Pagination: follow(), everything(), Generators

Pyzotero returns 100 items by default. Use these methods to retrieve more.

everything() — Retrieve All Results

The simplest way to get all items:

# All items in the library
all_items = zot.everything(zot.items())

# All top-level items
all_top = zot.everything(zot.top())

# All items in a collection
all_col = zot.everything(zot.collection_items('COLKEY'))

# All items matching a search
all_results = zot.everything(zot.items(q='machine learning', itemType='journalArticle'))

everything() works with all Read API calls that can return multiple items.

follow() — Sequential Pagination

# Retrieve items in batches, manually advancing the page
first_batch = zot.top(limit=25)
second_batch = zot.follow()   # next 25 items
third_batch = zot.follow()    # next 25 items

Warning: follow() raises StopIteration when no more items are available. Not valid after single-item calls like zot.item().

iterfollow() — Generator

# Create a generator over follow()
first = zot.top(limit=10)
lazy = zot.iterfollow()

# Retrieve subsequent pages
second = next(lazy)
third = next(lazy)

makeiter() — Generator over Any Method

# Create a generator directly from a method call
gen = zot.makeiter(zot.top(limit=25))

page1 = next(gen)  # first 25 items
page2 = next(gen)  # next 25 items
# Raises StopIteration when exhausted

Manual start/limit Pagination

page_size = 50
offset = 0

while True:
    batch = zot.items(limit=page_size, start=offset)
    if not batch:
        break
    # process batch
    for item in batch:
        process(item)
    offset += page_size

Performance Notes

everything() makes multiple API calls sequentially; large libraries may take time.
For libraries with thousands of items, use since=version to retrieve only changed items (useful for sync workflows).
All of follow(), everything(), and makeiter() are only valid for methods that return multiple items.

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