I'm using the Waterfox fork of FF, because I need the Session Saver capability that Quantum blew away. And the plugin is not compatible with WF. So, I've simply turned debugging on. We'll see what happens. The problem doesn't recur often, so this could be a bit of a wait.
It has happened again, though, and we have another data point: the folder _does not_ return to its proper position after a restart of Zotero.
And a new problem, although apparently not a serious one: Zotero occasionally shows duplicates and triplicates of subcollections. This does go away on restart.
Yes, I do mean that one. I got it from here: https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-collection-tracker/releases . And I was surprised that when I double clicked it it tried to install in FF rather than Zotero. When I gave it permission to do so, it informed me that it was incompatible with my version of FF, i.e., with WF. What am I doing wrong?
For historical reasons, Zotero uses the same plugin framework as FF used to have, and which WF still supports, so for WF it looks like it could be a legitimate plugin. There's nothing I can do to prevent WF from trying to install it, but in this case, you'll want to right-click the link and save-as that plugin, and then install it inside Zotero from tools-addins.
Double-click launches the default file association, which will be WF (which will usually be right), If you install it manually inside Zotero, it will work.
BTW, will the plugin notify me if it's triggered? Subcollection jumps aren't always noticeable until you go looking for a subcollection and can't find it.
1) You will need to configure zotero-collection-tracker plugin (collection-tracker.path) to save the log to a specific location.
2) I have been trying to replicate the issue of disappearing subcollections. It still hasn't happened to me. One question I have is that when you "close" a subcollection, do you only click on the arrow to close it or do you actually select the subcollection first and then click arrow to close it?
@emilianoeheyns Maybe 'collection-tracker.path' should be configured by default instead of being blank?
1) Ok. I've configured the path. Now for a fundamental question: Does this plug-in save debug logs at defined time intervals only? Or can it be set to trigger and save a log if a subcollection is moved? I ask in light of the collection-tracker.every: preference. Does setting it to 0 stop logging at timed intervals but continue to permit the plug-in to save a log if a subcollection is moved? Or does it simply stop logging completely?
2) Usually, I just click the arrow. But not always. Sometimes I do click on the subcollection and then the arrow. I have an impression, but only that, that when I've seen a subcollection jump it's been when I've clicked on another subcollection to explore it for some reason. But I've rarely seen the jump, and the impression is also nothing more than that.
2) Okay. Just happened. I created a new subcollection. Save some things to it. Then went to another subcollection (not in the same heirarchy as the first in case that's important) and clicked the down arrow on one of its subsubcollections. The newly created subcollection then jumped to the subcollection whose arrow I'd clicked. But there is no debug log! And yes, I restarted Zotero. Or at least I think I did. I'll do that again to be sure.
Could you install the latest Zotero beta and try to reproduce the misplaced collections with that? That should log some additional info that may help us narrow down what's causing this.
I can't help re: the plugin, but again, if you can reproduce this easily, there's really no need for the plugin. You can just turn on debug logging, click around until you reproduce this, and until then periodically clear the log to keep it a reasonable length (though that's not strictly necessary, since it has a maximum length after which it will clear old entries).
The duplicated/triplicated collections issue is a purely visual bug, and while we can't reproduce that either, that's likely a separate issue.
Restarted, and debug log now created. Must not have restarted when I thought I had. Lots of calls coming in at the time. So we'll have to wait for the next jump.
BTW, will the plugin notify me if it’s triggered? Subcollection jumps aren’t always noticeable until you go looking for a subcollection and can’t find it.
Yes, a floating window will pop up in the lower right corner for 8 seconds
@emilianoeheyns Maybe ‘collection-tracker.path’ should be configured by default instead of being blank?
There isn’t really a good cross-platform default I think, and it’s also really meant for debugging. Adding a sensible default would be more work than just the one-time config of the preference. This plugin is throwaway work, not a lot of polish is going to be applied.
Ok. I’ve configured the path. Now for a fundamental question: Does this plug-in save debug logs at defined time intervals only? Or can it be set to trigger and save a log if a subcollection is moved? I ask in light of the collection-tracker.every: preference. Does setting it to 0 stop logging at timed intervals but continue to permit the plug-in to save a log if a subcollection is moved? Or does it simply stop logging completely?
It only disables the interval save. Turning it off means the log it saves when a collection changes will be bigger as all log messages will be collected there.
Okay. Just happened. I created a new subcollection. Save some things to it. Then went to another subcollection (not in the same heirarchy as the first in case that’s important) and clicked the down arrow on one of its subsubcollections. The newly created subcollection then jumped to the subcollection whose arrow I’d clicked. But there is no debug log! And yes, I restarted Zotero. Or at least I think I did. I’ll do that again to be sure.
The timed logs should just always appear, unless you’ve turned that off. Also, the triggered log depends on Zotero actually firing the notifier. If it doesn’t get fired, only the timed logs are saved.
I can’t help re: the plugin, but again, if you can reproduce this easily, there’s really no need for the plugin.
This is absolutely correct, and also, saving the logs consumes the log (nothing I can do about this), so with the plugin active, the debug ID might not have all the information that the Zotero devs need. This is why I prefer that it be installed only either if the Zotero devs deem it useful, or you intend to debug the issue largely yourself.
I can confirm I saw the teleportation of a collection into another collection. The collection "Polymers - Conductive polymers (1)" teleported and became a subcollection of the collection "Peers". Both of these were previously collections under My Library and were NOT a subcollection. I do NOT recall exact steps to reproduce, but I saw the teleportation happen. I restarted Zotero and teleported collection did NOT return to original location. You may spot the teleportation occur towards the end of the log since I stopped all actions after I saw the teleportation occur.
Debug ID: D1845859620
Another teleportation occurred. The collection "Polymers - Electroactive polymers" teleported from My Library into a subcollection of "Microstereolithography (1)". I was just randomly clicking through all the collections/subcollections and randomly kept closing and opening some of the subcollection .
Debug ID: D2042938947
The collection "Liquid Metal" got teleported. I was just randomly clickly through each collection and subcollection. I forgot my last action, but maybe I think I tried to close one of the subcolleciton. I don't recall now.
If needed, I can also submit log from collection-tracker plugin.
Edit 2:
After further testing, I am wondering if the teleportation issue could be due to mouse click delay when browsing through multiple collections "quickly". I noticed that when I clicking through multiple collections/subcollections very quickly, I notice that I "accidentally drag" one of the collections into a neighboring collection. It could be that because I am clicking through the collections quickly, there could be an instance where I click down on a collection (mousedown event) and then I move the mouse to another collection so quickly that the click up (mouseup event) occurs when the mouse is located on top of another collection which could act as a "drag" event. This has happened to me several times. When I try to reproduce the teleportation issue by "slowly" clicking through multiple collection, I was unable to get any collections to teleport.
I've experienced the unintentional drag phenomenon, too, in the sense of subcollections getting moved to already open collections. But I did not connect it to teleportation. I just thought that Zotero was not sensing clicks properly, and I'd have to adapt my clicking style. Perhaps, though, as @01baftb suggests, there are at least two phenomena with the same underlying cause, the cause being a click is made on a subcollection, the click is lifted but the mouse is then rapidly moved to a new collection.
What could be happening is:
1) if the new collection is already open, the movement of the subcollection gives the impression of an undesired drag,
2) if the new collection is closed and its down arrow is clicked to open it, the subcollection appears to teleport to the newly opened collection, and
3) more insidiously, if the new collection is open and its up arrow is clicked to close it, the subcollection teleports into the newly closed collection without any way to notice that.
I would like to add another observation that may give a clue into teleporting issue. I was recently adding many PDFs to Zotero and organizing my collections.
1) I noticed sometimes I had a difficult time dragging and dropping PDFS into Zotero. When I would drag multiple PDFs, Zotero would only import one of them. During the drag I noticed a non-smooth/glitchy/choppy dragging experience.
2) I had selected "My Library" and I was trying to drag and item into a subcollection but had a difficult time doing so because random things started to happen. For example, one collection randomly got teleported into another collection. This collection was NOT the intended collection which I was trying to drag an item to. On another attempt of trying to drag the item to the targeted collection, the targeted collection also teleported into a different collection. When I attempted to drag the teleported collections back to their proper location, I was again having a difficult time doing so. I seemed the dragging was non-smooth, glitchy, and choppy. When I would attempting to drag an item or collection, my mouse button was physically pressed, however, it seemed Zotero kept interpreting randomly that I was releasing the mouse button while dragging the mouse even though I never release the mouse button.
When I attempted to reproduce this issue again, everything became smooth and I wasn't able to recreate the choppy/glitchy drag experience.
Edit 2
Debug ID: D1948156250
I had the issue happen again. I had a PDF in Zotero already without a parent item. I was trying to drag the PDF onto a parent item I created but it wasn't properly dragging.
Edit 3
I am so confused now. I was trying to drag ~75 PDFs from Windows Explorer into Zotero. I had difficult time doing so. During drag, it was as if the mouse was being released even though I had the mouse button pressed. This issue resulted in the PDF not being dragged into Zotero, or being dragged to a wrong collection. I am unsure if this is a Zotero issue, a Windows issue, or a physical hardware mouse issue...
Edit 4
It seem my mouse could be primary cause of the issue. Outside of Zotero, I have noticed when I am dragging items (ex: icons on my Windows desktop), it prematurely/randomly releases the item being dragged. I will need to double confirm the issue is the mouse or driver for the mouse. I don't have another mouse currently to confirm. I will report back once I confirm. @AucMGris@shakyegg any chance you guys are using Logitech MX Master? I am just curious if you guys are also using the same mouse as me and the issue could be related to the driver/software that comes with MX Master mouse...
I can once again confirm the teleportation issue is occurring for sure. I previous had doubts the issue was related to my mouse hardware issue, however, I can confirm my mouse is NOT the issue. I changed the my mouse and the teleportation issue occurred again. With this debug ID (D129931284), I was just randomly clicking through multiple collections and opening/closing them. The last even I recall is that I had a collection selected, then I went to close another collection, which resulted in the selected collection to be teleported into the collection I was trying to close by clicking the arrow.
Edit 2
Debug ID: D1334901670
Once again the the issue happened. If I recall, I was just clicking through all my collection, and randomly opening and closing them. The last event I recall is that that I closed a collection (ex: Collection A), then clicked on another collection (ex: Collection B) that did NOT have any subcollection. While this collection was selected (ex: Collection B), I clicked on the arrow of the previous collection I closed (ex: Collection A) to open it again. When I did this, my previously selected collection (ex: Collection B), teleported into the collection I opened (ex: Collection A). Note: When you read the debug log for D1334901670, the actual names of the collection differ, and are NOT called Collection A/B. If you need the actual names of the collection, I can tell you privately.
Note: If needed, I can also submit log from collection-tracker plugin.
Upgrade Storage
It has happened again, though, and we have another data point: the folder _does not_ return to its proper position after a restart of Zotero.
And a new problem, although apparently not a serious one: Zotero occasionally shows duplicates and triplicates of subcollections. This does go away on restart.
BTW, will the plugin notify me if it's triggered? Subcollection jumps aren't always noticeable until you go looking for a subcollection and can't find it.
1) You will need to configure zotero-collection-tracker plugin (collection-tracker.path) to save the log to a specific location.
2) I have been trying to replicate the issue of disappearing subcollections. It still hasn't happened to me. One question I have is that when you "close" a subcollection, do you only click on the arrow to close it or do you actually select the subcollection first and then click arrow to close it?
@emilianoeheyns Maybe 'collection-tracker.path' should be configured by default instead of being blank?
2) Usually, I just click the arrow. But not always. Sometimes I do click on the subcollection and then the arrow. I have an impression, but only that, that when I've seen a subcollection jump it's been when I've clicked on another subcollection to explore it for some reason. But I've rarely seen the jump, and the impression is also nothing more than that.
I can't help re: the plugin, but again, if you can reproduce this easily, there's really no need for the plugin. You can just turn on debug logging, click around until you reproduce this, and until then periodically clear the log to keep it a reasonable length (though that's not strictly necessary, since it has a maximum length after which it will clear old entries).
The duplicated/triplicated collections issue is a purely visual bug, and while we can't reproduce that either, that's likely a separate issue.
Yes, a floating window will pop up in the lower right corner for 8 seconds
There isn’t really a good cross-platform default I think, and it’s also really meant for debugging. Adding a sensible default would be more work than just the one-time config of the preference. This plugin is throwaway work, not a lot of polish is going to be applied.
It only disables the interval save. Turning it off means the log it saves when a collection changes will be bigger as all log messages will be collected there.
The timed logs should just always appear, unless you’ve turned that off. Also, the triggered log depends on Zotero actually firing the notifier. If it doesn’t get fired, only the timed logs are saved.
This is absolutely correct, and also, saving the logs consumes the log (nothing I can do about this), so with the plugin active, the debug ID might not have all the information that the Zotero devs need. This is why I prefer that it be installed only either if the Zotero devs deem it useful, or you intend to debug the issue largely yourself.
Zotero 5.0.66-beta.4+2f43ea82f.
Debug ID: D1885338345
I can confirm I saw the teleportation of a collection into another collection. The collection "Polymers - Conductive polymers (1)" teleported and became a subcollection of the collection "Peers". Both of these were previously collections under My Library and were NOT a subcollection. I do NOT recall exact steps to reproduce, but I saw the teleportation happen. I restarted Zotero and teleported collection did NOT return to original location. You may spot the teleportation occur towards the end of the log since I stopped all actions after I saw the teleportation occur.
Debug ID: D1845859620
Another teleportation occurred. The collection "Polymers - Electroactive polymers" teleported from My Library into a subcollection of "Microstereolithography (1)". I was just randomly clicking through all the collections/subcollections and randomly kept closing and opening some of the subcollection .
Debug ID: D2042938947
The collection "Liquid Metal" got teleported. I was just randomly clickly through each collection and subcollection. I forgot my last action, but maybe I think I tried to close one of the subcolleciton. I don't recall now.
If needed, I can also submit log from collection-tracker plugin.
Edit 2:
After further testing, I am wondering if the teleportation issue could be due to mouse click delay when browsing through multiple collections "quickly". I noticed that when I clicking through multiple collections/subcollections very quickly, I notice that I "accidentally drag" one of the collections into a neighboring collection. It could be that because I am clicking through the collections quickly, there could be an instance where I click down on a collection (mousedown event) and then I move the mouse to another collection so quickly that the click up (mouseup event) occurs when the mouse is located on top of another collection which could act as a "drag" event. This has happened to me several times. When I try to reproduce the teleportation issue by "slowly" clicking through multiple collection, I was unable to get any collections to teleport.
What could be happening is:
1) if the new collection is already open, the movement of the subcollection gives the impression of an undesired drag,
2) if the new collection is closed and its down arrow is clicked to open it, the subcollection appears to teleport to the newly opened collection, and
3) more insidiously, if the new collection is open and its up arrow is clicked to close it, the subcollection teleports into the newly closed collection without any way to notice that.
1) I noticed sometimes I had a difficult time dragging and dropping PDFS into Zotero. When I would drag multiple PDFs, Zotero would only import one of them. During the drag I noticed a non-smooth/glitchy/choppy dragging experience.
2) I had selected "My Library" and I was trying to drag and item into a subcollection but had a difficult time doing so because random things started to happen. For example, one collection randomly got teleported into another collection. This collection was NOT the intended collection which I was trying to drag an item to. On another attempt of trying to drag the item to the targeted collection, the targeted collection also teleported into a different collection. When I attempted to drag the teleported collections back to their proper location, I was again having a difficult time doing so. I seemed the dragging was non-smooth, glitchy, and choppy. When I would attempting to drag an item or collection, my mouse button was physically pressed, however, it seemed Zotero kept interpreting randomly that I was releasing the mouse button while dragging the mouse even though I never release the mouse button.
When I attempted to reproduce this issue again, everything became smooth and I wasn't able to recreate the choppy/glitchy drag experience.
Edit 2
Debug ID: D1948156250
I had the issue happen again. I had a PDF in Zotero already without a parent item. I was trying to drag the PDF onto a parent item I created but it wasn't properly dragging.
Edit 3
I am so confused now. I was trying to drag ~75 PDFs from Windows Explorer into Zotero. I had difficult time doing so. During drag, it was as if the mouse was being released even though I had the mouse button pressed. This issue resulted in the PDF not being dragged into Zotero, or being dragged to a wrong collection. I am unsure if this is a Zotero issue, a Windows issue, or a physical hardware mouse issue...
Edit 4
It seem my mouse could be primary cause of the issue. Outside of Zotero, I have noticed when I am dragging items (ex: icons on my Windows desktop), it prematurely/randomly releases the item being dragged. I will need to double confirm the issue is the mouse or driver for the mouse. I don't have another mouse currently to confirm. I will report back once I confirm. @AucMGris @shakyegg any chance you guys are using Logitech MX Master? I am just curious if you guys are also using the same mouse as me and the issue could be related to the driver/software that comes with MX Master mouse...
Edit 5
I can confirm my faulty mouse is NOT the primary cause of the teleportation issue. See more detail in the post: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/329857/#Comment_329857
Debug ID: D129931284
I can once again confirm the teleportation issue is occurring for sure. I previous had doubts the issue was related to my mouse hardware issue, however, I can confirm my mouse is NOT the issue. I changed the my mouse and the teleportation issue occurred again. With this debug ID (D129931284), I was just randomly clicking through multiple collections and opening/closing them. The last even I recall is that I had a collection selected, then I went to close another collection, which resulted in the selected collection to be teleported into the collection I was trying to close by clicking the arrow.
Edit 2
Debug ID: D1334901670
Once again the the issue happened. If I recall, I was just clicking through all my collection, and randomly opening and closing them. The last event I recall is that that I closed a collection (ex: Collection A), then clicked on another collection (ex: Collection B) that did NOT have any subcollection. While this collection was selected (ex: Collection B), I clicked on the arrow of the previous collection I closed (ex: Collection A) to open it again. When I did this, my previously selected collection (ex: Collection B), teleported into the collection I opened (ex: Collection A). Note: When you read the debug log for D1334901670, the actual names of the collection differ, and are NOT called Collection A/B. If you need the actual names of the collection, I can tell you privately.
Note: If needed, I can also submit log from collection-tracker plugin.