cannot access .pdf files sync via WebDAV from the web interface

slein
Hi,

everything is in the title. I sync Zotero via WebDAV and my own cloud. This works fine for computers where Zotero is installed via a firefox add on (then the .pdfs are stored on hard disk). But when I use Zotero via the website I have access to my library but I can't access the pdfs. Is this normal or should I be able to access them ? Is this feature available only when syncing via Zotero's storage ?

Thanks for your help,

Niels
  • mronkko
    Is this normal or should I be able to access them ?
    You cannot access articles stored in WebDAV through the Zotero website.
    Is this feature available only when syncing via Zotero's storage ?
    Yes.
  • slein
    Could this be a feature request or is it unrealistic ?
  • adamsmith
    I believe that's not possible for technical reasons, so a feature request won't do much, no. Same for sharing files in groups via WebDAV.
    There is a WebDAV PHP script on the forum that, IIRC, does allow for files to be accessible on zotero.org via PHP - should be easy to find.
  • Gracile
    There is a WebDAV PHP script on the forum
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/20339/phpzoterowebdav-20-php-based-webdav-server-and-library-and-attachment-viewer/
  • aurimas
    edited March 8, 2013
    The technical limitation here being that all files uploaded to the WebDAV server are zipped (ZIP, not GZIP; but even with GZIP, they would not be served correctly for automatic decompression). Browsers are not able to handle ZIP files (for various reasons, but, e.g., how would you display multiple files contained in a ZIP file inside a browser?), so I don't think there will ever be a way to link to files in WebDAV storage.

    The alternative of linking directly to WebDAV would be for zotero.org to mediate the process by fetching the ZIPs from the WebDAV server, unpacking them, and serving them correctly to your browser (this is what phpZoteroWebDAV essentially does, I think). While it seems nice, this would add a LOT of bandwidth overhead for zotero.org and it would require you to provide your WebDAV login credentials to zotero.org (most people would, and should, not be comfortable with this)

    Perhaps I'm overlooking some other possibility here, but I just don't think this will happen.
  • mronkko
    Storing passwords and usernames and passwords on the server is a major no-no for any security conscious system admin.

    It would be theoretically possible to ask for the username and password and store them in javascript variables on the client side, then retrieve zip from WebDAV in the browser, store it in local storage, uncompress it and decode the filenames, and then open it in the browser. This would probably need a lot of browser specific code and would not work on all browsers. Because of the technical difficulties, this is very unlikely to be implemented.
  • aurimas
    Ah, thanks mronkko. Did not know that you can unpack ZIPs in memory, but, after looking around, here's some description of how this is done if someone is interested in giving this a shot http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4508595/how-to-extract-the-zip-file-in-client-system-using-javascript and the linked page http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2095697/unzip-files-using-javascript/2097303#2097303

    I do wonder if interacting with the downloaded ZIP would be limited by the Same Origin Policy.
  • mronkko
    I did not think about the same origin policy. That would of course prevent WebDAV downloads directly from the browser.

    But in anycase, this would be really difficult to implement. And considering that using Zotero storage provides a good workaround, I feel that it is unlikely to happen.
  • Heckscher
    Do the Zotero servers store the attachments zipped or unzipped? I'm asking so I have an idea how much storage I would need for my large (currently 8GB) set of attachments.
  • aurimas
    zipped
  • Heckscher
    Thanks, that was quick! So 6 GB might be enough. I'll start with that, anyway.
  • adamsmith
    It depends a lot on the nature of your attachments: Webpage snapshots get compressed a lot, pdfs only minimally when zipping.
  • freddie2310
    I read different comments on the forums and I am not sure to have understood everything well : I would like to know if attachment files are available through the zotero.org web interface when using phpZoteroWebDAV 2.0.

    I understood it was impossible with any Webdav service.
    I understood it was possible with phpZoteroWebDAV 2.0 through a special web interface.
    But is it possible with phpZoteroWebDAV through the zotero interface ?

    thanks for your help.
  • dstillman
    I would like to know if attachment files are available through the zotero.org web interface when using phpZoteroWebDAV 2.0.
    No. Only files stored in Zotero File Storage are available via zotero.org.
  • adamsmith
    (that was my mistake above - sorry. I misremembered what phpZoteroWebDAV does).
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