Firefox busy after each field edit

marsh
Hi,

Using beta 2.0b5 w/ FF 3.0.11 on Windows XP Pro (SP3), I am finding my system to be unacceptably slow. When I finish editing a field in Zotero, such as an author's name, the system slows down. According to Process Explorer, whenever this happens FF is taking up about half the CPU cycles. (I believe the system limits individual applications to 50% of CPU cycles.)

Is this possibly because Zotero is trying to sync the library after every field is edited? If so, is there a way to tell Zotero to suspend syncing? Since I was adding reference information for several articles in a special issue of a journal, it would probably be best to suspend syncing until I've finished all of the articles rather than sync after finishing with each individual reference.
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  • dstillman
    edited June 15, 2009
    Is this possibly because Zotero is trying to sync the library after every field is edited?
    Disable auto-sync in the Sync pane of the Zotero preferences, and you can see whether this is the cause. If it is, the syncs are probably failing—indicated by an exclamation mark on the sync icon and an error in Report Errors under the gear menu—because regular syncs should be instantaneous.

    Syncing happens 15 seconds after the last edit, though, so that may not be the problem you're experiencing. How many items do you have in your library? (Select All, look in right-hand pane.)
  • jdbln
    Hi there,

    I have just switched over my EndNote library to Zotero and have the same experience (Likewise using Zotero 2.0b5, Firefox 3.0.11 and XP ). I started testing Zotero on a small library ~300 entries, which worked really well. Since importing the rest of my library (~3000+ entries) Zotero has slowed down incredibly every time I select a Tag or edit a field. It seems however to be slow only when I have the Tag selector open. Perhaps this might give a hint as to what could be slowing things down. By the way I have the Sync feature disabled. Removing the pdf text indexing as well caused no change.

    Thanks again for a fantastic tool
  • marsh
    "Disable auto-sync in the Sync pane of the Zotero preferences, and you can see whether this is the cause. If it is, the syncs are probably failing—indicated by an exclamation mark on the sync icon and an error in Report Errors under the gear menu—because regular syncs should be instantaneous."

    I tried disabling, but it's hard to tell if this makes much difference. Both w/ and w/o auto-sync take a while but not as long a previously. I'm not modifying records exactly like the ones that gave me problems, but then again, the Internet may be less congested, etc.

    I'm definitely having failing syncs. I posted something about this earlier today.

    I have 2826 entries in my library.
  • dstillman
    marsh: What happens if you close the tag selector (using the icon to the left of the gear icon)?
  • marsh
    Dan,
    A few things happen if I close the tag selector. (1) I still failing syncs. The exclamation point has become an almost permanent fixture. (2) I tried reopening the tags shortly after importing a new reference and got the message, "An error has occurred. Please restart Firefox. ..." (3) Response time is still slow, but not as slow as when I reported the problem. I tried editing new references with and without the tag selector open. Although both are unacceptably slow but not as slow as when I reported the problem, I cannot discern one as being faster than the other. BTW, how would one isolate Zotero from other things Firefox or the OS might be doing in the background in order to determine what's causing the slow performance?
  • Jon Rubin
    edited June 18, 2009
    Hi Dan, not sure if I've got exactly the same behaviour because it's definitely not sync related (I've already got auto-sync turned off). I don't have the tag selector on, but if I edit an item I've found using the quick search - and don't clear the quick search then Zotero slows down hugely. There's no error report, as Zotero gets there in the end, but it does this for every entry found by the quick search:

    zotero(5)(+0000000): Binding parameter 1 of type int: 1808192

    zotero(3)(+0000001): Refreshing item boxzotero(5)(+0000914): SELECT creatorTypeID AS id, creatorType AS name FROM itemTypeCreatorTypes NATURAL JOIN creatorTypes WHERE itemTypeID=? ORDER BY primaryField=1 DESC, name

    zotero(5)(+0000000): Binding parameter 1 of type int: 2

    zotero(3)(+0000183): Switching lastCreatorFieldMode to 0

    zotero(3)(+0000095): Switching lastCreatorFieldMode to 0

    zotero(5)(+0000000): SELECT A.itemID, value AS title FROM itemAttachments A NATURAL JOIN items I LEFT JOIN itemData ID ON (fieldID=110 AND A.itemID=ID.itemID) LEFT JOIN itemDataValues IDV ON (ID.valueID=IDV.valueID) WHERE sourceItemID=? AND A.itemID NOT IN (SELECT itemID FROM deletedItems)

    zotero(5)(+0000001): Binding parameter 1 of type int: 1806876

    zotero(5)(+0000000): SELECT N.itemID, title FROM itemNotes N NATURAL JOIN items WHERE sourceItemID=? AND N.itemID NOT IN (SELECT itemID FROM deletedItems)

    zotero(5)(+0000000): Binding parameter 1 of type int: 1806876

    zotero(3)(+0000000): Refreshing item box

    If the quick search found a lot of things, this could appear to crash Firefox (unless you've got the terminal open). I can just clear the quick search before editing the item - but is there any way to not do what Zotero is currently doing?
    Firefox 3.5 latest dev build of Zotero.

    Regards,
    Jon.
  • mark
    edited June 18, 2009
    In my 2500 item library, response times are annoyingly slow for such fields as Place and Publisher, where Zotero is presumably doing a lookup for the autocomplete function. The effect is that I type the first letter, wait four seconds for Firefox to unlock, and only then complete typing (e.g. T ..... oronto). I find I can type all in one go, but then Firefox locks up anyway and it is very annoying to not have any visual feedback until a few seconds later, especially because you want to be able to quick tab from field to field.

    Autocomplete suggestions are nice, but only if they come up without any delay. As soon as there is a delay for more than a few hundred milliseconds, they become as annoying as speed bumps.

    Similarly, the Quick search lag is terrible with larger libraries - I never use it as 'Quick search' anymore, instead prepending " to get into Advanced mode. Wish the 'search if I press Enter'-mode were an option.

    (I always have the tag selector closed and auto-sync off.)
  • dstillman
    In my 2500 item library, response times are annoyingly slow for such fields as Place and Publisher, where Zotero is presumably doing a lookup for the autocomplete function.
    This is now fixed.
  • dstatman
    I've been experiencing the long latencies in the Author name field- the auto-complete drops down right away, but when I select one, Firefox freezes, sometimes for over a minute, and then the entry is changed.

    This is with auto-sync off. I haven't tried this on editing Place or Publisher.
  • dstillman
    dstatman: Same with tag selector closed?
  • dstatman
    Yes, this occurs with the tag selector box closed. I tried editing Place and Publisher fields, and Firefox also froze with each of those.
  • dstillman
    Post a Debug ID for the edit.
  • dstatman
    Wouldn't you know it- I enabled debug logging, edited an Author field, and there was no freeze; it responded right away. I'm not sure why the problem disappeared, but I'll try to log if it happens again.
  • brklassen
    I'm suffering what sounds like the same problem described by Jon Rubin and marsh: when I edit a field in an item I've located using Quick Search, Firefox hangs for a prohibitively long time after I hit "enter" to register the edit. If I clear the Quick Search box before editing, the problem disappears.

    Running Zotero 2.0b7.6 in Firefox 3.5.7 on Win 7.
    1GB RAM, Intel Pentium T2080 @ 1.73 GHz
  • dstatman
    Wouldn't you know it, the problem is back, this time on a new-ish Windows 7 installation (Firefox 3.5.7). This time it still happened after I enabled debugging- Debug ID is D1897100901.
  • MG6
    If it's helpful, in the past, I found that this problem could happen after I'd opened Zotero in more than one browser Window, which usually meant I also had a lot of tabs open--although that by itself did not result in a slow down. I usually just close Firefox and start up again to resolve it. I can't recall experiencing it recently, like within the past 2 updates.
  • Stan
    I am finding a similar problem. Trying to reformat about 20 or so references - lack of capitalisation of first letter in each work of a journal - one journal only where this happens. Each time I retype the journal name, Zotero hangs for awhile making this a slow process. I have turned off automatic sync but that did not affect it. I am not getting any exclamation marks by the sync arrow and it did not show unusual behaviour initially. Now it is just spinning endlessly. The report error option under the actions drop down menu is greyed - so I don't have an error report for you. I had this a few months ago and did not notice it - albeit I have not been tidying up my references the past few months.
  • alevisohn
    edited January 14, 2011
    I am having the same problem. I am trying to add three editors to a journal and every time I click on a field Firefox locks up and I have to wait anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes for the browser to recover. I restarted Firefox and the error persisted. I had been working with Microsoft Word so I also closed that application which did not solve the problem.

    The Debug ID is D251919676.
  • dstillman
    Provide a Debug ID for the edit, as I request above.
  • alevisohn
    I've added the Debug ID to my post above. It is Debug ID D251919676.
  • Stan
    I note that the problem has reoccurred for me today. Firefox required a force quit when I tried to associate a pdf with a record. When reopening I was presented with a sync problem (server versus local difference) on a journal file that was not very new. I also saw an old record that was a journal entry had been changed to a web page (this is a regular occurrence with me now) and that the authors names have been corrupted. There is a funny symbol in the middle of each name - a question mark in white reversed out of a black diamond. The changing of entries into web pages, or perhaps the downloading of journals as web pages but not noticed until I cite them is annoying as I lose the volume, pages etc and need to manually adjust my entries.
    My problem ID 1289202139
  • Stan
    Addendum. In correcting the corrupted names, two of three letters are "non standard" for US or UK keyboards - accentuated vowels if that helps
  • poirmw
    Stan: Speaking of "funny symbols," I drew attention to something very similar to what you are reporting in my posting in the category "Troubleshooting" some four days back. See my posting entitled "Zotero FF and Standalone." In my case, the "funny symbol" is a swirl where an apostrophe should be, in one instance, and what appears to be a a check mark of some sort where another apostrophe should be. Curious...? I suspect that it may have something to do with the new plugins for MSWord and OO, for I did not see this earlier. However, no one else seems to be reporting this or showing an interest in the problem.
  • ajlyon
    Stan: The downloading of journals as webpages is probably what's happening in your case. Are you sure that the items were originally saved as journal items? Many sites for which we don't have dedicated translators will still show a save icon, and if you hover over it, you'll see that the page has "Embedded RDF". Such data is enough to make a very minimal entry in Zotero, and Zotero will take a snapshot, but only very rarely is Embedded RDF enough to fill your bibliographic needs. When the Embedded RDF translator is being used, the webpage icon will display in the address bar, warning you that the item produced will be of type Webpage. But that's easy enough to not notice.

    As for the corruption of names, it sounds like an encoding issue. Can you provide a URL of a page that consistently causes this issue?
  • Stan
    Thanks:

    Re configuration (poirm} - Office for MAC had an update a few weeks but don't think that this where the problem lies for me. I have not had to update Zotero plugins recently that I recall.

    Re Embedded RDF (ajlyon). The sites from which I obtain bibliographic references are almost exclusively EBSCO and ABI PROQUEST accessed through my University VPN. I cannot capture my references through the brown icon top right of the browser URL bar and Dan has looked into this in the past. It is something to do with how my University structures access. I normally get known translator issue when I try. So I tag target references, push to the "folder" provided by EBSCO or PROQUEST, go to folder view, select the references and export to Bibliographic Reference tool. I have always had to to do it this way with only intermittent times when it works through the browser. The issue of capture as web sites however is a recent phenomenon - say 6 months. And it is not all that frequent - and I catch it through serendipity only so I might still be catching legacy issues. I will observe each download in future to see if it happens and from where.

    The corruption of names - I caught that only once but I have not gone through my 1000 references one by one. I don't know from where I obtained that reference so I will be more observant in future as I obtain references and if I spot it again in the near future, I will post to this thread the details.
  • ajlyon
    It is definitely possible that there are occasional items that either are being exported incorrectly by EBSCO and ProQuest, or imported incorrectly by Zotero. But without seeing the data that Zotero is being fed, I can't really figure out what is happening. So definitely post here if you identify such an item. It shouldn't be possible for items to spontaneously change types, so I'm hesitant to believe that's happening so long as we can't exclude the possibility of import issues.

    I think that the corruption of names is somewhat more likely with the export - import workflow that you're using, but we do have ways to deal with it. Again, we'll need an example of such an entry.

    Hopefully, we can pin these down soon and fix whatever is behind them.
  • poirmw
    Stan and ajlyon: My two examples are not based on imports. They were both entries that I typed in myself. When I go to the database, everything seems ok. There are no errors in the database itself. The errors arise when I import the data from these entries in the database into a paper I am working on in MSWord. The apostrophe is converted into a swirl in one instance and into some sort of check-mark in another. That in itself is strange inasmuch as the apostrophes are treated differently depending on which entry in the Zotero database is being imported into MSWord. Any help would be appreciated. Can anyone replicate this? I've never seen anything like this and I've been using Zotero for over two years without problems of any sort.

    My operating system is a Windows XP Pro, and I'm using the latest versions of Zotero FF and Standalone.
  • ajlyon
    poirmw: Your issue is presumably not related, since it deals with different parts of the Zotero machinery. I have next to no experience with troubleshooting the word processor integration plugins, so I can't really help you very much. Hopefully Simon, the integration lead, will chip in.

    But you may want to delete the apostrophes from the entries in Zotero and retype them manually. They're probably encoded in some weird way that Word, with its sometimes flaky Unicode support, is mangling.
  • Stan
    Ajlyon: I will be diligent in reviewing every reference I download to see if I can replicate the problem and then I will post here the source and reference to see if that helps.

    Poirmw: Naive as I am, I think this is a Word for WIndows plugin thing. I use Word for Mac and have not yet had that issue. My corrupted file entry was in Zotero itself and seems to be focused on three names one article, all the names using accented vowels. I often get funny symbols in my free form notes I attach or if I cut and paste into the abstract box. Here is an example from a note I associated with an article

    Propositions numbered P1. 1.CRM i

    That O with a hat and the C with the cedilla (sp?) happens a lot but I ignore them when reviewing old notes as it does not obscure what I have written. So I have never chased this. But these things occur in Zotero fields and not in word.
  • Stan
    To add:
    Today everytime I try to link a pdf file to a record in Zotero it hangs firefox and I need to force quit and reopoen; very frustrating. I can never seem to get an ID code it is either greyed or when the browser is hung I cannot get to it.
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