Stuff to deal with mendeley. Use for great good, at your own risk!

Python utility class for playing with the Mendeley data on your machine

• “works for me” on ubuntu 11.04, python 2.7, sqlalchemy 0.7.0

Basic class-db mappings to most of the useful tables in the Mendeley database (as of 2011-06-02)

MDocument is the main class.

example usage:

entry = db_session.query(MDocument).filter_by(id = 1).one()
print [file.localUrl for file in entry.files]
print [contributor.getFullName() for contributor in entry.contributors]
print entry.urls
print entry.keywords
print entry.tags

print entry.doi
print entry.pmid

BibDesk file importer, if you are jumping ship from BibDesk

• “works for me” on OS X, python 2.6, ruby 1.9

if you have a bunch of files linked inside BibDesk and want to save some time importing them into mendeley

use this script after you did File > open [your bibdesk file] from mendeley

if you have lots of dupes from the import, see http://simon.net.nz/articles/deleting-duplicate-records-in-mendeley/

insert_file.py will read through your bibdesk file and look for (pdf|PDF|xoj) files, try to find matching documents by title in your mendeley database

modify the regexp to detect other files like doc.

if it finds a match, and does not see a matching file hash in the sqlite db, it tries to insert it

the file hash in the mendeley db is simply a SHA1 on the binary data of the file

if you have multiple files, it says so, and doesn’t insert. you can easily modify it so that it does insert.

so after you modify the two paths:

• PATH_TO_BIBDESK_BIB = the .bib file
• PATH_TO_MENDELEY_DB = the .sqlite file, if you use a mac it should be /User/yourname/Library/Application Support/Mendeley Desktop/youremail@yourdomain.com@www.mendeley.com.sqlite (if you didn’t create an online account i think it’s called online.sqlite)

then:

• BACKUP YOUR .sqlite FILE BEFORE RUNNING!!!
• also make sure you quit Mendeley Desktop before running!
• run python insert_file.py. if you don’t supply the mendeley db path it will just read through the bib file and print out what it found
• reopen Mendeley, hopefully your files got linked!

localUrl converter for sqlite db

• “works for me” on OS X, python 2.6, ruby 1.9
• “works for me” on ubuntu 10.10, python 2.6, ruby 1.9

Run this after syncing Mendeley’s sqlite db file to another machine so it finds the files

Documentation and ruby script is contained in the org file.