Watch folder

himanshug
I am wondering whether Zotero had any functionality with respect to watching folders?

The last discussion I see is from 2017 and it reports that it is not possible, but am wondering if there has been an update.

2017 discussion: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/286966
  • bwiernik
    No, but importing PDFs and retrieving metadata is not the recommended way to add items to your library. You will generally yield better item data by clicking the Save to Zotero button on your browser toolbar from the publisher webpage: https://zotero.org/support/getting_stuff_into_your_library
  • danieltomasz
    edited January 30, 2021
    Adding downloaded pdfs is more reliable to me than clicking "Save to Zotero" in many cases (especially in case of preprerints or some publishers where pdfs are in some kind embedded in reader they offer).

    In case of pdfs retrived on Ipad or Iphone and latter adding it on PC is the only option.
  • seeingtheforest
    I'd also love to see something like this. I tend to acquire and manage my PDFs from outside of Zotero, but would like to have them added when they are put in a watch folder.
  • jamesHumberstone
    You can use Hazel on a Mac to watch your downloads folder for *.ris files and then open them in Zotero, but I'm finding it's not successful all the time (not sure why)...
  • bwiernik
    Importing from a RIS file will often not yield the best available metadata. A watch folder is just not the workflow Zotero is designed to use. The most effective way to import to Zotero is to click the Save to Zotero button from your web browser toolbar on the publisher website.
  • leblancj
    I too would like to see better ability to import pdfs from one's local computer. While I agree that importing from the web is a powerful way to get metadata, I find that I also receive relevant pdfs by other means, e.g., colleagues email me pdfs or I find useful pdfs on my local drive that I'd like to import into Zotero. Perhaps a workaround is that for pdfs placed into a watch folder, Zotero could, in an interactive mode, look for those files online, confirm with the user that the correct online info was found, and then import those the user approves?
  • dstillman
    @leblancj: All you have to do is drag them into Zotero. Zotero already attempts to retrieve metadata for any PDF that's added directly.
  • C05T4
    I agree with the above argument for having a watch folder. Indeed the metadata is often suboptimal, but as well contains enough information to achieve the correct metadata. It is an convenient way of updating your library after a literature search, I loved it in Mendeley.
  • dstillman
    edited July 26, 2022
    It is an convenient way of updating your library after a literature search
    @C05T4: I'm not sure what you mean by that. The point is just that Zotero isn't designed around a local-files-first workflow. You save items and/or files from the web, and Zotero automatically manages your local files for you based on your settings.
  • C05T4
    What I mean is that most users do not acquire their information according to the requirements/workflow by zotero. We are not librarians. Users go through information sources, collect relevant pdf along the way and then need to update the library of their reference manager. As can be read in posts above, updating the library during the search can be quite cumbersome and that distracts from the information query. As it is already possible to add attachments and obtain metadata from it, it would be a minor adjustment to provide users with the desired watch folder option. Off course that is not always an ideal solution and it may lead to a suboptimal library. That disavantage reveals itself when building a Bibliography and then may require an additional effort from the user. It is a practical approach though.
  • mjthoraval
    I would also love to have this feature in Zotero.
    Although Zotero strongly discourages this workflow, importing from a PDF file is already possible. So I guess it is just about improving an existing functionality.

    From previous discussions, I guess that the main technical limitation in Zotero to implement a watched folder is that Zotero does not check duplicates with file hash before importing the files?
  • dstillman
    What I mean is that most users do not acquire their information according to the requirements/workflow by zotero.
    Zotero users tend to use Zotero the way Zotero is designed to be used.

    If you're coming from another tool, you may be used to a different workflow, but that doesn't mean it's one that makes sense in Zotero, and you're more likely to struggle if you insist on using Zotero in ways it's not optimized for.
    As can be read in posts above, updating the library during the search can be quite cumbersome and that distracts from the information query.
    I still don't know what this means. We're just talking about ways to get data and files into Zotero. From day one, Zotero has been built primarily around the browser, with automatic management of files. We don't think users should have to manually save files to disk, organize them, rename them, delete duplicate copies after they're imported into Zotero — these are all things we feel your research tool should handle for you, with one click in your browser toolbar. Zotero is designed to save time, so we’re not going to add a feature we think encourages a more tedious workflow.
  • C05T4
    I think the discussion here shows that at least some users tend to use Zotero differently and we participate in the forum to get that across and suggest something.
    I respect and highly appreciate the work of Zotero developers though, so if they do not want to encourage a 'faulty' workflow, I understand that.

    For those that do work this way, the Zotero Folder plugin can be useful: https://www.zotero.org/support/plugins
  • ekbalam
    I also deeply miss a "watch folder" feature.

    Relying on Zotero to store copies of the PDF files in its own internal archiving system, makes me completely dependent on Zotero: whenever I want to reach a PDF file, I need to open Zotero.

    I mostly only need to store academic papers (stored by alphabetical order in a single folder), and use Zotero to collect metadata, and cite. Maybe Zotero is just overkill for my needs.
  • adamsmith
    I mostly only need to store academic papers (stored by alphabetical order in a single folder),
    You can set up a saved search/virtual folder pointing at the Zotero storage folder that gives you exactly that. If you really want to manually rename and file PDFs that's your prerogative, of course, but see dstillman's reasons above on why Zotero won't redesign with that workflow in mind.
  • dstillman
    edited November 8, 2022
    The files should also be searchable via your OS, even without creating a saved search. And that's part of the point of Zotero renaming files for you automatically based on the parent metadata — to make them more easily findable outside of Zotero. Anyway, this is really just about stored files vs. linked files — it's not specific to a watch folder.

    For the watch folder, here's a documentation page with a more detailed explanation of this:

    Why doesn't Zotero have a “watch folder” feature?
  • ekbalam
    Many thanks to both @adamsmith and @dstillman for this additional information!

    I'm not sure what is meant by a "saved search/virtual folder", could that be an OS-specific feature? (I'm running Ubuntu). In any case, as pointed out by @dstillman, this is rather related to the "stored files vs. linked files" philosophy, and is not specific to a "watch folder" feature.

    I've played around with Zotero, and found a setup which is actually helping me save time with respect to my previous workflow which was using Mendeley's "watch folder". For those coming from Mendeley, here is one way to automatize the following steps: download PDF from browser > rename PDF using its metadata > move PDF to specific folder > upload to Zotero.

    1. install Zotfile plugin

    2. setup Zotfile preferences:
    - set location where to store all PDFs (what used to be my "watch folder"): General Settings > Location of Files > set Custom location
    - set renaming rules: {%a_}{%y_}{%z}
    (The %z wildcard is a custom one, used to abbreviate the journal name, see below).

    3. setup Zotfile custom wildcard to customize journal abbreviation (optional):
    I wanted to automatically rename PDFs with journal names abbreviated using the first letter of each capitalized word. To set a user-defined wildcard, you can add a JSON string as follows: Zotero > Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Advanced Configurator -> "Config Editor" > search "extensions.zotfile.wildcards.user"
    I setup the following JSON using suggestions in this post:

    {
    "z": {
    "field": "publicationTitle",
    "operations": [{
    "function": "replace",
    "regex": "\\s*[.:;?!|].*",
    "replacement": ""
    },
    {
    "function": "replace",
    "regex": "[^A-Z]",
    "replacement": ""
    }
    ]
    }
    }


    4. install Zotero Connector

    Now when I visit an academic journal website, I can simply click on the "Save to Zotero" icon in Firefox, and Zotero/Zotfile will automatically download / rename / move / upload the PDF.

    I understand this is not the recommended way of archiving files with Zotero (as it is using the "link file" archiving strategy), but for now this is closer to my needs.

    Thanks to the Zotero developers & help provided through this forum!
  • adamsmith
    edited November 9, 2022
    I'm not sure what is meant by a "saved search/virtual folder", could that be an OS-specific feature? (I'm running Ubuntu)
    Yeah, that's implemented at the OS level and I'd consider it a standard feature that has existed for ages in OS X and Windows and, in fact, used to be available in Ubuntu/Nautilus until about 4/5 years ago, when it was removed for reasons I can't quite understand. There's a fairly recent discussion on this on the Gnome boards if you care for details and possible workarounds
  • ekbalam
    Very interesting, thanks for sharing! I'll have a look at possible workarounds.
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