Sync to USB stick

michisauer

Maybe this has been brought up before, though I could not find it on a quick search: Wouldn't it be possible that Zotero synchronizes to a portable storage like a USB stick or harddrive using the same simple action like synching to Zotero Server? Just adding an option in the synch preferences to specify a path to a portable device? This would greatly help a lot of people which have to work on different computers, some maybe without access to the web. I know you get pretty much the same thing with portable firefox, but there you can have some issues with which version/package you are using and it is a bit more tricky to set up for less experienced users.
Cheers, and thanks for this most useful program!

adamsmith

you can carry around your data directory -
http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data
syncing to a flash drive doesn't work - since there is a whole server structure involved that won't be easy to do either.

michisauer

I see the point about the server, of course with scenarios like several people working on the same database, things are getting complicated. Actually, what I would like is not so sophisticated, maybe it is more like a "smart import/export".
An example: I am at my PC at work, adding some files to my Zotero library. Before I go home, I press a button and the latest version of my local Zotero database plus files is stored on my pendrive. Then at home, I put the pendrive in my iMac, press a button and the local database is replaced by the one on the pendrive (or even merged) and the new files are added to my local storage folder.
The neat thing would be that this way it would be platform independent, as opposed to a portable firefox.

adamsmith

reread my post - I didn't recommend portable FF and the solution I suggest is platform independent.

michisauer

I have reread your post. The words are still there :-) Of course you are right, but it still would be nice to have a solution WITHIN Zotero, especially if you think about merging databases from two computers. Don´t get me wrong, the sync feature via zotero server is fantastic, but for some tasks an additional, non web-based way of a portable and sync/mergeable database would be helpful.

adamsmith

but now you talk about something different - merging databases is anything but simple. I don't think that's likely to happen without the server structure ever.

Porting databases is already possible (and I'm not sure what you mean by "within Zotero" - is the problem the copying of the file directories?) Maybe you could specify what part of carrying around your data folder on a Flash drive doesn't meet your requirements.

michisauer

Ok, so what I would like to have is an option that is similar to the already implemented import and export actions, just with an option to either automatically overwrite the existing database or (much better) to merge with the existing database.
Sure, carrying around the data folder on a flash drive is not overly difficult to do, and probably I will do just that for the time being. But a dedicated button or action in zotero would be nicer, and the merge feature would be superb, I hope this will come at some point.
Thanks for your suggestions and clarifications.