disable autocomplete for editing creators?

The slowest activity for me is editing the names of authors. Zotero (I use it in Firefox and also Standalone - this issue affects both) sometimes hangs for a long time (at times, 1-2 minutes) when trying to edit author names.

Inclusion of an option not to autocomplete author names would presumably help here. I don't use this feature anyway, because there are too many authors in my database for a sensible selection to appear when I start typing. There are already multiple versions of many authors because most entries are imported rather than typed in.
  • Zotero version?
    Devs need more details to help you:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs
    A real-time debug output might be useful in your case.
  • Just a Debug ID for a creator entry will do. No Report ID or real-time output necessary.
  • This should be better in Zotero 4.0.10, available now. Autocomplete in large libraries should no longer freeze the UI.
  • Thanks both. I'm using version 4.0.9 in both Standalone and Zotero for Firefox, so will see if there is an improvement with 4.0.10. If there is, there may not be any point looking into this further.

    In case it is useful, I've just submitted Debug Output when attempting to edit the surname field for a new record (it only hung for c. 5 seconds this time, but it varies a lot): D1391692042
  • I'm still experiencing this problem intermittently. Sometimes I can edit author names with no problem, but just now I tried to do so and Zotero in Firefox (4.0.10) hung for around 3 minutes. I reproduced this in Debug mode: D15415910.

    It possibly relates to a problem with the record I was trying to edit. I added this from Google Scholar. The import was successful, but produced an error report: 113923208.

    Or it might be related to the fact that my Zotero library is on a networked folder which syncs locally so that I can still access it if I'm offline.
  • That sounds like a different and much worse problem, no?

    People have reported issues on server-mirrored folders, but if you're seeing a three-minute hang that you weren't seeing before, that suggests a problem with the new autocomplete method in 4.0.10.

    How reliably can you reproduce this? Does it only happen while using autocomplete?
  • edited August 9, 2013
    (Basically, what we did in 4.0.10 is make autocomplete searches happen in the background, so that they don't interfere with the UI. This should allow you to type even if autocomplete results aren't ready. But there may be issues with the new method (though I can't reproduce any).)
  • Also, in that debug output, it looks like the hang isn't happening until after you press Enter to save the item. Is that correct? Does it matter if you wait a few seconds before pressing Enter?
  • Thanks Dan. I don't think the hang was necessarily longer than those I've been seeing sometimes before (I generally didn't time them, but either went and did something else, or killed the process).

    I can't reproduce this reliably. I just went back and edited the author name in the same record, and it worked smoothly with no delay at all. But that was also what I experienced before: it was an intermittent problem. Autocomplete of author/creator names seems to be the main trigger, but I'll keep an eye out for other things that cause this.

    I think you're right that it only started to hang after I'd pressed tab to go to the next field. Previously, it would hang almost as soon as I started typing. So that makes sense in relation to your last comment.

    I'll see how it behaves over the next few days and post more info if the problem persists.
  • Oh, I see now you said it took 1-2 minutes in your original post.

    How many items do you have in your Zotero library?
  • I have 10,663 items in my library (20,553 including child items - most items are journal articles and most have a PDF attached). It took a minute or two to expand all child items, but that's probably not surprising.

    I'm still experiencing the same problem with a hang in Standalone when trying to edit creator names: about 3 minutes as before. I just submitted a debug report (D929317348).

    I forgot to mention that I have experienced some delays when importing a new item using Zotero in Firefox. Firefox would often hang for ~1 min, and if I was streaming radio, it would pause. This was the main reason I have started using Standalone, because I can import an item while continuing to use Firefox.
  • And debug log for when I tried editing the creator name, then waiting for a minute before pressing tab (it still hung): D908724883.
  • Also an error report, prior to the above: 742295103. Please ignore if it's not relevant!
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