RIS import link not file

tghoward

I am massaging an RIS file for import into Zotero. If I feed it these, for example:

UR - http://www.someURLhere
L1 - file:///W:\Library\Articles\author A-H\Andriaensen_etal_2003.pdf

The link comes over fine and the pdf is copied to Zotero's custom folder structure. Using the Zotero GUI, I've noticed that I *can* link to the pdf and it appears in zotero as a 'link' rather than a pdf. Is there a way I can modify the RIS so that my hard links to local pdf files come in as links rather than having zotero create a copy of the file?

I've tried changing "L1" above to "UR" to no avail.
Thanks,
Tim

tghoward

Ok,
so I've found these other related discussions:
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/2142/possible-to-import-pdfs-as-links-not-copies/

http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/8584/drag-links-to-files/

with the person from the first link asking exactly the same question. I don't necessarily want the actual files synchronized online, so maintaining a link rather than a copy saves space (online and locally) and synch time.

Sounds like there is not an easy solution.
Tim

fcc

I have the same problem.
But there might be an easy solution, the same used by Reference Manager 9.5: you click on a link giving the relative position of the file that you need to see then:
on click read position
call pdf-viewer for file-in-that-position
Different pseudocodes may work.
For what the RIS-Zotero translator is concerned, it should add to the middle pane an icon meaning that there is a link, then
on click icon go ahead as above with the position written near the icon.
My programming experience dates back to fortran, pascal and C, so I will not try to implement my idea.

atenrok

same problem here. I don't understand why all the devs of any new media manager always take the same moronic approach to library management. Guys, this approach is a dead end. It's been done before hundreds of times already with all kinds of photo/music/movie collection managers and the feature is always either optional (and nobody uses it) or ends up being dropped entirely eventually. Why can't you realize a simple truth, that people have been collecting their files and carefully sorting them for decades before your wonderful piece of software came and nobody wants to entirely depend on your software. Scan, index, categorize and put everything into DB, but please don't touch a physical location of my files!

adamsmith

http://www.zotero.org/support/forum_guidelines#etiquette
(avoid lecturing, references to "simple truths", and don't call people "moronic")

maxmaronna

Hello Adam: Any news about "just link to PDF, not copy+attach" when we´re importing from a Mendeley´s RIS file? Right now It looks like I have to import my library in default "copy+attach PDF" mode, and then select citations > manage attachments > rename attachments (I´m using zotfile too) to accomplish the "just link PDF" mode...

Thanks in advance,
max

adamsmith

nothing new, sorry; yours is the best currently available approach.

maxmaronna

ok, thanks for your quick answer :)
Final question: is there a way to keep original PDF? Right now I generate an extra copy of the attached PDF in a new folder (eg, when I´m changing to the link mode, coming from "mendeley papers folder" I have a new PDF copy in a "zotero papers folder -defined by me using zotfile"...
Thanks once again,
max

adamsmith

sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean by "keep original PDF"? If you mean not to create an extra copy in the process, then the answer is no.

maxmaronna

Yes, that was the idea of my original question.
Thanks a lot: I´ll linked ~6000 PDFs, so in a few hours I hope to transfer my hole library to Zotero and delete original folder+PDFs (no big problem...)
Best,
max