Relating zotero with gmail storage capacity

moflaher
Does anyone has a tip/idea to use gmail as the storage place for zotero?
If this works, it could be easy to synch between computers by using one of the gmail apps that converts a gmail account in a virtual disk drive.

I have no knowledge or experience in programming, apologies if I am asking for something impossible!
  • noksagt
    That the remote storage location is gmail doesn't change what has previously been discussed about remote storage of the Zotero database. Yes, there are programs that allow you to use gmail as a filesystem. And, because Zotero allows you to specify the location of the database, you could specify a gmail mount point/drive. (You could also use any other "network drive" (using SMB (windows filesharing), NFS, (S)FTP, etc.).)

    However: performance matters on network throughput (and the "gmail filesystems aren't necessarily fast) and the limitations of the SQLite backend still allow only a single client to access the data.
  • scot
    And you normally need to take some care that any Zotero versions which access the data are the same version. Ideally this should work out OK, since any instance of Zotero which has access to the gmail share would normally also keep itself up to date with the newest version. Given the multiple contingencies (googlemail fs, shared Zotero directory) you would want to make an extra effort to make sure that you backed up the Zotero data directory.

    Alternately you could only use your gmail filesystem to be a go-between, and sync local copies of the Zotero database to it (=to each other, via it). The advantage is that you always have a local copy on a local filesystem, which is safer. The disadvantage is that you can't make changes to both machines and merge them,without invoking export and import.

    Despite this limitation, it's probably the furthest I'd go just now. I do the same with a USB stick and AlwaySync, and have had no problems for a few months now.

    Sometime (presumably near the end of) this year, we have hope for a proper syncing app. Keep up the good work, devs.
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