Upgrade StorageZotero gets mad at files with a column ":" in the name
To reproduce:
1) Link a PDF file with a ":" in the name. For instance:
Constantinides:IEEP-117.pdf
Incidentally, note that it can be quite common to have files with names like this. When using bibtex, it is common to have references to paper in the form "author:journal-<vol>-<num>" or "author:<book acronym>-<year>" and it is not unusual to replicate this naming for files, so that the association between citations and PDF files is obvious.
Zotero is quite happy in linking the file and does so properly.
2) Ask zotero to re-title the entry. Tick the box to rename the file too. But be trycky. Do not change the name. Just press OK. See that now the title has remained the same, but *the file name has lost the column*.
3) Go on the file, right click and select show file. In the file manager rename the file so that the column is back.
4) In zotero click on the file. Zotero cannot find it, but proposes to look for it. In the file manager click on the file (that now has the column in the name again). Zotero links it in, but removes the column from the file name.
All this in linux, don't know about other versions.
Why cannot my files have names that are legitimate for the OS?
And most important. Why does zotero subtly change filenames when locating files. This can break other stuff on the system relying on those filenames.
1) Link a PDF file with a ":" in the name. For instance:
Constantinides:IEEP-117.pdf
Incidentally, note that it can be quite common to have files with names like this. When using bibtex, it is common to have references to paper in the form "author:journal-<vol>-<num>" or "author:<book acronym>-<year>" and it is not unusual to replicate this naming for files, so that the association between citations and PDF files is obvious.
Zotero is quite happy in linking the file and does so properly.
2) Ask zotero to re-title the entry. Tick the box to rename the file too. But be trycky. Do not change the name. Just press OK. See that now the title has remained the same, but *the file name has lost the column*.
3) Go on the file, right click and select show file. In the file manager rename the file so that the column is back.
4) In zotero click on the file. Zotero cannot find it, but proposes to look for it. In the file manager click on the file (that now has the column in the name again). Zotero links it in, but removes the column from the file name.
All this in linux, don't know about other versions.
Why cannot my files have names that are legitimate for the OS?
And most important. Why does zotero subtly change filenames when locating files. This can break other stuff on the system relying on those filenames.
That you'd break the link to Zotero in step 3 isn't surprising, though - you manually change a filename of a linked file, the link breaks.
I can now replicate that. My guess would be that Zotero doesn't want to distinguish between OS when generating file-names (and colons are problematic if not illegal in Windows) - if you don't want Zotero to change your file-name, don't tell it to change the filename ;-) Zotero will link to the file just fine, it will only strip the colon when you explicitly ask it to rename the file.
Why would you ever do that?
The stripping of the filename under 4) is somewhat problematic, but best I can see the only way to get there is to do something rather odd in the first place.
Yes, what I dislike most is 4) which is subtle.
If windows forbids the ":" in names, I think that silently removing them is still not correct. If zotero needs to use the common denominator between different OSs, it should give a warning at linking IMHO.