Bug 136205 - Mendeley citation plugin works in LO 6.4 but not 7
Summary: Mendeley citation plugin works in LO 6.4 but not 7
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Extensions (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.0.0.3 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2020-08-27 19:08 UTC by Paul
Modified: 2020-08-30 19:26 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screenshot (2.53 MB, image/png)
2020-08-27 22:06 UTC, Paul
Details
API file found in Mendeley .oxt folder (20.25 KB, text/x-python-script)
2020-08-29 07:02 UTC, Paul
Details

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Description Paul 2020-08-27 19:08:56 UTC
Description:
Mendeley 1.19.4 citation plugin (latest version) works as expected in LO 6.4.6.2 on Mac OS but not in LO 7 on either Mac OS or Ubuntu 20.10
The issue is when inserting citation or bibliography the files appears and freezes showing "formatting citation"

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install Mendeley and citation plugin
2.Launch LO writer
3.Select insert citation from toolbar

Actual Results:
Field appears with formatting citation and freezes

Expected Results:
Files should appear with citation details


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes



Additional Info:
As above
Comment 1 Julien Nabet 2020-08-27 20:05:59 UTC
On the website, I don't find Mendeley plugin for LO, only for Word.
Comment 2 Paul 2020-08-27 22:06:18 UTC
Created attachment 164775 [details]
Screenshot

Mendeley plugin
Citations working correctly in LO 6.4
Sadly, doesn't work in LO 7 on Mac OS or Ubuntu
Comment 3 Paul 2020-08-27 22:07:39 UTC
Assuming LO is already installed, Mendeley automatically adds the plugin when it is installed.
Comment 4 Alex Thurgood 2020-08-28 10:02:47 UTC
It appears that the plugin no longer exists for LibreOffice on macOS since Elsevier took over the product.

If I download the desktop app for macOS, the first screen I see is a login screen asking for my email. That isn't going to happen given that there is no explanation as to why my email address might be needed. 
Is this some service that Elsevier are attempting to sell me ? In that case, they should at least try and debug the problem first by themselves. Are they supporting LibreOffice as a deployment platform or not ? It seems not.

@Paul : please point us to a link where we can install the plugin and which doesn't require us to sign up to some unknown service with unknown obligations.
Comment 5 Alex Thurgood 2020-08-28 10:10:40 UTC
Seems that one can only install the plugin via the desktop app :

http://resources.mendeley.com/Mendeley_Desktop/write_cite/

which in turn requires the user to give their email to Elsevier for undefined purposes. Not for me, sorry.

Out of interest, it appears that the citation plugin runs using Javascript, so it might be wise to check whether there are known JS script execution issues on LO7 (I seem to recall reading a recent bug report about that, which might already be fixed for 7.1).
Comment 6 Alex Thurgood 2020-08-28 10:17:21 UTC
Apparently, we are still reliant on JVM instantiation for the Rhino engine, therefore if there is a Java installation problem on the target machine (e.g. absent, or not recognized correctly by LO), this will likely cause the citation plugin to fail.
Comment 7 Alex Thurgood 2020-08-28 10:18:30 UTC
@Paul: which version of Java have you installed on the target machine on which you want to use the citation plugin ?
Comment 8 Paul 2020-08-29 06:39:25 UTC
In the system report it lists Java Launcher version 315
In the LibreOffice 6.4 preferences use Java engine is ticked but the Java Installed field is blank. However - the plugin works in LO 6.4 on this machine - currently running BigSur beta 6 and when I install Ubuntu in a VM. But it doesn’t work in LO 7 on either machine.
Comment 9 Paul 2020-08-29 07:02:25 UTC
Created attachment 164844 [details]
API file found in Mendeley .oxt folder

Not sure if this helps

Paul
Comment 10 QA Administrators 2020-08-30 03:53:01 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 11 Julien Nabet 2020-08-30 12:47:36 UTC
Could you provide step by step process to reproduce this?
Indeed, I gave a try on pc Debian x86-64 with master sources updated today (added a pdf on Mendeley desktop then insert citation, used the pdf) but had no freeze.
Now I must recognize I don't know Mendeley so I may have missed something.
Comment 12 Paul 2020-08-30 19:20:18 UTC
Whatever the issue was, it has been sorted in 7.0.1.2
Plugin works as expected in this version

Alex Thurgood suggested that here were Javascript execution issues that may have already been corrected

looks as though they have

Paul
Comment 13 Julien Nabet 2020-08-30 19:26:26 UTC
Ok let's put this one to WFM then.