Also having problems with the Chrome/standalone combo

ablumenthal
Hi,

I want to preface this first by saying two things: I'm not a programmer (so adopting a beta was probably not the best idea) and I love zotero (so thank you to all the programmers)! I've been using zotero for three years now, and recently decided to switch to chrome and standalone because I got frustrated with the new upgrade of firefox.

I have read some of the other threads that seem to discuss the problem I am having: the zotero icon only intermittently shows up in chrome on pages that should have bibliographic content. It shows up on some of the links that were given in previous forums... but not for me when I'm viewing articles/books that I find myself, namely on my university's library search page (http://mcgill.worldcat.org/title/embodiment-in-cognition-and-culture/oclc/123539425&referer=brief_results).

This problem doesn't seem to be fixed yet for anyone before me (correct me if I'm wrong), so now I'm thinking I should switch back to what I had before (firefox zotero extension).

So I have four questions... now that I have switched to standalone for chrome, is there a fix for this that I am missing? If not can I switch back to firefox web-native (bad wording I know) or better yet, firefox standalone? If I do, will my data be saved? Do I have to delete the standalone for chrome and the chrome plugins?

Thanks in advance,
-A
  • adamsmith
    I'm not sure what you mean by "Firefox web-native or standalone" but you can easily move your data from standalone to a FF based Zotero version - anything on this page:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data
    applies to standalone as well (except, of course, that the file path isn't in the mozilla folder).

    You could also use syncing between standalone and Firefox, you even can use standalone and FF based Zotero on the same computer and on the same database and you can use FF based Zotero with Chrome:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/connector_enabled

    All known issues with chrome translators so far have been with generic translators: RDF, DOI, COinS - see here on how to find out what translator Zotero is using in Firefox
    http://www.zotero.org/support/troubleshooting_translator_issues
    for those there is no fix at this time, no.
    in the case of the McGill site, though, are you sure this is working in Firefox?
  • noksagt
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15987/chrome-connector-zotero-standalone/

    WorldCat relies on COinS & I don't think the stand-alone works with the embedded data translators yet.
  • adamsmith
    right, I forgot that WorldCat uses COinS - so yes, that would be one of the examples of generic translators that don't work yet in Standalone.
  • ablumenthal
    OK so those two things answered my question. As I used worldcat a lot, to easily and quickly add references, it doesn't really interest me to use standalone if it can't support it. Since this COinS issues is not rectified in any of the standalones, I was wondering if it was possible move back to the FF extension and I had tried this before but it stopped working.

    BUT I was getting an error every time I tried to use FF zotero, it said the database was in use when the standalone was closed, and chrome was closed. The page that you gave, adam, http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/connector_enabled fixed this problem.

    I have to say I've never had problems navigating tech support stuff on this site before, it's always explained really well. This standalone stuff could be done better though, and then I wouldn't have had to trouble you all with my stupid questions. I searched a number of times for "chrome" and "standalone problems" and didn't come up with any of these answers. Just food for thought is all. Thank you very much for your time, you've answered all my questions so quickly!

    -A
  • adamsmith
    yeah - the standalone isn't as thoroughly documented as it's still in alpha and those problems will get fixed probably by the time it turns into a beta version - writing good documentation is a lot of work and doing it for things that we know are temporary is a bit of a thankless task...
  • ablumenthal
    edited June 9, 2011
    I want to just add here that I'm not trying to be so negative about the standalone. It's a GREAT idea, it's just probably not a great idea for someone who is not very computer literate to adopt it without knowing/being able to understand the challenges to it.

    Also, here's your thanks!! Your answers have been super helpful today, and what I saw of the standalone I loved. It just wasn't as useful for me as the FF extension.
  • noksagt
    edited June 9, 2011
    I'd say that solving your problems with software that is in alpha release within half an hour means we're doing reasonably well ;-)

    EDIT: even if it means a few very similar posts within minutes of another...
  • ablumenthal
    Exactly! I just turned to my partner and said that same thing!
  • ajlyon
    Maybe would could add a known issues section to the standalone page?
  • adamsmith
    good point. done:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/standalone#known_issues
  • ajlyon
    Fixed to point to the KB article at http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/default_translators

    Do we still have proxy problems too?
  • adamsmith
    ah yes, I was looking for that page but couldn't find it.

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