"sep is undefined"

bobanello

I recently upgraded to 2.1.2.r8871 following the Firefox update.

When I attempting to make a Zotero change in my MS Word document,I get the error, "Your document must be permanently upgraded to work with Zotero 2.1 or later. It is recommended that you make a backup before proceeding...." After backing up, when I attempt to make that document upgrade, I get the message,
"Zotero experienced an error updating your document
sep is undefined"

Help! I just defended my dissertation and I need to make some changes before depositing it.

adamsmith

this should be fixed in the next release if that helps - if you're in a hurry let us know and we can direct you to a branch release that includes the fix.

bobanello

Please help me make a decision. How soon to that release?

adamsmith

they're hoping to get it out later today.

fbennett

Thanks for this report. The error message was enough to identify a clear bug in the processor, which would be triggered by rendering some fields containing quote marks or in-field markup.

I don't know exactly what content would trigger an error, and I haven't tested to reproduce the behavior, but the bug is clear in the code, and I'll include the fix in the next release of the processor, which will find its way into the next release of Zotero (which will be 2.1.4).

bobanello

If if would help, I can send you a copy of the document. You'll have to instruct me how to attach a file to comments.

fbennett

Let's wait and see how it goes. I'm pretty sure that the error will go away with the next release. When the next processor release is picked up by Zotero, you'll be able to check out the behavior by installing the branch XPI, and then reinstalling with the 2.1.4 release when it becomes available. You can follow the checkins here. The processor version to look for will be 1.0.141.

bobanello

I installed 2.1.3. The error changed. It is now "Zotero experienced an error updating your document."

fbennett

That's useful to know. I'd guess that this is the same error, since the processor in 2.1.3 is also affected by the bug. If I'm reading this one correctly, the problem should clear up for you when 2.1.4 comes out.

bobanello

Do you have an anticipated 2.1.4 release date? I recently defended my dissertation and need to make some changes before depositing it. Whether or not I bypass Zotero for these changes will depend on the anticipated release date. I hate to bypass Zotero, if possible, because then I need to keep a separate register of changes to reapply later, and you know how that can go.

fbennett

Hard to say; there isn't a fixed timetable. Middle of next week, end of next week. But that's just a blind guess. If your deadline is less than a couple of weeks away, you may want to do the changes by hand, so you have firm control over the time required.

bobanello

Thanks for you honest assessment of the situation.

fbennett

I've checked in some changes that should fix the "sep is undefined" error. The problem should go away in Zotero 2.1.6 when it comes out.

bobanello

Thank you, Frank. I was offline for several days with the flu. I missed your notification from yesterday, above, when checking my email. Having noticed that Zotero moved to 2.1.5, I attempted version updates via MS Word. In one of six chapters, an update attempt resulted in "Zotero experienced an error updating your document." In another chapter, the error remains "sep is undefined."

I await 2.1.6.

bobanello

Hi, folks. I moved to 2.1.6. The "Zotero experienced an error updating your document" error is gone, but in another chapter, the "sep is undefined" error remains.

bobanello

If anyone has any suggestions what might be causing this error, I would be more than willing to search my entries to eradicate the culprit(s).

fbennett

Not good to hear that the error is still occurring -- apart from the fact that you're well positioned to help us track it down. :)

I added some tracing code to the processor for the 2.1.6 upgrade that should help us identify the root cause of the problem. If you produce a Debug ID that includes a refresh or other operation that triggers the error and post the Debug ID back here, the developers will be able to look at the debug report, and we may be able to get to the bottom of this one.

bobanello

I think I correctly followed the Debug ID instructions. The Debug ID I submitted is "D1985017190".

fbennett

Terrific, thanks. Looking forward to learning what's behind this.

dstillman

I've sent fbennett the relevant debug output.

fbennett

Zingo. The cause seems to be that the rich text parser stumbles over certain combinations of mismatched quote characters. If you look for an item containing a title (or other field) beginning with "A.C.B.A., Box SCHL/S0910/5", you should find that the field contains several nestings of quote characters. There is no problem with that, but the quotes used seem to be a mixture of straight quotes (typewriter-style) and curly quotes (book-printing style). If you change all of the curly quotes to their straight-quote counterparts for consistency, the item (or any similar ones) should process okay.

We can make this more robust by normalizing all quote marks to straight-quotes before running the parser, but for the moment let us know how changing the item manually to that form does for you. If it does fix the problem, we'll be pretty certain we can squash this bug permanently.

bobanello

I think I found the culprit(s). It seems to be a combination of a left single quote with a right double quote in the following URL field phrase: “logue ‘74- ‘75 [sic, log]” binder. Does that make sense? Anyways, I took out three footnote entries with those in them, and Zotero converted the balance of the footnotes and allowed me to make a change. Tomorrow, I'll correct the entries in the database, rebuilt the three entries from scratch, and report back.

fbennett

It's probably the nested single quote after the hyphen that caused the parser to stumble. In theory, at least, the curly quotes by themselves should (should) parse and process okay.

Straight quotes in the database should render as curly quotes in the citations and the bibliography, so no worries there.

bobanello

I think I found the culprit(s). It seems to be a combination of a left single quote with a right double quote in the following URL field phrase: “logue ‘74- ‘75 [sic, log]” binder. Does that make sense? Anyways, I took out three footnote entries with those in them, and Zotero converted the balance of the footnotes and allowed me to make a change. Tomorrow, I'll correct the entries in the database, rebuilt the three entries from scratch, and report back.

Actually, I had to change straight quotes in database entries to curly quotes for them to appear as such in the final document.

bobanello

We know that some combination in that URL field phrase is causing problems; let's call it the "parsing issue." When I took the footnotes causing the "parsing issue" out of the document, I was able to convert it okay. I found two other situations that need attending to, one related to the "parsing issue" and one unrelated situation.

The converter at least gives the "sep is undefined" error. If a "parsing issue" combination of characters remains in the database and an attempt is made to add a citation with that combination, the add/edit window just stops operating for that and any subsequent citation add/edit operations to that or any other citations and there is no error message. (I happen to know what is causing the problem and made the appropriate "parsing issue" corrections.) MS Word needs to be fully shut down and restarted to continue working.

The unrelated error, and this is new since the move to 2.1.x, may be peculiar to the "Chicago Manual of Style (Full note with Bibliography)" style which I use. A subsequent entry of a database item that ends in a quotation mark that is not the last of a multiple-entry citation does not terminate with proper punctuation.

Here's an example of what occurred in the past, focusing on the punctuation concluding the "Grady" citation. (I do not claim that what occurred in the past was correct punctuation, but it sufficed for footnotes.):
Grady, “The Seminary of Tomorrow, 1970”; “A Commentary on Seminary Priesthood Enrollment Statistics for 1984,” 3-4.

Here's an example of what is now occurring:
Grady, “The Seminary of Tomorrow, 1970.”; “A Commentary on Seminary Priesthood Enrollment Statistics for 1984,” 3-4.

If the situation is to be corrected, here's an example of what I believe to be the proper result:
Grady, “The Seminary of Tomorrow, 1970;” “A Commentary on Seminary Priesthood Enrollment Statistics for 1984,” 3-4.

Thank you all for applying your skills and donating your time to this worthy endeavor.

fbennett

Thank you for this precise feedback. The parsing issue should be cleared up in the next release (although we can't be sure until it's been run in the field). I should be able to resolve the punctuation issue; I'll add your example to the test suite and take a close look at the code later today.

fbennett

The punctuation issue has been raised again in a new thread today. As that's a dedicated thread for that specific fault, further discussion of the punctuation glitch (which shouldn't run for long, as it's soon to be fixed :) should be routed there.

katsalmi

I'm having this issue of 'sep is undefined' when I tried to update one of my older thesis chapters. I've successfully updated other chapters, but this one is not working. I have the 2.6 zotero version. Please help. I don't know how to fix this.

katsalmi

Here is my debug ID D1055575601

fbennett

Please check your messages on zotero.org, I have an updated version of the citeproc-js processor that may resolve your issue.

dgolds

I'm having the same "sep is undefined" problem with one of the chapters of my book. Here's the debug ID D1272226466.