- Sped up item importing dramatically by doing import in a single transaction -- this means that an error will cause already-imported items to be discarded, but that's probably better anyway

- The (empty) created collection is now deleted after import failure

- Sped up general DB performance dramatically (especially on XP and Linux) by using a dummy statement to keep the SQLite shared cache active between transactions -- this seems to have only a moderate effect on OS X, which was already much faster, perhaps because of its own disk cache (though running XP and Linux under Parallels with limited RAM probably didn't help)

- Added some additional sanity checks to Date.strToDate() to prevent errors in the metadata pane and on import with dates like "1998-99" -- strToDate() was treating 99 as the month, which caused an error in the stricter DB trigger. "99" is now left as an unparsed part, though "2006-08" (where the second part is <= 31) will still get parsed as August 2006. Can't do much about that, though.

- Fixed a bug when rolling back nested transactions that could temporarily leave things somewhat funky

chrome/content/zotero/fileInterface.js

@@ -226,8 +226,8 @@ var Zotero_File_Interface = new function() {
 				Zotero_File_Interface.Progress.show(
 					Zotero.getString("fileInterface.itemsImported"),
 					function() {
-						// disable notifier
+						Zotero.DB.beginTransaction();
-						_unlock = Zotero.Notifier.begin(true);
+						
 						// translate
 						translation.translate();
 				});
@@ -255,13 +255,13 @@ var Zotero_File_Interface = new function() {
 			_importCollection.addItem(itemID);
 		}
 		
-		// notify
+		Zotero.DB.commitTransaction();
-		Zotero.Notifier.commit(_unlock);
 		
 		Zotero_File_Interface.Progress.close();
 		Zotero.UnresponsiveScriptIndicator.enable();
 		
 		if(!worked) {
+			_importCollection.erase();
 			window.alert(Zotero.getString("fileInterface.importError"));
 		}
 	}

chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/db.js

@@ -304,7 +304,7 @@ Zotero.DBConnection.prototype.commitTransaction = function () {
 	}
 	else if (this._transactionRollback) {
 		this._debug('Rolling back previously flagged transaction', 5);
-		db.rollbackTransaction();
+		this.rollbackTransaction();
 	}
 	else {
 		this._debug('Committing transaction',5);
@@ -672,6 +672,69 @@ Zotero.DBConnection.prototype.backupDatabase = function (suffix) {
 }
 
 
+/*
+ * Keep the SQLite shared cache live between transactions with a dummy statement,
+ * which speeds up DB access dramatically (at least on Windows and Linux--OS X
+ * seems to be much faster already, perhaps due to its own disk cache)
+ *
+ * This is the same technique used by Mozilla code. The one downside is that it
+ * prevents schema changes, so this is called after schema updating. If the
+ * schema really needs to be updated at another point, use stopDummyStatement().
+ *
+ * See http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Storage:Performance for more info.
+ */
+Zotero.DBConnection.prototype.startDummyStatement = function () {
+	try {
+		if (!this._dummyConnection) {
+			this._debug("Opening database '" + this._dbName + " for dummy statement");
+			// Get the storage service
+			var store = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/storage/service;1"].
+				getService(Components.interfaces.mozIStorageService);
+			var file = Zotero.getZoteroDatabase(this._dbName);
+			this._dummyConnection = store.openDatabase(file);
+		}
+		
+		if (this._dummyStatement) {
+			Zotero.debug("Dummy statement is already open");
+			return;
+		}
+		
+		Zotero.debug("Initializing dummy statement for '" + this._dbName + "'");
+		
+		var sql = "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS zoteroDummyTable (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY)";
+		this._dummyConnection.executeSimpleSQL(sql);
+		
+		sql = "INSERT OR IGNORE INTO zoteroDummyTable VALUES (1)";
+		this._dummyConnection.executeSimpleSQL(sql);
+		
+		sql = "SELECT id FROM zoteroDummyTable LIMIT 1"
+		this._dummyStatement = this._dummyConnection.createStatement(sql)
+		this._dummyStatement.executeStep()
+	
+	}
+	catch (e) {
+		Components.utils.reportError(e);
+		Zotero.debug(e);
+	}
+}
+
+
+/*
+ * Stop the dummy statement temporarily to allow for schema changess
+ *
+ * The statement needs to be started again or performance will suffer.
+ */
+Zotero.DBConnection.prototype.stopDummyStatement = function () {
+	if (!this._dummyStatement) {
+		return;
+	}
+	
+	Zotero.debug("Stopping dummy statement for '" + this._dbName + "'");
+	this._dummyStatement.reset();
+	this._dummyStatement = null;
+}
+
+
 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 //
 // Private methods

chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/schema.js

@@ -1073,8 +1073,6 @@ Zotero.Schema = new function(){
 								}
 							}
 							var parsedID = parseInt(rows[j].itemID);
-							Zotero.debug(parsedID);
-							Zotero.debug(rows[j].itemID);
 							if ((parsedID + '').length != rows[j].itemID) {
 								if (parseInt(rows[j].note) != rows[j].note ||
 										(parseInt(rows[j].note) + '').length != rows[j].note.length) {

chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/zotero.js

@@ -212,6 +212,7 @@ var Zotero = new function(){
 			Zotero.Schema.updateSchema();
 		}
 		
+		Zotero.DB.startDummyStatement();
 		Zotero.Schema.updateScrapersRemote();
 		
 		// Initialize integration web server
@@ -1220,7 +1221,7 @@ Zotero.Date = new function(){
 				}
 			}
 			
-			if(!date.month || date.month <= 12) {
+			if((!date.month || date.month <= 12) && (!date.day || date.day <= 31)) {
 				if(date.year && date.year < 100) {	// for two digit years, determine proper
 													// four digit year
 					var today = new Date();
@@ -1288,8 +1289,10 @@ Zotero.Date = new function(){
 			
 			var m = _dayRe.exec(date.part);
 			if(m) {
-				date.day = parseInt(m[1], 10);
+				var day = parseInt(m[1], 10);
-				
+				// Sanity check
+				if (day <= 31) {
+					date.day = day;
 					if(m.index > 0) {
 						date.part = date.part.substr(0, m.index);
 						if(m[2]) {
@@ -1302,6 +1305,7 @@ Zotero.Date = new function(){
 					Zotero.debug("DATE: got day ("+date.day+", "+date.part+")");
 				}
 			}
+		}
 		
 		// clean up date part
 		if(date.part) {