Bug report: Zotero in LibreOffice does not play nice with the Notebookbar UIs.

Pedro Rosmaninho

Hello everyone,

I wanted to make a bug report about Zotero in Libre Office but since there's no bug tracker I'll leave the report here.
In case the developers aren't aware, Libre Office is using a different UI framework based on Glade. The interesting thing about it is that with the Notebookbar, LO now has UIs similar to the Ribbon UI from MSO.
There's more information about the Notebookbar in here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/NotebookBar

Anyway, I submitted a bug report in LibreOffice and wanted to let Zotero devs know that when using the Notebookbar, Zotero creates an ugly toolbar under it, instead of integrating its buttons on the Notebookbar in a new tab (like it does in Microsoft Office Word).

I'll leave here the bug report I created on the Libre Office bugzilla:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=116532

I added a pdf with the issue, hope you guys give a look at it. Zotero is THE reference manager (it blows Mendeley out of the water) and having it play nice with the biggest and best open-source Office suite is a must.

bwiernik

It's not clear if the NotebookBar UI yet supports extensions:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/NotebookBar/Extensions

parrenin

Hi, any news on this issue?
I am stuck in the old LO interface because of this issue of the Zotero plugin.
Thanks.

Pedro Rosmaninho

That will probably come in LibreOffice 6.4.
There's currently a GSoC student working on making improvements on the Notebookbar, including allowing extensions to create their own Tab/group on teh Notebookbar like they create their own toolbar in the standard UI.

My work around for that was place the Zotero toolbar in a vertical position on the left side of my LO installation instead of below the Tabbed UI.

Pedro Rosmaninho

Hey everyone. If the responsible person for the Zotero extension for LibreOffice is here the work for 6.4 to add extension support for the Notebookbar is ongoing and there's already information for extension developers to adapt them to support the Notebookbar.

https://sumitcn.github.io/extension-support/

What is Extension Suppport ?

Extension Support allows users to add extensions in NotebookBar. There is an extension tab in all the NotebookBar interfaces where the added extension will be available.Add extension: Tool -> Extension Manager.

extension

Schema for Extension Developer

There are two ways of adding an extension.

1. To add an extension under Extension Tab:

<node oor:name="OfficeNotebookBar">
<node oor:name="*.OfficeNotebookBar" oor:op="replace">
<node oor:name="m001" oor:op="replace">
<prop oor:name="URL" oor:type="xs:string">
<value> </value>
</prop>
<prop oor:name="Title" oor:type="xs:string">
<value> </value>
</prop>
<prop oor:name="ImageIdentifier" oor:type="xs:string">
<value> </value>
</prop>
<prop oor:name="Target" oor:type="xs:string">
<value> </value>
</prop>
<prop oor:name="Context" oor:type="xs:string">
<value> </value>
</prop>
<prop oor:name="ControlType" oor:type="xs:string">
<value> </value>
</prop>
<prop oor:name="Width" oor:type="xs:string">
<value> </value>
</prop>
<prop oor:name="Style" oor:type="xs:string">
<value> </value>
</prop>
</node>
</node>
</node>


Developers should add the following code in the addons.xcu to make an extension compatible for Notebookbar.

bwiernik

To include code on the forum, wrap it in <code> </code> tags

adomasven

@Pedro%20Rosmaninho Thanks for the link. I've created a ticket to track this. LibreOffice 6.4 is still miles away from release and it's not out of the question that they will add support for extension tabs without extension developer changes. Either way, we'll keep an eye on this.

Pedro Rosmaninho

Oh, extension developers will have to change their extensions to support the notebookbar. My post shows the changes that'll have to be done.
A GSoC student is nearly done with adding extension support but it will require changes to extensions.

I'll update this thread when everything is set in stone for you guys to adapt the Zotero extension. :)

Pedro Rosmaninho

Here's the update in the LibreOffice Wiki!!!
Hopefully this is enough to make the Zotero extension to adapt to the Tabbed bar. :D

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/NotebookBar/Extensions

Pedro Rosmaninho

Hello!

I already commented on the Github issue pertaining to this (Notebook UI #46). LibreOffice 6.4 will release next week. The Release Candidate 3 (which is usually equal to final version) is already available.

If you perform the following steps after instalation:
1 - Go to View -> User Interface,
2 - Select Tabbed UI.

You will see that there is now a tab for Extensions. Are there any plans on adapting the Zotero extension to use this tab in Tabbed UI?

adomasven

This is not high enough priority for us right now. You should talk to the Document Foundation about this. While we appreciate the the changes required are fairly limited, the documentation for them is extremely lackluster, and by the end of the day it is down to the LibreOffice developers to ensure that their users are able to use their existing extensions in their new UI solution. LibreOffice has thousands of extensions and expecting them all to issue updates for an optional cosmetic change is simply not reasonable, and also will almost certainly not be required once enough extension users request support from the Document Foundation themselves.

Pedro Rosmaninho

Can someone submit a patch for Zotero to introduce this functionality?

adomasven

Sure, see https://github.com/zotero/zotero-libreoffice-integration

Pedro Rosmaninho

https://github.com/Rosmaninho/zotero-libreoffice-integration

Since a patch was submitted by Jukalali to introduce the TabbedUI support but it's being blocked by Adomas Ven, I forked the Zotero LibreOffice extension to include this support.

It is available at:
https://github.com/Rosmaninho/zotero-libreoffice-integration

Can someone download and test it with the Tabbed UI?

Thank you.

Pedro Rosmaninho

If it works I will publish it in the LibreOffice extension website with instructions to replace the official Zotero extension for anyone that wishes to have superior extension integration with the Tabbed UI.

Pedro Rosmaninho

Already available in the LibreOffice extensions webpage at:
https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/891

dstillman

Sorry, but you need to remove or rename that immediately — the Zotero name is trademarked, and we do not grant permission to distribute software that someone could mistake as coming from us. (You also list the software as LGPL, which it is not — it's AGPL.)

If you'd like to distribute a modified version of the extension, you can do so, but you need to make it extremely clear that it's an unofficial version not affiliated with Zotero.

Pedro Rosmaninho

Renamed it for Unofficial Zotero LibreOffice Integration. I am not saying that it comes from Zotero and I even included in the description that it was a modified extension.
I am also not using any Zotero symbol, I just included a screenshot I took of my LibreOffice installation highlighting the support for the Tabbed UI.
I will not remove my unofficial extension until the commit adding support to the Notebookbar is added to the official Zotero extension.

It's not hard and the commit is blocked.
As for the license, I changed it to GPL. There's a limitation in the extension website where I can only select the license from a drop-down menu and AGPL is not among the options. Hope that works.

All the best.

bwiernik

@Pedro%20Rosmaninho GPL and AGPL are not strictly compatible licenses https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html

You can’t just substitute a more permissive license (GPL) for a less permissive one (AGPL) when distributing software. If you want to distribute your modified version of the LibreOffice plugin, I suggest doing it over your GitHub fork, where you can easily maintain the existing license.

Pedro Rosmaninho

I'm in contact with the LibreOffice devs to add the AGPL license to the ones I can select.

Pedro Rosmaninho

Ok, made some changes considering your input bwiernik.

hartl_vienna

Pedro, many thanks for this plugin. It's a pity that there is still no solution for the official plugin. May I ask you if you've planned to update your plugin?

sebastiaanveld

Will this functionality be added to the official Zotero plugin? It's far from optimal that the Zotero plugin is placed below the Notebookbar using space that would be better spend in the editable area of the document.

antenoraguiar

any news on that?

adomasven

My original comment still applies.

LibreOffice has thousands of extensions and expecting them all to issue updates for an optional cosmetic change is simply not reasonable, and also will almost certainly not be required once enough extension users request support from the Document Foundation themselves.

You should encourage LibreOffice developers to support this without extension developers having to issue updates for their plugins.