Feature tweak.... PDF re-renaming

Astrenia
The Child file attachment renaming is genius... and works great 85% of the time.

But here is the rub. There is no easy way to change back or edit the new name.

Sometimes the Retrieve Metadata doesn't work or grabs wrong meta data, and then when one does the child file attachment renaming, it gives the wrong name for the file. To correct as of now, one actually needs to delete the file and reload.

Even with the Rename File From Parent Metadata working 100%, I'd still like a true manual rename file option.

Also while on the topic, when I upload a file that have been Renamed using Parent Metadata from Zotero back to my c:drive (I know - why would anyone what to do that?) it shows the code for the file name, rather than the text... (author)%20et%20...

A rename file dialog box would ideally open with the text so I could at least copy and paste the same name for saving it back to my C:drive.

Or better yet, if possible, have the text of the file name be converted and saved, rather than doing the formula each time. (wouldn't this take more processing time anyway to leave the formulas...I guess it is a trade between formula and storage space.)

All the best...
  • dstillman
    I'd still like a true manual rename file option.
    There has been one for years. Click the attachment title in the right-hand pane.
    when I upload a file that have been Renamed using Parent Metadata from Zotero back to my c:drive
    I don't know what you mean by this. Explicit steps to reproduce would be helpful.
  • Astrenia
    > Click the attachment title in the right-hand pane.

    Right you are! This does permit the manual copy of the file name, and then for the same source file on my C:drive, I can rename with a paste. Nice.

    What's strange is that on one PC when I open, the file in Zotero, and then save the file back to my C:drive on a few files, if gives the code for the name. And then after I open the name by clicking on name in upper right pane, it gives the text name.

    But some times it also spawns an error (without any explanation for cause.)

    See report 520283786
    Debug ID D250361369
  • dstillman
    What's strange is that on one PC when I open, the file in Zotero, and then save the file back to my C:drive on a few files, if gives the code for the name. And then after I open the name by clicking on name in upper right pane, it gives the text name.
    I don't know what any of this means. You'll need to provide specifics.

    Please read Step 3 of Basic Instructions on the Reporting Bugs page.
  • Astrenia
    I was able to get the error to reproduce...hence the report and debug. Since then I have not been able to figure out who I got the error. In general, it came after checking the "Rename associated file" box in the New Title dialog. But while it occured multiple times, after I restarted firefox, it has not reoccurred. I'll report back if I get the same error again.

    The "code for name" is a different issue. It did not spawn an error code. I'll see if I can get that to reproduce and report back the steps as well.
  • Astrenia
    edited September 28, 2009
    OK, I was able to reproduce the "code for file name" in "save a copy" again. (after clean sync and restart of foxfire)not really an error - never spawns a code...so just consider this a feature tweak request).

    step by step...

    in mid pane, double click on a selected PDF that has been renamed using the parent metadata. up it pops.

    in the top pane, Select save a copy. up pops the save a copy dialog box.

    next to file name: it is not the text of the name, but the code for the name. (e.g., File Name: Latham20%et20%al.20%... where Latham is the last name of the first author).

    I have a work around, as I can open the new title dialog box by clicking on the name in the right pane, and copy, then save a copy in the top pane, then paste the text of the file name over the code for the file name in the file name box.

    But its a bit tedious....
  • dstillman
    in the top pane, Select save a copy. up pops the save a copy dialog box.
    The top pane of what? Your PDF plugin? If so, that has nothing to do with Zotero.

    If you've already saved the item to Zotero, 1) why are you duplicating it elsewhere on your hard drive?, and 2) if you really want to, either click Show File in the right pane of Zotero and copy the actual PDF to wherever you want it or drag the attachment to your desktop straight from the center pane of Zotero.
  • Astrenia
    Why would one duplicate files?

    Cause we wish to live a "fault tolerant life".

    And as much as we'd love to trust Zotero's servers...we can't and won't.

    We get way too many drive failures:

    Case in point... days after I wrote the above, our Zotero WedDAV server crashed (SwissDisk)

    From: SwissDisk.com Support [mailto:support@swissdisk.com]
    Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 11:37 AM
    Subject: Re: Support Request

    Dear SwissDisk user,

    We regret to inform you that the SwissDisk system suffered a problem that has caused a system outage. Our engineering staff is working to restore the system at this time.

    blah blah...

    then a week later...
    ________________________________________
    From: SwissDisk.com Support [mailto:support@swissdisk.com]
    Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 4:41 PM
    To: SwissDisk Support Team
    Subject: the "new" SwissDisk is now in service

    Official SwissDisk notice:

    The "new" www.SwissDisk.com is up and ready for service.

    We would like to welcome back all previous account holders.

    Unfortunately due to the recent outage we were unable to recover/restore any encrypted account data. Once again we apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

    Blah blah blah.

    But no sweat. We were covered.
  • dstillman
    Duplicating is not the same as backing up. It sounds like you're making the case for the latter, and individually saving a copy of PDFs isn't a particularly efficient (or complete) way of doing that.

    Again, though, if you really want to duplicate files, copying via Show File or drag-and-drop might work better.
  • Astrenia
    Granted. Mostly this is our attempt to ensuring uniform taxonomy for file names within our system.

    When we receive files from a user outside of Zotero, such files are named however that user chose when saved. So we are now using the Zotero parent metadata feature to rename the files once in Zotero, but then also rename the original file on our local drive, which are backed up automatically, so that the names of the files are the same in our backup files as in Zotero. This helps us keep our needed cloud storage size low & fault tolerant.

    I guess the ideal would be for Zotero to figure out a DOI metadata (etc) for each object, which we could then use to avoid duplicates, regardless of the file name. So when we drop a file into Zotero, it alerts us such a file might already exist.

    Eventually, I suspect we will no longer house the files on the local drives, and just have our Group Lib on Zotero backed up automatically off Zotero somehow. But that does not seem to be feature at the moment. So we are experimenting with is using the Admin "My Library" as a duplicate of the "Group Library", with My Lib synced to a WebDAV account. Hence the SwissDisk failure.
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