See above simoko. We know nothing about chrome's extension story AFAIK, so that even if the Zotero team were interested, they'd have no idea if it's even possible.
May I be so bold as to counsel a modicum of patience? In general we like to base our development plans on information at least slightly more concrete than a comic book.
Google Chrome is more than a comic book. I love Zotero and Firefox (because I must use Zotero). BUT, Chrome is impressive and open source. It is a reality and much more than a comic book. PLEASE support Chrome - it will be the new standard.
Hi - I second that. I love Zotero, it's vital to my work, and I will stay with Firefox to use it, BUT I would really like to move to Chrome for the stability/security/speed issues (not the comic book!) Just my two cents...
Yes, it is. It is a beta version of a minimalist browser with an entirely different design philosophy from Firefox, based on a different rendering engine and different core technologies, that's been out for one day on one platform, with no mention made whatsoever of any ability to extend it client-side, let alone in the low-level ways that Zotero requires.
If Google down the line adds an equivalent extension framework to what Firefox offers—which would pretty much require it having been designed with that goal from the start, as Mozilla was—we could consider porting Zotero to Chrome, though it would still be a massive undertaking, requiring rewriting and abstracting of much of the codebase. It's possible that they might add some extension support, but it also seems perfectly likely that they would just support Gears and the standard new offline/storage/etc. APIs, which are nice for web applications to use but offer none of the advanced functionality (user interface modification, file I/O, stream handling, sockets, external process support...) that Mozilla provides and Zotero uses.
It's likely that we'll be offering ways in the not-too-distant future for users of any browser to interact with their Zotero data via the Zotero server, but there's really no point in speculating about (or requesting) a complete port of the Zotero client to a browser that doesn't support it.
"but there's really no point in speculating about (or requesting) a complete port of the Zotero client to a browser that doesn't support it." - well, ok, that's clear. But you offer a thread here to request modifications/improvements/features, don't you? So, despite your evident irritation, I felt it legitimate to make the request. Thank you.
svetlovska: There's nothing wrong with making the request, and your comment was perfectly reasonable. I was simply trying to explain why there's not much to be gained by continuing to request it after three posts above had already indicated that it's not currently possible and we have no information on when or if it will be. (I understand that Chrome being open-source may lead to the impression that porting Zotero to it is feasible/easy, and the wording of the FAQ answer may have—until recently—contributed to that impression, but, as I attempted to explain above, that is unfortunately not the case.)
As the insane lightning speed of Chrome catches on with researchers, academics, and other people who particularly benefit from the ability to have a gazillion tabs open in a browser without sacrificing performance, this need is going to come up again and again. I love firefox. I am a huge advocate. but there are a lot of people who have a need to have many tabs open and cant afford the RAM (or suped up computers) that allow for that in the current firefox. Let's face it. Chrome is going to come seriously tempting to zotero's core: researchers, students and others with high needs of performance and low budgets.
I believe the solution is a very very simple one. Diigo has a small bookmarklet in addition to the FF3 extension. I've already found myself moving to more Diigo than Zotero, falling into the temptation of Chrome's speed.
Now that Zotero has a syncing capability, there must be a rather simple way to create a bookmarklet that syncs to the zotero server, therefore bypassing the need to open firefox. We could have a bookmarklet that does on the fly marking, with basic functions like adding in the fields taking a snapshot, and exporting a citation directly from the page to the windows clipboard.
Then for annotation, word integration, highlighting and search, the user would have to open firefox.
but at least that way we can still gather info into zotero while in Chrome.
Suzannah: A bookmarklet is definitely a possibility, and one of the "ways...for users of any browser to interact with their Zotero data" that I alluded to above.
Bear in mind, though, that, while Chrome has some interesting characteristics, its speed advantage is almost certainly temporary. Mozilla has already added a new version of the Mozilla JavaScript engine, called TraceMonkey, to the code that will become Firefox 3.1, and by their accounts it is already faster than Chrome on key tests (while other areas still need a bit more optimization). As for memory usage, while Chrome takes the novel approach of isolating each tab, Firefox 3 brought major improvements to memory handling over Firefox 2, including reducing the memory fragmentation that Chrome's architecture is designed in part to address, and there's no reason to think that such improvements won't continue as well. So I wouldn't be too quick to write off Firefox.
Thanks so much for your quick response, and your exciting update about TraceMonkey. I look forward to 3.1 with baited breath.....
Until then, Chrome is my default browser. Not because I spend the most time in Chrome, but because when I want something, say my feedreader, to open something online, I am just too impatient to wait wait wait for firefox to load. Firefox is my workspace because of zotero.
FeedDemon is IE based. Zotero is Firefox based. My traitor self is getting more and more chrome based. *sigh* I guess I just feel a browser war going on, and I think all systems that focus on getting information from the internet into one place had better have some uniform info-gathering device, like bookmarklets. At least while everyone is duking it out.
I also think that a zotero bookmarklet would entice chrome and IE folk on over to firefox. The bookmarklet would allow them to be introduced to zotero. But in order to experience the full features, they would have to get Firefox. Zotero is an excellent first experience example of the benefits of extensions, addons and otherwise personalized browsing.
Please let us know if a bookmarklet becomes a greenlighted endeavor.
Sometimes, while in firefox, I just want to mark something on the fly without opening up zotero and having it take up half my screen. I dont want to open up zotero everytime I want to dump research into my library, only when I want to work, search, or annotate my research. My point is that purely firefox users have a great need for something like a bookmark anyway.
my need for a bookmarklet in safari/firefox/ie depends on the fact that i am not always using my own computer. as a graduate student, there are frequent occassions when i am on library or shared work computers where a bookmarklet would enable me to save my webpages to zotero without having to install the entire plug-in on another's computer. The WEBNOTES program has wonderful abilities to highlight and annotate without being browser-specific and without having to deal with a plug-in. then when on my own computer i can work more fully with zotero and the webpages i have saved... any progress on bookmarklets?
I don't speak for Zotero, but would simply note that it's highly likely any such thing would depend on Zotero's API, which is not yet public (and maybe in a little flux?). I'd guess they'll open it up soon, but don't really know.
It's possible that they might add some extension support, but it also seems perfectly likely that they would just support Gears and the standard new offline/storage/etc. APIs, which are nice for web applications to use but offer none of the advanced functionality (user interface modification, file I/O, stream handling, sockets, external process support...) that Mozilla provides and Zotero uses.
I believe bookmarklet is going to be what non FF users will have to deal with for any reasonable future.
erleellis: your best bet would be to lobby Google to make Chrome able to use Firefox extensions. IMO it would be barmy of the Zotero folks to waste huge amounts of developer time on creating a port when the FF version works perfectly well.
I'd take any method of getting Zotero to work in Chrome. FF is getting so slow (it could just be my add-ons) and taking up ridiculous amounts of memory that I'd really rather use Chrome. Hopefully Zotero will soon become untethered to FF.
erleelis: We appreciate your enthusiasm, but it's possible that you still do not fully appreciate the technical issues at play:
First, Chrome's extension architecture is nowhere near as rich as Firefox's, and Zotero would need to abandon a great deal of functionality to be rewritten to run in Chrome.
Second, that's right, Zotero would need to be completely rewritten. Given the overall project goals, a complete rewrite to support another platform does not exactly rise to the top of the pile.
But to be clear, we're well aware of Chrome's development cycle, and we'll keep watching it.
No matter the technical difficulties, Chrome might soon overtake Firefox. It has a clever design, it is much quicker to render webpages, is also opensource and most of the most useful extensions in firefox were ported/ have a clone. Lets hope Zotero not have a clone and work with google and the community instead.
As has been stated many times, this is not something that the core team of Zotero developers is able to do with its very limited resources.
There is, however, an API supported by the Zotero server that would make it possible for other interested parties to create a new plugin for the Chrome architecture with some of Zotero's functionality. Judging from previous comments by the developers, I think that they would welcome and encourage such a development.
If there is a critical mass of Chrome users who would like Zotero integration, perhaps they could work together to identify and support (probably with $$$) developers who might work on a basic plugin.
(Note that I am not a Zotero developer and don't speak for them.)
Upgrade Storage
http://www.zotero.org/documentation/frequently_asked_questions#will_i_be_able_to_use_zotero_with_internet_explorer_or_some_other_browser
If Google down the line adds an equivalent extension framework to what Firefox offers—which would pretty much require it having been designed with that goal from the start, as Mozilla was—we could consider porting Zotero to Chrome, though it would still be a massive undertaking, requiring rewriting and abstracting of much of the codebase. It's possible that they might add some extension support, but it also seems perfectly likely that they would just support Gears and the standard new offline/storage/etc. APIs, which are nice for web applications to use but offer none of the advanced functionality (user interface modification, file I/O, stream handling, sockets, external process support...) that Mozilla provides and Zotero uses.
It's likely that we'll be offering ways in the not-too-distant future for users of any browser to interact with their Zotero data via the Zotero server, but there's really no point in speculating about (or requesting) a complete port of the Zotero client to a browser that doesn't support it.
http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=95695&topic=14683
"Currently, Google Chrome doesn't support any extensions."
I believe the solution is a very very simple one. Diigo has a small bookmarklet in addition to the FF3 extension. I've already found myself moving to more Diigo than Zotero, falling into the temptation of Chrome's speed.
Now that Zotero has a syncing capability, there must be a rather simple way to create a bookmarklet that syncs to the zotero server, therefore bypassing the need to open firefox. We could have a bookmarklet that does on the fly marking, with basic functions like adding in the fields taking a snapshot, and exporting a citation directly from the page to the windows clipboard.
Then for annotation, word integration, highlighting and search, the user would have to open firefox.
but at least that way we can still gather info into zotero while in Chrome.
Any thoughts?
Bear in mind, though, that, while Chrome has some interesting characteristics, its speed advantage is almost certainly temporary. Mozilla has already added a new version of the Mozilla JavaScript engine, called TraceMonkey, to the code that will become Firefox 3.1, and by their accounts it is already faster than Chrome on key tests (while other areas still need a bit more optimization). As for memory usage, while Chrome takes the novel approach of isolating each tab, Firefox 3 brought major improvements to memory handling over Firefox 2, including reducing the memory fragmentation that Chrome's architecture is designed in part to address, and there's no reason to think that such improvements won't continue as well. So I wouldn't be too quick to write off Firefox.
Thanks so much for your quick response, and your exciting update about TraceMonkey. I look forward to 3.1 with baited breath.....
Until then, Chrome is my default browser. Not because I spend the most time in Chrome, but because when I want something, say my feedreader, to open something online, I am just too impatient to wait wait wait for firefox to load. Firefox is my workspace because of zotero.
FeedDemon is IE based. Zotero is Firefox based. My traitor self is getting more and more chrome based. *sigh* I guess I just feel a browser war going on, and I think all systems that focus on getting information from the internet into one place had better have some uniform info-gathering device, like bookmarklets. At least while everyone is duking it out.
I also think that a zotero bookmarklet would entice chrome and IE folk on over to firefox. The bookmarklet would allow them to be introduced to zotero. But in order to experience the full features, they would have to get Firefox. Zotero is an excellent first experience example of the benefits of extensions, addons and otherwise personalized browsing.
Please let us know if a bookmarklet becomes a greenlighted endeavor.
Sometimes, while in firefox, I just want to mark something on the fly without opening up zotero and having it take up half my screen. I dont want to open up zotero everytime I want to dump research into my library, only when I want to work, search, or annotate my research. My point is that purely firefox users have a great need for something like a bookmark anyway.
thanks again!
http://www.chromeplugins.org/google/chrome-plugins/
Time for you developers to get Zotero working on Chrome!
I'll test it!
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/
Time to get Zotero working on Chrome!
First, Chrome's extension architecture is nowhere near as rich as Firefox's, and Zotero would need to abandon a great deal of functionality to be rewritten to run in Chrome.
Second, that's right, Zotero would need to be completely rewritten. Given the overall project goals, a complete rewrite to support another platform does not exactly rise to the top of the pile.
But to be clear, we're well aware of Chrome's development cycle, and we'll keep watching it.
There is, however, an API supported by the Zotero server that would make it possible for other interested parties to create a new plugin for the Chrome architecture with some of Zotero's functionality. Judging from previous comments by the developers, I think that they would welcome and encourage such a development.
If there is a critical mass of Chrome users who would like Zotero integration, perhaps they could work together to identify and support (probably with $$$) developers who might work on a basic plugin.
(Note that I am not a Zotero developer and don't speak for them.)