Working offline with Zotero 2.0

freeze
I have so far used Zotero 1.0, with great satisfaction.
However, it is becoming obvious that upgrading to 2.0 would have significant advantages.
I have a question about working offline. I frequently work without an internet connection: partly because I work in a hospital that blocks out cell phone coverage, and partly because I spend time in areas where internet access is slow or nonexistent.
If I modify my Zotero library offline, and then later plug the computer online, what happens? Will Zotero automatically upload the changes? Does this happen when Firefox is opened, or only when Zotero is opened? Does this hang other web browsing until completed?
I understand that the synching can be done automatically or manually, but I am most interested in what happens if it is just set to the default auto mode.
  • dstillman
    With current behavior, as long as Firefox is open, it will upload the changes either within an hour of your going online or within 15 seconds of your making changes to Zotero data while online.

    After the possibly large initial sync after upgrading, which may briefly hang the browser, subsequent syncs shouldn't interfere with anything (unless you add, say, thousands of items between syncs).
  • freeze
    Just for my curiosity. What is the reason for waiting up to an hour if changes are detected? Does it make anything else more efficient? In my case, it means that I would have to synch manually as soon as I go back online with my portable computer (in order to be able to work with my home computer without the need to wait for up to an hour).
  • dstillman
    The up-to-an-hour delay is just because, not counting edit-triggered syncs, auto-sync is on a one hour timer that doesn't take online/offline status into account. We should be able to detect when the browser comes online, however, and do a sync shortly thereafter.

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