Zotero app tab gets duplicated when opening new window

delius
Each time I open a new Firefox window, the Zotero app tab gets duplicated. This does not happen to any other of my app tabs, so I am sure it is not the intended behaviour. It is also very confusing to have several independent Zotero tabs open and has led me to put papers into wrong collections because different collections can be selected in the different Zotero app tabs. That is fine behaviour if I _choose_ to have several Zotero tabs, but not if they are opened automatically.
  • delius
    The fact that I have nor received any comments on this issue of duplicating zotero tabs could indicate either that
    1) the problem only happens to me or
    2) I have not described the problem sufficiently clearly or
    3) this bug has already been discussed to death somewhere else or
    3) this is not the correct forum for bug reports.
    Any comments?
  • ajlyon
    I believe this is not considered a bug by the core developers, and I never really thought of it as one. The behavior of Zotero's current collection status being different in every window has been the case for years, and I saw it as a feature.
  • delius
    Thanks ajlyon. Yes, a different behavior of Zotero's current collection status in every zotero tab that I have open is a good thing. What is not good is that a new zotero app tab is automatically created in each firefox window I open. That is not the way app tabs in Firefox are supposed to behave.
  • drmccloy
    edited August 17, 2011
    I experience the same behaviour as delius. I agree that if you WANT to have multiple instances of Zotero open in different windows, then they should be allowed to display different collections or whatever. My complaint (like delius) is that if I open a pop-up window (as often happens when viewing JStore PDFs, for example, or "popping out" the chat window in Gmail), then the pop-up window also gets a Zotero app tab. This is a nuisance because I can no longer close the pop-up using Ctrl-w, since (1) there are now two tabs in the pop-up, and (2) the second one (Zotero) is an app-tab, which are Ctrl-w resistant by design. Hopefully this clarifies the complaint. Zotero is the only app-tab I use, so I don't know for certain if this is a problem with all app-tabs, but this other discussion in the forum suggests that the behavior is unique to zotero: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/16781/prevent-zotero-from-autoopening-in-firefox-4-in-tab-mode/

    Suggested behavior: if zotero is already running as an app-tab, new firefox windows will NOT have zotero app-tab. If a user wants to have two (or more) firefox windows open that both show zotero, there should be a way to just type into the address bar of the second window to get zotero to appear there (presumably by typing chrome://zotero/content/tab.xul or loading same from a bookmark). This request would seem to require what the other forum thread (linked above) was asking for, namely a "tab but not app-tab" option for zotero in addition to the app-tab and browser-pane choices currently offered.
  • pbhedlund
    I must agree that this is a nuisance. Many web sites create new windows when for example initiating downloads (a problem in itself no doubt) and these windows all get a Zotero tab that is not desired.

    If this behavior is a feature to some and a problem to some maybe it can be dealt with by having a Preferences option.
  • Simon
    There will be an option to use a normal tab, which won't open automatically, instead of an app tab in the Zotero 3.0 beta (see http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/16781/prevent-zotero-from-autoopening-in-firefox-4-in-tab-mode/#Comment_100368).
  • drmccloy
    Thanks Simon. How does that affect the usage scenario I mentioned above? I like having Zotero as an app-tab (I like it to be small and to auto-load when I launch firefox, assuming it was open as app tab when I last closed firefox). I just don't want it to auto-load in every single firefox window if it's already open in the first one. In other words, I want it to behave like other app-tabs do.
  • Simon
    You can pin the normal tab.
  • drmccloy
    and if I do so, the app-tab pinned in the main window will not appear in each new pop-up window?
  • Simon
    edited August 17, 2011
    Correct.
  • drmccloy
    sweet. thanks simon!
  • MG6
    It's not at the top of my list, but I also agree with delius that aspects of this behavior pose a nuisance, even if it's minor. If you sign into Disqus, for example, Firefox opens a new window all by itself with a Zotero tab in it. Once it's done signing in, the window can't close itself because of the app tab. It would probably be a bigger nuisance to have to pin a normal tab every single time, if I had to choose. Thanks.
  • Simon
    MG6, it's unclear what you're asking for, and whether or not it has already been implemented in Zotero 3.0 beta.
  • MG6
    Hi Simon, I'm sorry--are we in a 3.0 forum? I didn't realize; I'm still on 2, but I came upon this in a search. I just started having this issue recently, after upgrading to Firefox 5. I was glad to find out it wasn't just me, is all.
  • Simon
    I've described the changes in Zotero 3 above, but we won't be merging them back to 2.1 (and it's quite possible there will be no more 2.1 releases before 3.0).
  • MG6
    Thanks for clearing that up. I don't intend to be left behind!
This discussion has been closed.