Upgrade StorageSetting up a small collaborative group library project
Hi,
This is possible a recurrent question but I would like to get a better picture about how a small collaborative project should be build.
The scenario is the following:
A small private network with 10-12 computers connected to it.
We don't want to incur in any cost with the solution
Every computer should be able to contribute to the group library project, collecting new references (web links, PDF articles, other digital sources) to feed it.
The database should be accessible to everyone, and the group library should be, perhaps, centralized in the data provider disks (A NAS provide data to users).
My questions are:
Can this group library setup be achieved?
Can a centralized group library be directed to a single machine or, better, to our NAS data provider?
By collecting data individually, can all users (each machine) contribute to a centralized group library database?
How will the data storage work? Documents (digital copies of articles, reports) collected locally, by each machine, can be stored in the centralized file folder/directory?
We have hundreds of PDF documents now. Can we start referencing all information locally, contributing to the group library? Will the documents be stored in this centralized storage folder?
I'm sorry, so many questions but I really would appreciate any input.
Thanks in advance
Paulo
This is possible a recurrent question but I would like to get a better picture about how a small collaborative project should be build.
The scenario is the following:
A small private network with 10-12 computers connected to it.
We don't want to incur in any cost with the solution
Every computer should be able to contribute to the group library project, collecting new references (web links, PDF articles, other digital sources) to feed it.
The database should be accessible to everyone, and the group library should be, perhaps, centralized in the data provider disks (A NAS provide data to users).
My questions are:
Can this group library setup be achieved?
Can a centralized group library be directed to a single machine or, better, to our NAS data provider?
By collecting data individually, can all users (each machine) contribute to a centralized group library database?
How will the data storage work? Documents (digital copies of articles, reports) collected locally, by each machine, can be stored in the centralized file folder/directory?
We have hundreds of PDF documents now. Can we start referencing all information locally, contributing to the group library? Will the documents be stored in this centralized storage folder?
I'm sorry, so many questions but I really would appreciate any input.
Thanks in advance
Paulo
It comes down to the fact that you can't just host the database on a single central server, because you'd have multiple, simultaneous r/w access and that would corrupt it (or, it would lock down before that). That also applies to data storage.
The closest you can come is to use Zotero sync (which is free) and set up an internal webDav for fileSyncing.
http://www.zotero.org/support/sync
but WebDAV doesn't allow for sharing in groups, so you'd all have to use one single account, rather than 10 accounts with one group.
This is not exactly what I was thinking about a collaborative project but maybe there are alternatives.
I suppose we can still working individually, with each machine building its own local library, while contributing to our Private Group Lybrary. Is that possible?
If so, the references added to the private group library will be shared/accessed by all members, including the PDF files? Each member will be able to read the files stored by others?
Should we work with standalone Zotero?
"I suppose we can still working individually, with each machine building its own local library, while contributing to our Private Group Lybrary. Is that possible?
If so, the references added to the private group library will be shared/accessed by all members, including the PDF files? Each member will be able to read the files stored by others?"
Sorry, I don't understand. You'd have to explain what you actually mean to do step by step.
Files in a group can only be shared using Zotero file storage, which is for-pay for over 100MB of files.
Adapting from my first thread, the idea could be
Every computer should be able to retrieve references locally and contribute to the private group library.
The library content should be accessible to everyone, at least references, which is the basic aspect of interest of group libraries.
I initially thought that references and files (PDF) could be both shared but file sharing is only available through Zotero file storage.
In a private group schema, I can invite members to participate/contribute to a group library. THey are all local network users.
They do their reseach locally and store references locally (including PDF files). Whenever a member find a reference with interest to the the private group library, they just move it there (drag and drop or tagging).
All members, by regularly synchronizing it's account to the private library will get the entire shared reference database (sync may be is automatic as well). PDF files will be available only locally and will only be shared by request using any other method not included in Zotero.
Is this Ok?
I just remembered - some people use an alternative setting in which files are linked to Zotero items and not stored in Zotero.
This takes much more time to maintain (e.g. automatic attachment of pdfs doesn't work for links etc.), but you can store those files wherever you want, including on a network folder so that everyone has access.
Try out what works better for your group - if sharing of pdfs is very common, this latter option is probably worth it. If it only occurs infrequently you're probably better off with the solution you describe above.
Based on my first post, is there any perspective that in the future we will see a effective local, centralized database, supporting multiuser concurrent access and editing?
From what I read about in zotero file storage, this option are out of the roadmap.