Feature Request: Stand Alone Zotero

2
  • ajlyon
    I can partially confirm Heckscher's report. The behavior is that when you make Zotero fullscreen, it sets the title to "Zotero", as you'd expect. If you then open a new tab (Ctrl-T), the tab opens behind the Zotero window as expected, and the title changes to "Mozilla Firefox". This seems like behavior that would be the case for all platforms, and that might not be so easy to remedy-- there's something to be said for allowing the title of the selected tab to show up.

    Heckscher--- Are you sure that you aren't loading a new tab behind the Zotero pane when the title switches from "Zotero" to "Mozilla Firefox"? If the title is changing back without anything happening to the browser tabs, it's probably a bug.
  • aaronchall
    Heckscher, I have the same issue, and my workaround is to toggle fullscreen off and on (UNmaximize, then maximize it again). What I think is happening, is fullscreen Zotero is coming up with the Firefox, but Firefox brings up a blank screen underneath, stealing the title bar.

    Aaron
  • ghiozzo
    You'll soon be able to have a standalone-app for Zotero. Just wait for the next releases of prism (https://mozillalabs.com/prism/). Their website states:

    News from Prism: "What’s Next: We’re working on plans to refactor Prism to run as a customized version of Firefox, rather than as a XULRunner application. This will have the advantage of making Firefox extensions work on Prism without modification"

    Cheers!
  • krueschan
    [summary: explains how to make a standalone zotero installation]

    Hi all,

    I also see at least one major advantage of having zotero as a 'stand alone' app, mainly for one particular reason: I am using my browser quite heavily including pages with a lot of scripting and FF extensions etc and sooner or later it will simply become non-responsive and require a fresh start, which is a nuisance if one's browser is also one's reference management program.

    However, it IS quite possible to have zotero running in its own firefox instance and have another firefox instance running for browsing. In that case, when the browsing instance crashes, the zotero instance is still nice and responsive.

    The key lies in a combination of two firefox command line switches: -no-remote and -P

    Let me explain: In a first step, create a new user for your zotero use (running "firefox -ProfileManager" gets you the profile manage, I think there is also a way to get there through FF's GUI, but I didn't find that just now). Let's call this user 'zotero'. Now, start FF as this user and install all the zotero stuff you need, ie zotero plug in, zotero Word/oO plugins, set zotero://fullscreen as your homepage etc.

    Now, if you run firefox with the command "firefox -no-remote -P zotero" you open FF as this user and 'no-remote' allows you to load up additional FF instances, too. It might make sense to create a shortcut/link to that command and call it "zotero". Now as a last step it also makes sense to alter you normal shortcut/link that you use to start your "browsing" FF to have to "-no-remote" switch as well (otherwise it matters in which order the different instances are started).

    Voila - Standalone zotero, which runs with a neat and clean FF profile (not cluttered up with all those extensions that you might use for your "browsing" instance) which will not crash if your "browsing" instance goes down.

    This solution, I think, fulfils most of the reasons people have to demand a standalone solution. One think that might still be cool, though, if zotero could run fullscreen in only one FF tab and open documents, notes etc in other tabs. IMHO this would make for a nicer switching between zotero and the documents, but the keyboard shortcut for zotero fullscreen is a pretty decent compromise.

    Hope this is helpful at all,
    Christian
  • krueschan
    P.S. Judging from some forum comments, user who use the word plugin, might have problems running their "zotero" instance with the no-remote command line switch. I have never run into this problem, but only since I am doing my writing on a different computer. According to the comments, the "zotero instance" would need to be started without the "no-remote" switch and multiple instances are still possible if all other instances use the no-remote switch.
  • goodenoughcui
    I am very eager for the the standlone zotero edition. Though Endnote X4 has been released, I still feel proud of the powerful tag cloud function of Zotero. Since the limitation of the view range in Firefox, Standlone edition may be the best choice.
  • konradz
    But it's still only Windows version, I mean X4, isn't it? Last time I checked X3 was the latest product for mac. The ideal product for me - Zotero's ability to grab the references combined with EndNote's ability and comfort of editing the bibliographic styles and managing references database.
  • ghiozzo
    @krueschan: This problem can be avoided by leaving away the no-remote command for the zotero profile of firefox, but instead using the no-remote option on the standard profile, e.g. a weasel-quick-almost-no-extension-profile. This way I have 2 versions of firefox: One for everyday use (weasel), one for paper-work (zotero). You can have them running at the same time too, if you need to. Thanks to xmarks-plugin, bookmarks are always synchronised.
  • lftp
    Good to see these options considered.
    I wish to see an independent Z frame SOMEWHERE (anywhere) other than the FF tab I'm currently viewing (real estate issue). That said, when I go to the sidebar/standalone/whatever Z frame - I want Z to remember which tab had focus and it's url etc.
    My working scenario is this: numerous tabs open - I want to send some or all of them to Z for placement in the currently active collection. This is not difficult to do manually, and, as noted, I want more visual real estate. Especially on my netbook.
    I'm moving more and more towards using Z to replace bookmarks, scrapbook etc.
  • cmbarton
    Can anyone offer instructions on how to build Zotero standalone? I'd like to try it out and see where it's headed. I checked out the source from the svn but there are no build instructions of any kind with it. That seems kind of strange, and there are instructions on the dev page for building Zotero as a Firefox extension. So I'm wondering if there are build instructions posted somewhere else.
  • mark
    I would be interested too. Since the original posting on the Zotero blog it has been rather silent on this front.
  • noksagt
    I checked out the source from the svn but there are no build instructions of any kind with it.
    There's an build_sa shell script that may require minor modifications. I built it on Linux with no modifications to the script by checking out the svn source, providing a copy of xulrunner (I copied /usr/lib/xulrunner to both xulrunner and xulrunner_linux_ARCH), and running the script. This produced a working Zotero_Linux-i686/zotero executable. Presumably, I could have cross-compiled it by providing the xulrunner lib files and the xulrunner-stub executables for the other architectures.
  • aatawfik
    I recently saw where Zotero will be building a standalone app. I just say thank you thank you thank you thank you!

    I was just wondering if there was an estimate as to when this might be done? I'm not trying to be a bother, but I was just wondering if the team had a ballpark idea of when this might be in (2 months, 6 months, 1 year)
  • adamsmith
    it's always hard to say when a version is going to be ready for release, but the standalone as well as plugins for safari and chrome are mostly functional and can be checked out through SVN and tested.
    http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/svn_and_trac_access#svn_access
    though I'd consider that pre-alpha at the moment.
  • cmbarton
    This is all wonderful news. Does a safari plugin mean that Zotero will work on iOS?
  • noksagt
    The safari plugin still needs the zotero standalone. This requires XULRunner, which is not on iOS yet. There is not likely to be an official iPhone/iPad zotero app, but there is still promise to use zotero on these platforms.

    The Zotero team has also said they would provide bookmarklets to support write access to your online Zotero database in other browsers. We'll have to see if this bookmarklet works on the iOS browsers, but I would think it is likely. There will also be improved server functionality to interact with your database in any browser. And the opening of APIs will allow third parties to build Zotero tools for your platform.
  • cmbarton
    I just tried the standalone. On my Mac (OS 10.6.4) I built it using the build_sa shell script without modification and it went fine. I had installed xulrunner from the Mac binary previously. For building the standalone, I just did an SVN checkout, cd to the directory with the source code, and ran...

    sh build_sa

    No problems building at all.

    BUT and a VERY BIG BUT...

    When I ran the new standalone, it said that my database needed to be upgraded. I saved a copy of the database before proceeding. Good thing too. After it upgraded my database, the standalone ran fine. But when I wanted to use Zotero from within Firefox, it said that my version of Zotero was too old for my database. Fortunately, I could just switch back to the original I'd copied and all was fine.

    So, it is easy to compile from source on the Mac, but don't use it on your main database.
  • cmbarton
    I just tried to check out the safari and chrome plugins and was forbidden by the svn. Any idea as to why? Here is the svn command and results. I double checked my password and it is OK (which is why I can post to this forum).

    =========================================================================
    cmb-MBP:zotero_dev cmbarton$ cd zotero_connectors
    cmb-MBP:zotero_connectors cmbarton$ svn co https://www.zotero.org/svn/connectors
    Authentication realm: <https://www.zotero.org:443>; Zotero Dev
    Password for 'cmbarton':
    svn: Server sent unexpected return value (403 Forbidden) in response to OPTIONS request for 'https://www.zotero.org/svn/connectors'
    cmb-MBP:zotero_connectors cmbarton$
  • dstillman
    edited September 25, 2010
    When I ran the new standalone, it said that my database needed to be upgraded. I saved a copy of the database before proceeding. Good thing too. After it upgraded my database, the standalone ran fine. But when I wanted to use Zotero from within Firefox, it said that my version of Zotero was too old for my database.
    That's how database upgrading in Zotero works—it's no different from setting a trunk version of Zotero for Firefox to use your current database. And Zotero makes an automatic backup of the database before upgrading, so your manual backup was technically redundant (but certainly you shouldn't use an SVN build with your main database, as the page notes).

    The Standalone build script pulls from the trunk of Zotero for Firefox, so it is compatible with trunk builds of that (and those may or may not be compatible with the latest 2.1 beta at any given time).
    I just tried to check out the safari and chrome plugins and was forbidden by the svn. Any idea as to why?
    Because you used the wrong URL. There's no 's'.
  • cmbarton
    Not all new versions of Zotero upgrade the database. Just noting that the standalone does upgrade the database. Where does the backup go? Same Firefox directory?

    ----

    I tried the non-secure http version too, although the zotero svn web page says to use secure http. Still no luck.

    cmb-MBP:zotero_connectors cmbarton$ cd /Users/cmbarton/zotero_dev/zotero_connectors
    cmb-MBP:zotero_connectors cmbarton$ svn co http://www.zotero.org/svn/connectorssvn: Server sent unexpected return value (501 Not Implemented) in response to OPTIONS request for 'http://www.zotero.org/svn/connectors'
    cmb-MBP:zotero_connectors cmbarton$
  • ajlyon
    The backup is in your Zotero data directory.

    The "s" you don't need is on "connectors". It should be "connector".
  • dstillman
    Not all new versions of Zotero upgrade the database. Just noting that the standalone does upgrade the database.
    Right, but I'm referring to that upgrade wizard. Whenever you see that, the database will be irrevocably upgraded, as it warns.
  • cmbarton
    OK. I did a successful checkout. Thanks for noticing the typo. It is connector not connectors. But it is https not http.

    --------------------

    The first time I started the standalone, it asked if I wanted to use my default database in Firefox or another one. When I said use the Firefox one it started the upgrade wizard.

    I've restored my original non-upgraded database and would like to have the standalone use a different database since I now know that it wants to upgrade the main one. But now I don't get the original dialog asking me if I want to use the default database or not, just the upgrade wizard.

    Is there something I can change in a settings file somewhere to get it to pop up the dialog again that asks about which database to use?
  • cmbarton
    So how do I compile the safari and chrome plugins now that I've got the source. The update_resources.sh shell script doesn't seem to do that AFAICT, and I didn't see any other files that were obviously for compiling in the rest of the source code. Thanks for the help.
  • ajlyon
    See http://groups.google.com/group/zotero-dev/browse_thread/thread/638c87b36327d93 for details. I haven't tried it myself, so I can't really be of much help.
  • cmbarton
    Thanks. This gets me part of the way at least.
  • ajlyon
    It would be nice if someone posted pre-alpha compiled plugins for wider experimentation. I understand if the core team doesn't want to officially do so until they are a little more mature, but it would be great if an enterprising person posted a working download.
  • ralesi
    This just made my week. I am going to go ahead and use this full time. One thing, do you recommend a certain winword plugin to access the standalone zotero? Also, where is the best place to post bugs?
  • Simon
    edited September 27, 2010
    The Word plug-in is not yet working with Zotero standalone, although it should be in a week or so.

    Feel free to post bug reports on the forums (in new threads, indicating that the problems are with Zotero standalone), but don't expect immediate support. Also, keep in mind that the same warnings that apply to the trunk XPI also apply to Zotero standalone.
  • schymans
    I wanted a stand-alone zotero, because zotero keeps freezing my FF whenever I do a larger operation (sometimes to the extend that I have to force-quit). Before finding this thread, I just installed Firefox-portable in a dedicated directory may mac, then the zotero plugin into Firefox-portable and copied the zotero folder across from my original FF-profile. It seems to work well, and a crash of FF-portable should not interfere with my main FF.
    Just for those that want a quick and dirty solution while they are waiting for the final release of the official stand-alone version.

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