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Zotero integration: all users should be allowed to refresh Zotero (group) library imports
Zotero group libraries are shared libraries that many teams use in collaboration. It's great if Overleaf supports them. Right now it doesn't really — only the user who originally added the group library is allowed to refresh it, which defeats the point of using group libraries in the first place.
Steps to Reproduce
- User 1 adds a Zotero group library through Add Files > From Zotero
- User 2 clicks on zotero.bib, hits 'Refresh' button
- "Access Denied: You are not the user who originally imported this file"
Expected Behaviour
Expected behaviour is that at step #2, Overleaf dutifully refreshes the bib file because it is a group library.
Observed Behaviour
What actually happens is an access denied error: "Access Denied: You are not the user who originally imported this file"
Context
Group libraries are shared libraries that multiple users contribute to and that Zotero syncs from multiple user accounts. For Overleaf to restrict refreshing them to just the user who happened to add it defeats the point of the group library.
Technical Info
The Zotero API is designed to enable this kind of use, so Overleaf is here imposing an arbitrary limitation. The issue is made for group libraries (for this is the use case that is most strongly affected), but one might argue that given the collaborative nature of Overleaf, refreshing any imported Zotero file (whether it is a personal or a group library) should be allowed by any user with rights to edit that document. After all refreshing is a harmless one-way import.
Analysis
This should not be a hard fix? Experiencing the same issue, not a big issue but a bit annoying.
Is there an update on the progress of this fix? Our research team has found the same issue
No response or activity yet on this from the Overleaf team — @aeaton-overleaf, I would love to help with a PR, but when I tried poking around in the code I couldn't find where a fix would need to happen
I am also experiencing this issue with my research group and am looking forward to a fix.
Hey Overleaf @aeaton-overleaf @das7pad @jdomaga @domagojk terribly sorry for mass-tagging but since it's been a year and the issue persists, and bites us with any new paper we work on, I'm wondering whether you might be able to point us in the right direction for a fix. We would love to create PR ourselves if we can contribute to fixing this, or at least receive guidance on whether a fix might be on the cards somehow.
/edit In case it helps, we all pay for Overleaf premium, either personally or via our institution, and we were hoping there may be a way for you to attend to bug requests filed by teams who support the software financially. The bug adversely impacts the utility of Overleaf to our team.
The workaround that we are currently using is that each author creates their own Zotero references file, which they can then refresh:
- references_author1.bib
- references_author2.bib
We then include all references files in the main tex document:
\bibliography{references_author1, references_author2}
Interesting. Doesn't that result in a lot of duplicates that latex will complain about? As we are all using the same group library those bib files would be literally identical when synced
Interesting. Doesn't that result in a lot of duplicates that latex will complain about? As we are all using the same group library those bib files would be literally identical when synced
No, we also use the same Zotero group library. We do not get duplicates or warnings when using pdfLaTeX and BibLaTeX.