Zotero 10 suggestion: advanced search in a separate window

auster

Hi there, it would be cool to advanced search in a separate window as in previous versions of Zotero. Now, if I want to search my entire library, I need to go to 'My library' and wait a minute till the whole library (which is huge) loads. With a separate window this search was faster.

jorgelagos

This has to be a bug, right? There's no way this is the intended behavior!!!

I've been using Zotero for years, and the old Advanced Search behavior--undocked window & search across the whole library by default--worked like a charm. Now every time I want to accomplish that I find my having to go all the way up to the root tree entry, which not only is bothersome but, most importantly, forces me to leave the current library entry I was working on! When dealing with a large library, the above becomes a real pain in the ass.

Please bring back the old Advanced Search behavior! Or at least, make the behavior customizable to the user preference!

octavabasso

I want to second this. While I think the new search is far superior (it really is!), the new route of getting to it is:

* click on the main library, away from a subcollection,
* then click on filter (and maybe delete stuff pre-populated in the search),
* then search,
* and then go back to the subcollection

That's far more work than just clicking "search" from wherever I am.

ajb59

I think it's fair to say that certain aspects of the new implementation of Advanced Search for Z10 are problematic; particularly, in terms of changing the scope of a search vis-a-vis pre-Z10, the way the results are presented inline, and the consequent effect this has on workflow.

There have been a number of posts recently making points along similar lines to the ones presented above, with probably enough disquiet expressed overall to warrant a pinned response in the forums?

In chronological order by first post (by way of summary):

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/133278/how-can-i-search-my-entire-library-in-zotero-10 (@z-jie) (with comments by @warguelles and @iagogv

My own contribution (with replies by @dstillman)
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/133302/zotero-10-questions-about-search (@ajb59)

A lengthy and extremely clear discussion of the issues with suggested solutions from @pttianya
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/133407/ux-feedback-on-z10-advanced-search-workflow-disruption-when-organizing-search-results-into-nested-c

mjthoraval

With the Weavero plugin, you can open the library in a new separate window. You can also directly open the advanced search in a new separate library window with Shift+Click on the advanced search funnel icon.
https://github.com/mjthoraval/Weavero

Let me know if that solves the problems.

Opening multiple library windows is also planned to be implemented directly in Zotero:
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/482457/#Comment_482457

dstillman

In the latest Zotero 10 beta, we've added a section to the top of the Add to Collection menu for recently used collections. If you want to use advanced search to find items to add to the current collection, you can open advanced search, click on the library root, find an item, and then use right-click → Add to Collection to quickly add the item to the collection you were just in, which will be at the top of the list. (The collection will also then be in Libraries and Collections in the item pane if you want to quickly get back to the collection.)

An upcoming Zotero 11 beta will include support for opening multiple library windows and tabs, including with advanced search active.

dstillman

Zotero 10.0.2, now available, adds recently used collections to the top of the Add to Collection menu.

dclunie

Zotero decided to automatically upgrade today when I restarted it (thought I had that turned off to protect from such things but I guess not), and the separate Advanced Search window that is critical to my workflow disappeared and it began behaving as described in this thread.

My productivity has now gone to zero thanks to this change.

I am constantly building new sub-collections that contain all the citations from a single article (either downloaded from a file, scanned by the browser DOI plugin, or manually added from a list, or some combination thereof), and populating those by searching the entire library by title using the separate Advanced Search window. I need to have the sub-collection being built constantly open to see what is or is not yet in it.

The "Add to Collection LRU item" just described is not a sufficient substitute, though it helps. Having the entire library open at the top level kills performance, since I have more than 1/4 of a million items in it, and just showing it or right-clicking an item in it takes forever. The "Add to Collection" right menu action is slow and awkward since I have thousands of collections and building the menu for the right menu action takes for ever and navigating through it is impossible. The LRU at the very top is better than nothing though.

But even using that, I am now I am forced to toggle back and forth between the full library and the collection I am trying to add to, which takes forever, since I have to scroll back to the collection the left pane, and I have to kill/clear the Advanced Search pane every time to see what else is in the collection I am adding to after having just added the one item that gets filtered.

This is a disaster.

Please bring back the separate window for the Advanced Search the way that it used to be in previous versions, which worked great, just as @jorgelagos described.

In the interim I will try and restore from backup to get whatever the previous version I was running was (if I can figure that out), and try and make sure it doesn't update when it starts, and who knows how much of the last 24 hour's work I am going to lose as a consequence of this.

Very disappointing :(

David

PS. I tried Weavero, and perhaps it is because I am on MacOS, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to show me a new main window or an advanced search popup like before, so I gave up, especially since it seems to have so much else in it that I didn't need/want/understand.

PPS. I guess I am just echoing what was said in the previously mention "https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/133407/ux-feedback-on-z10-advanced-search-workflow-disruption-when-organizing-search-results-into-nested-c" but maybe it helps to describe exactly what I do without abstracting it.

dstillman

@dclunie: Sorry for the disruption. 250K items and 1000s of collections are obviously somewhat extreme numbers. If things are slow in your library, you should report those things separately. (We do have an open ticket to fix performance when right-clicking in a library with a huge number of collections.)

As I say above, it will be possible to open an advanced search a new window or tab in Zotero 11, which will be in beta soon. For now, a couple options:

1) An open advanced search persists as you switch between collections, so there's no reason you need to wait for your 250K-item library to load. Just construct the advanced search from the collection you're in and switch to My Library, and it will run your title search in the library root without loading the full list.

2) Create a saved search that's a search for a title in the library root, and double-click that in the collections list when you want to search.

Either way, you can then use right-click on the items and use the MRU list at the top (barring any slowness of that for you, which we'll fix) and then get back to the collection from the Libraries and Collections section in the item pane of any of the added items.