Zotero Safari Extension not working with Safari 12
I just upgraded to the beta version of 10.14 (Mojave) and it will not longer allow the Zotero extension saying that it's "unsafe" and has to be updated/reviewed in the Safari App Gallery. Even using a manual install won't work. So if you're thinking of upgrading to Beta, beware!
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Ah. From https://developer.apple.com/safari/whats-new/: and So that's going to be the end of the Safari connector, at least in the short term.
A Safari App Extension is only possible if you have an app distributed through the Mac App Store, which isn't currently a possibility for Zotero for technical reasons. And I believe you can't really have apps with no functionality that are only used to distributed Safari extensions, though we'll look into how flexible Apple's guidelines are there.
So, we're going to have to think about this, and we'll post back if we have any updates. For now, if you use the Safari connector, you indeed will want to avoid
10.14Safari 12.I just wanted to post this issue here; meanwhile, I found that it has been addressed earlier. I was wondering whether it is possible to only publish the "extension" on the App Store, instead of the whole Zotero app?
I've updated my post above. This affects Safari 12, which will be available for Sierra and High Sierra as well, so it's not just 10.14. We'll update the download page when viewed with Safari 12 to remove the Safari connector as an option.
Looking into this a bit more, even if we were able to distribute a Safari App Extension, which we can't currently, it would likely be much more limited: no dynamic save icon, I think no RIS/BibTeX interception or proxy redirection (which is already more limited in Safari), more limited interaction between the connector and Zotero for things like updating the collection chooser, and probably various other things going forward.
(Zotero aside, this change will also mean the end of any Safari extension not linked to an app, unless Apple makes it possible to distribute these new-style extensions another way.)
https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/StopTheMadness.html
https://twitter.com/robmathers/status/1005810480194170880
In our case, I'm pretty sure we'd need to reimplement at least the entire preferences system in the native app, and possibly more, just to end up with a much more limited extension than in Chrome and Firefox. I don't really see us doing that. I think it's much more likely that we'll just update the bookmarklet, since that would allow you to do most of what you'd be able to do with the new Safari extension anyway.
Thank you.
You can use the Zotero bookmarklet (which we'll be improving) in Safari 12 or, as DWL says, switch to Firefox or Chrome for a better experience (which is already the case, because the current Safari extension framework is already more limited).
Losing the Zotero Connector functionality has made me furious and yesterday I ranted via Chat to Apple. Of course that gets one nowhere as it seems impossible to downgrade unless I have a Time Machine backup, which I don't.
Dear Zotero, I would be very grateful if you can expedite support for Safari - which by the way now seems lightning fast. I'd pay!
We're working to finish a new version of the bookmarklet that will save to Zotero on your computer instead of saving to your online library. We hope to have that ready in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you want to stay on Safari, you can use the existing bookmarklet to save to the online library, and Zotero should then sync down the changes immediately. You'll automatically start using the new bookmarklet when it comes out.
For more features — compared to both the bookmarklet and the previous Safari connector, which was already limited by the extension framework — I'm afraid you'd need to switch to Chrome or Firefox.
Sooner or later everyone must move on. Either switch to another browser if you think the changes in Safari are unacceptable; use the bookmarklet; or use a secondary browser like Firefox for the Zotero extension. That's actually my workflow. I use Safari for my day-to-day browsing but also have Firefox for functions and extensions that Safari does not have. And it could not be easier: make sure you have the Develop menu enabled in Settings/Advanced and every time you need to open a page in another browser, just go to the menu bar, Develop/Open Page With. Not ideal, but no big deal either.
I don't have a Mac computer with me now.
Could somebody try?
French: https://hackernoon.com/how-to-bypass-safari-12-unsafe-extension-warning-c96349121e59
English: https://sixcolors.com/post/2018/09/give-new-life-to-old-extensions-in-safari-12/
[Edit: English version added — D.S]
Note, though, that this is a development method, and if you do it you'll need to repeat the process on every Safari restart.
As for this thread, I would request we focus on what Zotero can do, in terms of solution(s) and/or workaround(s).