Upgrade StorageGoogle Chrome
The last thread about Chrome was closed in favor of an "official" FAQ where users can't comment. Unless something drastic changes, and soon, Zotero WILL have to address the problem of compatibility with Chrome. Like it or not, last week Chrome suddenly burst onto the scene of legitimate browsers with it's recent introduction of the official extensions gallery. Now, even in its infancy, Chrome is already light-years ahead of FireFox. Don't get me wrong, I loved FireFox. And, I've only used Chrome for a total of 3 days. But, I am so blown away by Chrome that I have now stripped Firefox of everything except Zotero because Chrome does it all too, and Chrome does it better.
I understand that there is an inordinate amount of work involved in making the switch to Chrome, but I'm predicting that either the Zotero staff will be smart and make it happen or else our beloved Zotero will die only to be replaced by a newer, better Google Chrome research tool.
Who knows? Maybe FireFox has another trick up its sleeve to regain the allegiance of traitors like me. But, there are just so many drastic changes that would have to be made. I can't see it happening. In the mean time, check out Chrome. It really is that great (and no one's paying me to say so).
I understand that there is an inordinate amount of work involved in making the switch to Chrome, but I'm predicting that either the Zotero staff will be smart and make it happen or else our beloved Zotero will die only to be replaced by a newer, better Google Chrome research tool.
Who knows? Maybe FireFox has another trick up its sleeve to regain the allegiance of traitors like me. But, there are just so many drastic changes that would have to be made. I can't see it happening. In the mean time, check out Chrome. It really is that great (and no one's paying me to say so).
This discussion has been closed.
However, as good as Chrome is, I think one will be necessary. I hope Zotero won't keep dismissing the issue and trying to stifle discussion by closing threads like this one.
[Closed] Chrome Compatibility?
[Closed] zotero for Chrome
[Closed] Google Chrome
[Closed] SUPPORT FOR GOOGLE CHROME
Chrome Browser extension
"Various HTML 5 API proposals, Google Chrome, and/or Opera Widgets might provide partial support for some of these things, but nowhere near what would be needed to approximate current Zotero functionality."
Of course Zotero for Chrome won't immediately be as great and wonderful as the original. It will take some time. No one questions that. The great thing about Chrome is that it is just getting started. New features are being added constantly. This long list of supposed impossibilities will be depleted by the time Zotero's developers get around to implementing them.
So, back to my original complaint, why does Zotero insist on dismissing the issue rather than constructively engaging it?
...now back to my research paper!
IMHO the only two statements that would make yet another Chrome thread helpful are
1) I have organized substantial funding in excess of $500.000 to fund full-time development on Zotero for Chrome and would like to talk about how to best use that money or
2) I or we have highly advanced coding abilities and a lot of time and would like to port Zotero to Chrome
Anything else is just not adding anything to the discussion that hasn't been said multiple times already.
And if you believe that a superior bibliographic add-on is going to emerge on chrome anyway, then what's the concern? I'm as attached to Zotero as the next guy, but if a vastly superior alternative comes out on a vastly superior browser I'll switch happily.
Every time people spend time contributing to threads like this is time not spent on helping people with real issues. So it's entirely appropriate to "stifle" these sorts of discussions.
I like Zotero.
I like Zotero a lot.
With that said, after spending the last 30 minutes reading how you've been handling this subject since 2008 I can't pretend to be unexcited when someone beats you to porting your own extension to Chrome. And trust me when I say it will happen. And trust me when I say it will be used. And trust me when I say you will be forgotten.
Good day.
Sorry, but you end up in the troll basket: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
"And your foolish dismissal of these threads borders on mockery (and cuddle-hugs blatant ignorance)."
Bazinga.
In the list of reasons for spending several thousand hours nailed to a console, "being remembered" doesn't, I think, rank very high. The "Donate" button at the top of the page on the right is probably a more effective way of infusing the project with a desire for self-preservation.
btw. who is this "you" you are talking about?
If someone ports Zotero to Chrome it will - by the terms of the license - still be free and open source and thus still belong to "us" - I don't see that as a threat in the least. On the contrary - I'd be happy if someone does.
I would love to see a Chrome extension. I'd also love to see a native Android client application that can interact with Zotero servers. But that's not the same thing as me coming here and demanding the Zotero developers create these tools, and lambasting them if they say they don't have the resources.
That said, it might help to encourage third-party development of these sorts of things if the server APIs were well-documented and promoted?
I'm glad you linked me to the standalone project. That's awesome to read. But it would have been better had I read that in the FAQ instead of some stupid bit about Chrome's inability to handle the massive power of Zotero. o_o
In the end, it was my memory (e.g., "remembering") of an ultra-cool extension I had for Firefox that brought me back here in the first place. I don't use Firefox anymore. At all. So i had to do some work to even unearth what the extension was called. By the time I find the name, the site, and then the forum... all I can find is a bunch of extremely ignorant and ill-informed remarks about Google Chrome that span a two-year period.
Perhaps I didn't do enough research to find the standalone product. But more important - perhaps the archived (and constantly closed) threads in this forum turned me off to such a degree that I didn't really care to do anymore research.
Relevance (beyond the community) and preservation are two things every project should strive for.
@adamsmith: Porting Zotero to Chrome would require changes. Enough changes to qualify it as its own entity. The extension, in the end, is just like any other - it's a feature-set. Feature-sets are bound by no license. My point was that someone will replace Zotero if Zotero doesn't adapt to the new Chromium world.
@bdarcus I'd love to see a Chrome extension as well. I didn't jump in here looking to lambaste anyone... but reading those Chrome threads is frustrating. The icing on the cake was finding them closed rather than being openly discussed. At one point I saw a developer suggest the only feasible way to port Zotero to Chrome was $500,000.
Seriously?
What kind of resources are you needing? Street-corner resources? Black-market resources? Dilithium resources? Please.
Screw third-party development, I think it's time for new-party development.
http://www.zotero.org/getinvolved/
The first thing listed under the dev section is a translator. Funny, that - considering a translator is built into Chrome.
The resources that Zotero needs are developers. Developers can volunteer themselves, and some have -- fbennett and adamsmith have both made very significant contributions to the citation system, and have done so in a way that encourages ports; their work is being used Mendeley already. That said, a major project to bring full Zotero functionality cannot be taken on by the team of 1-2 developers that CHNM has the funding for. It would cost at least several thousand dollars in developers' time to get something going for Chrome or mobile devices, and a well-developed system would indeed cost tens of thousands of dollars (or the equivalent in lots of donated time from talented people).
I haven't seen anyone asking Zotero to switch gears for Chrome. No one's saying "stop FF development, start Chromium development". What I think we want is just a simple attempt at a somewhat functional version of Zotero for Chrome.
A perfect example of how issues like this should be handled can be found with the developer(s) of Scribefire - the (Firefox) blogging tool. Read this, it was handled beautifully:
http://code.google.com/p/scribefire/issues/detail?id=1276
Scribefire for Firefox and Scribefire for Chrome are not exactly the same. Nor were they expected to be. But the acknowledgement that the need _for something_ was quite astute. And this is what we applauded.
If someone needs help, that's cool - but help must be asked for before it can be obtained. Acknowledge that Zotero needs a Chrome port and mayhap the developers will come.
My point about third-parties is really just the observation that anyone can start up a project to create a Chrome extension that works with the Zotero servers. There's no reason legal, technical, or social that requires that it be done under the umbrella of zotero.org. And what do you think would fulfill this goal? A simple bookmarklet that allowed you to click it to load new citations into your account? Something like one of the Chrome extension to delicous that provide a nicer UI on top of that?
I don't get the impression that you're actually very interested in the technical details - at least you don't address a single technical question in any of your post. Unfortunately, they do matter. Porting relatively simple extensions such as scribefire not the same as porting Zotero, a highly complex application.
So you're really comparing apples and... injection engines here.
The fact that the reactions to ever more Chrome Threads are increasingly annoyed is not just that people keep asking, it's also that they keep asking in the same, unhelpful manner. It's always "you _have_ to do that", "Chrome will _definitely_ annihilate Firefox", frequently mixed with some more or less mild insults - and after a while that repeated pattern just become a little annoying. As you see, people still respond with (imho) surprising patience.
No one, literally no one who has asked/demanded about Chrome support has taken the time to make specific suggestions how even some of the technical issues could be addressed.
No one has made a specific commitment of either time or money - neither here, nor on the Chrome forum where a Zotero thread exists.
The 500.000 Dollar figure is from me and not from a core developer - it's obviously not a clear cut figure and if you look at the post it's clear that it highlights a general need, not a specific sum. My purpose was to illustrate that porting Zotero to Chrome is a serious undertaking that requires significant resources - and not a couple of hours (or even days) of developer time. The idea that it's possible to find qualified people outside of the Zotero user community who would just volunteer this time is, mildly speaking, wildly optimistic. If you look at who advanced open source projects it's pretty much exclusively dedicated users or paid programmers.