Make Zotero Translate String c:\data\ As /mnt/ntfs/data/

mbruffey

My Zotero database was created and is still frequently used in Windows. It contains links to PDFs in user-specified locations (e.g., c:\data\file.pdf). I also access it in Linux, under Linux, on the same system (dual boot). The Windows directory c:\data\ is /mnt/ntfs/data/ in Linux. When the string c:\data\ appears in the database in Linux, I want Zotero to translate that to /mnt/ntfs/data/. Then, in Zotero under Linux, I would be able to open the linked PDFs. Any tools or plugins available for this kind of thing, perhaps?

dstillman

You're not the first to ask.

willshanks

I have a function in my plugin that might be helpful. I made it to deal with semi-permanent relocation of a database, so it just renames the beginning of the attachment paths matching the input path ("c:\data\") with another input path ("/mnt/ntfs/data/"). I was thinking of it as something that would only be used every now and then when you change hard drives, so I don't know how annoying it would be use it frequently. Implementing relative paths would be a better solution in that case, but I think that would require a patch to Zotero.

willshanks

Oops, I meant to put the link to the plugin in the post:

https://github.com/willsALMANJ/Zutilo

Edit: And now I see that I could have just edited the post above....

By the way, be careful using that the attachment renaming part of the plugin if you try it. So far, I am the only one who has used it and I can't say for sure that it does not have some weird behavior I have overlooked. It works for me and my Zotero database on a Mac....

dstillman

Better to post to the other thread.