Where are group attachments stored?

Catlynnl

I have a naive question. I see that group attachments are going to be stored on Amazon S3. When group users sync to a private library with group attachments, do all the group attachments get downloaded into each user's Zotero storage folder, or are the attachments accessed remotely through Amazon S3? We are planning on having gigabytes of attachments in our group library - I'm kind of hoping the group attachments don't need to be downloaded onto every group user's computer... Does the fact that there is no straightforward group backup method yet mean that the group attachments aren't stored into everyone's Zotero storage folder?

adamsmith

Uhm - group attachments on Amazon S3? Where did you see that?
The only way to sync group files as of now is the Zotero storage solution. People don't need to sync these files - there is an option to unselect "sync group files" in the preferences.
But if you want users to be able to open the files on their computers they will have to download them - opening them from a remote location or download on access or whatever you have in mind is not possible. They will have to download all of them, at least at this time, and I haven't heard anything different planned for the future.

Catlynnl

The Storage FAQs say: Zotero File Storage involves a customized data layer running on Zotero servers, backed by file storage hosted with Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3).

Catlynnl

So if we don't want to fill up everyone's hard drive or network space with group attachments, should we just "Attach link to page" and place each of our attachments somewhere where they can each have a unique web address? We have portal space at our institution for this...

adamsmith

That should work, yes.

dstillman

We do plan to add on-demand downloading at some point so that all files wouldn't need to be stored on all users' computers.