Upgrade Storage[iOS] Possible to automatically save source URL when saving a PDF?
I often save PDFs to Zotero from Safari on iOS by using the ‘Share Sheet’ (e.g. when reading US Supreme Court opinions[1] and other legal briefs for later reading / markup). I often do this with multiple documents in quick succession.
Since this saves the PDF as an ‘unlinked attachment’, though, minimal metadata is saved.
Especially since some web servers provide rather unhelpful filenames such as ‘download.pdf’ or ‘A637FC7362FA1.pdf’[2], each time I manually do the following:
1. Click the ‘Share’ icon, click ‘Zotero’, and set the correct ‘Collection’ - (this adds the PDF to Zotero with PDF’s filename as the item name, and uploads the PDF to my linked WebDAV account)
2. Copy the PDF’s URL from the Safari address bar
3. Open Zotero (if not already open in ‘Split View’)
4. Find the new entry and click the ‘Info’ icon and then click ‘Edit’
5. Paste the copied URL into the item’s ‘URL’ field and click save
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I don’t know if it is possible (i.e. if iOS provides that info to apps for items shared via iOS ‘Share Sheets’ — the type is ‘Safari web page’ and _appears_ to include a URL), but if it is, could the source URL of an item (and any other available metadata) be saved automatically?
If it is not possible, then an iOS Zotero option similar to the desktop version’s ‘Add item by identifier’ to for example, paste in a URL (or list of URLs), after which the related items would be created in the library with Zotero optionally downloading the target items (e.g. a PDF). (With this method, Zotero would also be able to acquire and save even more metadata, such as the date of an item from the HTTP headers which often indicates the upload or ‘last modified’ date of an item.)
Alternatively, if automatic addition of the URL is not possible, perhaps the pop-up dialog that appears after selecting ‘Zotero’ from the ‘Share Sheet’ could include a URL field into which the user could paste a URL manually. [Tangentially, the ability to add a short note in this dialog (in addition to the existing ‘tags’ selector) would be another useful enhancement.]
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[1] Example: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1410_1an2.pdf
[2] In such cases, the URL often provides useful information in the path, query options, etc. At the very least the hostname / domain name provides basic context to the document’s origin. The URL also allows one to check at a future date if the document was modified or to re-download the file and can serve as a basic reference citation.
P.S. My comments above (and the observed behavior) are based on the current (as of 28 June) Zotero beta app on iPadOS 15.x and on the current Zotero release (non-beta) app on iOS 14.8.1.
Since this saves the PDF as an ‘unlinked attachment’, though, minimal metadata is saved.
Especially since some web servers provide rather unhelpful filenames such as ‘download.pdf’ or ‘A637FC7362FA1.pdf’[2], each time I manually do the following:
1. Click the ‘Share’ icon, click ‘Zotero’, and set the correct ‘Collection’ - (this adds the PDF to Zotero with PDF’s filename as the item name, and uploads the PDF to my linked WebDAV account)
2. Copy the PDF’s URL from the Safari address bar
3. Open Zotero (if not already open in ‘Split View’)
4. Find the new entry and click the ‘Info’ icon and then click ‘Edit’
5. Paste the copied URL into the item’s ‘URL’ field and click save
- - - -
I don’t know if it is possible (i.e. if iOS provides that info to apps for items shared via iOS ‘Share Sheets’ — the type is ‘Safari web page’ and _appears_ to include a URL), but if it is, could the source URL of an item (and any other available metadata) be saved automatically?
If it is not possible, then an iOS Zotero option similar to the desktop version’s ‘Add item by identifier’ to for example, paste in a URL (or list of URLs), after which the related items would be created in the library with Zotero optionally downloading the target items (e.g. a PDF). (With this method, Zotero would also be able to acquire and save even more metadata, such as the date of an item from the HTTP headers which often indicates the upload or ‘last modified’ date of an item.)
Alternatively, if automatic addition of the URL is not possible, perhaps the pop-up dialog that appears after selecting ‘Zotero’ from the ‘Share Sheet’ could include a URL field into which the user could paste a URL manually. [Tangentially, the ability to add a short note in this dialog (in addition to the existing ‘tags’ selector) would be another useful enhancement.]
- - - -
[1] Example: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1410_1an2.pdf
[2] In such cases, the URL often provides useful information in the path, query options, etc. At the very least the hostname / domain name provides basic context to the document’s origin. The URL also allows one to check at a future date if the document was modified or to re-download the file and can serve as a basic reference citation.
P.S. My comments above (and the observed behavior) are based on the current (as of 28 June) Zotero beta app on iPadOS 15.x and on the current Zotero release (non-beta) app on iOS 14.8.1.