Factiva not working - "Could Not Save Item"

flamingshoe
Hi, all!

I've been using Factiva to find newspaper articles relevant to my research, but as of a few days ago I've been getting the "Could Not Save Item" error message whenever I try to save to Zotero. I haven't changed any settings in Zotero or Firefox.

Previously I've done most of this on my home PC, so when it wasn't working on my university PC I thought that it might be a problem with the PC itself. However, after trying it at home I'm having exactly the same problem.

I've tried restarting Firefox and logging into Factiva again. Strangely, once or twice it's let me download data for one article but as soon as I change the search criteria it starts showing an error again.

The URL through which I'm accessing Factiva is this one: http://global.factiva.com.proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/ha/default.aspx

Report ID: 1022751243

Let me know if there's any further information I can provide!

Thanks,
Andrew
  • adamsmith
    doesn't work for me either - looks like the changed the site structure.
    I've added it to the known translator issues.

    The site & translator is quite complex, so I'll hope ajlyon finds time to take a look, it's above what I can do - this may take a while.
  • ajlyon
    Please go to http://github.com/ajlyon/translators/raw/master/Factiva.js and save the file to the translators directory of your Zotero data directory (http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data).

    It should start working again. If this works for you, please post here so that I can submit this change to be pushed to all users.

    This turned out to just be an issue with some changes in the Factiva XML that we're requesting and parsing.
  • flamingshoe
    Thanks for the quick response!

    It's mostly working now, except it doesn't seem to like certain publications (or at least one). I wasn't having much luck with anything before.

    To provide some context, I'm looking for newspaper reports covering the Chernobyl disaster. Zotero seems happy now to grab the information for most articles that I've come across, except ones from The Times.

    To test this I used several search criteria and tested a number of articles from different newspapers at different times. The only ones it seemed to have an issue with were from The Times. This seems to go all the way through from 1986 to today. Is it possible that this is to do with some sort of content restriction, maybe?
  • adamsmith
    Please give ajlyon a precise search string for an article that's not working so that he can find it. Unlikely that it would be content restrictions.
  • ajlyon
    I'm on it, and I can confirm that articles from The Times don't work. Unfortunately, the site is indeed horrendously complex-- I'm impressed that Simon managed to make it work at all.

    I'll see what I can do.
  • ajlyon
    Fixed. Turned out to be a small encoding issue:
    Please go to http://github.com/ajlyon/translators/raw/master/Factiva.js and save the file to the translators directory of your Zotero data directory (http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data).

    It should start working again. If this works for you, please post here so that I can submit this change to be pushed to all users.
  • flamingshoe
    Fantastic! It's now working perfectly.

    Thanks for all your help, and again for responding so quickly.
  • ajlyon
    Great! I'll push it out now.
  • rmlivingstone
    I can't figure out how to implement this fix, even after checking out the http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data page. How exactly do I save that script and update the translators directory? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
  • adamsmith
    don't worry about that - the translator has long since been pushed to the clients - these fixes are never required for regular use of Zotero. If this is not working for you that's a new/different issue:

    Provide a precise search string to get to the item in question as well as an error report ID for a failed search attempt.
  • rmlivingstone
    Ok...I'm not 100% sure what a precise search string is, though. The URL I'm searching from is

    http://global.factiva.com.libproxy.uoregon.edu/ha/default.aspx

    Before I fooled around with the translator directory, an error message would come up in the bottom right when I tried to save a source, but now an empty box appears for a few seconds, then goes away, without saving the source. It seems like I'm getting farther away from a solution, not closer...I really appreciate the help.
  • adamsmith
    search string = how would we (or rather: ajlyon) get to the search result(s) that aren't working for you - i.e. which search terms in which database (if Factiva has multiple databases - I don't remember).
  • rmlivingstone
    It's actually a complicated search, but it doesn't seem to matter (on my end) what the search is...Zotero is not saving anything from Factiva.

    The search was for "wikipedia", for all dates, from Top News Page Sources only, searching headline and lead paragraph.
  • rmlivingstone
    Just wondering if anyone had insights into my problem (above). Thank you in advance for the help!
  • ajlyon
    Working for me still. See www.zotero.org/support/troubleshooting_translator_issues

    If the problem persists, provide a Report ID.

    Also, you could provide the Factiva accession number for several items that aren't working, which would make diagnosing and fixing here a good deal easier.
  • rmlivingstone
    Still not working for me. The pop-up in the right corner is saying "An error occurred while saving this item. Check known translator issues for more information."

    For example, Document FB00000020040607e06l0000k won't save. Here are some others:

    TLCW000020040708e07800106

    nytf000020010920dx9k00008

    grdn000020030130dz1u000a0

    Thanks again for the help.
  • DWL-SDCA
    This is probably related to the location of the computer from which you connect to Factiva. My university has two access paths: on campus and off campus through the password protected library proxy. Counter-intuitively, I could successfully download citations to Zotero from home but not from on campus. Lately, I cannot download citations from either of those locations. However, I can download from Factiva if I am accessing Factiva from another local university library (where I happen to be right now).
  • rmlivingstone
    Thanks for the input. I'm actually getting the same error both on campus and off campus, but it does seem like it has something to do with the university connection. Any other ideas on how to overcome this? (I don't have access to another university network.)
  • DWL-SDCA
    At my university (SDSU) I no longer even get an address bar icon when on a Factiva article. I just happened to be at the UCSD library and browsing this forum while waiting for someone who was to meet me 25 minutes ago. I tested Factiva out of curiosity and things worked as they should.
  • adamsmith
    My sense is that the Factiva interfaces vary a lot - last time I tried it didn't work for me either.
    Ajlyon is at UCLA, they likely get the same interface as UCSD, so that would make sense.
    If that's the case, though, I don't know how much we can do about that.
  • ajlyon
    Well, we can fix this if someone chips in using the other interface type. I know adamsmith is hesitant to take on this translator-- maybe someone can arrange proxy access for me to try working on it from an IP that gets the other interface.
  • reubot
    I have found that it seems to only work when the POST data contains "dfd=FULR" here (University of Quuensland).
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