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Notes on using doi2eprintxml.exe on Windows 10

NOTE: Most Windows machines use an Intel or AMD style processor. You’ll want the zip file with both “windows” and “amd64” in the name. The exceptions are some Microsoft Surface tablets and specialized developer machines like Microsoft/Qualcomm’s deverloper for ARM NUC. If you are unsure you can type “info” in the search box of your taskbar then click “System Info”. Here’s the instructions on Microsoft’s website https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/view-your-system-info-a965a8f2-0773-1d65-472a-1e747c9ebe00

You’re looking for an entry for “processor”. It may look something like

~~~ Processor(s): 1 Processor(s) Installed. [01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 142 Stepping 12 GenuineIntel ~1803 Mhz ~~

If you see “Intel” somewhere in the description choose the Zip file with “windos” and “amd64” in the name.

Installation and setup

  1. With your web browser goto https://github.com/caltechlibrary/eprinttools/releases/
  2. Download the file called “eprinttools-v1.3.1-windows-amd64.zip”.
    • if there is a newer version (e.g. v1.3.1) download that instead
  3. Unzip the downloaded zip file
  4. Copy “doi2eprintxml.exe” to where you want to work (e.g. Desktop)
  5. Open the windows “command prompt” and change directory to your desktop
  6. Run doi2printxml.exe -h to see the help page

Getting started

The tool doi2eprintxml.exe is a command line program, it is normally run from the command prompt. The purpose of the program is to take a list of DOI contact CrossRef or DataCite and generate what is called an EPrint XML document. The EPrint XML document is used to import records into EPrints (e.g. CaltechAUTHORS) via the “import” button under “Manage Deposits” page.

Workflow

The typical workflow is to create a plain text file (UTF-8 encoded) using a text editor such as VSCode with one DOI per line. The doi2eprintxml.exe file can then read the list and generate an EPrint XML document for importing into EPrints. Follow the following steps to generate a file called eprint.xml based on a list of of DOI in a file called doi.txt.

General recipe

  1. Open your text editor (e.g VSCode)
  2. With your text editor create a list of DOI on per line
  3. Save this list to your desktop as doi.txt NOTE: doi.txt is the name of your file you saved on your desktop.
  4. Open the Windows command prompt and change directory to your desktop
  5. Generate eprint.xml with the following command doi2eprintxml.exe -i doi.txt > eprint.xml
  6. From the file manager open eprint.xml and review the XML document (e.g. in your web browser or other text editor)
  7. With your web browser go to CaltechAUTHORS and log in
  8. Change to the “manage deposits” page and select “EPrints XML” from the pull down menu next to the “import” button
  9. Press the “import” button
  10. Click on “Upload from file”
  11. Click the “browse” button and find eprint.xml on the desktop
  12. From the pull down list next to the filename select “UTF-8”
  13. Click “Test without importing”, proceed to the next step if everything is OK
  14. Click the “browse” button and find eprint.xml on the desktop
  15. From the pulldown list next to the filename select “UTF-8”
  16. Click on “import items” buttons, this should import the items into your buffer to review