Backup and restore

Feature requests
#1

Hi Paperpile.

Thanks for a great product. I know there is a way to export the entire database as a JSON file. That is very useful. I am wondering if there is a way to import the JSON data again? Like a restore option, if the database gets messed up.

At our company, we are starting to use Paperpile to maintain a tagged interactive publication list for our homepage. We export the JSON data, and then transform it into an interactive javascript based publication list. (Maybe a service/product you could consider for companies?). We previously did this with a BibTeX based JabRef database. This solution had a lot of drawbacks, but it was easy to wrap in a version control system. I am kind of missing revision control for Paperpile. I have no problem backing up the JSON data manually, but I missing the restore option.

If nothing else, could you at Paperpile restore a database manually if disaster struck?

Regards,
Morten

2 Likes
#2

Same wish here. I am considering to recommend PP for my department’s library, but I don’t see a working solution for disaster recovery, which would be essential for a professional use case.

Any news on this?

#3

Hi, Martin, given that PP databases exist on google, drive, my thinking is that google handles this, on the back end (i.e., invisible to the user). If you REALLY don’t trust google, you can always download a copy of your papers to a local drive. Or are you looking for something else?

#4

Hey Bruce,
I am not against Google and do trust their data security.
My aim is to create a workflow for my department’s bibliography, which will be maintained be different employees. Long term security is a crucial aspect of the design.

To be independent from personal accounts, we would share one institutional Google account. However, this would enable every employee to wipe everything connected with the account, so the danger could be on the user’s side as well. I don’t know how PP stores our data, but professionalism requires to have an independent backup because even the most professional organizations can lose data (unlikely though, but better be safe then sorry).

My idea was to (1) run a script every night or so, that downloads the complete data from PP.
In case of technical or other disaster I would like to be able to create (2) a blank new project and import the backup dataset (3) to have a PP database identical to the DB we had before disaster struck.

That’s the idea, but maybe I am asking too much.