site-wide installation

david_thompson
I've looked around in the zotero forums and googled, but I haven't seen a way to install zotero for an entire organization. We're pushing zotero for our lab of 100 researchers, and I had a way to install zotero (once) for all users, but that stopped working some time ago.

Are there provisions (and, even better, a howto) for installing the zotero extensions globally for all Firefox users? It seems quite redundant to have 100 different individuals download and install Zotero in each home directory.

We're a three-OS shop: linux, OS X, and windows XP/7.

Thanks in advance.
  • ajlyon
    The approach for running an SVN build of Zotero should also work for referring all Firefox profiles to a single copy of the extension: http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/svn_and_trac_access#running_an_svn_build_of_zotero
  • dstillman
    Specifically, ajlyon is referring to the part about creating a text file in the extension directory pointing to the installation path.

    I think this method might no longer work in Firefox 4 in Windows, though, which would be pretty bad. Still works fine on OS X (and I assume Linux).
  • RintzeRintze
    edited May 3, 2011
    Maybe this helps: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1724155 (which links to https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Installing_extensions )
  • david_thompson
    Yes, that's the part that used to work and now doesn't. I get a dialog:

    *****
    Zotero MacWod Integration

    Installation could not be completed because an error occurred. Please ensure that Microsoft Word is closed, and the restart Firefox
    *****

    I just filed bug 127684372 with the error report.
  • ajlyon
    I think this method might no longer work in Firefox 4 in Windows, though, which would be pretty bad. Still works fine on OS X (and I assume Linux).
    Still works for me under Linux.
  • david_thompson
    Hrm. It's failing for me under OS X (10.6.current), FF 4.0.1 Office 2011. We have nfs home directories (from a linux file server), which *shouldn't* change anything, but occasionally does.
  • dstillman
    "Failing" isn't enough info.

    The text file trick definitely works on OS X.

    NFS could easily break things.
  • ajlyon
    Installing the Word integration site-wide may be a separate significant challenge, but the Firefox portion of it can be installed using the text file approach, and the Word add-on could probably be deployed in some MS-standard way.

    Dan will need the error ID and possibly debug output-- for the latter you may need to start Firefox with debug output enabled.
  • david_thompson
    "Failing" isn't enough info.

    That's why I posted the contents of the error dialog yesterday and opened a bug (see above). For the curious, here's the script I'm using to extract the xpis:

    #!/bin/sh -x

    # Hack an extension installer a different way

    source=/some-base-path/Firefox-4.0.1
    py=pythonext-2.6.2.20100203.1.9.2_2.5.4.20110318.2.0-Darwin_universal.xpi
    zot=zotero-2.1.6.xpi
    mw=Zotero-MacWord-Plugin-3.1.2.xpi

    mkdir -p /Library/Application\ Support/Mozilla/Extensions/
    cd /Library/Application\ Support/Mozilla/Extensions/

    mkdir \{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384\}
    cd \{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384\}

    # python
    mkdir pythonext\@mozdev.org
    cd pythonext\@mozdev.org
    unzip -q $source/$py
    cd ..

    # zotero
    mkdir zotero@chnm.gmu.edu
    cd zotero@chnm.gmu.edu
    unzip -q $source/$zot
    cd ..

    # Macword
    mkdir zoteroMacWordIntegration@zotero.org
    cd zoteroMacWordIntegration@zotero.org
    unzip -q $source/$mw
  • david_thompson
    It's enough for me to have the MacWord Integration add-on install the MacWord bits when the user starts FF. Are you saying there's some reason that doing a site-wide install of the MacWord FF add-on shouldn't be able to do this?
  • ajlyon
    I'm not sure why that _shouldn't_ work, but apparently it isn't. Would you be able to create the pointer text files in the user home directories? You'd only have to create empty files, so it wouldn't be as much overhead as making a copy of the extension in every profile.
  • dstillman
    If possible, try it on a local drive rather than NFS to eliminate that as a potential cause. You're getting a bunch of errors—including errors about Firefox functionality—in that error report.
  • dstillman
    I doubt there's too much of a difference between the text-file approach and the unzipping-into-a-global-directory approach. The extensions are all registered as installed in Firefox.

    But the fact that you're getting non-Zotero-related errors too suggests that NFS could be the problem.

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