In this article, you would learn to build a local library to manage your references.
What is Zotero?
Zotero is a free, open-source, web-based reference manager. It provides a way to manage your references, including bibliographies, and to export them to a variety of formats. Zotero is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS etc. However, it has a few limitations, e.g. the space of the library is limited to 300 MB.
What is Nextcloud?
Nextcloud is a free, open-source, web-based file storage and collaboration platform. It is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. It provides WebDAV services to access files.
How to use Zotero with Nextcloud?
Zotero is good, but we need enough space to store the library. The easiest way to do this is buy its service, which could be expensive for some people. Luckily, Zotero also enable us to access the library through WebDAV so we can use Nextcloud to store files with WebDAV services.
Step 1: Install Nextcloud
You must install docker first.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker.io
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker
Then, you can install Nextcloud.
docker run -d -p 8888:80 nextcloud:latest
Once you have installed Nextcloud, you can access it through your browser by typing the following URL:
http://localhost:8888
For the first login, you should set the administrator account.
Important: To access the Nextcloud in other local machines, you need to add the local address to the Nextcloud’s trustued domain. Otherwise, errors may occur when you try to connect to Nextcloud.
Finally, create a folder named “zotero”, which would be used to store the library.
Step 2: Configure Zotero
First of all, you need to install Zotero. Then configure the Zotero -> Prefereces -> Sync panel and set the following options in file syncing and verify server:
Now you can sync your library to Nextcloud.