Updates on Firefox multiprocess & Zotero?

penyuan

Hello,

Zotero is one of the last Firefox addons I have that does not support multiprocess Firefox. Are there any updates on when Zotero will fully support multiprocess Firefox? 5.0 maybe? Will it be released soon?

Thank you to all the developers for your hard work!

adamsmith

Zotero isn't going to do multiprocess on mozilla. It'll eventually drop the fully functioning add-on for Firefox and just do standalone and even more eventually move that off the mozilla platform entirely.

adomasven

Note that Firefox support isn't going away. The add-on will be switched to a Chrome connector-style extension instead, which will work with multiprocess Firefox. You will still be able to add resources from Firefox into Zotero.

ben_a

Sounds good to me. If you're dropping the whole platform how will the app be developed - will it be a native app on each platform? Will it end up being a universal windows platform app or a regular win32 app?

adamsmith

It'll be built on Electron (http://electron.atom.io/), so it'll be the same idea as Standalone now, just built on a different cross-platform kit.

ben_a

Ok, cool. Thanks for the info.

penyuan

Thanks all for the update!

Is there a timeline and roadmap for all of this (the new standalone and Electron-based-multiprocess-friendly-addon for Firefox) posted somewhere? I'd like to plan for this transition as best as I can! Are we talking about a few more years until??

dstillman

An Electron-based version is probably at least 8-12 months off, but that's just for Standalone.

We'll be releasing an e10s-compatible Firefox extension (i.e., the current Chrome connector, updated for compatibility with Firefox as a WebExtension) within a couple months. If you know what you're doing it's possible to install the development version now using an unbranded/dev Firefox build and an extension proxy file.

penyuan

Unfortunately I don't know what I'm doing :) so can't try the development build at the moment. But I'm glad a e10s compatible Firefox addon is coming soon, since the performance of the current Zotero extension is terrible!

Thank you for the update, hope to see the new versions soon!

DonJuan89

dstillman, could you actually describe the process to make the development version work on the FF Dev builds? I can't quite understand the GitHub guide. Only if you have time. Either way, thanks for the support and hope to see the Connector for E10 FF soon.

dstillman

A beta version of the Zotero Connector for Firefox is available:

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/267549/#Comment_267549

(You don't need Zotero 5.0 to use it, though it will work better with 5.0.)

DonJuan89

Awesome, thank you very much for the quick response. I'll try it right away.