Attach Link to File and local document repositories

chemware
We are sharing a Zotero library across our group, and have put our PDFs and other documents on a departmental server. Some of these documents are confidential and CANNOT be synched through a Zotero server.

At the moment we use a clumsy hack of using the file path as the URL:

URL: T:\Shared Projects\OurProject\Literature\080403 - Toespraak.pdf

so that double-clicking on the Zotero reference opens the document.

It would be *MUCH NICER* if Zotero "understood" this concept of a local repository of documents. This could be done if:

1. there was a global variable $LOCALFILE$ that could be set in Zotero Preferences (probably next to Data Directory Location in the Advanced tab). In our example, it would take the value:

$LOCALFILE$: T:\Shared Projects\OurProject\Literature\

2. when one does "Add Attachment" ... "Attach Link to File ...", Zotero examines the file path, and if it matches $LOCALFILE$ it just stores it as the file name, in this example:

080403 - Toespraak.pdf

3. when synched to a server, this Link to File is preserved and carried across to other members of the group (unlike currently). This also has the advantage that if a member of the group has a different path to the local repository then they can just set their own $LOCALFILE$ value.

4. An alternative approach would be to have a FILENAME field that Zotero "understands" and combines with $LOCALFILE$ to open the document. This may require the addition of a menu item (from the right-click popup) of "Open Local File"

I would really appreciate it if you could consider these changes, as it would improve the group-wise capabilities of Zotero immensely.

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