Method to checkout PDFs?

raylee5 · February 21, 2011

There are a few threads about the possible work-flow integration with a number of devices - android, apple, etc. The common theme seems to be that it is currently unlikely to happen, and even less likely to happen in a manner to make us all happy. Also - I don't exactly want to move my ENTIRE reference database onto such a device...

What about going about this from another perspective? I don't need to access all 200+ (or more) PDFs - I just need a small subset that I'm interested in reading at any moment in time. Could there be a mechanism to "move" the PDFs into another location that a file sync system (choose your favorite program running on your tablet/phone/ipad device) could see? When I'm "done", it could update (esp if I incorporated edits / annotations, though an intermediate script may be necessary) the original reference?

just a thought... or is someone already doing this?

mronkko · February 22, 2011

Zotfile might be what you are looking for

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/zotfile/

Also, these thread covers some other solutions

http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/5301/3/zotero-plugin-to-rename-move-and-attach-your-pdfs-to-zotero-items/

http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/16148/create-a-humanreadable-folderstructure-from-zoterostorage/

raylee5 · February 22, 2011

Thanks - It looks like zotfile is good for bringing in PDFs, but it isn't entirely clear if it will work as a method for reviewing? Do you happen to know what happens if I re-add the same PDF (presumably now edited?)

Also - I synchronize between multiple machines - what happens to the renamed files?

Bionatsci · February 22, 2011

AFAIK zotfile would, as you suspect, only do the "checking out" part, not the "checking back in".

In general terms to check stuff back in I guess you would need a) a way of identifying a document unambiguously (are the filenames of Zotero attachments currently unique within a particular library?); a way of locking files which have been checked out (e.g. adding a read only flag); a way of reintegrating the document into the library (probably just replacing the "locked" document in the library), or unlocking the document in the library without checking back in a changed version (if you lost/deleted the "checked out" version). Ideally the locking/unlocking and checking back in would sync through the Zotero server, but I can see that this might be difficult to achieve in a plugin.

I'm not a programmer (If I was I would certainly code this - It would be very useful to me) so I can't tell you how easy these things are to implement, but it seems doable. Unfortunately I don't think that anything of this nature currently exists.

BTW, this is rather like what the Aji PDF service does as part of the iPad app iAnnotate, which is probably one of the reasons it seems so popular with iPad owning Zotero users.

ajlyon · February 22, 2011

I think that the way to handle something like this is via the existing unique id system for Zotero items -- have Zotfile (or something like it) export the file with a guaranteed unique name, like "Johnson, et al. - 2010 - The greenness of frogs ZID-ceb6bd.pdf".

Zotfile would then keep know which attachment the file should replace which upon reimport. And I don't see much need for locking-- is the risk of multiple users simultaneously annotating really that high?

Bionatsci · February 22, 2011

I think that the way to handle something like this is via the existing unique id system for Zotero items

Excellent - thanks for that, TBH I'd forgotten about the existence of the unique IDs (been a while since I followed this forum).

And I don't see much need for locking-- is the risk of multiple users simultaneously annotating really that high?

That's not the risk I was thinking about (I agree that risk is low) - it was more a single user forgetting that a document was checked out and editing both the checked out and Zotero library copies. Although on second thoughts this could also be handled by using for example a "checked-out" tag which is added by the plugin when it checks out an item (and removed when it is checked back in). This would provide a cue to the user that a document has been checked out (which would work even better once the discussed tag-colours idea is implemented). This solution would come with the significant advantage of being entirely sync friendly.

Looks like this might be a nice addition to Zotfile if enough people are interested in it (or, more to the point, if Joscha is interested in it.)