Feature request: Refresh progress indicator

AndySymons

In a large document (200 pages, 500 citations) it is usual to turn off automatic refresh then do a manual refresh when convenient - e.g. after work for the day is finished, as it can take an hour or more to run. However, at present this all happens in the background; there is no indication that refresh is actually running, how far it has got and when it has finished.

My request then is that when a manual refresh is started a pop-up appears that shows it is running, gives percentage progress and estimates how long is left. A 'cancel' button would be good too, to give a graceful way out if I decide to go to bed!

adomasven

We'll look at this at some point in the intermediate future. There are some technical reasons why it isn't displayed on macOS, but maybe we can improve this somehow, since what you're describing indeed sounds painful. I've created an issue to track it.

There are ways you can find out whether Zotero is updating your document by:
1. In Zotero go to Help -> Debug Output Logging -> View Output. If Zotero is updating your document, you will see a lot of debug lines being logged relevant to Word and citation updates.
2. In Word if you click any of the Zotero buttons (like Add/Edit Citation) Zotero window will get focused if it is updating your Document (instead of showing the citation dialog).

AndySymons

Thanks for creating an issue. I was not aware that it was a specifically MacOS problem, but I presume plenty of Zotero users use Macs, and there are other apps that have solved similar UI issues. I mostly use a 27" iMac for working on large documents, but also use a MacBook Pro when I am travelling.

When I said 'pop-up' I was not necessarily suggesting a technical solution; it could be any kind of window that can be open while refresh is running (pop-up tends to suggest a dialogue box that is waiting for user input), or it could be inside the Zotero app window, a bit like the indicator that synchronisation is taking place.

Thanks for the tips on seeing when refresh is running. I have noticed #2 showing something is running, but of course there is no indication that it is refreshing, or how long it will take. I used #1 recently while actually debugging, but had the impression that turning debugging on was slowing refresh by up to 200%!

AndySymons

P.S. I just read the read the issue in Github and the reason it is not done now, namely that focus shifts from the document to Zotero if progress is shown. Personally, I am fine with that. I presume you want leave focus on the document so the user can continue working on it, but during a manually-initiated refresh I do not work on the document anyway (a) because everything is slowed down (b) because I cannot do anything with citations anyway, and (c) because if the dialogue appears asking me about a changed citation, it grabs the cursor away from me and moves it to the citation in question. Finding my way back to where I was in a large document after answering the dialogue is not trivial. If I wanted to work on a document while refreshing then I would leave automatic refresh turned on. That works fine in smaller documents.

I therefore suggest you go ahead and show progress during a manually-initiated refresh with the focus on Zotero. You might just want to inform the user of this consequence when deselecting automatic refresh.

What do other users think??

djross3

If that's the only challenge standing in way of implementing this, I think shifting focus to Zotero would be fine. And I agree that we should not be editing our document while Zotero is refreshing it.

(One concern is that when inserting citations, if we shift focus to another document in the middle of the process, for example by changing windows in Word while the add/edit citation popup is open, then Zotero gives an error about not being able to update the document. I haven't tested that while refreshing a long document, but if the same is true, then shifting focus to Zotero could potentially cause confusion if the user switches focus back to a different Word document instead of the one that is updating.)

By the way, Andy, I also work with very long documents on Mac OSX, and they can be very slow. The simplest workaround is, if you are able, to use a Windows computer to do the (rare) manual refreshes. It's often at least 10x faster, even on a much slower computer. So if you have that option, it could be a practical workaround for now.

Note: I think these topics have been discussed before on the forums, but I don't remember exactly which thread at the moment.

AndySymons

Thanks for the reply and support.

I don't have a Windows machine. However, the time take to refresh is not a big problem if I can leave it unattended. I usually run the refresh at the end of the day, so not so rare. I leave it running while have my tea or watch a film...

I am aware of the following discussions about, or specifically mentioning, a progress indicator for REFRESH.

(started March 27, 2017)
"Zotero bibliography does not appear in word document" https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/277354#Comment_277354

(started July 3, 2018)
"Errors Creating Bibliography"
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/72637/errors-creating-bibliography/p1

(started October 17, 2020)
"How to know if Zotero is processing a command"
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/366803#Comment_366803

(started March 15, 2017)
"Thanks to the developers, and my experience with using Zotero for a PhD thesis"
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/64835/thanks-to-the-developers-and-my-experience-with-using-zotero-for-a-phd-thesis/p1

There are several other discussions for progress of other things, such as indexing. I would support those too. Let's always know what's going on and work in the dark no longer!

BTW, I am also writing a PhD thesis with Zotero and heartily echo the thanks given by @Oby . Whilst discussing problems on this forum it is easy to forget that Zotero is pretty awesome most of the time. I can't imagine how can write a thesis without Zotero!