarding my issue and was advised to post here.
In Bookends, ⌥⌘-drag of a single reference lets you drag a link to that reference. Tinderbox uses that link to retrieve additional metadata.
I believe that Bookends doesn’t support ⌘⌥-drag of multiple items. But for handling many items, you’re much better off exporting the RIS file and importing that.
I’m working separately on intermittent window minimizing behavior, which is likely to be a side-effect of some System Preference setting.
I regularly drag multiple references (probably no more than a five or so at any given time) successfully.
I think the question was perhaps misunderstood there. Bookends, if anyone should know if/how the sequence of pressing modifying keys changes the contents of drag originating in Bookends.
I’m in touch with the Bookends programmer. So far, they haven’t been able to reproduce. And now, it’s behaving correctly here, too!
The Right Way is to press and hold cmd and option while dragging the note.
The way I managed to make it work:
If I click and then press ⌘⌥ it won’t work.
I have not been able to drag several references together.
A couple of other things worth noting:
Lastly, what have I done wrong for all those prototypes to show up? (I only have one of each type, of course).
My impression is that the coding decisions about what is transferred (and under what key) are made by the Bookends team rather than at the Tinderbox end.
It should, however, be possible to write a customisable ‘Copy As Tinderbox’ macro for Bookends selections (in JavaScript for Automation or AppleScript) to give the user a little more control.
(I’ll take a look at the weekend, if there is any interest in something like that)
It looks to me like you’ve set $IsPrototype for lots of notes — perhaps because you’re creating them inside the Prototypes container?
Thanks for the suggestion, Mark. It was hidden inside a separator.
I have a couple of scripts for exporting metadata out of Bookends. If you tell me the basic syntax for creating a note on Tinderbox with such and such attributes, I would have it in no time (and would be more than happy to post it here afterwards).
The trick of a Copy As script is to place something in the clipboard in the same format that Tinderbox uses for copying and pasting notes.
As you know, the clipboard can simultaneously hold its data in several formats, and the format eventually used is decided at paste-time, depending on the capacities and preferences of the receiving app.
When you copy a note in Tinderbox 8, a clipboard object (labelled with the type com.eastgate.tinderbox.scrap) is created in a .tbx XML format.
A sample might look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<tinderbox version="2" revision="12" savedBy="version 8.1.0 b405" uuid="CDCDD0A2-9B80-49EA-B2B6-22973D1A60F3" >
<item ID="1571687918" Creator="Robin Trew" proto="Reference" >
<attribute name="Abstract" >abstract :: The publication’s abstract as plain text.</attribute>
<attribute name="ArticleTitle" >Sample of :: Journal article</attribute>
<attribute name="Associates" ></attribute>
<attribute name="Authors" >LF., authors :: The publication’s authors. Separate names with</attribute>
<attribute name="Created" >2019-10-21T20:56:56+01:00</attribute>
<attribute name="DominantLanguage" >en</attribute>
<attribute name="ISBN" >isbn :: The publication’s ISBN.</attribute>
<attribute name="IsComposite" >false</attribute>
<attribute name="Issue" >optionally followed by the issue number in parentheses</attribute>
<attribute name="Journal" >journal :: The publication’s journal.</attribute>
<attribute name="Modified" >2019-10-21T20:57:17+01:00</attribute>
<attribute name="Name" >Sample of :: Journal article</attribute>
<attribute name="Pages" >pages :: The page range in the hosting publication (e.g., a book or periodical) this publication was published in.</attribute>
<attribute name="PublicationYear" >1971</attribute>
<attribute name="RefKeywords" >keywords :: The publication’s keywords. Separate keywords with LF.</attribute>
<attribute name="RefType" >JOUR</attribute>
<attribute name="ReferenceRIS" >TY - JOUR
AU - LF., authors :: The publication’s authors. Separate names with
T1 - Sample of :: Journal article
KW - keywords :: The publication’s keywords. Separate keywords with LF.
PY - 1971
JA - journal :: The publication’s journal.
SP - pages :: The page range in the hosting publication (e.g., a book or periodical) this publication was published in.
VL - volume :: The volume number of a journal article
IS - optionally followed by the issue number in parentheses
SN - isbn :: The publication’s ISBN.
AB - abstract :: The publication’s abstract as plain text.
N1 - notes :: The publication’s notes. Separate paragraphs with LF. Separate notecards with LFLF.
UR - url :: The publication’s default URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
ER -
</attribute>
<attribute name="ReferenceURL" >url :: The publication’s default URL (Uniform Resource Locator).</attribute>
<attribute name="SelectionCount" >9</attribute>
<attribute name="URL" >bookends://sonnysoftware.com/38460</attribute>
<attribute name="Volume" >volume :: The volume number of a journal article</attribute>
<attribute name="Xpos" >0.09521484375</attribute>
<attribute name="Ypos" >-0.4613037109</attribute>
<text >authors :: The publication’s authors. Separate names with LF., ‘Sample of :: Journal Article’, journal :: The publication’s journal., volume :: The volume number of a journal article (1971), pages :: The page range in the hosting publication (e.g., a book or periodical) this publication was published in.
</text>
</item>
<links >
</links>
</tinderbox>
So there are two things to do:
public.utf8-plain-text but as com.eastgate.tinderbox.scrap
We can put things in the clipboard, labelled with their type, by writing JavaScript for Automation code like:
ObjC.import('AppKit');
// setClipOfTextType :: String -> String -> IO Bool
const setClipOfTextType = utiOrBundleID => txt => {
const pb = $.NSPasteboard.generalPasteboard;
return (
pb.clearContents,
pb.setStringForType(
$(txt),
utiOrBundleID
)
);
};
setClipOfType('com.eastgate.tinderbox.scrap')(strXML)
(where the AppKit import is needed to get access to the $.NSPasteboard object)
PS You should be able to skip any potentially irrelevant XML tags, like those which specify creation or access date.
Or if you prefer to write in AppleScript, I think something equivalent, like the snippet below, should work:
use AppleScript version "2.4"
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit"
use scripting additions
on run
set strXML to "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" ?>\n<tinderbox version=\"2\" revision=\"12\" savedBy=\"version 8.1.0 b405\" uuid=\"CDCDD0A2-9B80-49EA-B2B6-22973D1A60F3\" >\n<item ID=\"1571687918\" Creator=\"Robin Trew\" proto=\"Reference\" >\n<attribute name=\"Abstract\" >abstract :: The publication’s abstract as plain text.</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"ArticleTitle\" >Sample of :: Journal article</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Associates\" ></attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Authors\" >LF., authors :: The publication’s authors. Separate names with</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Created\" >2019-10-21T20:56:56+01:00</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"DominantLanguage\" >en</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"ISBN\" >isbn :: The publication’s ISBN.</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"IsComposite\" >false</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Issue\" >optionally followed by the issue number in parentheses</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Journal\" >journal :: The publication’s journal.</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Modified\" >2019-10-21T20:57:17+01:00</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Name\" >Sample of :: Journal article</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Pages\" >pages :: The page range in the hosting publication (e.g., a book or periodical) this publication was published in.</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"PublicationYear\" >1971</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"RefKeywords\" >keywords :: The publication’s keywords. Separate keywords with LF.</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"RefType\" >JOUR</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"ReferenceRIS\" >TY - JOUR\nAU - LF., authors :: The publication’s authors. Separate names with \nT1 - Sample of :: Journal article \nKW - keywords :: The publication’s keywords. Separate keywords with LF. \nPY - 1971 \nJA - journal :: The publication’s journal. \nSP - pages :: The page range in the hosting publication (e.g., a book or periodical) this publication was published in. \nVL - volume :: The volume number of a journal article \nIS - optionally followed by the issue number in parentheses\nSN - isbn :: The publication’s ISBN. \nAB - abstract :: The publication’s abstract as plain text. \nN1 - notes :: The publication’s notes. Separate paragraphs with LF. Separate notecards with LFLF. \nUR - url :: The publication’s default URL (Uniform Resource Locator). \nER - \n\n</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"ReferenceURL\" >url :: The publication’s default URL (Uniform Resource Locator).</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"SelectionCount\" >9</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"URL\" >bookends://sonnysoftware.com/38460</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Volume\" >volume :: The volume number of a journal article</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Xpos\" >0.09521484375</attribute>\n<attribute name=\"Ypos\" >-0.4613037109</attribute>\n<text >authors :: The publication’s authors. Separate names with LF., ‘Sample of :: Journal Article’, journal :: The publication’s journal., volume :: The volume number of a journal article (1971), pages :: The page range in the hosting publication (e.g., a book or periodical) this publication was published in.\n</text>\n</item>\n<links >\n</links>\n</tinderbox>"
setClipOfTextType("com.eastgate.tinderbox.scrap", strXML)
end run
-- setClipOfTextType :: String -> String -> IO Bool
on setClipOfTextType(utiOrBundleID, txt)
tell generalPasteboard of NSPasteboard of current application
its clearContents()
its setString:(txt) forType:(utiOrBundleID)
end tell
end setClipOfTextType
[Notice that in AppleScript, which can only work with double quotes (in JS we can use single or double, enclosing either within the other) we have to escape every double quote in any literally included XML with a preceding backslash.]
(and of course, you will need to reproduce the two use framework incantations at the top of the snippet)
For testing purposes, here is a Keyboard Maestro macro which you can use to copy the XML version of selected Tinderbox notes (as pasteable UTF8 plain XML text) so that you can paste it into a text editor and study it more closely:
Copy selected Tinderbox note(s) as XML.kmmacros.zip (11.7 KB)
Thank you, you help is much appreciated. Still, I was thinking about approaching this from a different angle.
Here is what I came up with:
use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use scripting additions
tell application "Bookends"
tell front library window
-- Get selected publication
set theRefs to selected publication items
set theRefsNo to count of theRefs
set theRef to first item of theRefs
-- Error messages
if theRefsNo is greater than 1 then error "Select only one item"
if theRefs is {} then error "Nothing selected in Bookends"
-- Get properties of selected reference
set theType to type of theRef
set theID to id of theRef
set theAbstract to abstract of theRef
set theAuthor to authors of theRef
set theEditor to editors of theRef
set theTitle to title of theRef
set theAbstract to abstract of theRef
set theLocation to location of theRef
set thePublisher to publisher of theRef
set theDate2 to publication date string of theRef
set theURL2 to url of theRef
set theISBN to isbn of theRef
set theDOI to doi of theRef
set theTranslator to user3 of theRef
set theCitation to user1 of theRef
set thePages to pages of theRef
set theIssue to volume of theRef
set theNotes to notes of theRef
set theLanguage to language of theRef
set theAttachments to attachments of theRef
set theJournal to journal of theRef
set theShortTitle to short title of theRef
try
set {od, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, ", "}
set theTags to keyword names of theRef
set theTags to (theTags as string)
end try
set theFormattedReference to format theRef using "ABNT.fmt"
end tell
end tell
tell application "Tinderbox 8"
tell front document
if not (exists) then error "No Tinderbox document open."
set newNote to make new note
tell newNote
set value of attribute "Prototype" to "Reference"
set value of attribute "Name" to theShortTitle
set value of attribute "Text" to theFormattedReference & theAbstract
set value of attribute "Authors" to theAuthor
set value of attribute "Editor" to theEditor
set value of attribute "Translator" to theTranslator
set value of attribute "PublicationCity" to theLocation
set value of attribute "Publisher" to thePublisher
set value of attribute "PublicationYear" to theDate2
set value of attribute "Journal" to theJournal
set value of attribute "RefKeywords" to theTags
set value of attribute "URL" to "bookends://sonnysoftware.com/" & theID
if theType is "2" then set value of attribute "BookTitle" to theTitle
if theType is "6" then set value of attribute "BookTitle" to theTitle
if theType is "9" then set value of attribute "ArticleTitle" to theTitle
if theType is "15" then set value of attribute "ArticleTitle" to theTitle
if theType is "3" then set value of attribute "ArticleTitle" to theTitle
set NoteURL to value of attribute "NoteURL"
end tell
end tell
end tell
tell application "Bookends"
tell front library window
set user8 of publication item id theID to NoteURL
end tell
end tell
For what I need, it will be enough for me.
EDITED:
In case someone else is reading this: read the script before you use it.
What it will do is essentially what the usual method does, with the following minor differences: