Show (relative path) link in generated report

YepYep

Hi,

I have large collections of pdfs (in all 300gb but subdivided in smaller collections), which I am trying to make future-proof and movable. Part of my strategy is to be as independent of software as possible. To manage this enormous pile of files, I am doing my best to organize them as conveniently as possible into folders and also to give them meaningful file names.

What would be wonderful, however, is to have html-files in every folder of a sub-collection which contains all the meta-data one can imagine, with links to the relevant file. As I see it, Zotero is very close to make that possible. With the recent addition of relative linking, all I need is for Zotero to not only show in a report that it has 'attachments', but to provide a link using the relative path that was stored.

The result would be an html-file that would function as an index to my collection. It would be great because the collection could travel completely independent of any software (other than a browser to read html-files and a pdf-reader to read the pdfs) and still be navigable. I have already quite a lot of information in Zotero as I have been using it for years, so seeing this functionality come to be would mean a great deal to me.

Could someone perhaps respond on the possibility of this?

dstillman

So the report would contain active links with absolute file:// URLs, formed using the relative base path?

dstillman

(The report can't really include just the relative link itself because the report doesn't exist in the filesystem by default.)

YepYep

I understand that the report would not be in the base folder by default, but one can place it there. That is my idea; create the link based on the relative path, then move the report to the base folder and voilà; the html-file functions independently as an index to the sources included in the report.

adamsmith

well, but you can't expect Zotero to include non-functional links in reports, even if that might work for your usage of them (which I'm pretty sure is quite rare). If you want a personalized-hack solution you'll have to hack personally ;-)

But I like having absolute file-links in reports, I think that'd be very much worthwhile.

YepYep

Well of course you make a point that it would be a bit odd to have non-functional links. At the same time, now that Zotero can store relative paths anyway, why not provide it as an option, say, right next to the option of having absolute file-links.

I think one should not dismiss a particular use of Zotero just because it is rare. It would indeed be great if Zotero remained open enough for people from many different backgrounds to take advantage of it. Zotero does not strike me as a typical commercial product, but more supported from within the academic community, so perhaps they may also want to accommodate the not-so-average use. Unfortunately not everyone can rely in their research on slick pdfs from Pubmed or Jstor.

dstillman

We've long wanted customizability of reports (either through a preflight options window or a JS-based panel while viewing the report), and something like this could conceivably be an option, but there's no options functionality right now, and for a default we wouldn't offer nonfunctional links. But keep in mind that if the reports included absolute links by default, you could trivially convert those all to relative paths with a simple find-and-replace, so that would pretty well address your concern as well.

(As a side note, the report code is many years old, pretty ugly, and long due for an overhaul that offered customization options. If someone wanted to work on that, I'd be happy to provide guidance.)

adamsmith

commercial or not, Zotero can't ignore the fact that options have costs. Adding an option for every conceivable use-case makes software unusable and untestable in the medium (let alone the long) run.
If anything, Zotero already has too many preferences.

(though see Dan above)

YepYep

Thanks for the heads-up.

You are right; this should also be doable as a simple hack once the absolute links are link. Perhaps with some effort even now already, after all, the file name is already contained in the report.

Just goes to show that an odd little feature like the report can be made of good use by some. Hopefully somebody in dev-team will have time to pick this one up!

dstillman

But I like having absolute file-links in reports, I think that'd be very much worthwhile.

What about stored files? I guess we could have absolute links to those too, though I'm less crazy about that. And it'd be a little weird to have links just to linked files.

adamsmith

I guess I like the idea of just being able to open an attachment from a report (ZotFile has that implemented from notes generated for annotations, which take you to the right place in the PDF). I was thinking we'd hyperlink them, so the filepath ugliness of the stored files wouldn't actually show.

dstillman

Issue created.

YepYep

Thanks again. Also to Adam for the discussion.