[5.0 Beta] items are not displaying in the middle panel

Jon Rubin
edited March 17, 2017
Hi, this has been a recurrent problem recently that goes away if I restart Zotero.
Sometimes, and I don't know what triggers it, if I click on a folder, although the rightmost pane will say how many items there are in the folder, the folder itself appears blank - though sometimes random clicking will select an item but then it can't be deselected. Going back to 'my library' doesn't solve the problem. A restart does.

Report id. :: 234446870

Zotero 5.0-beta.167+b732a82
Windows 10

updated to .169, same problem

report id. 1106580021

When reporting errors, do we need to include things like version and OS any more? I've just noticed it looks like they're part of the report that gets uploaded.
  • Jon Rubin
    Just to say that this problem is still intermittently occurring, report id.

    456180813
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited April 10, 2017
    As a user of this forum I find it quite useful to have as much information about the problem as possible. Knowing about the OS helps me (and others among the thousands of lurkers here) to recognize if the issue might apply to my own problem. Other information can help too.

    Time after time, the Zotero developers and volunteer experts ask for as much information as possible about the nature of the problem (with screen capture images or movies if possible), what was done immediately before the problem appeared, other software that was running, browser and Zotero plug-ins, and more. While the report ID will provide a snapshot of some of the needed information, it may not be enough. Sometimes, just the reporter's forum post can be enough information for someone to recognize the problem and help resolve the issue immediately. Some of the more active problem-solvers here do not have quick access to the problem report text. In those cases they need help to place themselves in front of your screen and understand the full nature of your trouble. Understanding the full nature of a problem is especially important when a problem is uncommon or intermittent, as in your case.

    Please try to closely follow the recommended guidelines for reporting problems:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems
  • DWL-SDCA
    One thing I've noticed is that sometimes, especially after a version upgrade, when using a computer with little RAM or a slow processor, several seconds can elapse between the selection of the current collection and the appearance of items in the center column. The delay seems longer when there are a large number of items in the collection. When using a fast machine with lots of RAM the delay is hardly noticeable.
  • Jon Rubin
    @DWL-SDCA , Hi there - fair enough from the volunteers perspective, but error reports contain all the information about OS, Zotero version etc. that the developers could need, which is why I asked in my first post if we still needed to include all that info. And I'm not sure how a screen grab of a blank column would help anybody, but sure, next time it glitches, I'll take one.
    My machine's plenty fast enough, and I know the difference between a 'waiting for something to load' and 'damn it something's gone wrong'. It's an absolutely intermittent bug that I've found no reliable way of reproducing. And fyi it's Windows 10 and Zotero 5.0-beta.176+d8fed09
  • adamsmith
    Dan and Adomas are the only two people with access to the error reports, so without that info, you make it harder for people like bwiernik or me to help, so on average you're going to be slower in getting a helpful response. We do manage to do a fair amount of triage without core devs having to look. Also, as DWL says, listing version numbers and OS helps other people who search for solutions for similar issues.
    So to answer your question, Jon, yes, please do keep including it.

    That said, this is indeed an error that devs will need to look at.


    (@DWL-SDCA -- the type of details we need depend a fair bit who posts. Jon has been using Zotero for >10 years and posting and beta testing here for years, so there's no need to make sure, e.g., he isn't misunderstanding basic Zotero functionality or using terms confusingly. Particularly for beta testing, we don't want to make reporting to cumbersome).
  • dstillman
    Probably this:
    [JavaScript Error: "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsITreeSelection.toggleSelect]" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/itemTreeView.js" line: 1972}]"
    I'm not sure what's causing this, but I'm working on some items list changes, and I'll keep an eye out for anything that might be related. Keep letting us know if this continues, or obviously if you can figure out specific steps to reproduce.
  • Jon Rubin
    Hi dan, this just happened again - first time in ages.
    I had a saved search for a creator and I changed the creator in the search and hey bad presto, nothing showing in the middle pane. A restart of Zotero fixes the problem.

    Report id. 623585864
    Zotero 5.0.18-beta.1+a15b23e35
    Linux Mint 18.2
  • Jon Rubin
    Hi Dan, still occasionally occurring

    report id. 1249961059
    Zotero 5.0.24-beta.5+4e717a093
    Linux Mint 18.2

    Still haven't figured out how to reliably get this to happen, as it seems to occur whenever it feels like it.
  • Jon Rubin
    Hi Dan, happened again
    What seems to trigger it is if I copy an entry that I've searched for into a new folder - but by no means every time.

    report id. 1582030870


    [JavaScript Error: "uncaught exception: 2147500034" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/integration.js" line: 239}]

    [JavaScript Error: "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsITreeSelection.toggleSelect]" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/itemTreeView.js" line: 2109}]

    [JavaScript Error: "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsITreeSelection.toggleSelect]" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/itemTreeView.js" line: 2109}]

    1513167662758 addons.update-checker WARN Update manifest for zoteroOpenOfficeIntegration@zotero.org did not contain an updates property

    version => 5.0.31-beta.3+341d4f169, platform => Linux x86_64, oscpu => Linux x86_64, locale => en-US, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 5.0.31-beta.3+341d4f169, extensions => Zotero LibreOffice Integration (5.0.8.SA.5.0.31-beta.3+341d4f169, extension), Shockwave Flash (28.0.0.126, plugin)
  • dstillman
    I'm hoping this is fixed in the latest 5.0 Beta.
  • dstillman
    5.0.33 is out with this fix.
  • Jon Rubin
    Hi Dan, happened again

    report id: 1640112262

    Zotero 5.0.34-beta.1+5fcac10db

    This time what triggered it was changing a saved search
  • Jon Rubin
    Hi Dan, and again
    report id: 1855590979
  • dstillman
    I've fixed an additional cause of this in the latest beta. I can't reproduce this, so it might take a few tries before we've eliminated all triggers.
  • Jon Rubin
    Hi Dan, well good news, I think - clicking from a saved search folder to a normal folder Zotero paused for a moment before displaying the folder contents and I was just starting to think 'drat' when the items did show up.
    Just out of curiosity I did an error report

    1569185641

    and this error
    [JavaScript Error: "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsITreeSelection.select]" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/itemTreeView.js" line: 1874}]

    is still happening, but it doesn't (so far) seem to be stopping Zotero from working.

    Zotero 5.0.34-beta.3+2baa53754
  • Jon Rubin
    edited January 5, 2018
    Realised that I wasn't on the most up to date Zotero release, updated and was able to reproduce the same behaviour of a pause but then the items displaying despite the same itemTreeView.js problem

    report id 282538424

    version => 5.0.34-beta.4+fdb9e2007
  • dstillman
    edited January 5, 2018
    Yes, that error would still be logged, and there could be some brief weirdness — the fix in place only prevents a permanent crash.

    It seems like you're getting this to happen very easily, though. Could you say more about exactly what you're doing to trigger it? Does a sync need to be going, or are you seeing it just in the context of a saved search? If the latter, are you clicking away before the saved search completes? Is there always an item edit involved?
  • Jon Rubin
    edited January 5, 2018
    Hi Dan,
    OK, finally have a set of steps that reliably reproduces the error. It doesn't seem to be sync related.

    I have a saved search folder that searches for a term in Creator, Tag, Title and Publication.
    I select this folder.
    I then do a quick search in the folder, in this case for a book chapter title.
    I then drag the book chapter into a top level folder.
    I then click on that folder.
    Previously that would have been when Zotero failed to display the contents of the folder, whereas now it does after a brief pause (and if I look at Report Errors, then the temTreeView.js error has been logged).

    There may have been other ways to trigger this when it first happened, but those steps are reproducible now.
  • Jon Rubin
    OK, so it looks like this isn't just about copying from a saved search folder (I wonder why nobody else has got this problem)

    Just to check, I restarted Zotero did a quick search on My Library, copied the book chapter into a folder and that produces the error

    report id 1039882523
  • Jon Rubin
    I've just sent through a debug report in case that's helpful too

    The Debug ID is D746827449.
  • dstillman
    edited January 5, 2018
    OK, thanks — with a big enough test library I can reproduce this easily.

    We'll see what we can do (and hopefully improve performance generally with large libraries), but at least the crashing appears to be fixed for now.
  • Jon Rubin
    edited January 13, 2018
    ignore
  • kieran Latty
    If it helps I used to get this problem non-stop (moving anything more or less would do it) and I have an atypically large library. So there is one anecdote suggesting it is library size conditional.
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