best configuration for non-users

clfm
We are a library service that wants to make small collections accessible to members of our association without requiring them to download or install zotero or login in any way. In other words, they will just use the web interface to access the references.

Can anyone tell me if there's more than one way to configure this and what the pros and cons would be for each.

Thanks in advance.
  • adamsmith
    If you want to share attached files, you won't be able to do this without people creating a user account and logging in.

    If not, you'll probably want to use public, closed membership groups (everyone can look at them online, no log-in required, but only invited members can join & sync them with Zotero). If you do want people to be able to - but not required - to join freely, make it an open group and only allow editing for admins. You won't be able to attach files in that case.

    You can pick whether you want to start multiple groups or just multiple collections in one group, there's no clear advantage logistically for either, so that depends on what works better for you.

    There's no way to customize how groups look online at zotero.org, so no configuration options there.
  • clfm
    Thanks Adam for your swift answer. When you said:

    "no log-in required, but only invited members can join & sync them with Zotero"

    Does that imply that they can also add to, and delete records from the group library?
  • adamsmith
    Does that imply that they can also add to, and delete records from the group library?
    not necessarily - just as for open groups, you can distinguish between administrators and members of the group. While you _can_ allow everyone to edit and add items, you can also restrict that to administrators.
  • birthrightsbar
    Adam, has anything changed since your 2014 answer? My organization would like to share read-only access to two collections, each to one of two kinds of organization members. However, we don't want the collections to be visible to the world at large. Ideally, we'd like to be able to give one of two logins and passwords to any member.

    To complicate matters, we have a third collection that we'd like ALL our organization members to be able to drop items into, but without edit permissions.

    Is any of this possible? It doesn't seem so, since I don't see how to create a new Zotero member without associating it with an email address. I'm afraid that asking each of our org members to create a zotero account will be too burdensome both for them and for our people who have to administer the project. Thanks!

    PS Trying very hard in this question to differentiate between our organization members and Zotero members.
  • LiborA
    see this documentation of groups
    https://www.zotero.org/support/groups
  • adamsmith
    @birthrightsbar nothing about groups has changed, no. You could create two single accounts for people to use for the first two groups, but of course that wouldn't allow you to remove access for any given individual were they to leave the organization.

    The third group isn't possible at this time. There is no setting that allows adding but not editing items.
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited June 29, 2017
    It might be good to consider having three levels of group privileges. I find it helpful to have 3 levels of administrative rights in my online SafetyLit system. These allow control of each record as it moves through the administrative/ editing process before the record becomes publically available to a database query. The basic level status probably wouldn't be needed if we had a good way to limit editing privileges to only those new records a submitter added him-or her-self. Even a well-intentioned person (when inexperienced) can do a lot of damage to existing database records.

    Basic: Can add records but not edit or approve/publish
    Edit: Can add and edit records but not approve/publish
    Full: Can add, edit and approve a record to be moved to the public-view side of the database.

    Public: Can view records but not add or edit published records.
  • adamsmith
    Yeah, I think something like that makes sense.
    I don't think having a staging/publication workflow is reasonable for Zotero (it is for other, more publication-focused apps, but it would require Zotero to develop a whole new concept of an unpublished edit/item, a staging area etc. and I think that's mission creep), but an "add but not edit" category makes a lot of sense. My sense is that that is by far the most requested missing option and it would also be key for class projects.
  • DWL-SDCA
    No, I wasn't literally suggesting a staging area for Zotero groups but using my case as an example. "Add not edit" group rights would be great for class projects.

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