Automatically "rename files from parent metadata"

Michael Schmidberger
Dear Zotero team,

the option "Rename Files from Parent Metadata" is great.

I use it for every reference I download. Would it be possible to go one step further:

Automatically rename all files upon import/download from the parent metadata.

The next step would then be to create a folder from that metadata and collect all files in that folder (not random strings, which are quite useless for any use outside of zotero, if you ever look at the raw database).

Thanks a lot,

Michael
  • Gracile
    1/
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/2160/is-there-any-automatic-renaming
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/8531/

    2/ http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/18069/why-attachments-in-different-folder/
  • Michael Schmidberger
    Dear Gracile,

    thanks I saw the link to "why are attachments in a randomly named folder" string.

    Isn't there any possibility to change this behaviour? I see the "we want to avoid sync issues" argument, but for me that is not important. Having a coherent database with folder structure on the OS level, however is.

    I think the argument could go both ways, so why isn't there just a simply option in zotero to let the user decide?

    Or can I achieve this somehow using ZotFile? (In that case please tell me as I didn't understand this from reading about Zotfile).

    Thanks,

    Michael
  • dstillman
    I think the argument could go both ways, so why isn't there just a simply option in zotero to let the user decide?
    Because this is a core part of how Zotero functions, and it's done for technical reasons. It's not about syncing, but rather about dealing with files with the same name, renaming (inside and outside Zotero), having snapshots with multiple files, etc. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it's difficult, and it's certainly not something that could be done with a preference, since it'd require a major overhaul of how Zotero stores and accesses files.

    If you use linked files, you can store them however you want, and yes, ZotFile can help with that. For files within Zotero, you can use a smart folder in your OS to view a flat list of files within the Zotero data directory. You're not meant to access the randomly named folders directly.
  • seans_potato_biz
    For files with the same name, couldn't they just be appended with a number or letter?
  • adamsmith
    That's just one of the reasons Dan mentions. But also, if you add files with the same name on two different computers, you'd then have to change filenames when, on syncing, it turns out they're the same etc.
    As Dan says - if this is important to you, it's not very hard to achieve with linked files and Zotfile or with a smart folder.
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