Erratic saving

whatthedickens
So I first discovered Zotero this summer, downloaded, installed, and fiddled a little. I was excited about showing it to my students this fall. But I hadn't tried using it in earnest till this weekend.

What am I not getting? I took a snapshot of a webpage and started highlighting and annotating away. After about an hour's work I quit FF (I'm using 10.5 on a MacBook Pro), and when I restarted it and went back to my snapshot, all my edits were gone.

Maybe just a fluke? So I did a few random highlights and annotations, quit FF again, restarted. Fine, they're still there. Whew.

Next morning, after a computer restart, they're still there. Reassuring. So I unhighlight the random highlights and delete the notes. I close the tab in FF. I reopen and start to do some real highlighting and annotating.

But to be on the safe side, after just a few minutes of this I close the tab and reopen to make sure all is well. WTF????? The new edits are gone, and the old highlights (though not the old notes) are there again.

In short the highlight/annotate feature of Zotero is 100% unreliable for me, and hence unusable. Am I supposed to save my changes somehow? I thought not - thought that everything was saved automatically. But maybe there's something in the documentation that I missed?

What a disappointment. Guess I won't be sharing Zotero with my students after all - or using it myself.

Unless - as I said - I'm missing something???????
  • dstillman
    It's possible there are some issues with saving of annotations and highlights in Firefox 3 in 1.0.7 due to changes in the behavior of page load/unload events in Firefox 3. (Annotations and highlights are currently only saved when the page is closed, though there's a ticket to have it save on a post-edit timer like the rest of Zotero data.) A lot of changes were made to the annotations/highlights code a couple weeks ago, however, so you might want to try the latest 1.0 branch build and let us know if you still have problems. You can safely install the 1.0 branch build over 1.0.7 and switch to 1.0.8 when it comes out, which should be soon.
  • whatthedickens
    Thanks for responding so quickly.

    I installed the branch build and restarted FF. The problems are, if anything, worse.

    Went back to the snapshot I've been working on. Unhighlighted some text. But one bit of text stubbornly refused to be unhighlighted.

    Quit FF and re-opened. The text that wouldn't unhighlight was now unhighlighted. OK.

    Highlighted some more text, closed the window. (I'm staying away from tabs for this, having found another discussion suggesting these may be problematic with Zotero.)

    Re-opened. Highlights were gone.

    And now, when I click the annotation tool on the toolbar, instead of a sticky I get a Firefox popup (where the sticky should be) that says, "File Not Found."

    Oy.
  • dstillman
    edited August 31, 2008
    First, upgrade to the latest dev build via Tools->Add-ons, as I've just added some extra debugging and fixed one potential cause of the "File not found" error (which should only have affected people using an SVN install). After upgrading, check if you're getting any errors in Report Errors under the Actions (gear icon) menu after experiencing those problems. If so, send in an error report and post the Report ID here.

    I can't reproduce any of these problems, but the new code hasn't been fully tested. What are some of the pages you're trying to highlight/annotate, and what method are you using to close the page or navigate away from it?
  • whatthedickens
    OK: Report ID 150137000

    I did get an error when I checked the actions menu after the original problem occurred (before I installed the 1.0 branch build) and - I think - submitted it, but didn't note the ID for that.

    The page I've been trying to edit is a project gutenberg html file (alice's adventures in wonderland).

    As for navigating away: I've opened and closed a dedicated window for the page, opened and closed a dedicated tab, and quit FF either from a tab or a window. I believe, too (but am not sure) that I've navigated away to another webpage within the same tab or window, then returned to the snapshot to find my highlights and annotations lost.
  • dstillman
    That's not from the latest build (which currently is r3295).
  • whatthedickens
    Sorry to be dense about this. From Tools > Add-ons I simply came to Firefox add-ons. So I searched for Zotero and got the download link for v. 1.07. Downloaded and installed. Opened the Alice in Wonderland snapshot, did some highlighting and annotating. No more "File Not Found" pop-up. But I closed the tab, then re-opened the snapshot. All my edits were gone.

    Don't know how to see what build I'm using. Actions > About Zotero only shows me the version number.

    So should I go back to your link to the 1.0 branch build and start all over?
  • dstillman
    By Tools->Add-ons I meant Tools->Add-ons->Extensions, where you can use Find Updates to update to the latest dev build.

    So, yes, reinstall the latest branch build from the link I provided.
  • whatthedickens
    OK - did that. Now Actions > About Zotero says I'm running 1.07.r3295. When I try to add a sticky I get "File Not Found" as a ghostly addition over my text at that location (not in a popup any longer). And the problem with not being able to unhighlight text has returned.
  • whatthedickens
    Submitted error report: ID 1790411660
  • dstillman
    OK, please try the latest 1.0 dev build.
  • whatthedickens
    So after installing this, what should my version be when I look at it via Actions > About Zotero?
  • dstillman
    1.0.7.r3309 or above.
  • whatthedickens
    I installed the branch build yesterday and was at 1.07.r3295. I got a notification of an available update. I installed the update, which brought me to 1.07.r3309. The trouble persisted. (File not found, etc.) I restarted my computer. No change.

    Today I went back to your link for the branch build and reinstalled from there again. Actions > About Zotero says I'm at 1.07.r3309 (still? again?).

    Good news, though. As of right now the application seems to be working normally. The stickies are working, and I've left the page by, in turns, closing a tab, closing a dedicated FF window, and quitting FF. In all cases, the changes seem to be saved.
  • whatthedickens
    I'm at r3334 now and everything still works.

    If you're still following this thread, thanks for your help!
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