symlinked storage folder, memory / speed penalty, etc.

shankargopal · May 1, 2008

Hi

I'm a complete newbie to zotero, but find it very very exciting. I just wanted to check a few things before I start using it heavily:

1. I would like to know if it's possible for the storage folder in the zotero folder (i.e. not the whole zotero folder) to be symlinked to other storage media. And, what would happen if that link were to fail? My ideal would be for zotero to still show me the metadata but fail if I tried to access a snapshot. But I appreciate that this may not happen :).

2. How much of a memory and speed penalty does zotero extract for large databases (say 700 entries, 800 or 900 MB in size)? I have only a few items right now and a 6 MB total storage, but there is already a noticeable performance hit with starting Firefox.

Thanks a lot for the help

dstillman · May 1, 2008

I would like to know if it's possible for the storage folder in the zotero folder (i.e. not the whole zotero folder) to be symlinked to other storage media.

Zotero would have no idea that it was symlinked and behave normally.

what would happen if that link were to fail? My ideal would be for zotero to still show me the metadata but fail if I tried to access a snapshot.

That is what should happen.

How much of a memory and speed penalty does zotero extract for large databases (say 700 entries, 800 or 900 MB in size)? I have only a few items right now and a 6 MB total storage, but there is already a noticeable performance hit with starting Firefox.

Performance issues have been discussed a lot in these forums. But you shouldn't really see much of a performance hit when starting Firefox—only when first opening the Zotero pane.

Zotero 1.5 will bring many performance improvements. A beta release should be available by June.