I'm in a similar boat. I upgraded to Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 running firefox 3.5.4 with Zotero 2.0b7.4, OpenOffice Integration 3.0a5, NeoOffice 3.0.1 and everything installed fine however, when I try to enter a citation I get the error, "OpenOffice cannot communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Firefox is open and try again." I too have tried reinstalling everything to no avail.

Perhaps I shouldn't have posted this here because I am using a different OS, however, the problem is almost exactly the same.

If you're getting this error on OS X, open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and, in the window that opens, type
bash -c "echo 'OpenOffice addCitation' > ~/.zoteroIntegrationPipe"
and press return. That might let you add a citation, an error might appear in the Terminal window, or nothing might happen. Either way, let me know the result.

If you're getting this issue on Windows, it's hard to tell what the problem might be. Try closing Firefox, opening Word, and then typing the following into the search box in the start menu:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -silent -ZoteroIntegrationAgent OpenOffice -ZoteroIntegrationCommand addCitation

or, if you have a 64-bit version of Windows:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -silent -ZoteroIntegrationAgent OpenOffice -ZoteroIntegrationCommand addCitation

You should get an add citation dialog. If this works, try doing the same with Firefox already open.

Edit: Corrected commands.

I'm not exactly sure how that could have happened, but try typing the following command into the Terminal
sudo rm ~/.zoteroIntegrationPipe
When prompted, type your password and click return. After you restart Firefox, things should work properly again.

No, your OS X user password.

Do you still get the same message if you run

bash -c "echo 'OpenOffice addCitation' > ~/.zoteroIntegrationPipe"
If so, try (again in the Terminal)

ls -la ~/.zoteroIntegrationPipe
and post the output here.

What about this?

ls -lad ~

It looks like the permissions on your home directory are incorrect. Your home directory is owned by "johncroutch", but your username (or short name, as Apple calls it) appears to be "johnpaulcroutch". Did you by any chance create a new user account for yourself in the recent past, then rename the home directory of your old account? If so, you should be able to fix the issue by typing

sudo chown johnpaulcroutch ~
and then your OS X password when prompted.

Tried the procedure suggested by Simon, above, for Windows 7 32-bit. It gave me a Firefox hyperlink, which when clicked gave me an "add citation" dialog. But then when I try to use the Zotero toolbar to add a citation into the same document, I get the same old error message again -- "unable to communicate."

And I agree with someone else -- it seems to come and go. Sometimes it just works for a while, then stops again.

Graham

I am experiencing similar issues:
Windows XP
Open Office 3.1.1
Zotero 2.0b7.6
O/O Integration 3.0a5
FF 3.5

When attempting to add a citation using the Zotero toolbar within O/O Writer I receive the following error message:
“OpenOffice could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Firefox is open and try again.” I also get a similar message when attempting to use MS Word 2003.

For OpenOffice,
based on info from forums, I used the following command line:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -silent -ZoteroIntegrationAgent OpenOffice -ZoteroIntegrationCommand addCitation

If Firefox is closed and I use the command line above, then I get the following error message:
“Firefox could not load the component required to communicate with your word processor. Please ensure that the appropriate Firefox extension is installed, then try again”

If I open Firefox first, and then use the command line, I am allowed to insert the citation; but still cannot use the toolbar.

For MS Word:
used the following command line: “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -silent -ZoteroIntegrationAgent WinWord -ZoteroIntegrationCommand addCitation

Using the command line, I can add a citation with Firefox closed and open; but it will not work using Zotero toolbar in Word

So far I used zotero just to collect references. I think I only ever used it once with neooffice to make a citation list.
Today it was not working anymore (I presume i agreed to uptate to the new zotero).
-I Instaled various neo office plug ins, no Joy, remove old odx...
-various re-instaled plug ins don't appear in neooffice extensions
-Tried to go back to the old zotero: erro ressages all over the place and can't open zotero anymore.
-Install the plug ins needed to use zotero with MS word for mac 2008 (says ther will be trouble taking documents from MS word to openoffice/neooffice so abandon


FINALLY
-Install latest neooffice. Hurray I thought the toolbar is there, and the extension is there.
But then I had the same problem (error) as Johnny FM when trying to insert a citation


I did:

open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and, in the window that opens, type
bash -c "echo 'OpenOffice addCitation' > ~/.zoteroIntegrationPipe"

Terminal comes back with my username.
Nothing happens in neooffice i.e. when I click insert citation. Not even an error message anymore.
I went through the other terminal commands suggested but nothing seems to change.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks very much for taking the time to try and help Simon!

1.Your terminal command initiates the add reference dialogue.
How do I get this (and any of the other zotero buttons ) from the tool bar?
Or failing that what are the terminal commands that will allow me to use the other functions?


2.What do you mean by reinstalling the neooffice components?
un-install and then re-install the plug in in firefox? Or delete the extension in neoofice and if the later re-add it from firefox (as i did initially) or manually add the extension in neooffice from the firefox profile? or all of the above.
Before going to the latest version of neoofice i deleted the extension in neooffice and was then unable to add it again. it only worked again with the new version of neooffice.
So i'm a bit hessitant to do that but since it is not working anyway I might as well...

3. i'm having trouble with seeing the cursor in this forum and curser position in thunderbird today. Might this be a side effect of any of the terminal commands suggested in this thread?

Could you please elaborate on point 1.
(trouble shooting = solve the problem? or indicate nature of the problem?)
sorry question was
How do I get this (and any other zotero buttons in neooffice ) to work from the tool bar?


2. Done it (just did not know that one can link to place in a website rather than just top so was not sure which section applied to me)
Zotero toolbar doesn't appear: steps 1-4 several 2-3times after installing the new neooffice.
First time before opening it first time

Recap: The toolbar was always there (in the new version), but gave error when clicking any buttons.

After Terminal command bash -c "echo 'OpenOffice addCitation' > ~/.zoteroIntegrationPipe"

No more error messages but no reaction on clicking buttons whats who ever anymore.

Termina command
bash -c "echo 'OpenOffice addCitation' > /Users/Shared/.zoteroIntegrationPipe_$USER"
Does what the button click is supposed to do but does not activate the tool bar buttons.

3. Relieved

OK i seem to have found the problem or it was the usual just chance.

I changed from the 3.0b5 to the 3.0b2 plugin (which according to the documentation is what i should have used anyway) but only cause I found that faster than the 3.0b5 version... i'm sure that someone in another thread with the same OS, version of firefox and neooffice claimed his was working with 3.0b5...

(so if that was indeed the sole problem I'm sorry for wasting every ones time)

Hi I have been having a similar issue as afp401 with the NeoOffice plugin except my problem started occurring after I installed the 2.1 beta.

OS- OSX 10.6.5
Zotero Plugin - Zotero 2.1b2
OpenOffice Plugin - 3.1a2
NeoOffice 3.12 patch 1
Firefox 4.0b7

- I have installed zotero on firefox and it is functioning fine within the browser and has access to my database.

- I have installed the plugin in NeoOffice and the toolbar was viewable. But when I tried to use the buttons I received the "OpenOffice cannot communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Firefox is open and try again." error message

- I used the Terminal command bash -c "echo 'OpenOffice addCitation' > ~/.zoteroIntegrationPipe" and like afp nothing occured and now I no longer receive an error message (this is persistent even after a full re-install of NeoOffice).

- I have used the bash -c "echo 'OpenOffice addCitation' > /Users/Shared/.zoteroIntegrationPipe_$USER" command but this also produces no effect.

-Another note when I install the NeoOffice extension components through FF I get a message saying 'installation was sucessful' however the preference pane still says that the extension is not currently installed.

- When zotero starts up in FF I do get the Integration HTTP server listening on 127.0.0.1:50001


I am not sure if this should be posted in the beta forum seeing as how this is a problem that began from installing the beta, but it seeing as how this problem is so similar to the previous problems it may have a similar solution. Any suggestions?

Thanks