This is an aside but concerning the plug-in from MuiseDestiny, which many in this discussion know about. I have moved a hundre files to Dropbox with this plug-in, but I have no idea how to move them back to Zotero. I would appriciate it if anybody could tips me on that.
(Deleted the two rambling, accusatory posts here. We didn't threaten to sue anyone or even ask that the repo be taken down, only renamed. The developer understands that they can reinstate it with a non-infringing name and said they plan to do so. When they do so is entirely up to them.)
That looks to be just a saved copy by Retorquere of a very early version (0.0.10) of @polygon 's (Muisedestiny) zotero-file. It's not up-to-date (I believe 0.2.8 was the most recent).
Here is version 0.2.8 2023-09-05 10:22:24, I took it from my zotero plugin folder. It is already renamed to "Wandering File", so I don't know why the author, @polygon withdrew it, it works great!
(I have no reason to think that there are any concerns here, but since people are posting lots of links to add-ons here, please remember to be cautious when installing add-ons. Zotero's add-on framework is powerful and allows add-ons to do a lot, so you should treat the sources of what you install as add-ons as carefully as you would review the sources of software you're installing on your computer)
@adamsmith Yes, I agree. I took the addon as it was in my plugin folder. You have rightful concerns. Why would you download an executable, some stranger on the internet has uploaded to a one-click-hoster?
To everyone: before you install the addon, unzip the XPI (7zip or PeaZip can do that) and look at the sources. Any Zotero addon can do things on your computer, that your local user account is also capable of. It could be running a JavaScript-cryptominer or worse. I only skimmed through the source code and didn't find anything suspicious. It also has a copy of the original "Zotfile" included, which includes a dated version (9 years) of "pdf.js". I don't think any of these apply to it, but be careful: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=pdf.js
This would be a task for a modern version of Zotfile: remove the copy of pdf.js and use the version of pdf.js that zotero is already shipping with. But nonetheless a big "Thank You!" to @polygon, who made Zotfile compatible with Zotero 7!
@dstillman fair enough, and please excuse me my speculation; after such a definitive statement, I trust you did your best in communicating with the developer and that the message was properly received. Thank you for the heads up and for your patience.
It's still a bit concerning that it's taking quite a long time for the renamed version to come out but, considering what other users have pointed out regarding outdated and potentially insecure components, maybe that is actually a good thing; I would love to be testing Zotero 7 and helping you out but, in hindsight, I'm not sure I'm willing to risk exposing myself to attack vectors.
Equally important is the fact that users such as @Tannenfreund 87 made their own backup of… Wandering File (sounds kind of poetic, I like it) available; even if @polygon ultimately drops the project (which I do hope does not happen, and I also extend my appreciation for their efforts until now) someone else will definitely pick it up, if not it time for the Zotero 7 GM release, at least well before Apple yanks out Rosetta 2 from macOS (a scenario which should be, in the absolute worst case scenario, 10 months away with version 15, but more likely in two years' time or even later).
This is kind of an old post but I'd thought I'd ask. Maybe what I'm asking is obvious, so please forgive me if it is.
I basically want to use the old "Send to Tablet" feature of Zotfile but the Wandering File install doesn't seem to have it. I noted what @tim820 referenced back in October on how to use the Tools/Manage Attachments/Convert Linked Files... but that will not work for me as they're all linked files in a linked directory. I just want to move them to a different folder when I'm reading them so they sync to my android tablet and then I can pull them back but I need them to remain linked files because my laptop's hard drive is pretty small. Any help would be greatlt appreciated. Thanks!
Wandering File doesn't support "Send to Tablet" anymore. You can set it to store the PDFs in folders and subfolders, which you then sync to your tablet. But for your usecase, I'm afraid you need to use external tools for that. Is your "linked directory" a network drive? If you mount it in your OS, some sync software can sync it like it was saved on the hard drive.
I'm generally hoping for a native iOS and Android version of Zotero, because with the old Zotfile you were forced to use an external pdf-reader and to frequently import your annotations, because the Zotero pdf-reader doesn't save the annotations in the pdf. So you had blank pdfs on your tablet if you annotated them in Zotero itself.
It is google drive and I use the sync feature but because I don't want it stored on my laptop, I am using the linked directory on GD rather than on my laptop and it doesn't leave the files on my computer but uploads them right away and removes them from the physical location to keep space free.
Yeah, I was just hoping to be able to have like one GD folder for all my Zotero attachments and then have another that I could easily move them to when I was reading, both in GD. Ideally, I'd use something in Zotero to move them back and forth instead of having to go to GD and do it manually. I've been using MoonReader on my tablet for PDFs and EPUBs but Zotero would be better. I do hope for a Android app soon with built in PDF and EPUB abilities as that would solve a lot of problems, though I have seen mention in the forums that linked directories may not work using the apps which would still mean I'd have to find a bigger physical hard drive to keep things on.
* Set the setting "Location of Files" to your custom location, and enable "Use subfolder defined by '/%c' ". * Make a new collection "tablet" in Zotero, and copy all the articles you want to read into that collection. * Go to that collection, select all articles, right click, choose "Move attachment" or "Rename and move".
The articles should now be saved in a subfolder named "tabled" on your Google Drive. You can access that folder on your tablet and make your highlights and annotations. When you're done, go to your collection "tablet" in Zotero, select all and extract annotations. Then you go to your library overview, select all, and right click menu "Move attachment", this way you remove the articles from the subfolder. Now you can remove the content from the "tablet" subfolder, as your articles are still in their original collections.
The manual way is more complicated than Zotfile, and you only ever have one version of the PDFs, so I recommend frequent backups!
@librarygeekadam I understand that you are using Google Drive in stream mode (not mirror mode) to avoid your linked PDFs there needing to be stored on your laptop. But you would only require enough *extra* space on your laptop to locally store the *particular* PDFs you want to access in Zotero for iOS at any point in time.
You would create a collection into which you drag-copy a small number of items with linked PDFs from their home collections - those which you want to access in Zotero for iOS. In Zotero Desktop, then use Tools\Manage Attachments\Convert Linked Files to Stored Files to convert those linked files to stored files. Those PDFs will then be stored locally on your laptop (under Zotero\storage), and be synced online at Zotero Web Library and also to Zotero for iOS. When you've finished working on them in iOS, move them back to linked files on Google Drive in Zotero Desktop (using Zotfile in v6 or its successor in v7).
Doesn't the "move to tablet" work almost the same as linked files?
1. Is use my Cloud as Linked Attachment Base Directory 2. Whenever I edit the linked file in Zotero, there won't be any changes to the original PDF 3. When I edit the original PDF with an external Reader (Adobe or Tablet), I will see the new annotations inside of Zotero (marked with a lock).
What is the difference compared to the zotfile_MoveToTab, zofile_GetFromTab besides the file remaining in the cloud? The only workaround I have to do is exporting the annotations from zotero to the original PDF, so I can see everything in the external Reader / Tablet as well. The problem here is that all of the annotations inside of Zotero will be "doubled". So after the export, I delete all annotations in Zotero. After reopening the file, every annotation will only appear once (but blocked). It is a bit troublesome. I hope it will be easier with the Android App.
To sum up: If you use linked files you do not need the move to tab function of zotfile, right?
@liminghuiable splendid news! As promised, I may try a transition to Zotero 7, then…
Do you fellow users and devs reckon it will be stable enough (or close to being so) as a daily driver on at least one of my machines (i.e. is it safe enough for it not to cause issues on my database, namely on other instances of it synced to Zotero 6.x)?
I'm not using much in the way of plug-ins right now (only ZotFile, Night – which has also been updated for v7 –, ZoteroQuickLook – for which I suspect there's no alternative in the pipeline anytime soon – and obviously the integrations with MS Word and LOo Writer), so there's that…
Also, and this one is for the devs: I own a mix of Apple Silicon (two of those) and Intel Macs (more than two), all running the latest build of Sonoma (through OCLP trickery on the Intel side, heh), so if there's one particular ISA where you might want me to focus on, let me know.
@migugg, have you tried installing it? Most of the plugin is in English (ie it does not look like it does in the screenshots) ... there's one menu item that is in Chinese, and I haven't been able to figure out what it does (maybe someone knows?), but it doesn't seem terribly important!
@migugg & @dgbeecher, do you have the screenshot of the Chinese pages you do not understand? I'm a Chinese speaker and glad to help you explain the meaning of the functions. :)
thanks for the offer, xiaohy714. At the moment, I am slightly confused as to what attanger actually does. I was hoping that it can perform the send to tablet/remove from tablet function, but if I understand correctly, it cannot do so? I can define a "destination path" for a file in the preferences, and then click "move attachment" and the file is moved to the defined location. But if I see correctly there is no way how to remove the file from that destination again and re-import it into zotero? Can anyone explain?
As far as I know the prospective Zotfile-like v7-compatible plugins have said they will not be including the Send To Tablet functionality.
Converting/moving a linked attachment file back to local storage is done with the Zotero function under the Tools menu: Manage Attachments\Convert Linked Files to Stored Files.
This thread had taken a few twists and turns. To save people needing Zotfile-like functionality under Zotero v7 (currently in beta) having to read the whole thread, in order to figure out where things are at now ... in summary the two plugins offering most of Zotfile's features under v7 are: https://github.com/MuiseDestiny/zotero-attanger https://github.com/wileyyugioh/zotmoov
So, currently there're 3 Zotfile-like plugins for Zotero 7: Wandering File (0.2.8 - retired), Zotero Attanger, and Zotmoov. Apparently (I have downloaded and tested them) only Wandering File support renaming linked files using the citekeys generated from Better Bibtex plugin? Both Zotero Attanger and Zotmoov leverage Zotero built-in renaming functionality, which doesn't support using Better Bitex's citekeys(?)
Upgrade Storage
But, forks are supposed to keep themselves updated. How comes his fork still has an old version?
It is already renamed to "Wandering File", so I don't know why the author, @polygon withdrew it, it works great!
https://1fichier.com/?gy5sb9vu7meza7tsfneh
To everyone: before you install the addon, unzip the XPI (7zip or PeaZip can do that) and look at the sources. Any Zotero addon can do things on your computer, that your local user account is also capable of. It could be running a JavaScript-cryptominer or worse. I only skimmed through the source code and didn't find anything suspicious. It also has a copy of the original "Zotfile" included, which includes a dated version (9 years) of "pdf.js". I don't think any of these apply to it, but be careful: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=pdf.js
This would be a task for a modern version of Zotfile: remove the copy of pdf.js and use the version of pdf.js that zotero is already shipping with. But nonetheless a big "Thank You!" to @polygon, who made Zotfile compatible with Zotero 7!
It's still a bit concerning that it's taking quite a long time for the renamed version to come out but, considering what other users have pointed out regarding outdated and potentially insecure components, maybe that is actually a good thing; I would love to be testing Zotero 7 and helping you out but, in hindsight, I'm not sure I'm willing to risk exposing myself to attack vectors.
Equally important is the fact that users such as @Tannenfreund 87 made their own backup of… Wandering File (sounds kind of poetic, I like it) available; even if @polygon ultimately drops the project (which I do hope does not happen, and I also extend my appreciation for their efforts until now) someone else will definitely pick it up, if not it time for the Zotero 7 GM release, at least well before Apple yanks out Rosetta 2 from macOS (a scenario which should be, in the absolute worst case scenario, 10 months away with version 15, but more likely in two years' time or even later).
I basically want to use the old "Send to Tablet" feature of Zotfile but the Wandering File install doesn't seem to have it. I noted what @tim820 referenced back in October on how to use the Tools/Manage Attachments/Convert Linked Files... but that will not work for me as they're all linked files in a linked directory. I just want to move them to a different folder when I'm reading them so they sync to my android tablet and then I can pull them back but I need them to remain linked files because my laptop's hard drive is pretty small. Any help would be greatlt appreciated. Thanks!
I'm generally hoping for a native iOS and Android version of Zotero, because with the old Zotfile you were forced to use an external pdf-reader and to frequently import your annotations, because the Zotero pdf-reader doesn't save the annotations in the pdf. So you had blank pdfs on your tablet if you annotated them in Zotero itself.
Yeah, I was just hoping to be able to have like one GD folder for all my Zotero attachments and then have another that I could easily move them to when I was reading, both in GD. Ideally, I'd use something in Zotero to move them back and forth instead of having to go to GD and do it manually. I've been using MoonReader on my tablet for PDFs and EPUBs but Zotero would be better. I do hope for a Android app soon with built in PDF and EPUB abilities as that would solve a lot of problems, though I have seen mention in the forums that linked directories may not work using the apps which would still mean I'd have to find a bigger physical hard drive to keep things on.
Thank you for your help!
* Set the setting "Location of Files" to your custom location, and enable "Use subfolder defined by '/%c' ".
* Make a new collection "tablet" in Zotero, and copy all the articles you want to read into that collection.
* Go to that collection, select all articles, right click, choose "Move attachment" or "Rename and move".
The articles should now be saved in a subfolder named "tabled" on your Google Drive. You can access that folder on your tablet and make your highlights and annotations. When you're done, go to your collection "tablet" in Zotero, select all and extract annotations. Then you go to your library overview, select all, and right click menu "Move attachment", this way you remove the articles from the subfolder. Now you can remove the content from the "tablet" subfolder, as your articles are still in their original collections.
The manual way is more complicated than Zotfile, and you only ever have one version of the PDFs, so I recommend frequent backups!
You would create a collection into which you drag-copy a small number of items with linked PDFs from their home collections - those which you want to access in Zotero for iOS. In Zotero Desktop, then use Tools\Manage Attachments\Convert Linked Files to Stored Files to convert those linked files to stored files. Those PDFs will then be stored locally on your laptop (under Zotero\storage), and be synced online at Zotero Web Library and also to Zotero for iOS. When you've finished working on them in iOS, move them back to linked files on Google Drive in Zotero Desktop (using Zotfile in v6 or its successor in v7).
1. Is use my Cloud as Linked Attachment Base Directory
2. Whenever I edit the linked file in Zotero, there won't be any changes to the original PDF
3. When I edit the original PDF with an external Reader (Adobe or Tablet), I will see the new annotations inside of Zotero (marked with a lock).
What is the difference compared to the zotfile_MoveToTab, zofile_GetFromTab besides the file remaining in the cloud? The only workaround I have to do is exporting the annotations from zotero to the original PDF, so I can see everything in the external Reader / Tablet as well. The problem here is that all of the annotations inside of Zotero will be "doubled". So after the export, I delete all annotations in Zotero. After reopening the file, every annotation will only appear once (but blocked). It is a bit troublesome. I hope it will be easier with the Android App.
To sum up: If you use linked files you do not need the move to tab function of zotfile, right?
Github: https://github.com/MuiseDestiny/zotero-attanger
Do you fellow users and devs reckon it will be stable enough (or close to being so) as a daily driver on at least one of my machines (i.e. is it safe enough for it not to cause issues on my database, namely on other instances of it synced to Zotero 6.x)?
I'm not using much in the way of plug-ins right now (only ZotFile, Night – which has also been updated for v7 –, ZoteroQuickLook – for which I suspect there's no alternative in the pipeline anytime soon – and obviously the integrations with MS Word and LOo Writer), so there's that…
Also, and this one is for the devs: I own a mix of Apple Silicon (two of those) and Intel Macs (more than two), all running the latest build of Sonoma (through OCLP trickery on the Intel side, heh), so if there's one particular ISA where you might want me to focus on, let me know.
I can define a "destination path" for a file in the preferences, and then click "move attachment" and the file is moved to the defined location. But if I see correctly there is no way how to remove the file from that destination again and re-import it into zotero? Can anyone explain?
Converting/moving a linked attachment file back to local storage is done with the Zotero function under the Tools menu: Manage Attachments\Convert Linked Files to Stored Files.
https://github.com/MuiseDestiny/zotero-attanger
https://github.com/wileyyugioh/zotmoov