communicating with Zotero [from Word/OO]

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  • tadoslav--which citation style are you using?
  • Actually, tadoslav, that's been fixed already since 1.0.3.

    We'll try to get 1.0.4 out soon with the fix.
  • edited March 6, 2008
    dan--yes, that's what i thought. i thought the problem would come up in chicago dev styles only though.
  • So I look forward to 1.0.4. FYI, I am using Chicago dev.
  • tadoslav--You may want to switch to Chicago public styles for now--that would allow you to enter locators. Then, when 1.0.4 comes out, all the changes in the Chicago dev styles will be pushed to the public versions.
  • Report ID 1435470020. Windows XP SP2, Word 2003, latest versions of plugin, Zotero and Firefox. Getting Communication error message. Is the promised new version going to fix this?
  • Report ID 1435470020. Windows XP SP2, Word 2003, latest versions of plugin, Zotero and Firefox. Getting Communication error message. Is the promised new version going to fix this?
    There are no Zotero messages in that error report. Does it work in a new document?
  • I do not know whether this will help anyone.
    My Word2000 always collapsed when I clicked on the any of the plug in buttons of Zotero.
    Than I tried to start Word by double click on the normal.dot and it works fine.
    But when I start Word by using the "usual way"; word is collapsing as soon as I try to use Zotero.
    You can even start Word by double click on Zotero.dot and it works, but you will not have your customised settings in word.

    It is not a clean way to start word but it might help if you urgently need to submit a document and noting else is working.
  • Thanks for the reply, Dan. No, it doesn't work in brand new (i.e. empty) documents, or existing ones. None of my documents have been used with this feature yet, though, as this is the first installation of the plugin.
  • No, it doesn't work in brand new (i.e. empty) documents, or existing ones.
    In that case, debug output sent to support@zot....org would be helpful.
  • Thanks for the reply Dan. Followed the instructions in the link, but despite setting the debug log to true, when I reopened Firefox, nothing happened that doesn't normally happen, so I don't know what I am meant to send. I made sure in Task Manager that there were no extra instances running. There is an entry that could be "error console" under Tools (I am translating from my German version), but that doesn't give me anything I can send anywhere. Guess I am missing something. The only thing I haven't done yet is a restart, so as I am going to bed now, I will see if anything has changed in the morning when I start the computer again.
  • Nope. Nothing changed.
  • Followed the instructions in the link, but despite setting the debug log to true, when I reopened Firefox, nothing happened that doesn't normally happen
    Are you starting Firefox with the -console flag as described on that page? If you do it right, you should see a black DOS-like window with lots of debug text open along with Firefox..
  • Yes I am. I simply copied the text from the page and amended the program location. Firefox opens fine, but I see no DOS-like window, or any window for that matter.
  • We won't be able to help you without debug output, so you'll have to keep trying if you want to debug the problem.

    Starting with the debug console window involves the same process as starting with the profile manager, just with the -console flag instead of the -ProfileManager flag, so you might want to try those instructions first.
  • Interesting. I went back and tried again, simply selecting the same command line I used before from the drop-down list in the run window, and it worked this time. I eventually managed to work out how to copy the contents. I have now sent the content to support. I look forward to finding out what the problem is.
    Thanks for your help thus far.
  • I eventually managed to work out how to copy the contents. I have now sent the content to support.
    Is there any output in the console when you try to connect from Word? Based on the debug output you sent, Zotero appears to be listening correctly for connections, so if you don't see any messages in the console window when you try to connect from Word, it's likely a problem with anti-virus or firewall software on your system or a broken/incomplete installation of Word.
  • Now we are getting somewhere :-)
    I turned off the firewall, and pressed the Zotero Set doc prefs button. This completely froze Word and required three attempts to kill it with Task Manager. I then reopened Word and tried again. This time I got the message:
    This version of the Zotero Word plugin ($INTEGRATION_VERSION) is incompatible with the currently installed version of the Zotero Firefox extension (1.0,3). Please ensure your are using the latest versions of both components.
    At one point I had reverted back to 1.0b1, as the other one hadn't worked. So I uninstalled, reinstalled the 1.0b3 version and it now works with the firewall switched off. However, if I switch the firewall back on (Avira Premium Security Suite), and try to insert a citation, the "Citation" field now appears, but the message about an error communicating with Zotero appears again and now there is a load of stuff in the debug window, which I have now sent to support.
  • What I forgot to write in the last message, is how can I allow this kind of activity with the firewall? Zotero doesn't exist as an application as far as I can tell, so I can't simply give it authorisation to pass the firewall. Also, it is internal to the computer, so how does the firewall actually affect this?
  • edited March 12, 2008
    Zotero doesn't exist as an application as far as I can tell, so I can't simply give it authorisation to pass the firewall.
    The applications involved are Word and Firefox.
    Also, it is internal to the computer, so how does the firewall actually affect this?
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1155/#Item_12
  • That has (almost) solved the problem. Word was blocked and if I remove that, the plugin works. I can't seem to find any possibility with Avira to block access to the internet while allowing access to localhost, but I will take that up with them. Many thanks for the help, hopefully it will help others in the future. Just a suggestion: I usually suspect firewalls when problems arise, but I would never have thought it could relate to this. Perhaps a comment somewhere about this possible issue?
  • Have the same problem - communication error - regardless of new or old files. Going through all citation formats systematically, I at first thought that only footnote/endnote-style inserts weren't working, but this is not the case. Then I thought it was using numeric superscripts, but some formats work with that, too. The following citation formats give that error for me, regardless of using footnote or endnote format:

    American Sociological Association
    Chicago Manual of Style (Author-Date)
    Chicago Manual of Style (Note with Bibliography)
    Chicago Manual of Style (Note without Reference List)
    Modern Humanities Research Association (Note without Bibliography)

    I've run through the console/debug to turn it on, but since others have reported don't know if it's worth posting to bugfixes the same error.
  • Have the same problem - communication error - regardless of new or old files.
    Any errors in Report Errors?
  • Yep - Report Errors just submitted now as 1135333154.
  • [JavaScript Error: "item._csl has no properties" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/cite_compat.js" line: 370}]
    charlener: Try clicking Reset Translators and Styles in the Advanced pane of the Zotero prefs. It looks like you're using outdated versions of the styles (hence the cite_compat.js part in that error message, whereas new styles use cite.js).
  • I had the same problem with a communicating error. I did as Dan suggested and copied and pasted pages of text at a time until I found my error. I don't know if this is the case for everyone, and I was not able to replicate it in another document, but I suppose it is something. The error came about from inserting a reference into a footnote, and editing the reference to exclude the author's name using the checkbox. By redoing the reference, I was able to insert references again into the rest of the document. Maybe that will help someone...
  • Dan,

    That seemed to work - though now the text for the option of inserting cites as fields is missing (though the text for inserting as bookmarks still appears). Thanks for the advice.
  • I think I'm having some related trouble. I just started using NeoOffice for Mac (Intel), and while the first couple of citations worked just fine, soon I got this message:

    "this citation no longer exists in the zotero database"

    .. it asked me to delete, and I said no. The citation came through OK, but I can't figure out why I'm getting such messages, or if/when they'll ever go away!

    Second question: When I go to pick out my citation, I'm noticing that nearly every database entry I have has duplicate records -- is that normal? Did I mess up something on the import from Google Scholar, for instance? This is the first time I've noticed these duplicates.

    Thanks.
  • Hi,

    Same problem as everyone else (running Mac OSX 10.3.9, Firefox 2.0.0.13 (newly updated) MSWord 2004, Zotero 1.0.3, the latter newly installed yesterday). Getting to grips with Zotero, and trying out the Word plug-in on a new, open document, causes Word to hang, as Zotero tries to go to Firefox and eventually throws up the same error as everyone else "Zotero Error. An error occurred communicating with Zotero. Please ensure Firefox is open and try again."

    Firefox is open at the time, and reinstalling the zotero.dot plugin makes no difference. This has occurred trying to use the American Political Studies Assoc and Chicago (author-date) styles of citation.

    I see the complex suggestions above, but it's not clear if the most recent approach to solving this problem is above, or if its meant as diagnostics?

    I'd like to continue using Zotero; is there a work around for this problem?
  • There is something strange going one with one of my documents.

    I have had the communicating with zotero-error message like many others here. It seemed like it all started after I had forgotten to start firefox before inserting a citation. I got an error message, but the message kept popping up after I did start firefox. I tried the strategies discussed here, diabled/enabled the (open office) plugin, uninstalled and deleted it from my computer and reinstalled it, checked for updates until I found out that it works fine with new documents. I tried to track down the corrupted part of my document by copying sections into a new document and pressing the insert bibliography button there. I never had a problem with those cut out sections in a new document. When I go back to my original document after doing this, it suddenly works fine there as well.
    The problem is, that I get error messages each morning I when I re-open the document. By now, I have been through numerous cycles of error messages, cutting sections into a new document, inserting the bibliography there and the original document working after that.
    While I used to start this copying-pasting at the beginning of the document, I have just tried it with a random section from the end of the document, which equally solves the problem. It seems like merely copying a section - no matter which - into a new document and inserting the bibliography there solves the problem. Also I noticed that, when inserting the bibliography in the new document, my computer shifts to the window with the original document and there seems to be some precessing going on there as well, as the text "flickers" like it does sometimes when clicking the refresh button.

    It's not like this is totally unfeasible but it is kind of annoying to have to do this over and over. Isn't there a way to see/edit commands that zotero embeds into a document and delete corrupted ones once and for all? Or might there be a different problem in this case?

    I am running open office 2.3.1 and Zotero 1.0.3 on Windows XP...

    Sorry, if this should be a know issue, I couldn't find anything on this here. Thanks for any help!

    PS: I have just tried to send an error report but I get "invalid response from the repository"
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