proxy requesting username and password

jackdrg
Hello!

The current situation has forced me (like many others I guess) to use a proxy from my institution while working from home in order to access online resources that otherwise I could not view.

After having set the proxy in Firefox, everytime I open zotero a message shows up requesting username and password for that proxy. In the pop up window that appears I do not have the option to save the username and password so that I don't have to fill it in everytime I run zotero.

Looking the online documentation I gather I should be able to do that? And if simply close the pop up window after opening zotero nothing really seems to change?

I may have missed something while reading the online documentation but can you help me sort this out?

Thanks!
  • dstillman
    Looking the online documentation I gather I should be able to do that?
    No. What are you referring to? Auto-saving of proxy credentials has never been supported, though there've been a few requests over the years.

    I think we can make this work, though. Stay tuned.
    And if simply close the pop up window after opening zotero nothing really seems to change?
    Without proxy access, either no network access from Zotero will work and lots of things will be broken (if all traffic goes through the proxy) or gated PDFs won't be saved along with items (if there's a proxy auto-config file that routes particular sites through the proxy).

    (These days, web-based proxies are more common, and Zotero supports those without needing to handle authentication itself, so this doesn't come up that much. But a real proxy does allow Zotero to download gated PDFs when using Add Item by Identifier or Find Available PDF within Zotero itself.)
  • jackdrg
    I apologise in advance for my informatic illiteracy. I managed to memorize my credentials in the authentication window popping up when I open zotero as, I don't know why, it appeared the option "save credentials in passoword manager..." or something similar. Therefore the fields are auto filled whenever I run the software.

    Should I see this proxy in the proxy option of the zotero connector, in the configured proxy tab?

    Thanks
  • dstillman
    No, this doesn't have anything to do with the Proxies pane in the Zotero Connector. Those are for the web-based proxies I referred to above.
    I managed to memorize my credentials in the authentication window popping up when I open zotero as, I don't know why, it appeared the option "save credentials in passoword manager..." or something similar.
    Yeah, that's the checkbox that we're going to try to make appear all the time. I'm not sure why it'd be appearing some of the time now. If it does appear, and you check it, the password will be saved, as you saw.

    You may also want to open the Config Editor in the Advanced pane of the preferences and toggle signon.autologin.proxy to true. That'd be the equivalent of the "Do not prompt for authentication if password is saved" option in the Firefox proxy preferences. We'll probably default that to true at the same time that we fix password saving.
  • dstillman
    Zotero 5.0.88, available now, provides an option to remember the proxy username and password. Auto-login is currently disabled, but you can enable it using signon.autologin.proxy as explained above.
  • RAPHIH
    hello,

    i have been having opposite problem. Zotero remembers an outdated username/password proxy combination that does not seem to be saved in either my computer network settings or my browser settings. If i replace them and have "remember this password" checked, the new settings are not remembered.

    any clue what's going on?
  • dstillman
    @RAPHIH: Does it use the new credentials for that session, though?

    Go to Tools → Developer → Run JavaScript and run this:

    let logins = Services.logins.getAllLogins().filter(x => x.hostname.startsWith('moz-proxy://'));
    for (let loginInfo of logins) {
    Services.logins.removeLogin(loginInfo);
    }

    Then restart Zotero and the original values should have been cleared.
  • RAPHIH
    edited February 8, 2021
    @dstillman It was using the old credentials, but the script you gave worked. It cleared the old values and the new values I just entered are remembered and with autologin set to true it doesn't ask me anymore!

    Thank you!
  • mrgerlo
    Thank you for the algorithm to update the credentials @dstillman, it worked like a charm!
  • Gab_DION
    @dstillman, you are my hero. I've been manually changing my username and password for the last 6 months before searching for a solution. Thanks!
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