Apply default Notion database page template to newly synced items
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When Notero creates a new page in a Notion database, the database's default page template is not applied. The metadata properties sync correctly, but the page body is blank apart from content that Notero later adds, such as synced Zotero notes.
This makes it difficult to use Notero with a structured paper-note workflow in Notion. For example, I have a default database template containing sections such as:
- Summary / TL;DR
- Research question
- Methods
- Key findings
- Limitations
- Relevance to my research
- Critical assessment
- Follow-up ideas
Pages created manually in Notion can use this template, but pages created by Notero do not inherit it, even when the template is set as the database default.
Describe the solution you'd like
Ideally, Notero would have an option to apply the Notion database's default page template whenever it creates a new synced item.
A simple option such as:
Apply default Notion template to new pages
would be sufficient.
An optional future enhancement could allow choosing a specific database template, but respecting the database's default template would already solve the main use case and would allow users to change their preferred template entirely within Notion.
Notion's API now supports applying database/data-source templates to pages, including the default template:
template: { type: "default" }
and specific template IDs:
https://developers.notion.com/guides/data-apis/creating-pages-from-templates
It would be important for this to apply only when a page is initially created, so that re-syncing metadata does not overwrite or reapply the user's existing page content.
It should also coexist with Notero's current Zotero Notes syncing, which can continue to append its own container to the page.
Describe alternatives you've considered
- Setting a Notion database template as the default: this works for pages created through the Notion UI, but not for pages created by Notero.
- Notion's
Customize layout: useful for arranging database properties, but it cannot create a structured page body with headings and note sections.
- Manually applying the template to every new paper: works, but defeats much of the automation benefit of Notero.
- External automation/webhooks: possible, but unnecessarily complex for something that fits naturally into Notero's page-creation workflow.
Additional context
Issue #211 discussed defaults for a database property (Reading Status), which was solved using Notion's status-property defaults. This request is different: it concerns applying the page-body database template itself to each newly created Notero page.
This would make Notero significantly more useful as a literature-review workflow: Zotero remains the reference/PDF manager, Notero syncs bibliographic metadata and annotations, and the user's own Notion template provides a consistent structure for reading and analysis notes.
Apply default Notion database page template to newly synced items
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When Notero creates a new page in a Notion database, the database's default page template is not applied. The metadata properties sync correctly, but the page body is blank apart from content that Notero later adds, such as synced Zotero notes.
This makes it difficult to use Notero with a structured paper-note workflow in Notion. For example, I have a default database template containing sections such as:
Pages created manually in Notion can use this template, but pages created by Notero do not inherit it, even when the template is set as the database default.
Describe the solution you'd like
Ideally, Notero would have an option to apply the Notion database's default page template whenever it creates a new synced item.
A simple option such as:
Apply default Notion template to new pageswould be sufficient.
An optional future enhancement could allow choosing a specific database template, but respecting the database's default template would already solve the main use case and would allow users to change their preferred template entirely within Notion.
Notion's API now supports applying database/data-source templates to pages, including the default template:
template: { type: "default" }and specific template IDs:
https://developers.notion.com/guides/data-apis/creating-pages-from-templates
It would be important for this to apply only when a page is initially created, so that re-syncing metadata does not overwrite or reapply the user's existing page content.
It should also coexist with Notero's current Zotero Notes syncing, which can continue to append its own container to the page.
Describe alternatives you've considered
Customize layout: useful for arranging database properties, but it cannot create a structured page body with headings and note sections.Additional context
Issue #211 discussed defaults for a database property (
Reading Status), which was solved using Notion's status-property defaults. This request is different: it concerns applying the page-body database template itself to each newly created Notero page.This would make Notero significantly more useful as a literature-review workflow: Zotero remains the reference/PDF manager, Notero syncs bibliographic metadata and annotations, and the user's own Notion template provides a consistent structure for reading and analysis notes.