Right-click: Add-linked-pdf-to-Zotero with current url

For example on this page:
https://www.poverty-action.org/publication/improving-learning-outcomes-lessons-rigorous-evidence I'd like to add the pdf to Zotero.

I can click on the PDF, and add it automatically, but then have to manually add the URL to the page.

It would be amazing to have a right-click option that adds the linked PDF to Zotero, using the current URL (or optionally even a snap shot).

I assume that's currently not possible? (Certainly the right-click: add to Zotero doesn't do that for me.)
  • A save option when right-clicking on links has been unavailable since the Zotero for Firefox → WebExtension transition, and restoring it is long planned, but the main thing you're asking for is unrelated. The right-click option is really just to allow saving PDFs without downloading to the filesystem first for people who don't view PDFs in the browser.

    No matter how the file is added, adding the URL to the parent item isn't really appropriate to do, for the reasons I explained in your other thread. For a non-academic PDF, there's a good chance you have to add most of the metadata manually anyway, so adding an appropriate URL — which may or may not be the same one — isn't really a lot more effort.
  • edited March 2, 2020
    Just to double check:

    This url A=https://www.poverty-action.org/publication/improving-learning-outcomes-lessons-rigorous-evidence, links to a PDF, with the PDF being at B=https://somelongandcomplicatedurl/file.pdf.

    I'd like to have an a right-click action, using this on page A, but right-rightclicking on the link, that saves page A together with the link target B.

    That would be very helpful to me (as this happens a lot in my line of work)

    - That's a slightly different use-case from just adding an item that has URL B (and target for B attached), right?

    - Also, this is obv for pages that have no translator, which again, is usually the case on many civil society organisation websites.
  • edited March 3, 2020
    Oh, wait, you're saying you want to right-click on a PDF link on a page and have it save the URL of the current page to the parent item of the newly created PDF?

    That doesn't really make sense as an option. It's entirely possible that the linked PDF will be recognizable by Zotero, in which case Zotero will create a parent item based on the metadata with a DOI and/or URL. There's no way to know whether that will be the case until after the PDF is processed.

    I think what we're likely to do is make it possible in the save button context menu to save a PDF to the currently selected item in Zotero as an alternative to saving the PDF as a top-level item. That would let you save the parent page, and then, if the PDF wasn't attached, easily save the PDF as an attachment. We were hoping to make some technical changes first that let us show the name of the selected item, to give a bit more assurance that you're saving the PDF to the right place, but that may not be a prerequisite.

    For now, the easiest thing to do is just to save the page, save the PDF, and drag the PDF onto the page in Zotero. (You can temporarily sort by Date Added, use Unfiled Items, or create a "Recently Added Items" saved search to make it easier to find the two items.)
  • Many thanks - that's sensible!
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