OpenOffice 2.3.0 + Zotero 1.0.1 + Ubuntu 7.10 = OOo crash?

saif
Hi all,
first of all let me tell you how appreciative I am of Zotero, I just love it. I started building my bibliography a while ago through it. However, when I wanted more functionality (specifically integration with Open Office) problems started showing up.

My problem right now is that whenever I try to do anything with the Zotero bar in OOo, it crashes (meaning OOo). I tried everything I could think of without success. Any suggestions?

EDIT: After a couple of reinstalls and restarts it seems that everything is working. I don't know what was wrong, but I'm happy it is working now..
  • bdarcus
    edited November 27, 2007
    FWIW, my understanding is that Ubuntu uses a non-OOo-build of the suite. A lot of problems with OOo integration are solved by using an official build. E.g. if you run into further problems, report the bug ... to Ubuntu.
  • joehill
    I have been having what appears to be the same problem as well, both with the Ubuntu Gutsy version of 2.3 and with the official OO.o build (2.3.1, deb packages). It appears to crash OO.o, but it actually freezes it for around two minutes, then gives me the error message: "An error occurred communicating with Zotero. Please ensure Firefox is open and try again." I've checked to make sure all components of the OO.o plugin are enabled.

    Up until a couple weeks ago I was using the OO.o extension with few problems. This morning when I tried using the extension with the latest Zotero 1.0.2dev, and I got a warning saying something like this: "The installed version of Zotero is not compatible with this plugin. Please use the most current version of the extension." So I uninstalled the dev version and installed 1.0.1. Then, instead of getting an error message it just froze OO.o.
  • bdarcus
    The "The installed version of Zotero is not compatible with this plugin. Please use the most current version of the extension" error seems to be a general problem, as I just got it using NeoOffice.

    So I updated the extension from here. That appears to fix the problem.

    This reminds me, Dan, I posted a note awhile back on zotero-dev asking how the OOo project might help with maintenance and support on the plug-in. For example, I think OOo now has the infrastructure for Firefox-like auto-installation and updating. That would be obviously be really helpful in these sorts of situations.
  • dstillman
    edited January 4, 2008
    For example, I think OOo now has the infrastructure for Firefox-like auto-installation and updating. That would be obviously be really helpful in these sorts of situations.
    Not really. We should switch to auto-update for the OOo plugin at some point, but for this it's just that the dev version of Zotero often requires more recent versions of the plugins than the released versions. That should be expected, though. (We could perhaps have multiple auto-update lines like we do for the XPI, but anyone using Word with a dev build of Zotero would still need to go download it from Trac manually.)

    As for maintenance and support, we'd certainly appreciate any development work from the OOo project in keeping the plugin up to date with the Word plugin, since we don't currently have any other outside help on it.
  • joehill
    Thanks for the tip, bdarcus. This is very strange. Now I get exactly the same behavior whether I use the stable or development xpi of Zotero, whether I use the stable or development OOo plugin (the one you linked to), and whether I use the official OOo or Ubuntu's: OOo freezes for two to three minutes and then says it can't connect to Zotero.

    Does anyone have any tips for how to get OOo working with Zotero again? I've uninstalled and reinstalled different versions of every piece of this puzzle several times now, always with precisely the same result.

    Thanks!
  • joehill
    Ok, after uninstalling and reinstalling numerous times, I've finally gotten the stable versions of Zotero and the OOo plugin working. I never managed to get the current dev versions working. I'm not sure what was different about the last time uninstalling and reinstalling, but it somehow seems to have done the trick.
  • bdarcus
    Dan: re:
    Not really. We should switch to auto-update for the OOo plugin at some point, but for this it's just that the dev version of Zotero often requires more recent versions of the plugins than the released versions.
    Am confused by the "not really." With an auto-updating infrastructure, shouldn't it be possible to keep the plug-in and Zotero extension in sync, regardless of whether a release or dev version?

    See here for what I was referring to with the new OOo support.

    I'm trying to find someone to commit to helping with support and/or maintenance BTW.
  • dstillman
    Am confused by the "not really." With an auto-updating infrastructure, shouldn't it be possible to keep the plug-in and Zotero extension in sync, regardless of whether a release or dev version?
    I meant that this was mostly just a communication issue. Most of the people getting the incompatibility error were switching over from Zotero 1.0.1 to a dev build to benefit from some of the bug fixes, and even if they had been on an auto-update system for the OOo plugins, they would've been on the stable track rather than a dev track and wouldn't have received the dev plugin. An auto-update system would still be helpful for standard and development releases, but it wouldn't help when people are switching between dev lines.
    I'm trying to find someone to commit to helping with support and/or maintenance BTW.
    That's great—thanks.

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