how to migrate from Firefox?

TomRoche

summary: I'm a longtime Netscape/Mozilla user, and have done all my Zotero work on FF3. I've switched to Chrome for much superior performance. I'm dimly aware of Zotero Everywhere, but don't know much. I'd appreciate pointers to docs, or other advice, regarding how to migrate most performantly from FF to ZE or Chrome or Something Completely Different (that runs on Ubuntu).

details:

$ lsb_release -ds
Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
$ uname -rv
2.6.32-27-generic #49-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 2 00:51:09 UTC 2010
$ sudo aptitude update ; sudo aptitude full-upgrade
...
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
...
$ firefox --version
Mozilla Firefox 3.6.13, Copyright (c) 1998 - 2010 mozilla.org
$ google-chrome --version
Google Chrome 8.0.552.224

I ran FF and ancestors for years, and still prefer its interface in many ways, but switched to Chrome a few months ago. Chrome just runs much faster and consumes so much less system resources, on my box anyway. However now I need to get back to research, which means I need to get back into Zotero, but I'd prefer not to hafta run a separate FF instance. How to do this most easily? And where can I get detailed instructions for how to do that?

Apologies if this is a FAQ, but after some searching of this forum, zotero.org, and the httposphere, I didn't see anything like what I'm requesting ("Migrating Zotero for Dummies"?). Note that I will cheerfully RTFM: just point me to the appropriate doc and section.

Feel free to forward, or to reply to me directly, and TIA, Tom_Roche@pobox.com

  • RintzeRintze
    Code for Zotero Everywhere is available via the Zotero SVN code repository, which should allow daring adventurers to build their own copy, but I'm not aware of anyone actually having done that (apart from the Zotero developers, that is). For anybody but experienced developers, I'd suggest waiting a bit until an installable release is made available (which will surely be accompanied with the necessary documentation). Just hang on for now :).

    (most of this information can be found at http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-everywhere-first-look/ )
  • TomRoche 
    Rintze Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 8:52 PM EST (excerpted)
    > I'd suggest waiting a bit until an installable release is made
    > available (which will surely be accompanied with the necessary
    > documentation)[...] (most of this information can be found at
    > http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-everywhere-first-look/
    I saw that, but (based on 
    http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-everywhere-first-look/ (excerpted)
    > Posted October 13th, 2010[:] within the next few weeks we’ll package
    > an alpha release that’s more easily accessible
    and the fact that it's been 10 weeks) I was hoping something was out and I just wasn't able to find it.

    I'm wondering, are there directions for building ZE and the Chrome extension from source? I've got subversion and can handle ./configure; make; make install
  • ajlyon
    Well, it's more than just make, install, run. If you want to try -- go for it! The code is there. There is a build script in the repository.
  • TomRoche 
    ajlyon ~1am EST 28 Dec 10
    > The code is there. There is a build script in the repository.
    ... and that's it doc-wise--not even much commenting :-( So, after getting an initial build/run, Your assistance (esp w the questions post :-) is appreciated! Hoping to make this less of a timesuck for the next person (at least, next ubuntuan) who tries this, Tom_Roche@pobox.com
  • Simon
    To address most of your questions, the Chrome extension is in https://www.zotero.org/svn/connector/chrome/trunk/. (There's also a Safari extension there.) You can load the extension by enabling developer mode and selecting "Load unpacked extension" (more details in step 4 here).

    You should see a dialog asking you if you want to use your Firefox Zotero database the first time you open Zotero Standalone, but you can also use your Firefox Zotero database by selecting the appropriate directory as your Zotero data directory.

    Right now, we don't run any special tests in Zotero Standalone, since the code is effectively identical to the Firefox extension with a slightly different UI.

    Zotero Standalone and the Chrome and Safari extensions are almost ready for an alpha release, but we are blocked by Firefox bugs 615153 and 620773. The former breaks all word processor integration in Firefox 4/XULRunner 2, and the latter breaks OpenOffice.org integration in Firefox 3.6.14pre and Firefox 4.
  • TomRoche
    Thanks for your response. I'll try {build, run, test, doc}ing the Chrome extension later, hopefully this evening. Meanwhile I'm wondering

    TomRoche ~11pm EST 28 Dec 10
    >> Is there a more extensive test suite? E.g., what do youse do pre-commit?

    Simon ~4am EST 29 Dec 10
    > we don't run any special tests in Zotero Standalone, since the code is effectively identical to the Firefox extension

    OK, so what's the test suite (e.g. pre-commit) for the Firefox extension?

    > Firefox bugs 615153 and 620773 [break] word processor integration

    Presently I'm using zotero "write-only" (just to store citations), so that's not a problem. I'm presuming that the old- and new-style backends are the same--correct? I.e., if I needed OOo integration, I could just point my FF3 profile @ the SQLite I used with Chrome||ZS||ZE||sa (hmm ... need a standard name for this): correct?
  • TomRoche
    Your further assistance troubleshooting this problem with the Chrome extension would be appreciated.
  • matt_price
    I think this is still on topic. I'm trying out zotero sa -- which I finally can build, thanks to the new instructions, thanks everyone. The SA application now runs, but it's not clear to me how to send it references from firefox (currently using 3.6.14~hg20101206r34804, I'll switch to firefox 4 as soon as zotero supports it or chrome supports zotero on ubuntu). Presumably I need an updated extension from somewhere. I look forward to hearing more from ubuntu users about this and about chrome compatibility. Thanks!
    Matt
  • tomrochewiki
    matt_price: "I look forward to hearing more from ubuntu users about [running zotero sa from firefox] and about [running zotero sa from] chrome"

    Thanks in part to your suggestion re chromium vs google-chrome, I have added to http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/svn_and_trac_access#running_zotero_standalone
    * a section with instructions for running {zotero sa + chrome}
    * a separate, dummy section for running {zotero sa + firefox}. This currently lacks instructions: when you or others can do that, please update.
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