Import directly to group library

danjransom

Right now you always import to your personal library. This can be a big hassle if you need to get a large number of files into a group library when your personal account has minimal storage space, but the group account (owned by another) has much more storage available.

You can work around this, but it takes a long time and many steps. it would be much easier if you could choose the library to insert into.

adamsmith

The only import operation that always goes into "My Library" is using the "Import" function in the gears menu for bibliographic info. Since that option always creates a collection of all imported items, it's exactly one step to get them into groups (see Dan's link in your other thread for a link to fix your current problem). I can see ups and downs of changing this behavior, but I don't think it matters much either way.


All other import operations (from clipboard, via web translator, via "create Web Page Item") all go into the currently selected collection/library, group or not.

dstillman

It's certainly less efficient, though, and creates some unnecessary database/syncing load. The real problem right now is that the scope of the Actions menu items is somewhat undefined, since the menu dates to before group libraries, and different things (Import, Timeline) behave differently. So we might just ditch most things from there and move them into group context menus.

adamsmith

yes, my main "downs" are concerns about confusion given the current UI. I'm not a huge fan of packing everything into context menus (e.g. many people aren't even aware that there are context menus when you click on "My Library"), but I don't have a better idea, either.

dstillman

On the other hand, if you ignore the history of the Actions menu, having the actions there simply apply to the current library/view would be consistent with the other toolbar buttons. So maybe we just fix everything in there to do that? (This doesn't preclude putting them in the library context menus, but you're right that as much as possible we shouldn't rely on that.)

adamsmith

I think that's the better solution - my concern there is for large imports that accidentally land in the wrong library, especially when you don't have file editing privileges for the group and don't get any attachments. Might be worth to consider a warning before importing to a group?

danjransom

I've found in my own case that the practical reality doesn't easily match the ease you've described. Think about this scenario: I have 500 MB of citations from an RIS file to get into a private group library. My account only allows 300 MB of space. I don't necessarily know how much space remains in the group library. If I import all 500 MB of attachments into my library, every time the application syncs I will get an error saying that there isn't enough space to complete the sync. There is no indication of which attachments were synced and which were not.

Now, I drag the citations into the group library and the application tries to sync again. I still get the same error saying that there isn't enough space to complete the sync. But is this my disk space, the group owner's space, or both? As far as I can tell, there is no way to know and no (practical) way to tell which attachments have been successfully synced in either library.

I'm sure there would be other possible ways to resolve this problem, but to me since (as you've stated) all other means of import can go directly into a group library it would be reasonable to just provide the same option for the Import feature as well. I think importing into the selected collection/library would be perfect.

adamsmith

Now, I drag the citations into the group library and the application tries to sync again. I still get the same error saying that there isn't enough space to complete the sync. But is this my disk space, the group owner's space, or both?

Right, you need to delete the collection in your library and empty the trash. That is two more steps. Once that's done, though, this won't affect your personal storage any more. Also, I thought group storage had a different error message, though Dan would have to confirm that.