notion-scholar

Reference management solution using Python and Notion.

The main idea of this app is to allow to furnish a Notion database using a BibTex formatted string or file. It also helps you to organize papers, create a bibliography and give you the opportunity to annotate the publications directly on their Notion's pages.

Example of a database obtained using notion-scholar.

Installation

pip install git+https://github.com/thomashirtz/notion-scholar#egg=notion-scholar

You can now call the application using notion-scholar or ns

Setting up

1. Creation of a notion database

You can either duplicate the page template using the link below, or create a new database with the properties listed in requirements.

Template

Link to the template

Requirements

The properties necessary to import publications in a database are the following:

• Title (Name of the page)
• Authors (Text)
• Year (Number)
• Journal (Text)
• Filename (Text)
• URL (URL)
• Abstract (Text)
• DOI (Text)
• Type (Select)
• Bibtex (Text)
• Inbox (Checkbox)

No space should be in the names of the properties.

2. Creation of an integration

Create an integration for the notion-scholar database. The integration needs to target the workplace containing the publication database.

Option needed:

• Internal Integration
• Read content
• Update content
• Insert content

Copy the Internal Integration Token for the step 4.

3. Share the database with the Integration

Go to your database in notion => Click on ... (top right) => + Add connections => Select the integration that you just created.

Copy the link of the database (simply the URL on a browser, on the application => Click on ... => Copy Link) for the step 4.

It is the database page and not the dashboard page that needs to be integrated. Moreover, it is also the URL of the database page that needs to be set into notion-scholar.

4. Set the token and database_id in notion-scholar

For the first use, it is recommended to set up the configuration file. The main parameters to save are the token (which will be securely saved using the keyring library) and the database-url.

ns set-config --token <token> --database-id <database_id>

or

ns set-config -t <token> -db <database_id>

The database_id is one part of the URL: https://www.notion.so/<workspace_name>/<database_id>?v=<view_id>

5. Set the bib file path (not required, but recommended)

If you want to set the default bib path that will be used when the ns run is called, you can set it by typing:

ns set-config --bib-file-path <bib_file_path>

or

ns set-config -f <bib_file_path>

The bib file needs to exist and the file path needs to be absolute.

How to use ?

There is three main way to use this application:

1. Setting up the bib-file-path and call the run mode (It will automatically upload the new publications from the bib file into the database):

ns run

2. Giving the bib-file-path argument:

ns run -f <bib-file-path>

3. Giving a bib-string argument (/!\ be careful to type three quotes """ before pasting the bib-string) :

ns run -s """<bib-string>"""

The --token (-t) and the --database_url (-db) are also required, however, if they have been set, they don't need to be added again to the argument list.

Help

For getting help it is possible to call:

ns --help

usage: Use "notion-scholar --help" or "ns --help" for more information

notion-scholar

positional arguments:
  {run,download,clear-config,inspect-config,set-config}
                        Selection of the action
    run                 Run notion-scholar.
    download            Download the bibtex entries present in the database.
    clear-config        Clear the notion-scholar config.
    inspect-config      Inspect the notion-scholar config.
    set-config          Save the default values of notion-scholar.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Five main modes exist: run, download, set-config, inspect-config and clear-config. The help can be called this way:

ns <mode> --help

ns run --help

usage: Use "notion-scholar --help" or "ns --help" for more information run [-h] [-t] [-db] [-f] [-s]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -t , --token          Token used to connect to Notion. (default: None)
  -db , --database-id   Database that will be furnished. The database_id can be found in the url of the database:
                        https://www.notion.so/{workspace_name}/{database_id}?v={view_id} (default: None)
  -f , --bib-file-path
                        Bib file that will be used. This argument is required if the bib file is not saved in the
                        config and no bib-string is passed. (default: None)
  -s , --bib-string     Bibtex entries to add (must be in-between three quotes """<bib-string>"""). By default, the
                        entries will be saved to the bib file from the config. It is possible to disable this behavior
                        by changing the "save" option: "ns setup -save false".

ns set-config --help

usage: Use "notion-scholar --help" or "ns --help" for more information set [-h] [-f] [-s] [-t] [-db]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f , --bib-file-path
                        Save the input file path in the user config using "platformdirs". The path must be absolute
                        and the file need to exist. (current: None)
  -s , --save           Set whether the entries from "bib-string" will be saved in the bib file. (current: True)
  -t , --token          Save the Notion token using "keyring". (current: None)
  -db , --database-id   Save the database-id in the user config using the library "platformdirs". The database_id can
                        be found in the url of the database:
                        https://www.notion.so/{workspace_name}/{database_id}?v={view_id} (current: None)```

Tips

Bibtex keys

When uploading a BibTex file into the database, the BibTex citekey will be mapped to the property "filename". This is because it seems convenient to have the same name for the key and the filename. It is therefore advised to change the citekey before uploading to Notion. (If you want to change it manually afterwards you would need to change both the Bibtex and the Filename property, which is not very convinient.)

This is ~ the nomenclature I used for the citekey (source). Feel free to take inspiration:

Copy equation properties

It is possible to copy the equation in the table view. Here is a comment to explain how, it can be very useful.

Feedbacks

If you want to see a new feature, or you have some feedback to give, feel free to email me at [email protected].

Buy me a coffee ツ

If this repository helped you or you if you like this project, feel free to support me!

License

 Copyright 2021 Thomas Hirtz

 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 You may obtain a copy of the License at

     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 limitations under the License.