Looking For Suggestions For Adding An Electried Lock To A Wood Sliding Pocket Door.

Mag lock on the side instead of the top?

Rich;

Looks like there might be some sort of a latch mid-way down that door (bottom right in the frame from your picture).

If that's the case and you have the ability to put a 'hook latch' on the sliding part, you could go with a battery-powered electronic cylinder like the GEO product from Salto or something similar, which wouldn't fully satisfy your request for an electrified lock, but would give you the ability to control the mechanical lock electronically.  The GEO would extend outward from the door, but probably not any further than the current latch in the upper right of the photo.  This is going to prevent the door from fully retracting into the pocket, but no more than the existing latch if that's acceptable.

Quite a challenge to put regular access control on this with all of the life safety requirements that will come along.

Hope that helps,

Greg

I have seen both shear and surface mounted electromagnetic locks used in this application. When a surface lock is used, the armature is mounted on an L bracket fixed to the door. You would obviously remove the existing barrel bolt from the door before installing the L bracket. Many pocket doors of this type are inexpensive hollow-core doors so you may need to provide additional support when adding anything to the door. 

A electromagnetic shear lock would look better but poses its own challenges. These locks may have reduced holding strength when the armature is pulled straight out from the face of the lock. The door will also be weakened considerably when the armature is flush mounted within the door. If this is indeed a hollow-core door, there may be little left to screw the armature to once you cut out the mortise in the edge of the door.

You could also use some type of electric bolt lock, but I would not recommend these because nearly perfect alignment is required for these locks to work reliably. 

Overall, I feel that sliding doors of this type are a poor choice for an access controlled opening as the door must be manually pulled shut after each use. However, as long as the customer is aware of the limitations, you should be fine.