Hereinafter: By tested, do you mean that you need to have a second instance of the item for which the hereinafter would be useful? That doesn't seem to do the trick.
What do you need in the way of a sample and how do I get it to you?
No, only that that the style never even looks at the variable for that item. Only variables that might be used in the style are listed in the abbreviation lists. It's probably just an oversight in the drafting of the style.
A few posts up there is a GitHub link. That message has instructions on how to post a copy of your data. It will save you the trouble of typing things out, and it gives me the exact data used on your machine.
(1) The parentheticals now work beautifully. My only thought is that it would be nice not to have put in !jurisdiction>>>F.3d to suppress the name of the jurisdiction.
(2) The hereinafters are better, most things seems to be showing up A few issues though. Here's one:
They have a problem that I think I have noticed in Journals as well. Suppose I enter a new item. Maybe I have to use it in a document first for this to happen, but eventually I decide to edit the item, to fix a typo, whatever. The newly edited item now shows up in hereinafter and other abbrevs, but so does the old item, which no longer exists and which I would like to get rid of, since it is confusing. Also, the edited item does not inherit the old hereinafter, it must be re-entered.
And may I just emphasize: This is all nitpicking. This is so amazing and we all owe you an enormous debt for undertaking it
The newly edited item now shows up in hereinafter and other abbrevs, but so does the old item, which no longer exists and which I would like to get rid of, since it is confusing. Also, the edited item does not inherit the old hereinafter, it must be re-entered.
Ah, good. I'll take a look at this soon. It's caused by some laziness in the implementation. We could use the item ID instead of the title etc as the key, but that will require a few tweaks to map the ID to item content before display in the plugin.
(It's not completely out of laziness, actually. I originally used metadata directly in the key because I was worried about portability; but the hereinafter key/value pairs are laden with personal preference and probably shouldn't be transferred between systems anyway.)
Hereinafters are especially tricky because they should vary between documents. Take two articles by the same author: One article might cite both in the same footnote and need a hereinafter. Another article might have only one and not need the hereinafter. I am not sure how to handle this because I do not have a good grasp of the basic workflow of the software.
Yes, this doesn't try to address that, at least in this iteration. The pairings would need to be stored in the document itself. That could be done, but it would be awkward to implement, and I seem to remember there are storage limitations for document metadata in some of the word processor formats supported by Zotero.
An alternative might be to have "document profiles" that the user can select. One for the future, anyway.
Issue one: The initial cite, fn 1, does not automatically indicate the phrase used as a hereinafter. This is not that hard to work around by hand inserting a parenthetical, but automation would be nice.
Issue two: More serious. Fn 3 should be
Sears III, 839 F.2d at 305.
Otherwise it sort of looks like 305 is the first page of opinion rather than a pin cite
Just wondering what the time horizon was for addressing issue two in my last post, the missing "at" in hereinafters. The other issues can be worked around but that one essentially cannot be (at least it takes more time than it is worth). If it will be awhile I will avoid using hereinafters in my current drafts, but I would find them useful if the issue will be fixed relatively soon.
Sorry, I've been meaning to check the manual for this. Is it a Bluebook requirement that subsequent cites with a shortened case name should join a page pinpoint with "at"?
I hate the official Bluebook, so I never check it, but I believe it is a standard principle of legal citation. I use the Cornell website as a reference. Here's what they say (link below)
§ 6-520. Short Form Citations - Cases
Full Citation
Brown v. Helvering, 291 U.S. 193, 203 (1934).
Short Form Citations
Brown, 291 U.S. at 203.
291 U.S. at 203.
Id. at 203.
The short form should include an identifiable portion of the case name unless it appears in the passage supported by the citation.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/6-500.htm
If you don't use an "at" it looks like the page referred to is the first page of the case rather than a pincite
Just checked the 18th edition (my copy of 19th edition is apparently at the office), at it does indeed require "at". I've fixed the affected styles (mlz-amlaw and mlz-cms-full), and reinstalling the style should pick up the update. I haven't run the full test suite against the change yet; if you spot any anomalies let me know.
If it is acceptable, I would like to add you to the credits for upcoming MLZ book. Would it be an imposition to ask your name (either here or via a Zotero message)?
Things are looking really good. Most significant problem now is the Abbreviations which are still being very temperamental, as we discussed earlier. When you have time I would be happy to work on the interface with you but for now the best solution seems to just periodically (between documents mostly) reinstall the abbrevs JSON which cleans things out, but of course loses some things that I need. So I need to make my own JSON with my important items. I don't know the code but made an educated guess and successfully added one entry but have a couple of questions that might help speed things up
(1) My key additions are almost all non-law journals, like Journal of Political Economy. On your original abbrevs list, there are entries of
"Political": "Pol.",
"Journal": "J.",
but they don't seem to replace parts of titles. In cases where the Abbrevs JSON replaces the whole title (Harv. L. Rev,) it works perfectly. Is there any way to fix the JSON so it replaces individual words in titles?
(2) The link to the Phrases JSON is broken. Is it available and would it help me?
(3) Right now the hereinafter seem to be available only for cases. It is useful for other items too sometimes, can it be made available?
The Hints link is fixed now. This list will replace individual words or phrases in titles. The Abbreviation Filter version should be 1.0.121. If you have a lower version, it would be worth updating or reinstalling to get the latest. One of the recent fixes was related to abbreviation editing -- it was forgetting new entries between sessions.
If there are other problems, I'll need steps to reproduce, so I can check the behaviour here.
I'm still having problems with phrases. I updated the Abbrevs and tried to import the new Hints link with no luck
Is there any way to tell from the interface whether I have imported it correctly? Journal Abbreviations show up on the interface when you chose "Reporters and Journals". No changes are apparent after I import phrases. However, I have found that it sometimes took several tries to import the names abbrevs, so I want to be sure I have succeeded.
We should look into these errors. First thing will be to explicitly report success or failure of the import. I have some travel coming up next week, so it might take a few days for me to get to it, but I'll put it on the list.
I'll also look at Phrases imports when I get a chance, to see if I can reproduce the failure there. Feel free to shout if you don't hear back in a week.
Could you give me a quick primer on the best way to edit the JSON documents? Sometimes when I add thing it works, sometimes not, o obvious difference in syntax, very frustrating. Part of the problem is probably than I am opening the JSON in word, typing or pasting, then saving and changing the extension name. Sometimes this introduces errors that I have now fixed (curly quotes but some I don't understand.
Is there a more straightforward way to do this, like in Firefox?
Biggest problem now: How do I wipe clean all the abbreviations to start with a clean slate? I have tried everything, although a little unsystematically so I might have messed up. I believe I have reinstalled Abbrevs addon, AMLAW style, and the abbrevs json and sarted new docs without clearing slate. I think once I may have succeeded when I went as far back as reinstalling Firefox,zotero etc but this seems excessive. Where do the abbreviations live?
If you take an Abbrev JSON file and delete the entries in each segment (preserving the segments and squiggly braces), then load that with the third option (the most aggressive one), that should give you an empty database for that style.
I'll add empty lists to the site later, with instructions.
I tried reinstalling the original Abbrevs JSON from your site - shouldn't that at least erase all my changes to it? Sometimes it seems like it doesn.t
The biggest problem is hereinafters. And they never seem to appear in any JSON I export to clean up. Where are they stored?
And finally: This may not be worth solving, because it will go away in the long run, but it is very vexing right now. Suppose I get things so they are working new documents. I often cannot transfer the changes to an old one. I have even gone as far as stripping out all zotero formatting (using the link in zotero)and saving as rtf. Usually when I reimport the new JSON the new stuff I have added transfers over but I cannot get rid of old stuff. Often hereinafter behave erratically, sometimes using the newly assigned abbreviation sometimes not.
(1) Suppose I create Isis.JSON, import it, and then edit from within the interface. I was assuming that the editing left Isis.JSON unchanged so I could reimport it to erase the new stuff. However, if s changes affect the JSON that explains some of what has been happening
(2) I think I have narrowed down the odd hereinafter behavior when a new JSON is applied to an old document. For some reason, there must be two full cites before the short cite is used. I have replicated this many times, bizarre huh? This occurs even when the new JSON Works fine with new documents
What are the files "abbreviations-for-zotero.sqlite"? I know sqlite files store zotero info like databases. Are these part of your Abbrevs set up and part of what causes the persistence of abbrevs. both wanted and unwanted? Should I pruce them when I am having problems?
So I finally tried the Error console as you suggested, wish I had done so earlier. Your standard JSON imports successfully.
I have used http://jsonlint.com/ to validate my JSON but when I try to import it this is the error message I get
I think I have narrowed down the odd hereinafter behavior when a new JSON is applied to an old document. For some reason, there must be two full cites before the short cite is used.
Thanks, this is exactly the kind of detail that I need for debugging.
Importing the empty list worked for new documents but was uneven for old documents. I am pretty sure I actually imported it because there was no error in the error console and some cites did change: the jurisdictions now just have code instead of correct names. However, although the abbreviations are no longer listed in the Journals and Reporters menu, they not only persist in text after updating but are used again in newly inserted cites.
Would it be possible for you to look at the JSON that is not importing? I have a tight deadline and it wold really help to have it installed. How would I send it?
Upgrade Storage
In the Extra field I have
{:jurisdiction:us;federal;mi.eastern}
In the Court field I have
E.D. Mich
I get
Flowers v. Schwarz, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9062 (E.D. Mich E.D. Mich. 2005).
If I substitute Eastern District of Michigan in the Court field I get
Flowers v. Schwarz, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9062 (Eastern District of Michigan E.D. Mich. 2005).
What do you need in the way of a sample and how do I get it to you?
A few posts up there is a GitHub link. That message has instructions on how to post a copy of your data. It will save you the trouble of typing things out, and it gives me the exact data used on your machine.
(2) The hereinafters are better, most things seems to be showing up A few issues though. Here's one:
They have a problem that I think I have noticed in Journals as well. Suppose I enter a new item. Maybe I have to use it in a document first for this to happen, but eventually I decide to edit the item, to fix a typo, whatever. The newly edited item now shows up in hereinafter and other abbrevs, but so does the old item, which no longer exists and which I would like to get rid of, since it is confusing. Also, the edited item does not inherit the old hereinafter, it must be re-entered.
And may I just emphasize: This is all nitpicking. This is so amazing and we all owe you an enormous debt for undertaking it
(It's not completely out of laziness, actually. I originally used metadata directly in the key because I was worried about portability; but the hereinafter key/value pairs are laden with personal preference and probably shouldn't be transferred between systems anyway.)
An alternative might be to have "document profiles" that the user can select. One for the future, anyway.
fn 1 Equal Emp’t Opportunity Comm’n v. Sears, Roebuck & Co, 839 F.2d 302 (7th Cir. 1988).
fn 2 Other cites
fn 3 Sears III, 839 F.2d 305.
Issue one: The initial cite, fn 1, does not automatically indicate the phrase used as a hereinafter. This is not that hard to work around by hand inserting a parenthetical, but automation would be nice.
Issue two: More serious. Fn 3 should be
Sears III, 839 F.2d at 305.
Otherwise it sort of looks like 305 is the first page of opinion rather than a pin cite
Just wondering what the time horizon was for addressing issue two in my last post, the missing "at" in hereinafters. The other issues can be worked around but that one essentially cannot be (at least it takes more time than it is worth). If it will be awhile I will avoid using hereinafters in my current drafts, but I would find them useful if the issue will be fixed relatively soon.
Thanks!
§ 6-520. Short Form Citations - Cases
Full Citation
Brown v. Helvering, 291 U.S. 193, 203 (1934).
Short Form Citations
Brown, 291 U.S. at 203.
291 U.S. at 203.
Id. at 203.
The short form should include an identifiable portion of the case name unless it appears in the passage supported by the citation.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/6-500.htm
If you don't use an "at" it looks like the page referred to is the first page of the case rather than a pincite
If it is acceptable, I would like to add you to the credits for upcoming MLZ book. Would it be an imposition to ask your name (either here or via a Zotero message)?
(1) My key additions are almost all non-law journals, like Journal of Political Economy. On your original abbrevs list, there are entries of
"Political": "Pol.",
"Journal": "J.",
but they don't seem to replace parts of titles. In cases where the Abbrevs JSON replaces the whole title (Harv. L. Rev,) it works perfectly. Is there any way to fix the JSON so it replaces individual words in titles?
(2) The link to the Phrases JSON is broken. Is it available and would it help me?
(3) Right now the hereinafter seem to be available only for cases. It is useful for other items too sometimes, can it be made available?
Thanks!
If there are other problems, I'll need steps to reproduce, so I can check the behaviour here.
Is there any way to tell from the interface whether I have imported it correctly? Journal Abbreviations show up on the interface when you chose "Reporters and Journals". No changes are apparent after I import phrases. However, I have found that it sometimes took several tries to import the names abbrevs, so I want to be sure I have succeeded.
Thanks
I'll also look at Phrases imports when I get a chance, to see if I can reproduce the failure there. Feel free to shout if you don't hear back in a week.
Is there a more straightforward way to do this, like in Firefox?
Thanks
To check files for correct syntax, you can use this: http://jsonlint.com/
Biggest problem now: How do I wipe clean all the abbreviations to start with a clean slate? I have tried everything, although a little unsystematically so I might have messed up. I believe I have reinstalled Abbrevs addon, AMLAW style, and the abbrevs json and sarted new docs without clearing slate. I think once I may have succeeded when I went as far back as reinstalling Firefox,zotero etc but this seems excessive. Where do the abbreviations live?
I'll add empty lists to the site later, with instructions.
The biggest problem is hereinafters. And they never seem to appear in any JSON I export to clean up. Where are they stored?
And finally: This may not be worth solving, because it will go away in the long run, but it is very vexing right now. Suppose I get things so they are working new documents. I often cannot transfer the changes to an old one. I have even gone as far as stripping out all zotero formatting (using the link in zotero)and saving as rtf. Usually when I reimport the new JSON the new stuff I have added transfers over but I cannot get rid of old stuff. Often hereinafter behave erratically, sometimes using the newly assigned abbreviation sometimes not.
(2) I think I have narrowed down the odd hereinafter behavior when a new JSON is applied to an old document. For some reason, there must be two full cites before the short cite is used. I have replicated this many times, bizarre huh? This occurs even when the new JSON Works fine with new documents
Thanks!
I have used http://jsonlint.com/ to validate my JSON but when I try to import it this is the error message I get
Timestamp: 10/6/2012 6:11:00 PM
Error: NS_ERROR_ILLEGAL_INPUT: Component returned failure code: 0x8050000e (NS_ERROR_ILLEGAL_INPUT) [nsIConverterInputStream.readString]
Source File: chrome://abbreviations-for-zotero/content/xpcom/import.js
Line: 34
Would it be possible for you to look at the JSON that is not importing? I have a tight deadline and it wold really help to have it installed. How would I send it?