why do zotero://select/item links not work in other software under ubuntu 16.04?
PROBLEM: My workflow involves consulting notes stored in Zotero 5.0.22 while writing in other software (Scrivener, LibreOffice Writer). On Windows 10, I am able to access these notes from those other software by creating hyperlinks to them using their zotero://select item ID: I click on the hyperlink in, say LibreOffice Writer, and Zotero opens and selects the note item in my library. However, I cannot get these hyperlinks to work under Ubuntu 16.04: clicking on them--whether in Scrivener or LibreOffice Writer--produces absolutely no result.
REQUEST: A search through forums and posts on the web suggests that the problem is possibly due to Ubuntu not recognising the zotero:// protocol and therefore not knowing what to do when I click on the hyperlinks. Is this correct? If so, how do I solve the problem? Various posts say I have to register the protocol with the operating system. I have no knowledge of programming, and the how-to's I found were too complicated for me. If non-recognition of the protocol is not the problem, then what is it? I would appreciate any help on this problem, if possible a simple how-to that does not involve complex code-writing.
APPRECIATION: To the great people behind Zotero, thank you so much for the marvelous software; and to the Zotero community, thanks for the great work addressing problems faced by programming-incompetents like me.
Thank you for your help.
REQUEST: A search through forums and posts on the web suggests that the problem is possibly due to Ubuntu not recognising the zotero:// protocol and therefore not knowing what to do when I click on the hyperlinks. Is this correct? If so, how do I solve the problem? Various posts say I have to register the protocol with the operating system. I have no knowledge of programming, and the how-to's I found were too complicated for me. If non-recognition of the protocol is not the problem, then what is it? I would appreciate any help on this problem, if possible a simple how-to that does not involve complex code-writing.
APPRECIATION: To the great people behind Zotero, thank you so much for the marvelous software; and to the Zotero community, thanks for the great work addressing problems faced by programming-incompetents like me.
Thank you for your help.
===
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Zotero
Icon=zotero.png
Path=/home/osaze/Zotero_linux-x86_64
Exec=/home/osaze/Zotero_linux-x86_64/zotero-bin -app /home/osaze/Zotero_linux-x86_64/application.ini
StartupNotify=false
StartupWMClass=Zotero
OnlyShowIn=Unity;
X-UnityGenerated=true
====
The amended file is below:
===
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Zotero
Icon=zotero.png
Exec=/opt/zotero/zotero --url %u
StartupNotify=false
StartupWMClass=Zotero
OnlyShowIn=Unity;
X-UnityGenerated=true
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/zotero;
===
This solution worked, with two limitations: first, clicking a hyperlink in an external software (LibreOffice or Scrivener) opens Zotero and selects the central library but not the desired item--the hyperlink must be clicked again for the item to be selected (which is a small price to pay); second, now Zotero cannot open PDFs in external viewers (Okular, Acrobat, etc.). In summary, zotero://select/item now works (somewhat) but zotero://open-pdf now does not. Not even on returning to the original zotero.desktop file.
I would appreciate any help with this.