How to preserve annotations and meta-information when re-importing from Zotero?

Help
1

What I’m trying to do

I am using a literature note template that is mostly based on a template by lguenth on github to generate literature notes using the Zotero Integration plugin.

I want to preserve the first three call-out boxes (that I call meta-information) and I also want to keep the annotations from being overwritten upon re-importing from Zotero, as I create reading notes that link to specific annotations inside my literature notes, so I don’t want to loose those backlinks. Ideally I would just like to add a new batch of annotations as a sort of appendix to my note, but I have no idea on how to implement this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Things I have tried

I have tried to use the ‘persist’ function and use the time stamp to keep the annotations the same. However, when I try to import the note again from Zotero nothing changes, so any new annotations that were made do not show up in the literature note.

---
category: literaturenote
tags: 
citekey: "{ citekey }" 
status:
  - EE
type: 
title:
methodology: 
contribution:
created: {{importDate|format("YYYY-MM-DD")}}
modified: {{importDate|format("YYYY-MM-DD")}}
---
{% persist "meta information" %}
> [!Cite]
> {{bibliography}}

> [!Success] Key Takeaways 
> - 

> [!Abstract]
> {%- if abstractNote %}
> {{abstractNote}}
> {%- endif -%}

 
{% endpersist %}

{% persist "annotations" %}
{% if isFirstImport %}
## Annotations

{#- COLOR VARIABLES -#}
{%-
    set zoteroColors = {
        "#2ea8e5": "blue",
        "#5fb236": "green",
        "#a28ae5": "purple",
        "#ffd400": "yellow",
        "#ff6666": "red",
        "#f19837": "orange",
        "#e56eee": "magenta",
        "#aaaaaa": "grey"
    }
-%}

{%-
   set colorHeading = {
        "yellow": "⭐ Main",
        "green": "✅ Definition",
        "purple": "🧩 Methodology",
        "blue": "📚 Further Reading",
        "red": "❓Questions",
        "magenta": "⚡Debate",
        "other": "Misc"
   }
-%}

{#- ANNOTATION TYPES -#}
{%- macro calloutHeader(type) -%}
    {%- switch type -%}
        {%- case "highlight" -%}
        Highlight
        {%- case "image" -%}
        Image
        {%- default -%}
        Note
    {%- endswitch -%}
{%- endmacro %}

{#- SET CUSTOM ANNOTATION COLORS -#}
{%- set newAnnot = [] -%}
{%- set newAnnotations = [] -%}
{%- set annotations = annotations | filterby("date", "dateafter", lastImportDate) %}


{%- for annot in annotations -%}

    {%- if annot.color in zoteroColors -%}
        {%- set customColor = zoteroColors[annot.color] -%}
    {%- elif annot.colorCategory|lower in colorHeading -%}
    	{%- set customColor = annot.colorCategory|lower -%}
    {%- else -%}
	    {%- set customColor = "other" -%}
    {%- endif -%}

    {%- set newAnnotations = (newAnnotations.push({"annotation": annot, "customColor": customColor}), newAnnotations) -%}

{%- endfor -%}

{#- INSERT ANNOTATIONS -#}
{#- Loops through each of the available colors and only inserts matching annotations -#}
{#- This is a workaround for inserting categories in a predefined order (instead of using groupby & the order in which they appear in the PDF) -#}

{%- for color, heading in colorHeading -%}
{%- for entry in newAnnotations | filterby ("customColor", "startswith", color) -%}
{%- set annot = entry.annotation -%}

{%- if entry and loop.first %}

### {{colorHeading[color]}}
{%- endif %}

> [!quote{{"|" + color if color != "other"}}]+ {{calloutHeader(annot.type)}} ([p. {{annot.pageLabel}}](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/{{annot.attachment.itemKey}}?page={{annot.pageLabel}}&annotation={{annot.id}}))

{%- if annot.annotatedText %}
> {% if annot.hashTags %}[[{{annot.hashTags|replace("#", "")}}]]: {% endif -%}
{{annot.annotatedText|nl2br}}
{%- endif %}

{%- if annot.imageRelativePath %}
> ![[{{annot.imageRelativePath}}]]
{%- endif %}

{%- if annot.ocrText %}
> {{annot.ocrText}}
{%- endif %}

{%- if annot.comment %}
> → **{{annot.comment|nl2br}}**
{%- endif -%}

{%- endfor -%}
{%- endfor -%}

{% endif %}
{% endpersist %}
1 Like