The concern about security is valid here, but I am on a beta version and want to get back to production. Other than disabling updates, is there another way to get back to the production release from a beta version?
If you don't want to use the new PDF reader and note editor, you can just disable them in the General preferences.
If you're encountering bugs, we'd like to fix them, because they'll be in the production release relatively soon and you'd be back in the same situation.
An automatic DB backup was made in the Zotero data directory when you upgraded, but it might have been deleted by now, depending on when you upgraded. If you don't have an appropriate automatic backup and your data is all online, the easiest thing to do is just to close Zotero, revert to the production version, delete zotero.sqlite, and sync.
But it'd be helpful to know why you want to do this first, since it may not be necessary and would only delay any problems you're experiencing.
Thanks. I like to use package managers, and package managers link to the release version.
I had no problems with beta. I did disable the internal PDF reader, though, for three reasons. First, the tabs were taking up too much screen real estate. Second, because I need to use a PDF reader that is touch- and stylus-friendly. Third, I went back to using Zotfile to extract comments because I needed the hyperlinked references after the extracted comments. My workflow with comments involves copying the extracted comments into Word from all the references I am working with, and then I qualitatively code all those collated quotes. I need the hyperlinks that Zotfile produces so that I can easily click and jump over to the source PDF directly to the correct page number. This is a very time saving feature and important for double-checking the context of something you coded a while ago. (Actually, I think I saw someone else comment on that recently in one of the other threads.)
But make no mistake - I think you're off to an amazing start!
My workflow with comments involves copying the extracted comments into Word from all the references I am working with, and then I qualitatively code all those collated quotes. I need the hyperlinks that Zotfile produces so that I can easily click and jump over to the source PDF directly to the correct page number.
You probably know this, but just to be sure, you can still do this with the new PDF reader within Zotero itself — you can click on an annotation in a note to get back to that spot in the PDF or jump to the associated item. The idea behind much of the new functionality is that it allows you to do more in Zotero itself, where we can enable lots more advanced functionality (jumping back to annotations and items, dragging in additional annotations and items, creating image annotations, rearranging things in blocks, restoring accidentally deleted citations from an annotation, tagging, and many things not yet implemented), and then use the Add Note feature to insert more fleshed-out notes/drafts into a word processor with active Zotero citations. Not everyone will want to use that functionality, of course, but that's the idea.
Great to hear about the tabs--I just tested it on the beta and like the way you all have implemented this!
Yes, I realize that you can jump to the comment location through the Zotero interface itself, but the type of qualitative analysis I do across multiple documents in preparation for a literature review requires me to dump all the comments into Word to conduct my coding. It's much easier to wrap my head around it that way. For that reason, I need the hyperlinks that I can click directly in Word to jump over to that PDF location. So, those hyperlinks are super valuable to me since it extends the value of Zotero beyond the application itself. If you had an option to hyperlink the page number citations, I would just use the built-in Zotero comment extraction instead of Zotfile. :)
Hyperlink the page number with a zotero://open-pdf URL, you mean? The extraction itself certainly isn't going to do that. Those URLs were always primarily just a hack in ZotFile to let extracted annotations open the PDF page, and Zotero now supports that natively.
But the note contains all the information necessary to get back to the annotation position, and someone could create a plugin (or update an existing plugin such as zotero-mdnotes) to export notes with that data converted into zotero:// hyperlinks for use outside of Zotero. It's not impossible we could have a built-in export option for notes that did that if there was sufficient demand.
Yes, the zotero://open-pdf URL. They might be a hack, but they are brilliant and extremely helpful! Can you include that hyperlink in the citation HTML so that when you copy it out to another application the hyperlink goes with it? Right now, when you copy/paste the Zotero-extracted comments, it's just plain text. If it had the URL, that would be fantastic. You already mask this citation text anyhow to expose the "Go to page/Show item/Edit citation" hover tools, so adding the zotero://open-pdf URL shouldn't interfere with the hover tools functionality.
At this point, with Zotfile, I just do copy/paste from the comment, and that picks up the zotero://open-pdf hyperlinks. Some kind of an export functionality would require sending the comments to an external file and then hunting that down and copying from there into my coding document--that would really complicate the process, especially when you're trying to get students to start including this in their own workflow. Ideally, the in-Zotero comments would look EXACTLY the way you have them now (they look great, by the way), except that when you copy the comments out to another application the page numbers would be hyperlinked to take you back to "Show on page" location in Zotero.
Can you include that hyperlink in the citation HTML so that when you copy it out to another application the hyperlink goes with it?
No. Again, this would be an optional export step, probably by a plugin, for a niche use case. Getting a zotero:// hyperlink in text copied from a Zotero note by default would be completely inappropriate. If you don't understand why that is, you're going to have to take my word on this.
Some kind of an export functionality would require sending the comments to an external file
An export doesn't imply a file. It could still be to the clipboard.
that would really complicate the process, especially when you're trying to get students to start including this in their own workflow
We're not. Your workflow is not the workflow that the PDF reader and note editor are designed around, which is going from annotations in the built-in PDF reader to Zotero notes to word processor documents with active Zotero citations. Zotero is obviously designed to be flexible enough for lots of different workflows, but that doesn't mean that the default, built-in behavior is going to cater to them.
Upgrade Storage
Can you say why you want to revert?
If you don't want to use the new PDF reader and note editor, you can just disable them in the General preferences.
If you're encountering bugs, we'd like to fix them, because they'll be in the production release relatively soon and you'd be back in the same situation.
An automatic DB backup was made in the Zotero data directory when you upgraded, but it might have been deleted by now, depending on when you upgraded. If you don't have an appropriate automatic backup and your data is all online, the easiest thing to do is just to close Zotero, revert to the production version, delete zotero.sqlite, and sync.
But it'd be helpful to know why you want to do this first, since it may not be necessary and would only delay any problems you're experiencing.
I had no problems with beta. I did disable the internal PDF reader, though, for three reasons. First, the tabs were taking up too much screen real estate. Second, because I need to use a PDF reader that is touch- and stylus-friendly. Third, I went back to using Zotfile to extract comments because I needed the hyperlinked references after the extracted comments. My workflow with comments involves copying the extracted comments into Word from all the references I am working with, and then I qualitatively code all those collated quotes. I need the hyperlinks that Zotfile produces so that I can easily click and jump over to the source PDF directly to the correct page number. This is a very time saving feature and important for double-checking the context of something you coded a while ago. (Actually, I think I saw someone else comment on that recently in one of the other threads.)
But make no mistake - I think you're off to an amazing start!
Yes, I realize that you can jump to the comment location through the Zotero interface itself, but the type of qualitative analysis I do across multiple documents in preparation for a literature review requires me to dump all the comments into Word to conduct my coding. It's much easier to wrap my head around it that way. For that reason, I need the hyperlinks that I can click directly in Word to jump over to that PDF location. So, those hyperlinks are super valuable to me since it extends the value of Zotero beyond the application itself. If you had an option to hyperlink the page number citations, I would just use the built-in Zotero comment extraction instead of Zotfile. :)
Hope the feedback is helpful!
But the note contains all the information necessary to get back to the annotation position, and someone could create a plugin (or update an existing plugin such as zotero-mdnotes) to export notes with that data converted into zotero:// hyperlinks for use outside of Zotero. It's not impossible we could have a built-in export option for notes that did that if there was sufficient demand.
At this point, with Zotfile, I just do copy/paste from the comment, and that picks up the zotero://open-pdf hyperlinks. Some kind of an export functionality would require sending the comments to an external file and then hunting that down and copying from there into my coding document--that would really complicate the process, especially when you're trying to get students to start including this in their own workflow. Ideally, the in-Zotero comments would look EXACTLY the way you have them now (they look great, by the way), except that when you copy the comments out to another application the page numbers would be hyperlinked to take you back to "Show on page" location in Zotero.