EBSCO proxy issues?

chad.haefele
Hi, I'm a librarian at UNC Chapel Hill and I'm interested in fixing what I think is an issue our proxy has with Zotero.

All of our EBSCO databases work with Zotero just fine on campus. But when using them from off campus via our proxy I get a 'could not save item' error.

I found a thread (http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/18789/ebsco-host-translators-not-working/) that mentions "There are some known issues with library proxies and EBSCOhost, but they can be resolved by the university changing some settings. EBSCO reps know of this and can help the university change its settings. "

I've contacted our EBSCO rep, but wondered if someone here might be able to more quickly tell me what those setting changes :)

Thanks! Once this issue gets resolved I plan on promoting Zotero on campus pretty heavily.
  • adamsmith
    could you post the URL of an EBSCO item with proxy?
  • chad.haefele
    Certainly! I'm not sure which link you need, but here's what it looks like in my browser's URL bar:

    http://ehis.ebscohost.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=124&sid=c763646a-7220-4970-b899-891d9f63444c%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=63519058

    And here's what EBSCO says is the permalink to the item:

    https://auth-lib-unc-edu.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/ezproxy_auth.php?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=63519058&site=ehost-live&scope=site
  • ajlyon
    Two things: Make sure that the proxy is set up in Zotero, in the proxies section of the Zotero preferences. Many of the more complex translators depend on Zotero having control over the addition of proxy info to URLs.

    Second: The change that EBSCO referred to is not something I know the details of, but I think it affects the formatting or presence of persistent link information. The current incarnation of the translator was in fact produced by EBSCO developers (with some contributions by me, on the basis of an earlier version written by CHNM / Zotero developers).
  • chad.haefele
    Ah, thanks! I do have the proxy set up in Zotero, so that doesn't seem to be the cause. I'll hold on and see if EBSCO can tell me what's up.
  • chad.haefele
    Well, EBSCO got back to me and they have no idea what the problem is. So, anybody else have an idea?

    The error message says to check the forums for known translator issues, but I don't see any relevant ones about EBSCO.
  • ajlyon
    Ok. In that case, we'll need a report ID from a failed save attempt (use "Report errors" in the gear menu), so we know the precise error message.
  • chad.haefele
    Got it - Report ID: 1496132939

    Error was triggered when trying to save an individual article in Academic Search Premier via the piece of paper icon in the URL bar.

    Thanks, really appreciate you looking into this!
  • chad.haefele
    you know what, I think I owe you a big apology - turns out I wasn't running the current version of Zotero. Sigh, could have sworn I checked that. I'm on 2.1.10 now and everything's working perfectly. Thanks so much for your help though!
  • ajlyon
    No problem-- we also forgot to remind you to go through the translator troubleshooting steps first, which would have included updating Zotero.
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