ProgressWindow stays on top when Zotero is minimized on macOS - any alternatives?

[José Fernandes]

Hi everyone,

I'm developing a Zotero plugin and got a bug report about ProgressWindow staying visible when Zotero is minimized to the dock on macOS. The progress popup floats above all other apps, which is confusing for users.

I traced it to progressWindow.js line 130:

    _progressWindow = _window.openDialog("chrome://zotero/content/progressWindow.xhtml",
        "", "chrome,dialog=no,titlebar=no,alwaysontop=yes");

The "alwaysontop=yes" keeps it above everything, even when Zotero is minimized.

I noticed progressQueueDialog.js uses "dependent" instead, which correctly makes the window follow its parent when minimizing on macOS.

From the plugin side I tried:

• Setting win.opener = mainWindow after creation (doesn't affect z-level)
• Modifying xulWin.zLevel to normalZ (read-only after creation)
• Creating custom window with "dependent" (works but requires reimplementing all ProgressWindow functionality)

A few questions:

1. Is there a recommended way for plugins to show progress that respects macOS window management?
2. Would changing "alwaysontop=yes" to "dependent" in progressWindow.js be reasonable for macOS? Or is there a specific reason alwaysontop is used?
3. Is there an alternative API I should use for long-running operations?

Happy to submit a PR if there's interest in changing the core behavior.

Thanks!

References:

• User report: https://github.com/introfini/ZotSeek/issues/14
• progressWindow.js: https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/main/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/progressWindow.js#L130
• progressQueueDialog.js (uses dependent): https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/main/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/progressQueueDialog.js#L48