Unable to add multiple creators

[michaelbriordan]

General

Platform: MacOS X Python version: 3.7.5 Pyzotero version: latest release

Problem description

Unable to create JSON arrays (creators) and objects (collections) with new items.

template['creators'][0]['creatorType'] = "blah"

works

template['creators'][1]['creatorType'] = "blah"

does not

Seems to also apply to objects, thus

template['collections'][0] = "blah"

returns

list assignment index out of range

• What were you trying to do?
  • What API call did it involve: Zotero.create_items
  • What error was raised?

Adding additional creatos raises no error but does not produce additional creators. Attempting to assign a collection returns:

IndexError: list assignment index out of range

If possible, paste the full traceback in a code block below, and fill in the summary

[urschrei]

Could you add a little more context about what you are trying to do? What API call resulted in template? What are you hoping to pass it to?

[michaelbriordan]

I am trying to use the Zotero.create_items method

exceptions are thrown when I try to assign a value to arrays or objects

1. Arrays

    template = zot.item_template(‘manuscript’) # I’m using ‘manuscript’ and ‘letter’ only with this script
         …  
    template['collections'][0] = "UBJW58IP"
        …
         resp = zot.create_items([template])

Raises exception:

IndexError: list assignment index out of range

If I remove this code, or pass over the exception, the item is created but no collection assigned.

2. Objects

    template = zot.item_template(‘letter’)
    …
           template['creators'][1]['creatorType'] = 'recipient' 
               template['creators'][1]['firstName'] = “Some Other Person”
                template['creators'][1]['firstName'] = “Some Other Person”
        ...
               resp = zot.create_items([template])

raises an Index Exception, but the first object, ie. template['creators'][0]['creatorType'] does not raise any exception. If I remove this code, or pass over the exception, the item is created, without the second creator.

[urschrei]

I can't reproduce this:

template = zot.item_template("manuscript")
c = zot.collections()
template["collections"].append(c[0]['key'])
resp = zot.create_items([template])

Creates a new item as expected.

As for the second problem, unless I'm misunderstanding you, you need to append a dict containing creator data to the creators list first. You can't just specify a new key for a dict that doesn't exist yet: creators is a list with a single dict entry, so the 1 index doesn't work.

template = zot.item_template("letter")
creators_dict = template['creators'][0]
template['creators'][0]['firstName'] = "foo"
creators_dict['firstName'] = "bar"
template['creators'].append(creators_dict)
resp = zot.create_items([template])

In the absence of a reproducible example demonstrating an error, I'm going to close this issue. Feel free to reopen if something isn't working.