Recursive collections Standalone vs Online

issam.ibnouhsein
Hi,

I know that recursive collections don't exist online, but it is really annoying because there is no sync with the standalone version! I organise my stuff generally on the standalone zotero, but then online zotero, and hence all my mobile access which goes through it, are not updated. Is it possible to enable recursive collections online too?

Thanks.
  • fcheslack
    I'm not sure if this is a feature request or a question.
    It is not possible to use recursive collections in the web library.
    I would like to do this at some point, but it's not on the immediate horizon.
  • aurimas
    It's not exactly clear what you're trying to say. Recursive collections only affects the way items are displayed, it has nothing to do with sync. What is the sync problem you are experiencing?
  • issam.ibnouhsein
    Thanks for the answers. It is a request, since many people I know using Zotero complain about this problem I thought it would be useful to put it in the forum.

    Indeed collections are just items organization, but an organization is meant to be as logical as possible, that's the whole point of organizing! :)

    I'm calling it sync problem because creating a collection on the web or on the standalone software affects the zotero library everywhere (sync), but items won't have the same detailed organization everywhere (recursive collections in standalone and not online) (sync problem).

    This is annoying and I'll give an explicit example: when I start studying some specific subject in a given area, I create a subcollection in the "area" collection and add new items to it. With default configuration they don't appear on the parent collection, and it doesn't bother me so much. But this is incompatible with another situation: if I decide a posteriori to transfer some item from the "area" collection (item added before the creation of the subcollection) to the subcollection, then I have it at both levels. So I end up with a collection where some items can be viewed from the parent collection, and others that appear only in subcollections. Hence an fuzzy organization. Two possible solutions are:
    - enable recursive collection online (on which all mobile devices are synchronized)
    - when transfering an item from one collection to another, the item should disappear from the source collection. I don't know if this is possible, an answer would be nice.

    I know it's not a matter of life or death, but I thought that if it is something simple to implement, it would be worth to have a look at it. My programming skills are close to zero, so I don't know if my request is a reasonable one or not.
  • adamsmith
    when transfering an item from one collection to another, the item should disappear from the source collection. I don't know if this is possible, an answer would be nice.
    this will be possible by dragging while holding a modifier key (shift on linux/Windows, cmd on Mac) in Zotero 4.1 (which is likely still a couple of months or so out).
  • issam.ibnouhsein
    Ok great, thanks for the feedback. Will the online recursive collections be also implemented or not? (so I know if I should disable it from standalone so I don't have to delete items individually from the parent collections when they already appear in subcollections in Zotero 4.1).
  • adamsmith
    see fcheslack's post above (he writes the webpage code) - yes it will likely happen and no, it will likely not happen very soon.

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