Create link that automatically scrolls to an article

stevebreslin
Zotero doesn't seem to automatically scroll to a highlighted article in a library. This can be a UX problem if a library has a lot of articles and the article is near the bottom.

Is there a way to construct a URL to link to an article in my Zotero library and have the page scroll to the article? I can't use anchor links because the Zotero article elements in the DOM don't have id's.

E.g. I want the user to click this link on an external site and have the page automatically scroll to the article in the list:

https://www.zotero.org/groups/2563939/iheed_msc_med_ed/items/GJEKU8WI/item-details

The Zotero articles each have data-key attribute, so maybe there is a way to use that key in the URL, e.g.:

https://www.zotero.org/groups/2563939/iheed_msc_med_ed/items/GJEKU8WI/item-details#data-key=GJEKU8WI
  • adamsmith
    Why is the scrolling so important? The actual article metadata (and access to notes, attachments, etc.) is all shown on the right. It just doesn't focus the middle panel (which I guess could be done; no need for a new link form of link though, the item ID is in the regular URL)
  • dstillman
    @tnajdek would need to comment on whether this is possible.
  • tnajdek
    Unfortunately there are technical limitations that make this issue quite challenging. Web library works on a small subset of data that is relevant to the current view, i.e. when you first load the library, it only downloads as many items as you can see on the screen, otherwise it would take substantially longer to load the data (and thus show meaningful content) especially on slower connections. If the item of interest is beyond the visible page, web library has no clue where that item should appear, thus it isn't possible to scroll it into view. We do however, as @adamsmith mentioned, fetch the item itself so its details can be displayed.

    We've identified this issue a while ago but did not come up with a feasible solution yet.
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