As suggested by Simon Cropper here: When attaching a PDF to an item by dragging a link from a webpage into the library, could the URL of the PDF be saved in the URL field of the parent item?
I don't think this should happen automatically, since there's no guarantee that the URL of the file being dragged actually belongs in the URL field (i.e., that it's the canonical location on the web of that document).
But a couple things might help:
1) There could be a way of setting the parent item's URL field via the attachment, perhaps via the context menu.
2) The parent item's View button could be improved, with the ability to designate a primary attachment. As I note on the ticket, that could help if you have a stable URI in the parent item but the snapshot is from another website that has full text (but that shouldn't be entered as the canonical source).
Very nice ticket; I think it would solve the problem, which is basically a UI issue. It had occurred to me too that the source of the PDF would not necessarily be the canonical location.
+1. How about setting the parent url to the pdf url when the parent url is blank. This would probably cover most cases where you want the parent and pdf url to be the same.
Upgrade Storage
But a couple things might help:
1) There could be a way of setting the parent item's URL field via the attachment, perhaps via the context menu.
2) The parent item's View button could be improved, with the ability to designate a primary attachment. As I note on the ticket, that could help if you have a stable URI in the parent item but the snapshot is from another website that has full text (but that shouldn't be entered as the canonical source).