Upgrade StorageBug with new target selector in Chrome: Target collection fails to update if changed after page load
Browser: Google Chrome
Zotero Version: 5.0.48
The new "target selector" feature in the Chrome connector breaks my existing workflow, which is I believe not an exotic one:
1. find a paper online that I want to save to Zotero
2. Switch to Zotero, select the collection I want to save it to
3. Save the paper using the "Save to Zotero" button in Chrome
With the new connector, the selected collection is not updated if it is changed after the page has loaded, so usually it selects a wrong collection by default (the one that was active when the page loaded, before I switched to Zotero to select the appropriate one)
I appreciate the "target selector" feature, but since I have a rather extensive hierarchy of nested collections I prefer using the main Zotero interface for selecting the collection, which I now can't (without afterwards reloading the page in Chrome).
Zotero Version: 5.0.48
The new "target selector" feature in the Chrome connector breaks my existing workflow, which is I believe not an exotic one:
1. find a paper online that I want to save to Zotero
2. Switch to Zotero, select the collection I want to save it to
3. Save the paper using the "Save to Zotero" button in Chrome
With the new connector, the selected collection is not updated if it is changed after the page has loaded, so usually it selects a wrong collection by default (the one that was active when the page loaded, before I switched to Zotero to select the appropriate one)
I appreciate the "target selector" feature, but since I have a rather extensive hierarchy of nested collections I prefer using the main Zotero interface for selecting the collection, which I now can't (without afterwards reloading the page in Chrome).
If you save on a page, though, and then click "Save to Zotero" again, it will reopen the target selector without resaving, and show you where the item was saved to, so in that case it wouldn't be affected by further selections you made in Zotero. I'm guessing that's what you were seeing.
In any case, I'm curious why you still find switching to Zotero preferable. Just the display size of that pane? The target selector is obviously meant to basically eliminate the need to switch to Zotero before saving. It gives you recently chosen collections, the same layout, and the same +/- shortcuts to expand/collapse. The main things it doesn't currently offer are 1) the same open/close states as in Zotero and 2) find-as-you-type navigation, but those are planned (possibly along with some other form of collection search).
OK maybe this is indeed what confused me, because I cannot replicate my original observation any more on different pages - the selected collection seems to be picked up OK. Does this "persisting the selected collection for a page" work across re-loads of the page? Also I was encountering this originally on a Google Scholar page with multiple items ("Folder" icon in the "Save to Zotero" button), so maybe that was confusing. Anyway, sorry for the noise, I would report back to this discussion if I can indeed replicate the problem I thought I had ;)
> In any case, I'm curious why you still find switching to Zotero preferable.
I run a three-monitor setup, all in portrait orientation, with Zotero usually open full-screen on the middle monitor with all of my ≈120 nested collections expanded in the side bar. Saving to an arbitrary collection usually takes me 2 task switches and 2 clicks (one on the collection in Zotero, which is usually within view, and one on the connector button). Using the target selector takes me at least 4 clicks (Save to Zotero, expand the target selector, clicking on the collection, Done) in the best case, but usually a lot of scrolling and expanding and finding the correct path through the small view of the collection hierarchy. Feels much more cumbersome for now, but maybe I'll learn to appreciate it over time.
But I don't claim I'm a typical user in this respect ;) - But then again I am probably just an ordinary PhD student with an extra monitor :D
That's legitimately a bug, but it'll go away with some planned architectural changes, and given that the target selector is meant to address this and in any case lets you change it easily, I don't think we'll worry about this in the meantime. Ideally the collection you want is either already selected from last time or is in recents, in which case it's 1 or 2 clicks, and without a context switch (albeit a minor one in your setup). The recents drop-down includes "More…", so there's no penalty for checking that first most of the time. You also don't need to click Done after making a selection.
It's certainly a smaller pane, though, so I understand that concern. Hopefully we'll be able to add some search options to make things easier for people with very large collection hierarchies in the not-too-distant future.
> Hopefully we'll be able to add some search options to make things easier for people with very large collection hierarchies in the not-too-distant future.
If only I could remember what my collections are named ;-)
For me the "traditional" way works perfectly, so it would be nice if this option (selecting the collection in the Zotero main app) would be preserved across those planned architectural changes. Alternatively, I would be happy with a tree view in the target selector that persists the collapse/expand state of folders, and ideally is as tall as the available browser window, plus an option to always show the tree view immediately. (I find myself rarely saving multiple resources to the same folder, and I have a hard time to reliably identify folders by name only without the structural context of the tree)
But don't worry about my specific preferences - I just had the impression you are interested in gathering info on people's workflows so I am providing a bit more detail.