When Zotero 5 sync will stop to work?

Whateverr

I read somewhere that soon, you won't support Zotero sync for Zotero 5 anymore (I can't find this information, including on the Zotero 6.0 announcement page and Zotero 5.0 changelog). Do you confirm this? If so, when will it stop to work? Thanks!

dstillman

There's no fixed date, but Zotero 6 has been out for almost five months, and we no longer provide support for Zotero 5. I'd recommend upgrading to Zotero 6 as soon as possible.

We have no current plans to discontinue sync for Zotero 5.0.96.3/5.0.96.4, but we occasionally need to block syncing of old versions if supporting them is holding back development. For example, we recently blocked syncing from versions before 5.0.78. In that case the earliest compatible version was already 2.5 years old, but we reserve the right to block newer outdated versions as necessary.

Hard cut-offs aside, as soon as we push out new item types and fields in the near future, older versions will stop being able to download many/most items created by current versions of Zotero, though other data will continue to sync.

Whateverr

Thanks for your answer!

We can't update to Zotero 6 because our Zotero notes contain HTML styles that aren't supported by Zotero 6.

Please let us know here in advance before you decide to stop supporting sync for 5.0.96. Even a very rough estimate of the delay would be helpful.

We have been looking for solutions for months, but so far, we haven't found any (the ones we found aren't ideal: we will lose too much data and too many features - Zotero 5 was perfect!). We are grateful for each day we can sync with Zotero 5. To be clear, we would stay with Zotero 5 if you would continue to support the sync.

(All our devices are on Zotero 5.0.96 so we won't have any problems with syncing "new item types and fields").

dstillman

Can you say more about what you’re missing in Zotero 6 notes?

hiloki

Similar reason! Still working with 5!

dstillman

@hiloki: That's not a response to my question. Zotero 5 syncing will be discontinued at some point. If you want specific features implemented in Zotero 6, you'll need to make the case for their being generally useful. If you want a plain HTML editor, you should switch to some other software for note-taking.

See also: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/414478/#Comment_414478

Whateverr

Thanks for your reply!

I saw the post from Magtun you linked to and overall, I need similar HTML features. More precisely I need:

- embed images hosted on other websites (ex: google drive, imgur): I was using a simple < img src= "..." /> tag
- highlighting color for text
- different font colors
- superscript
- strikethrough
- HR tags (or a customable way to visually separate different parts in the note with a line. The one Magtun uses would be fine)
- I also saw Magtun's scrollable boxe, I did not yet use it but I would definitely use it if it was available

And I guess it will be implemented but just in case, I also need to have links pointing to:
- regular url (wikipedia.org)
- another note (with zotero://select/library/items/)
- a specific page of a pdf added as attachement (with zotero://open-pdf/0_)

adamsmith

Superscript & subscript and text highlighting are already available.

For images, is the ability to use local images properly not sufficient?

Edit:
Links and zotero://select links already work. Specific pages of a PDF work via annotations, I think open-pdf links also work but haven't tested.

Whateverr

Thank you for taking the time to reply. That's great that some of the features are already implemented!
For the images, local images are good but not sufficient. The vaste majority of the images need to stay online (several users use them and update them regularly). The equivalent of the HTML "img" tag is essential for us.

Concerning the other features: if I manage to implement them in ProseMirror , would you integrate them into Zotero?

I would prefer investing the hours needed to try to contribute to Zotero rather than to waste them to simply to migrate my current Zotero data to another app (I haven't found it any yet). At least other users could benefit from this time, and I'd be proud to contribute to Zotero. I am not an experienced programmer, but I learned a bit of JS by myself and I might be able to do it.
So, to be clear, is the problem just to implement the features in ProseMirror or are there other problems on top of this that would prevent the features from being usable in Zotero?

Whateverr

@adamsmith and @dstillman, I am sorry to insist, but I need to know if I can continue or not with Zotero. Could you please reply to these questions from my last message: If I manage to implement the other features in ProseMirror, will you integrate them into Zotero? Is the problem just to implement the features in ProseMirror or are there other problems on top of this that would prevent the features from being usable in Zotero (for example with the sync)?

adamsmith

I don't work for Zotero and I don't have, nor want, commit access on the repo or any other relevant decision-making power.

That said, given the way the note editor is integrated, you can almost certainly swap in a different version of ProseMirror (or even, as dstillman says elsewhere, TinyMCE) using an add-on. If you want to code something that fulfills your specific needs, that's definitely going to be a more reliable way to get it than negotiating a PR.

claude70

I'm also sweating on the end of life of v5, as, like Whateverr (and others) I have a huge number of notes with text formatting that can't be replicated in the new note editor. The key issues for me are:

* colored text (inline and block level)
* different fonts within the same note (inline and block level)
* multiple highlight colors (set by editing the html - existing highlights are respected by the new editor, but the colors can't be used again)
* line-spacing (especially within lists)

I get that block-level editors offers powerful possibilities for complex workflows, but as someone who uses text formatting for its semantic benefits (it's easier to skim long and complex notes), I'm really missing the ability to format text in modern editors (Notion is my other daily driver, along with Nimbus Note and Zotero, all of which have extremely poor formatting options).

TinyMCE and it's ilk were hardly perfect (I *really* wanted styles in TinyMCE), but it was way better for my use case than the new wave of editors. Any way of enriching ProseMirror would be much appreciated, but for the time being I have no choice but to stick with v5 or lose a huge amount of information in a very large number of notes.