LibreOffice extension bug: Integration.Session.editBibliography: called without loaded citations

driedstr
Zotero 5.0.57 w/ Libre Office plugin
LibreOffice 6.1.1.2
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.2

Steps to reproduce:
1. open Zotero
2. open LibreOffice Writer & create a new document
3. set Zotero preferences (CMS 17th ed w/ notes)
4. add citation
5. create bibliography
6. edit bibliography and add a second source
7. remove citation (backspace the superscript number)
8. hit "add / edit bibliography"
9. error message:

"Zotero experienced an error updating your document.

Integration.Session.editBibliography: called without loaded citations"

10. Zotero extension unresponsive. LibreOffice works but crashes when closing. Zotero standalone app takes a while to close and eventually crashes.
11. If you save the document after the error and re-open it, things seem to work fine.

I guess if you need to remove some citations, you need to add a new citation to get the bibliography to refresh before editing it through that menu. However, I think doing so corrupts the bibliography (in my case, the item I added in step 6 is removed).
  • adamsmith
    This sounds like it might be a bug, but I'm a little confused about what you're after in terms of functionality? I.e. what are you trying to do? I can't think of a scenario where the steps you describe would be necessary.
  • driedstr
    In my case, I was unaware that I could directly add sources to a bibliography, so I had created a page of dummy in-text citations so that the sources would be in the bibliography. Once I realised I could add sources directly, I figured I'd remove my dummy citations to clean up my document, but it looks like this is not a possibility for the moment.

    A less obtuse scenario would start with a bibliography comprising sources added both directly and via in-text citations. If a user removes an in-text citation then tries to add a source directly via the "add/edit bibliography" button, the bug occurs.
  • bwiernik
    If you just want to create a plain text bibliography, it's much easier to select the items in Zotero and either just drag them to Word or right-click and choose Create Bibliography from Items.
  • driedstr
    @bwiernik Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for the future. The document I'm working on is a grant proposal with in-text citations and a pile of extra sources in the same bibliography.
  • bwiernik
    If the citation style sorts alphabetically, it would probably still be easier to just insert a static bibliography as above, then, when you are finished writing, use the Unlink Citations button in Word and Word's Sort feature to merge the two bibliographies.
  • adomasven
    The steps you described shouldn't lead to LibreOffice or Zotero freezing or crashing, but having a bibliography without any in-text citations has been buggy for a while, but we never got around improving it. We should probably just prompt saying you cannot have a bibliography without citations, since this is not the intended way to use the plugin at all.

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