Cannot enable OpenOffice extension

srk
Hello,

I have tried to install the OpenOffice extension (provided on the website as a .zip file) - I am using version 2.2.1 of OpenOffice under Linux. I have tried (using Tools - Extension Manager) to install the extension, as administrator into 'OpenOffice Extensions' *and*, seperately, as an ordinary user into 'My Extensions'. The .oxt file shows up in both cases in the Extension Manager, but the 'Enable' button is always disabled and no toolbar items appear.

What am I doing wrong?

Many thanks in advance!
  • pcav
    May be stupid questions, but:
    - does the extension show as enabled?
    - have you restarted OOo?
    I have installed the extension on several machines (both 64 and 32 bit), and never had a problem.
  • srk
    @pcav:

    - No, the extension doesn't show as enabled, and the 'Enable' button is grayed out
    - Yes
  • sybille
    Hi,
    Could you explain what you did when you tried to install the extension as root? Did you start OOo as root and then use the extension manager?

    I'm asking these questions because I'm thinking that the fact that you can see the extension but it cannot be enabled is the sign of a permissions problem. But what I'd suggest trying at this point depends on how you installed the extension as administrator.

    Thanks.
  • srk
    @sybille - yes

    su,
    cd to OOo program directory,
    'unopkg gui' to open extensions manager,
    'Add'
  • sybille
    Well, first thing, I'd try uninstalling the extension by that same method, using 'unopkg gui' and 'Remove' as root.

    In addition, I'd delete the settings directory created for root when using that method. In other words, you'd want to delete /root/.ooo-2.0 and its contents.

    Once you've done this, you ought to be able to reinstall the extension as your regular mortal user, in which case it will be written to a subdirectory of ~/.ooo-2.0 (as opposed to /root/.ooo-2.0/, where it is now, I believe). So, once you've removed and deleted as suggested, restart OOo as your user and then use Tools -> Extensions Manager... to reinstall Zotero.oxt as that user.

    Hopefully, this will sort things out for you. :)
  • srk
    @sybille

    Thank to your help, I finally found out what was going wrong.

    It seemed that the original zip file contained a file called 'Zotero-OOo-Plugin-1.0a4.oxt', which in turn contained another file called 'Zotero.oxt' which found I found specifically by looking deep in the .openoffice.org2 directory heirarchy.

    The Extension Manager did not seem willing to unpack this particular set of Russian dolls all the way down to the part with the functionality 8-)

    So having copied out the file 'Zotero.oxt', I deleted all extensions and then pointed the Extension Manager at this *specific* file, *NOT* the original .oxt file.

    And now, after restarting, finally, it seems to work.

    Many thanks!
  • dstillman
    It seemed that the original zip file contained a file called 'Zotero-OOo-Plugin-1.0a4.oxt', which in turn contained another file called 'Zotero.oxt' which found I found specifically by looking deep in the .openoffice.org2 directory heirarchy.
    Zotero-OOo-Plugin-1.0a4.zip on our site contains a single file, Zotero.oxt. I don't know how you got the appearance of multiple levels—perhaps you inadvertently renamed the zip file to .oxt when first attempting to install?—but it wasn't from the zip file on our site.
  • hyperlink1uk
    I had a similar issue, I had to unzip the file I downloaded from your web site and then insert the *.oxt file as the extension
  • dstillman
    I had a similar issue, I had to unzip the file I downloaded from your web site and then insert the *.oxt file as the extension
    Yes, you have to unzip the zip file from our website and then install the oxt file contained within. (oxt files are technically zip files as well, but that's irrelevant for installation.)

    We package the oxt in a zip mainly just so that each version's download can have a unique name, avoiding caching issues, while keeping the filename of the oxt file the same. That way it will automatically overwrite the old version. What do other OO extensions do?
  • dstillman
    I've created a ticket to add support for updating the OO extension via the online update mechanism, which should simplify things.

    In the meantime, I suppose we could stop bundling the oxt in a zip, but we'd have to adjust the instructions to make it clear that you had to remove the old version manually when updating.
  • bdarcus
    OpenOffice has been working on providing something like Mozilla's extension infrastructure. I'm not sure how good it is, but am wondering if Zotero might take advantage of it? See here.
  • RintzeRintze
    Can't you, at least for now, circumvent the caching issue by providing new versions of the oxt-file at new URL's? Something like:

    http://www.zotero.org/download/integration/OOo-Plugin-1.0a4/Zotero.oxt

    where a new folder is created for each new version, while the file name stays the same?
  • dstillman
    Can't you, at least for now, circumvent the caching issue by providing new versions of the oxt-file at new URL's?
    Yeah, we'll do that for now. Thanks.

    I tried creating a description.xml in the oxt file with an extension identifier, but when I gave a second copy of the oxt file a different filename, NeoOffice still installed a second copy of the extension rather than offering to replace the existing one. Not sure why...
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