problem opening notes

forrat

I'm using the newest versions of Firefox and Zotero. Just noticed, that I can't open any notes. They are displayed in the database, but one click doesn't open anything on the right panel, and double click opens an editor with a blank note. Any ideas why that might happen?

adamsmith

check database integrity in the advance tab of the Zotero preferences.
Disable all other FF add-ons and restart FF, see if that makes a differences (you can then re-enable them, of course).

forrat

Also, if I write something in this blank note editor, it will not be saved.

forrat

Neither works. No errors in the database.

adamsmith

which Zotero version are you using exactly?

dstillman

Provide a Report ID after attempting to open a note with all extensions disabled.

dstillman

Wait, you're not using the "newest" version of Zotero—you're using the (experimental, unofficial) multilingual version. So, you're on your own here (or at the mercy of fbennett, the creator of the MZ version). We can't provide any support for unofficial builds.

forrat

Maybe I understand something incorrectly, but MLZ is just an addition to Zotero. And the note I am trying to open is attached to a usual source in English, MLZ is not even involved here.
I just updated both Firefox and Zotero since MLZ became compatible to the newest versions, so I AM using the newest versions. It well may be that the problem arouse after the update.
There is no report when I am trying to open a note. On a single click nothing happens at all, and on the double click it opens an editor with a blank note.

forrat

I'm using 3.0b3.SVN version of Zotero.

forrat

Ok, I experimented a bit, without MLZ everything works.

ajlyon

I'm sure Frank Bennett (fbennett), creator and maintainer of MLZ, will look into this, but note that the MLZ code does differ quite significantly from the standard Zotero code, in part because the changes to support multiple versions of a field are in fact rather far-going, and in part because the codebase has been trying to stay aligned with the Zotero trunk, meaning not every version is as well-tested as you might like.

So take the MLZ warnings seriously; although you are still highly unlikely to experience any data loss issues, user interface and display issues like this do pop up on occasion, and the core dev team can't really handle them; Frank and others (like me, sometimes), will have to handle support for them.

forrat

Ok, I guess I'll just have to wait until MLZ is developed enough, although I can't wait until I can fully use it. Thanks for your work!

ajlyon

I should also note that I use MLZ every day for my own research, so it is in general quite stable and very useful. I haven't experienced any of the notes issues you're referring to (although I have had issues with adding related items, and sometimes with tags).

forrat

Yes, I also used it for one article, and it was great, but I'm glad I didn't go for adding multiple fields to all of my non-English sources because I couldn't transfer them to another computer (and Frank is aware of the problem). As I'm moving between the countries few times a year, and I use different computers, I have to be able to transfer the database flawlessly. And if I can't see and save my notes on the top of that, "the cost" of using MLZ is too high at this point. But I'm looking forward to when it's fully tested and released!

fbennett

Export and import of Zotero RDF with multilingual fields should be working in the latest release.

I'll look into the notes issue very soon; thanks for reporting, I wasn't aware of this one.

(Edit: note that while duplicate item merging should work in MLZ, merging of multilingual fields hasn't been tested, and probably won't work.)

fbennett

Just fixed the notes issue as well. The related items box was crashing when no related items were registered on the item, and that blocked notes from coming up.

Please post again if you run into any more difficulties. Issues like this one (things that obviously should work, but don't) can usually be fixed up pretty quickly once they're pointed out.

adamsmith

and if you're posting about MLZ issues, make sure to clearly mark your post so that Frank can spot them quickly and others aren't confused.