Making Zotero read only for mult-user access

newuser1
Hi,

I am new to Zotero but have read many of the posts regarding mult-user access. We also want to keep all of our files (which are now in Zotero) on our network server, but I was wondering if it was possible to change the Zotero files (i.e., sqlite, etc.)to "read-only" for multi-user access without corruption of the database? I would then "uncheck" the files when I wanted to add pdf's to Zotero, then make them read-only again when I finished my modifications. I am not an IT person so I am try to find a very simple solution for local network multi-user access. Thanks.
  • adamsmith
    There is no simple solution for keeping your Zotero database on a shared network drive. Just don't do it.
    What's so bad about using Zotero sync?
  • newuser1
    For security reasons, we want to keep everything local.
  • adamsmith
    you can't have multi-user access then.

    There's a reason Zotero has an extensive dataserver protocol to allow syncing between computers.
    It's open source, so in principal you can host that locally
    https://github.com/zotero/dataserver
    http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/dataserver_setup
    but that requires significant skill and expertise.
  • newuser1
    Thank you for your input. I could perhaps work with an IT person to implement these suggestions.
  • newuser1
    Perhaps future versions of Zotero could have this capability, as I do not appear to be the only user interested in this configuration.
  • adamsmith
    I don't think you understand. When I say "there is no simple solution" I mean "there is no simple solution". That's not because no one has ever bothered to implement it, but because it doesn't exist.

    Zotero needs write access to the sqlite all the time. It needs write access every time you save an item or make the most tiny change and, I believe, even some more basic operations like remembering your last selected item. It's just not feasible to switch it between "read only" and "read&write". And even if it were - you switch the database to read - someone else accesses it at the same time - and you've got your database corrupted.
  • newuser1
    I meant your comment in regards to hosting the sync capability locally.
  • adamsmith
    very unlikely to happen as part of Zotero itself- running a server always takes some work, tweaking, and expertise and Zotero has announced that the dataserver code is published as is and not supported. It's a small project, there aren't nearly enough resources for that.

    Some third parties are working on easier implementation, though.
  • ajlyon
    Making the dataserver installation more straightforward is a reasonable goal, and I still hope that one of the institutions experimenting with it will come out with comprehensive install instructions and a corresponding modified version of the Zotero client. The security concerns are clearly a deal-breaker for some institutions, but if those institutions applied a week of developer time, they could probably get a decent local dataserver setup going. A couple of weeks, and they could package the dataserver to be more of a turn-key install for others. It's just that the folks at CHNM don't have the time to take on user support and related development work for such efforts.

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