Google docs zotero causing the window to come in focus when updating is finished

MavropaliasG

Hello,

The google docs zotero plugin, when it finishes updating the document, it brings the window to focus.

This is disruptive in the workflow. Because updating takes a while, I switch to other windows to keep working, and all of a sudden I get the window popped back to the front.

Please change the functionality to be similar to how zotero works in Word.

Thank you

adomasven

Zotero also focuses (or at least tries to focus) Word after performing the operation, although depending on your OS and version of Word this might not work. Either way, it would be annoying in a different direction if Zotero didn't refocus the window, since you wouldn't know when the operation had finished, or for users where updates take under a few seconds, they would have to manually refocus the window.

djross3

This is a good reason to add a "progress/waiting" popup in Zotero, since it is not generally that clear when an operation has finished if it takes a long time. (I don't disagree about keeping the focus as-is, but the progress notification would help to clarify.)
See: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/73163/improve-citation-update-speed-in-microsoft-word#latest

MavropaliasG

@adomasven I I just checked and zotero does not refocus the document processor in either

Libreoffice Writer 6.3.0.4 in Manjaro linux
Word 2013 in Windows 7

that's why I found it disruptive and annoying when happened in Google docs as I descrived above.

Think of it this way. If I want the process to finish as quickly as possible, then I will simply wait and look at the progress bar to finish. No need to refocus the window.

If I want to do some quick tasks while I'm waiting for my process to finish, I will switch windows and work on that, and come back when I'm ready to work again in a few seconds. If I start working on something else (e.g. go back into checking the journal article) and suddenly the document processor pops up in my face, it will be disruptive.

Is it maybe possible in the future to add an option to disable window refocusing please?

adomasven

@djross3 We have looked into doing this multiple times, but actually creating a something that shows progress at least semi-reliably requires a huge amount of work due to variety of technical reasons.

@MavropaliasG Yes, it seems that the focus management generally works best on macOS. We'll keep this in mind.

djross3

Would a partial solution work out? I mean, if Zotero has some process going on, activate some kind of popup notification (up to you whether it disables Zotero or just displays as a banner at the top, etc.), then have a timer set for 1 second, and if no more processes have activated within 1 second, then disable the banner, but if something else happens within 1 second (1000 microseconds should be enough for most things, right?), then remove it?
Anyway, thanks. It's not more than an inconvenience, but it is very confusing when I'm genuinely trying to figure out if a document is done being updated!

(Regarding focus, yes it works well on Mac. But one oddity is that if I happen to have clicked into another Word document window while something is going on, it ALWAYS has an error by the time the process finishes, even if I click back immediately. It's fine just to not do that, but technically speaking it's not really focusing the right window there either, just the app, and confused by any inconsistency when it gets back there.)

adomasven

(Regarding focus, yes it works well on Mac. But one oddity is that if I happen to have clicked into another Word document window while something is going on, it ALWAYS has an error by the time the process finishes, even if I click back immediately. It's fine just to not do that, but technically speaking it's not really focusing the right window there either, just the app, and confused by any inconsistency when it gets back there.)

@djross3 Could you create a new thread regarding this and provide a Debug ID?

We actually have an indeterminate progress bar from Zotero for document refresh on Linux and Windows, but we could not make it work in macOS without some actually pretty bad window focusing behaviours in there. This was a while back, so I don't remember the specifics, but we decided that the behaviour was so annoying that it's better to have no progress bar at all for document refreshing. We might revisit this once macOS Catalina ships.

djross3

We actually have an indeterminate progress bar from Zotero for document refresh on Linux and Windows, but we could not make it work in macOS without some actually pretty bad window focusing behaviours in there. This was a while back, so I don't remember the specifics, but we decided that the behaviour was so annoying that it's better to have no progress bar at all for document refreshing. We might revisit this once macOS Catalina ships.

Ah, I see. I've happened to use the Windows version (to refresh the bibliography for a document with thousands of citations, which would take too long on my Mac) and I've now seen the progress bar, which is helpful.
Really, the issue on the Mac is just genuinely not knowing whether the process is going or not. It's clear when it completes because the bibliography is generated, but with a very long document it might take several minutes of nothing happening before it even seems to do anything, so it's ambiguous. (I've spent many minutes watching the first few cites in the document hoping to see some of them replaced as it processes them.)
So yes, if this can be revisited later that would be great, but it's not limiting functionality or anything so I understand if it's not a priority.

Could you create a new thread regarding this and provide a Debug ID?

OK, I'll do that now. (Been busy preparing a draft of my thesis.)
Update: nevermind! I tried doing this with debug logging enabled, and now it seems to work. I wonder what is different. It did once refocus to the wrong window (I was working in Doc1, adding a cite to Doc1, and then clicked over to Doc2 while the popup was open, and then back to Doc1, but when it correctly inserted the cite in Doc1, it also refocused Doc2. But aside from that oddity I'm not getting the "can't insert citation" error I've seen before in that context. If I figure out how to reproduce it I'll post with a Debug ID on the forums.

z8080

I actually found the opposite behaviour disruptive, also with the Google Docs plugin: when pressing Ctrl+Alt+C to add/edit a citation, the QuickFormatCitation window, which takes ~5s to appear, only appears as a non-focused window, whereas it would be expected to claim focus when it finishes loading. One thus needs to always find the window on the taskbar and click it to continue.

Other threads suggested this might be if the Zotero stand-alone window has been minimised, but in my case this bug occurs even if it is not, in about 80% of the times (can't reliably figure out when it does not!).

Can this be reproduced and maybe fixed? I used Firefox 78.6.1 and Zotero 5.0.94 on WIndows for the above report.

adomasven

@z8080 What version of Windows? Do you interact with other software, or the browser, while waiting for the dialog to appear?

z8080

Windows 10 Home. No, I don't touch anything while waiting for that dialog, which is why it seems to me the fact that it opens behind is probably not intended behavior.

adomasven

We don't really have a lot of control over which windows the OS chooses to focus, although Windows generally does the right thing. Do you have any security software running, or any program that is forced to stay on top?

z8080

I don't have any security software (other than a firewall+AV) that would interfere, and no forced-on-top programs, no. I can see how Zotero would not necessarily be in charge of whether the QuickFormat dialog comes in in front or behind, but what's surprising is that repeating the Edit/InsertCitation operation few times in a row, I don't get consistent results, ie sometimes it appears in front other times behind. Not really a huge issue, but the frustration adds up :)