zotero loading time

darrask
When you have big reference libraries, that is the case with meta-analysis studies, the time Zotero takes to load approximately more than 2000 references can make firefox freeze for a too long time, and that delay increases with the number of references/citations in your library.
It would be better to have Zotero operational before it finishes loading all items in the citation list, because that can still be done when you click on the collection.
  • dstillman
    I'll quote what I've said elsewhere:
    Currently, with large databases, opening Zotero will be slow if you close and reopen Firefox each time. Instead its design take into account that many people leave Firefox open all the time (and on OS X, where closing all windows doesn't close the app, everyone does), and so it caches the item listing in memory the first time the pane is opened in a Firefox session.

    Our options here are limited, since SQLite doesn't have native extended character set collation support and Mozilla doesn't yet support custom collation sequences, which we'd need to push sorting of the items list into the database. But I think the current behavior works pretty well for most people and makes subsequent usage fast.
    This last part regarding SQLite is no longer the case in Firefox 3.6, so we may be able to make some major optimizations in future versions. But in the meantime, as long as you keep at least one Firefox window open (assuming you're on Windows), opening the Zotero pane should be instantaneous.
  • darrask
    Yes, indeed it is instantaneous when the library has already been opened before. Thank you for your answer.
  • balshemh
    I noticed Dan's comment mentioned "assuming you're on Windows". I'm using Firefox 3.6.13 and Zotero 2.0.9 on Ubuntu 10.04, and it doesn't seem to make a difference whether I leave Firefox open or not, it takes a long time to load any item list every time. Do I need to reduce the size of my library (please say no), is there something else I can do to improve performance, or will Zotero 2.1 handle this better?
  • dstillman
    balshemh: As in, closing and opening the Zotero pane? Switching to another collection? The former should certainly be instantaneous. The latter shouldn't take more than a second or two, if that, and for most libraries should be instantaneous.

    But this thread was about the first load of Zotero after a Firefox restart, so start a new thread if it's another issue and provide a Debug ID for the action in question. Also tell us how many items you have, including attachments.
  • balshemh
    Thanks, Dan. There definitely seems to be something going on (and it's only a relatively recent occurrence). I'm not sure of the pattern of the delay yet -- it doesn't always happen. So I'm going to work with it a bit more and once I have some more info, I'll start a new thread. -- Howard

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