Upgrade StorageFile access in Public, Closed Membership groups
According to Zotero documentation (cf. https://www.zotero.org/support/groups), if administrators enable file sharing, group members in Public, Closed Membership groups can access and share files in addition to references.
From this, I would except that non-group members cannot view and/or download such files. However, when I as a non-group member (either not logged in or using incognito browsing) in the "Attachments" tab click on "Download", the file opens in my web browser, and I can read and download it.
I wonder if this is intended? In that case, I'll need to make all my libraries private, or if kept public, change "Library Reading" from "Anyone on the internet" to "Any group member".
From this, I would except that non-group members cannot view and/or download such files. However, when I as a non-group member (either not logged in or using incognito browsing) in the "Attachments" tab click on "Download", the file opens in my web browser, and I can read and download it.
I wonder if this is intended? In that case, I'll need to make all my libraries private, or if kept public, change "Library Reading" from "Anyone on the internet" to "Any group member".
And yes, this was limited to Public, Closed groups with "Library Reading" set to "Anyone on the internet", and it was specifically for selecting the attachment and clicking the Download button — the PDF reader didn't work. We're looking into how long this has been the case.
From what I can tell a 'Public Closed' library with 'anyone can view' should do this.
When I test this the results are correct, but not at all clear. If I double click on a file in a test library when I am not logged in (ie. 'the public'), I just get a spinning circle in Safari with no downloaded file. And if I try to download the file I get an error. Both of these behaviors seem correct but it is not clear if these results are bugs of some kind or an unclear but ultimately correct action.
So, for example, It would be nice to have a meaningful message pop up about file access, e.g. 'Files are only available to group members' instead of a spinning wheel that goes on forever or a weird file access pop up.
Can you please confirm that I the Public/Closed/anyone can view is the correct path for us with no file access for the public?
And can you please provide proper feedback to the public that the files are not available in some way? ('Action not supported' would even work.). I haven't tested other browsers -- maybe they work better.
Note: The Zotero documentation about Groups is a bit confusing on this issue. It fudges the rights associated with file viewing and editing so it is not clear if these are separate rights, or combined rights (ie. viewing and editing are just one right, not separable.) I'd also say that the Documentation is a bit at odds with the selections you make when setting up a group -- the 'anyone can view' option is not described in the documentation.
thanks.
Are you looking at https://www.zotero.org/support/groups ? Because that has the same options as the group creation screent and the "Anyone can view" property of Public/Closed groups is in the second bullet point.
File viewing & editing are entirely separate. If a group has files, all members can always access them, so the setting is only for whether they can add/edit files.