No such native application org.jabref.jabref

[Reissner]

I have suse tumbleweed, firefox 112.0 64 bit, JabRef 5.9--2023-01-08--76253f1a7 Linux 6.2.9-1-default amd64 jabref browser extension version 2.5, activated.

The icon shows up in the browser. .. When i go to an article, e.g. https://arxiv.org/list/gr-qc/pastweek?skip=0&show=5 or some pdf... Then a box opens... which is empty and then after a while:

moz-extension://3ea2a16d-a972-46d9-8769-190e01fce799/data/error.html?message=No%20such%20native%20application%20org.jabref.jabref&details=&stacktrace=

what is wrong??

[tobiasdiez]

Did you tried to follow the "manual installation instructions"? https://docs.jabref.org/collect/jabref-browser-extension#installation-and-configuration

Also refs https://github.com/JabRef/JabRef-Browser-Extension/issues/405 where it is shown that this error occurs if the path to the json file is not correct.

[rthrmt]

I have the same issue and did the manual installation instruction mentioned. I'm on Debian 12, all my flatpaks are installed system wide:

Name	Application ID	Version	Branch	Installation
JabRef	org.jabref.jabref	5.9	stable	system
Firefox	org.mozilla.firefox	116.0.2	stable	system
(only excerpt)	...

Because the packages are system-wide executed the mentioned commands with --user and as root without --user, no changes. Where else could I look if the two can talk to each other?

[LyzardKing]

The commands (with or without --user as you said) should work on system-installed flatpaks as well. You could check what the flatseal app shows. Maybe it deals with permissions better.

[rthrmt]

You could check what the flatseal app shows. Maybe it deals with permissions better.

Forgot to mention that I tried that too. No changes.

[eeenilsson]

Got the same error message after Jabref installation on arch linux. This was solved by creating the directory "~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/" and putting the org.jabref.jabref.json file there.

[rthrmt]

I got it working with your hint!

I didn't check .mozilla/native-messaging-hosts as the Flatpak section (https://docs.jabref.org/collect/jabref-browser-extension#flatpak) only says "Install JabRef, Install Exteion, if Browser is Flatpak allow Session Bus talk".

As my Firefox is also installed via Flatpak I created native-messaging-hosts in $HOME/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/and copied the org.jabref.jabref.json there.

Inside org.jabref.jabref.json, setting the path to /var/lib/flatpak/app/org.jabref.jabref/current/active/files/lib/jabrefHost.py results in a different "Unknown Error". Examining the log with Ctrl+Shift+J says the file doesn't exist or isn't executable. Therefore I allowed filesystem permissions in Flatseal on that file for Firefox. I think this step should be added to the documentation.

Now Firefox (Flatpak) can communicate with JabRef (Flatpak) :)

[LyzardKing]

Thanks for the notification! It shouldn't be necessary to include the files manually, I'll have a look at the install process.

The permissions change part is already in the documentation (https://docs.jabref.org/collect/jabref-browser-extension#browser). I'll see if it can be rephrased to make it more visible.

[Jannik-Schilling]

Got the same error message after Jabref installation on arch linux. This was solved by creating the directory "~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/" and putting the org.jabref.jabref.json file there.

This also solved it for me. In order to execute snap connect jabref:hostfs-mozilla-native-messaging-jabref I had to create the directory.

[tobiasdiez]

@rthrmt @Jannik-Schilling Happy it's working for you now. Could you please edit https://github.com/JabRef/user-documentation/blob/main/en/collect/jabref-browser-extension.md and clarify what extra steps were necessary? Thanks!

[DanikVitek]

Got this error, but the JSON file link (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JabRef/jabref/main/buildres/linux/native-messaging-host/firefox/org.jabref.jabref.json) in docs returns 404 status code. Also, I'm using not Firefox, but Zen browser, based on Firefox

Edit: Found that the link is supposed to be https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JabRef/jabref/v5.15/buildres/linux/native-messaging-host/firefox/org.jabref.jabref.json