My predicament about server choice

wonblee
I currently use Zotero storage with upgrade and ZotPad when I'm away from the desktop. One thing I really wish I was able to do is to annotate on the PDF files more easily on my iPad.

My predicament arises because ZotPad can't annotate yet, and my favorite iPad annotation app, GoodReader, can't reconcile Zotero server yet. I have considered switching my server to a WebDav service like Sugarsync, but Sugarsync seems to garner mixed reviews from users.

Is there another solution that I can try until ZotPad introduces annotation features or GoodReader begins to sync with Zotero server?
  • adamsmith
    I know many people like using Zotfile with dropbox for file syncing with their iPad (or other tablets).
  • wonblee
    Wait.. I thought using Dropbox for storage was strongly recommended against for potential data corruption.
  • adamsmith
    you're not supposed to put your Zotero folder (and especially not your Zotero database) into dropbox.
    Look at the description of Zotfile, which has a clever way of "syncing" selected files to your dropbox (or any other) folder and this will become clearer.
  • wonblee
    I've read the description on the Zotfile website. Although it's a clever solution, it doesn't allow on-demand "pull" from the tablet side. You need to "push" the PDF file first from the desktop side.
  • adamsmith
    that's correct, yes. Maybe mronkko has another idea, but I think there just might not be a fully functional Ipad solution yet.

    (Another option might be to use symlink to the storage folder in the Zotero data directory to dropbox - to re-iterate: the thing _not_ to do is putting zotero.sqlite into dropbox - symlinking the storage folder would allow you to just put the files into dropbox. On the downside, they wouldn't be accessible via ZotPad.)
  • mronkko
    ZotPad will provide twoway syncing starting from 1.1

    I will write an article about this on the ZotPad site and post a link to this thread later.
  • mronkko
    For details on the file sync options

    http://www.zotpad.com/node/20

    ZotPad 1.1 will have a semi-public beta, which will be announced later. I hope to start this in a month and do a release maybe a month after that.
  • adamsmith
    @mronkko
    this looks like a typo:
    The reason for this being read only in ZotPad, but not from Zotero is that third party applications use a different interface to access the Zotero server than third party applications.
    presumably one of the "third party applications" should read "Zotero"?
  • wonblee
    @mronkko

    Although I'm excited that ZotPad is about to be upgraded, 1.1 is not going to provide relief for people like me using Zotero server storage.
  • adamsmith
    as he says, though - that's a Zotero API problem - it'll work at some point in the probably no too distant feature.
    If you need something right now, it looks like linking your storage folder into dropbox is the only way to go. Mikko - in the spirit of open source's "release early, release often", released ZotPad very early in its development, and also pretty early in the process of zotero fully fleshing out their API, so these types of limitations are typical. The alternative is not having anything of the type.
  • mronkko
    edited March 11, 2012
    adamsmith: thanks for spotting the typo, it is now fixed

    wonblee: I too use Zotero file storage (although not with the mronkko account, but another account) so having the ability of uploading annotated file is a high priority. The 1.1. version will include a way to do two-way sync that will work for many (but not necessarily all) users. I have updated the page about file syncing to describe how that will work.

    http://www.zotpad.com/node/20

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