Zotero Standalone - first feedback

mbentley
Hi all,

I couldn't obviously see the recommended mechanism for posting feedback on the zotero standalone client, so I'll post a few first thoughts here! I'm running Zotero_linux-x86_64 on ubuntu 10.10 x86_64, with the connector running on chromium 10.0.

On the whole things are looking good - the initial sync was a bit flaky, but that was just due to the server infrastructure upgrade I suspect. Other than that, it's great to once again have a choice of browser!

A few comments:

1. Double-clicking an attached PDF doesn't do anything. Neither does clicking "View File". But "Show file" brings up the folder OK, and the document is there.

2. The menus and messages clearly need to be purged of firefox/browser references at some point.

3. The connector is a little temperamental - doesn't work well on Chrome 9, better on Chromium 10, but still doesn't always work (no icon displayed).

4. Pop-up notifications from the connector don't appear anchored to my browser window, but popped up on my secondary monitor here.

Cheers, Mark
  • ajlyon
    Most of the basic UI things are known issues and should be getting better in coming releases. If you can identify specific pages that show translators in Firefox and not in Chrome, please post URLs here.

    The pop-up notification issue is a new report-- does it show up in the bottom right of the right-most monitor?
  • mbentley
    I have two monitors, the right one being the primary. Chromium was open on this display, and yet the notification pops up at the bottom-right corner of the left/secondary monitor. Zotero Standalone itself was open on another workspace (but on the right/primary monitor).
  • ajlyon
    The notification is being produced by Zotero Standalone (I think), not by the Chrome extension. Standalone doesn't really know very well where the Chrome window is, so it is bound to miss sometimes.

    In your case, multiple workspaces is going to make it even harder for Standalone to figure out where to place the notification. Does it show up in the same place even with Standalone visible, in the same workspace as Chrome?
  • ajlyon
    And forum admins: Can we get a new category for Standalone?
  • mbentley
    When both Chromium and Zotero SA are in the same workspace, and both on the right monitor, the notification still pops up on the left monitor..

    As for double clicking a PDF to open not working, oddly enough it works for a .djvu...
  • ajlyon
    Does this notification show up the same way in standard Zotero?

    The PDF issue sounds like it has to do with file types that Standalone (and the XULRunner instance it runs on) thinks it can handle; it probably doesn't know about DejaVu, so it calls the external program. But perhaps it thinks that it can handle PDFs internally... There is probably a file in your profile directory that you could trash to deal with this, but I don't know which one (esp. for standalone).
  • mbentley
    Thanks for your hint, I've got it working now. First I removed mimeTypes.rdf from the XulRunner/zotero profile directory (~/.zotero/zotero/nnnnnnn.default), but that didn't help.

    But your suggest about internal/external handling was spot on - I recalled that in the past I changed one of the about:config settings to ensure that PDFs always popped up externally, and not in a browser window:

    extensions.zotero.launchNonNativeFiles

    So I added this in my zotero SA prefs.js:

    user_pref("extensions.zotero.launchNonNativeFiles", true);

    and now PDFs open as usual!

    Cheers, Mark
  • Macanb
    I cannot get this to work at all with Mac OS Version 10.6.6 and Safari 5.0.3 (6533.19.4). The Sync icon constantly turns but nothing happens. I cannot import my library from Firefox or my exported EndNote Library. The Safari button "Save to Zotero" does nothing and there are are lots of JavaScript errors reported. I reinstalled the standalone client but to no avail. Presumably this has been got to work on a Mac but I cannot find any reference to it.
  • ajlyon
    It does in general work on Macs-- I think that the core developers are mainly Mac users themselves.

    Make sure that you have Standalone open when you save from Safari, and post the errors here (or as a public gist at gist.github.com) so that we can take a look at what is going wrong.

    If you are trying to sync with an online library that is large, the initial sync can take a long time, but it should eventually finish.
  • Macanb
    Here is the only error message I can find in the console

    Date/Time: 2011-02-01 23:06:38 +0000
    OS Version: 10.6.6 (Build 10J567)
    Architecture: x86_64
    Report Version: 7

    Command: Zotero
    Path: /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero
    Version: 2.1a2 (2.1.0)
    Parent: launchd [1]

    PID: 2469
    Event: hang
    Duration: 7.54s (sampling started after 2 seconds)
    Steps: 36 (100ms sampling interval)

    Pageins: 15
    Pageouts: 0


    Process: zotero [2469]
    Path: /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero
    UID: 501

    There is of course a lot more but it does not mention Zotero. I have sent the Java errors, which have not yet reappeared, directly from the standalone. I have noticed there is no icon in any of my Word 2008 toolbars but think there should be
  • Macanb
    I have just found another log

    01/02/2011 23:32:20 TextExpander[181] Secure event input has been enabled by: Zotero
    01/02/2011 23:37:04 TextExpander[181] Secure event input has been enabled by: Zotero
    02/02/2011 10:27:44 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[105] ([0x0-0x149149].org.zotero.zotero[2581]) Exited: Terminated
    02/02/2011 11:08:11 kernel CoreServicesUIAg[3350] Unable to clear quarantine `zotero': 93
    02/02/2011 12:02:30 [0x0-0x195195].org.zotero.zotero[3442] Error: No paper information available - using defaults
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