Upgrade StorageRev 7 Update broke existing workflows and naming
I've been using Zotero for years and had a nice well defined workflow where I would add items using DOIs, ISBN and sometimes adding attachments. The files would be renamed according to my template and moved to a different directory. When searching or looking for files in Zotero I can easily se the actual filename by spinning down the reference.
Since I installed version 7 there are a 3 main bugs that have cropped up.
1. File renaming is not happening. Now the only link shown is PDF. I have read the documentation. "Prior to Zotero 7, the attachment title was unnecessarily changed to the filename when manually running Rename File from Parent Metadata. This was a bug that led many people to believe that files weren't automatically renamed and it was necessary to run Rename File from Parent Metadata on every new attachment. The title is no longer changed, and titles remain as “PDF”, “ScienceDirect Full Text PDF”, or whatever they were set to previously." I consider this new behavior a bug as it broke existing workflows. I want the option to have the old behavior back where the actual filename is shown in the spin down of an item. You can see the previous version and the new version as shown in this screenshot showing a recently added paper.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u7148489/6ut416nrarzkx6g2zgxy.png
2. My file rename rules were changed. I set up Zotero so many years ago that I do not know exactly how I got it to put underscores instead of spaces in the title. But I need that back. I share files with people on systems that cannot handle spaces in a filename. I have looked at the new information on how to create filenames but it makes no sense to me as I do not see anything that makes it easy to replace spaces with an underscore. I am not skilled in regex or anything like that at all. Since the upgrade wrote over my original definition I cannot even tell you what it was before. Please explain how to make that sort of updates.
2. Files are no longer automatically moved to my preferred storage directory. I have no idea how to do that now.
Since I installed version 7 there are a 3 main bugs that have cropped up.
1. File renaming is not happening. Now the only link shown is PDF. I have read the documentation. "Prior to Zotero 7, the attachment title was unnecessarily changed to the filename when manually running Rename File from Parent Metadata. This was a bug that led many people to believe that files weren't automatically renamed and it was necessary to run Rename File from Parent Metadata on every new attachment. The title is no longer changed, and titles remain as “PDF”, “ScienceDirect Full Text PDF”, or whatever they were set to previously." I consider this new behavior a bug as it broke existing workflows. I want the option to have the old behavior back where the actual filename is shown in the spin down of an item. You can see the previous version and the new version as shown in this screenshot showing a recently added paper.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u7148489/6ut416nrarzkx6g2zgxy.png
2. My file rename rules were changed. I set up Zotero so many years ago that I do not know exactly how I got it to put underscores instead of spaces in the title. But I need that back. I share files with people on systems that cannot handle spaces in a filename. I have looked at the new information on how to create filenames but it makes no sense to me as I do not see anything that makes it easy to replace spaces with an underscore. I am not skilled in regex or anything like that at all. Since the upgrade wrote over my original definition I cannot even tell you what it was before. Please explain how to make that sort of updates.
2. Files are no longer automatically moved to my preferred storage directory. I have no idea how to do that now.
1. Note that this isn't "file renaming" but "setting the attachment title to the file name" that's not happening. I believe a setting to show the filename instead of the attachment title is planned, yes.
2. You used ZotFile, which isn't available for Zotero 7, to rename. You can customize the file renaming behavior to the same effect using Zotero directly, see https://www.zotero.org/support/file_renaming#customizing_the_filename_format
3. You also used ZotFile for that. You'll need a replacement add-on. Both attanger and zotmoov have the same functionality.
I've already looked at the documentation in zotero on file renaming but I don't understand it. I don't see how to do a simple replace spaces with underscore. If someone knows how to do that I'd love to see the exact way to do it.
re file movement what is attanger or zotmoov?
2. {{ firstCreator suffix="_" }}{{ year suffix="_" }}{{ title truncate="100" }}
will change spaces between elements to _ without spaces. I don't believe ZotFile would have replaced spaces in article titles itself, though if needed that, too, can be done with Zotero. If you have further questions on that, it'd help to be more specific about what part you're not understanding.
3. They're Zotero plugins/add-ons, as ZotFile was. Search for them on the forums.
{%a_}{%y_}{%t}
Delimiter between multiple authors: _
Change to lower case: NO
Replace blanks: NO
Truncate after . or : or ? NO
Maximum length of title: 80
Maximum number of authors: 2
Number of authors to display when authors are omitted: 1
Add suffix when authors are omitted: et al
Also:
Remove special characters (diacritics) from filename ON
For zotmoov or attanger to move linked attachment files like Zotfile ...
https://github.com/wileyyugioh/zotmoov
https://github.com/MuiseDestiny/zotero-attanger
" I don't believe ZotFile would have replaced spaces in article titles itself,"
Yes it did. No I am not sure how it was set up but from the later comment I suspect that I had replace blanks set to yes.
Re ZotFile
Probably replace blanks was on but I really don't know. I set it up years ago. If I recall there was a setting to say what to replace blank characters with but I am not sure.
I will go reinstall from a backup file, replace Zotero 7 with version 6 and see if I can at least document my settings for the filename changes.
will get you all spaces replaced by _:
"\s+" stands for "one ore more space" and "g" stands for global, i.e. do this multiple times in a string, not just once. Alternatively you can also play with case="snake" but that will also lowercase all words.
edit:
{{ firstCreator suffix="_" replaceFrom="[\s.]+" replaceTo="_" regexOpts="g" }}{{ year suffix="_" }}{{ title truncate="100" replaceFrom="\s+" replaceTo="_" regexOpts="g"}}
will also remove the . in et al. which I figure you'd probably want
For those of us not used to using regex there needs to be a LOT more documentation on how it all works or at least a link to something that explains it in plain English. It's VERY confusing.
https://www.zotero.org/support/file_renaming
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u5906489/4ytofg12xr3uzsk5t62f.png
Also under Advanced Settings:
Remove special characters (diacritics) from filename
And yes I had Replace blanks enabled. Compare how simple it is to define a naming convention using Zotfile compared to trying to decipher Zotero.
My preference would be to make it simpler but better documentation would also help.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u7148489/b3o10hap3i9a0tldqt5q.png
and the link into the Zotfile rules which are easy to understand and edit and mix to get the exact type of file name you want.
http://zotfile.com/index.html#renaming-rules
But as per Tim, some examples to replicate common ZotFile formats would definitely be useful. I think my above actually covers most things that are a bit complex. The only other thing would be authors -- handling the et al for custom truncation rules is a bit messy, there's an existing thread with code for that already.
https://www.zotero.org/support/file_renaming#complete_list_of_fields
This is a total bust for me. I often link more than one PDF to a single item and Zotero showing only "PDF" instead of the filename is absolutely useless. Plus, I have stuck with Zotero 5 all this time so as to not lose Zotfile functionality - why on earth isn't what Zotfile used to do now (and now Zotmoov) included in the main application?!! It beggars belief imo that plug-ins have to be used to achieve basic functionality.
Anyway I bitterly, bitterly regret upgrading and I want to go back to Zotero5. Does anyone know where I can download it please?