Upgrade Storage"Tablet mode" for Ubuntu Touch
With Ubuntu Touch, LibreOffice and Zotero can be run on tablets.
However, storage is a problem (I am putting together a zotero library of over 40 gigs -- much to big to be put on a tablet).
"Tablet mode" would upload PDFs into WebDav/Zotero storage, but not download them until a specific item was requested (i.e. so they can be read etc.,.). Then a "putback" menu would delete the item locally, but not effect the stored remote copy.
Please give this feature serious thought as this convergence of technology is very promising for students especially.
Greg Schofield, Perth Australia
However, storage is a problem (I am putting together a zotero library of over 40 gigs -- much to big to be put on a tablet).
"Tablet mode" would upload PDFs into WebDav/Zotero storage, but not download them until a specific item was requested (i.e. so they can be read etc.,.). Then a "putback" menu would delete the item locally, but not effect the stored remote copy.
Please give this feature serious thought as this convergence of technology is very promising for students especially.
Greg Schofield, Perth Australia
The University I am at, for undergradates, only allows 300mb of storage space, so keeping PDFs in Zotero is impossible, let alone having all the course material sent as Zotero exports which has been my advice to the University to fully digitize itself.
For my PhD research I need lots of documents with Google drive access (which I can do easily enough with zotero and "storage" links to the drive), but I could not use a tablet or the Uni computers to really do anything like that -- indeed the uni computers make it impossible to use zotero to its full potential because of the space restrictions (I am surveying and analysing anthropological and historical material).
With my tablet I want to choose what to study download it and read it on the train. I want to have it under my arm when I am at the library, and pick up where I was reading where-ever I am (I am an avid user Zotfile, but with the possibility of being able to tag, make notes, sort and use zotero when I have the tablet makes me more productive and mobile).
What I was suggesting is that where I would normally open a PDF in zotero, I should have "do you wish to download this file", afterwards when I finished with it (to save space) I "put it back". When I put a pdf into zotero form an outside source, it gets uploaded and is replaced locally with a download proxy.
Ubuntu Touch brings the issue to the fore, but anywhere where their is a space restriction Zotero presents a problem when the local library gets too big.
To make more space I simply return books to my library.
To overcome the local storage limit, there is no ready solution. What you could consider is to have a cron job that periodically checks the size of the Zotero storage folder. If it exceeds a certain treshold, it would delete the files based on access data until you are below the limit again. Any deleted file would be still on the server and when you attempted to open it, the on-demand download would trigger.
Deleting just the local version of a file is a little hack-ish, but still easily doable: Simply click on "Show File" in Zotero, and delete the file in nautilus (rather than deleting it in Zotero itself).
This may solve my problem, we are discussing the possibility of giving 1,500 students tablets, with the libreoffice/zotero Unbuntu touch combo, distributing all course material digitally via groups.
I will need to think about this and do some experiments, the deleting from folders is not too hard at all, and it would not clutter things up -- I could do an emergency wipe out script if they happen to change the preferences of just get carried away.
Thanyou
Greg
My apologies if I have watsed your time, thanks mronkko and adamsmith