Performance issue when typing tags

qqbb
Debug ID D93767856
Zotero 5.0.78
Windows 10

Issue:

Typing a tag in the "Tags" tab is slow when the autocomplete search has many results. This was not an issue in Zotero 5.0.77.

It would be useful if one could keep typing out a tag without having to wait for the autocomplete search result in the drop-down list being shown for the first character.

Steps to reproduce:

1. In a fresh Zotero installation and empty database, create two items.

2. Tag the first item with many tags that begin with "A", e.g., "A:1",...,"A:700". I used Zutilo's "paste tags" function with this text file.

3. For the second item, try to add tag "A:1" by typing it in the right-hand "Tags" tab.

4. Typing appears to be halted on the first character, but eventually finishes when waiting long enough.
  • dstillman
    Looking into this — thanks.
  • CostBenKMA
    I'm having this problem also
  • blindtetra
    Ditto. Sluggish since the security update thingy today.
  • Frank Driesen
    I'm having the same problem since Zotero 5.0.79
  • stroom
    same here. But not sluggish or finishing after waiting. Screen basically freezes after the first few digits. Then a tag is created with only first 1-3 digits without hitting enter.
  • stroom
    ps. and a file zotero.sqlite.105.bak is created at 10.16h CET 2019-12-02. Never seen this file before, zero hits on google
  • adamsmith
    Zotero creates dedicated .bak files (i.e. backups of the database) when it performs version updates that change the database structure, which was the case for 5.0.78 -- that's the .105.bak file, so that's perfectly normal.
  • qqbb
    Possible workarounds

    1. Type a few characters starting from the second character of the tag, then add the first one. The autocomplete search should have much fewer results and the issue doesn't occur.

    2. Dragging an item to a tag in the tag selector in the lower left works without problems.

    3. Use the Zutilo add-on to paste tags to an item from the clipboard, e.g. copied from a text file. The functions are described in the documentation.
  • dstillman
    OK, the latest Zotero beta limits autocomplete to 25 results. Please give that a try and let us know if it fixes the problem for you.

    (5.0.78 featured a new tags box implementation, including the autocomplete functionality. We could probably optimize it to support huge numbers of autocomplete rows, but I'm not sure seeing more than 25 results is particularly useful anyway.)

    Thanks to @qqbb for the clear steps to reproduce.
  • dstillman
    This fix is included in Zotero 5.0.80, available now via Help → "Check for Updates…".
  • qqbb
    The issue is resolved in Zotero 5.0.80. Thanks a lot for the quick fix!

    BTW, I had a minor issue when updating from 5.0.78 to 5.0.80. The first time I updated, the update window seemed stuck at the end of the process with

    Software Update
    Downloading Zotero
    Applying update...

    I closed Zotero through "File" -> "Exit" and all was fine. Subsequently updating from 5.0.79 to 5.0.80 did go as expected.
  • dstillman
    Yeah, the update window hangs every now and then, for unclear reasons — not a new problem, and it goes away after a restart. We'll need to live with it until we switch to a new framework.
  • Nosaze
    Thanks for the work to fix the tags-related performance problem. It's gone away since upgrading to 5.0.80.
  • SydneyE
    I came here to see if anyone else was having the problem and instead found the solution! I applied the update just now and everything seems to be back to normal. Thanks for solving my problem as soon as I knew I had it! :)
This discussion has been closed.