Is it possible to have OwnCloud configured in such a way that it replicates the functionality of Google Drive's [Shift] + Z. My desired outcome is to allow a single file to be present in two separate folders (which may or may not have different permissions). I would imagine Google is doing this through symlinks. So in short, does:
1) OwnCloud server follow and advertise symlinks?
2) Does the client allow for the user to (hopefully easily) create symlinks/add files to additional folders?
I read in the changelog that in a prior version symlinks were disallowed, but as that was not the current release I was unsure. Furthermore I saw no mention of symlinks in the client.
This would be amazing if OwnCloud were capable of user-created symlinks. I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!
Short answer: it isn't possible.
The closest thing could be sharing files among users. However, sharing with yourself isn't allowed.
You might get something similar using symlinks (or similar) in an external storage as long as the external storage allows symlinks. I'm not really sure about this because this is usually restricted at least for local storages.
Note that ownCloud assumes that a file will only have one path. Although the contents might be the same, 2 different paths will refer to 2 different files in ownCloud.
I think the client follows a similar assumption. Using symlinks in the client could be problematic, so I'd rather not use them within the folder managed by ownCloud.
Note that even if ownCloud manages to handle symlinks, windows might be still in the way because there isn't a "translation" that the desktop client can use for windows.