Tinderbox can automatically import selected groups of records from DEVONthink Pro (and DEVONthink Pro Office).
To connect Tinderbox to a DEVONthink group, create a root level container (and it can only be at root level) to hold the imported notes. Set the container's $DEVONthinkGroup attribute to the unique DEVONthink ID of the group to be imported (this is the group's Item ID).
Multiple groups are supported, i.e. more than one (root level) watched DEVONThink group, but be mindful that excessive such mapping may affect performance.
The Watch set-up uses the DEVONthink group picker.
NOTE: the watched group(s) feature is not a sync mechanism, but a method to pull current DEVONthink data into Tinderbox
The DEVONthink reference must be a group and not an individual item (if necessary, place a single item in its own group). Tinderbox will automatically import or update that container whenever the TBX document is reopened, and periodically thereafter as part of the AutoFetch cycle.
The resulting imported notes inherit from a built-in prototype named 'Imported From DEVONthink', making it easy to set common Displayed Attributes or visual appearance.
Limitations:
- Groups nested within the referenced group are not currently imported.
- Changes to the imported notes will not (yet) be propagated back to the to the DEVONthink application or to other devices.
- Notes created by watching DEVONthink are read-only by default, inheriting $ReadOnly state from their 'Imported From DEVONthink' built-in prototype.
PDF documents dragged from DEVONthink are imported as styled text if possible. Previously, they were imported as images.
Ziplinks are interpreted when text is pasted in the view pane, or when files or DEVONthink items are imported by dragging them into a view. Ziplinks are not interpreted when $Ziplinks of the imported note is false. (Note that the built-in Imported from DEVONthink prototype in previous releases defaults to setting $Ziplinks false; if wanting want to import ziplinks from DEVONthink into older documents, check $Ziplinks is set to true. DEVONthink watch folders should interpret [[ziplinks]] found in source (i.e. DEVONthink) text files.
Factors to consider when using watched DEVONthink groups
If intending to use menu File ▸ Watch ▸ Group from DEVONthink, be aware the target DEVONthink group may contain a mix of documents some of which Tinderbox cannot read/view (i.e. make meaningful use of).
However, DEVONthink users should recall that DEVONthink supports 'replicants' (similar, but not exactly the same as, Tinderbox aliases). If a new group is created in the source DEVONthink database, then Tinderbox-viewable document formats such as Markdown (.md) or Rich Text (.rtf) can be replicated into it; this new group can then be the group designated for use with Tinderbox's watch group feature. Tinderbox can then be configured to “watch” that DEVONthink group holding the replicants.
This replicate-to-target group approach can also be used to gather documents from across a DEVONthink database to a single group that Tinderbox watches.
See also—notes linking to here: