Upgrade StorageMore graceful interaction with password manager (master password dialogue popping up)
Currently Zotero interacts with the Firefox password manager in a rather ugly way.
I have automatic sync disabled in Zotero. Despite this, when opening the Zotero pane, occasionally the master password dialogue would pop up. It doesn't happen every time though and I can't reproduce the issue...
Another, always reproducible problem (well, bad user experience is a better description than 'problem') is that whenever opening the Zotero preferences, the master password dialogue is popped up again. Most of the time, I do not want/need to change anything related to the password, so this is unnecessary, and I just press cancel. Zotero reacts by suggesting that the Firefox password manager database might be corrupted, and by telling me what to do to fix it. Of course this is not what happened, nothing is corrupted...
The Weave extension handles these situations much more gracefully. Even though it syncs automatically, it does not ask for the password each time Firefox is started. It will only pop up the master password dialogue when either asking it to connect explicitly, or when explicitly changing password-related preferences (but not when just opening the preferences window). However, if for some other reason I do enter the master password, then Weave will start synchronizing seamlessly, without any user interaction. This is a very nice user experience.
Could perhaps Zotero behave more like Weave, i.e. (in order of user decreasing inconvenience):
1. not ask for the master password when there's absolutely no need for it (sync turned off, preferences not opened)
2. not ask for the master password when opening the preferences (only ask when actually changing the password). Or at least give a less confusing error message (or preferably no error message at all) when clicking cancel in the 'password required' dialogue.
3. handle automatic syncing like Weave, i.e. sync seamlessly if the password is available, but don't prompt for it unless the user explicitly asks for syncing. This would allow people who have a master password set to enable auto-syncinc without making the browser unusably annoying.
Well, these are just some suggestions, from a user's perspective who has a master password set :-)
I have automatic sync disabled in Zotero. Despite this, when opening the Zotero pane, occasionally the master password dialogue would pop up. It doesn't happen every time though and I can't reproduce the issue...
Another, always reproducible problem (well, bad user experience is a better description than 'problem') is that whenever opening the Zotero preferences, the master password dialogue is popped up again. Most of the time, I do not want/need to change anything related to the password, so this is unnecessary, and I just press cancel. Zotero reacts by suggesting that the Firefox password manager database might be corrupted, and by telling me what to do to fix it. Of course this is not what happened, nothing is corrupted...
The Weave extension handles these situations much more gracefully. Even though it syncs automatically, it does not ask for the password each time Firefox is started. It will only pop up the master password dialogue when either asking it to connect explicitly, or when explicitly changing password-related preferences (but not when just opening the preferences window). However, if for some other reason I do enter the master password, then Weave will start synchronizing seamlessly, without any user interaction. This is a very nice user experience.
Could perhaps Zotero behave more like Weave, i.e. (in order of user decreasing inconvenience):
1. not ask for the master password when there's absolutely no need for it (sync turned off, preferences not opened)
2. not ask for the master password when opening the preferences (only ask when actually changing the password). Or at least give a less confusing error message (or preferably no error message at all) when clicking cancel in the 'password required' dialogue.
3. handle automatic syncing like Weave, i.e. sync seamlessly if the password is available, but don't prompt for it unless the user explicitly asks for syncing. This would allow people who have a master password set to enable auto-syncinc without making the browser unusably annoying.
Well, these are just some suggestions, from a user's perspective who has a master password set :-)
-
dstillmanTicket created. We'll take a look at this for 2.1. We haven't tested interaction with a master password at all.
-
SzabolcsThanks, Dan!