[Beta PDF Reader] BUG? (was "URI for location in PDF?")

richard.masters

I am using the beta PDF and notice that the citation at the end of an extracted highlight is a link but I cannot determine if the link is something that can be used outside of Zotero.

e.g. (Spiegelhalter, 2019, p.17) should take you to the relevant highlight in Zotero's beta PDF Reader.

I'm guessing something like the following but with a location parameter?
zotero://open-pdf/library/items/xxxxxxxx

Thanks.

richard.masters

In fact, I notice that even within Zotero, when I click on the citation at the end of a highlight in the "Annotations" note, the link does not open the PDF, let alone take me to the appropriate page.

All it does is take the focus to the item record.

Is this a bug?

dstillman

First, it sounds like you may be referring to links created by ZotFile. Zotero has its own mechanism for adding annotations to notes, and we recommend using that going forward.

zotero://open-pdf links should work, but Zotero doesn't currently make those available for annotations added to notes, though it may in a future version.

We'll look at a Debug ID for clicking on a link that doesn't work, but these are generated by ZotFile, we can't vouch for them. If you do Show File on an attachment in your personal library, copy the 8-character folder name, and then add a link to a note in the form zotero://open-pdf/library/items/[item key], clicking on it should open the PDF in Zotero's PDF reader.

richard.masters

Hi Dan

This isn't ZotFile - that is disabled.

However, an update on my earlier message is that the "Go to page" link on the citation in the Annotation Note does now take me to the page on which the highlight appears. So no bug - apologies.

But what I'd really like is for that link to be available outside of Zotero, in a note-taking app where I can have the citation, click on it, and be taken to the highlight in the Zotero PDF Reader.

dstillman

Regardless of whether ZotFile is disabled, it's ZotFile if you're referring to "links". Zotero doesn't create links — it has built-in functionality ("Go to Page") to go back to an annotation from a note.

Zotero now does the handling for zotero://open-pdf links itself — taking over from ZotFile, which introduced that mechanism — but only ZotFile (and maybe Zutilo) creates them.

But what I'd really like is for that link to be available outside of Zotero, in a note-taking app where I can have the citation, click on it, and be taken to the highlight in the Zotero PDF Reader.

Right — as I say, Zotero itself doesn't currently make zotero://open-pdf links available for annotations added to notes, but we'll likely add the ability to export notes directly from Zotero, which would convert the internal metadata powering "Go to Page" to zotero://open-pdf links.

richard.masters

Thanks for the clarification.

From a user's perspective I see a 'link' and 'Go to Page' functionality as, effectively, the same: click on something and it takes you somewhere else. But I can see that the technical implementation may well be very different.

Your last paragraph describes what I think is essential for the built-in PDF reader to gain traction in a full academic workflow for a lot of users. I know a number of people are not yet trying out the Zotero beta / PDF Reader because it doesn't yet offer this integration - I look forward to when that is introduced.

Does this count as a +1 for that feature?