Cannot open URL from DOI (UTF-8 encoding issue)

Hi,

in a collection imported from a Bibtex file that was encoded in UTF-8 format, Zotero fails to build the URL address when I click the DOI button.
I get the following error message:"Cannot open the URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevLett.88.070409". Obviously, the slash in the DOI has been replaced by its UTF-8 hexcode. Any clue on how to get around this issue?
  • Forgot to say that it's the 3.0.8 standalone version on linux.
  • That's not UTF-8 (url encoding uses ASCII). And the URL-encoded link works for me. What did the origianl BibTeX look like?
  • Thanks for the (very) quick answer.

    The original looks like this:

    @article{Abo-Shaeer:2002,
    Author = {Abo-Shaeer, J. R. and Raman, C. and Ketterle, Wolfgang},
    Date-Added = {2008-11-24 18:33:40 +0100},
    Date-Modified = {2012-08-29 09:23:51 +0000},
    Doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.070409},
    Journal = {Physical Review Letters},
    Keywords = {Vortices},
    Number = {7},
    Pages = {070409},
    Title = {{Formation and Decay of Vortex Lattices in Bose--Einstein Condensates at Finite Temperatures}},
    Volume = {88},
    Year = {2002}}
  • For me, that imports fine & both chromium and firefox can handle the link. Also: I don't think that is a Zotero error message. Is this an error message from your browser? Do other links work from Zotero? What browser are you using?
  • That's a good point. I assumed the error message comes from Zotera, but I'm not sure. I cannot identify the source of the message yet. I'm using firefox, but I'll try with another brother and post the result.
  • So I changed my default browser to Konqueror and Opera and I got exactly the same message.

    Let me expose the exact message again (the previous version was a translation from me):
    -----------
    Failed to open URI "http://dx.doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevLett.88.070409".
    Operation not supported.
    -----------

    When I switch between apps with Alt+Tab, the message appears as "exo open". Im't not sure if that helps...
  • Seems like this is a problem with your system, not with Zotero. Have you tried just pasting that URL into a browser directly? The URL is valid, and it should work in any browser (and does for me). If exo-open is failing for some reason, you'd have to report that to your distro.
  • First, though, it's worth testing this with exo-open on the command line. It's possible the URL is somehow getting mangled between Zotero and exo-open, but the error message isn't showing anything amiss.

    What distro/version/etc. is this?
  • how about other links/dois, do those work?
    The only other idea that I have is that there is some weird character that isn't what it appears to be and breaks the link (and doesn't copy to the forum). To try that out, you could select the bibtex above, do "import from clipboad" in Zotero and see if it still doesn't work - it does for me.
  • What adamsmith said is much smarter. Do that.
  • In the reverse order of your suggestions:

    * I tried the copy/import test of adamsmith, but faced with the error message again.

    * I do have the same issue with all other entries in my database. However, if I copy the url to the url field and click on the url button, my browser does open the link. Only the doi button is causing troubles.

    * exo-open on the command line behaves the same: error message. In addition, it outputs the following line:
    ]2;exo-open "http://dx.doi.org/10.1103PhysRevLett.88.070409"%

    * I have linux mint 13 xfce.

    * I checked that the url itself is valid, as Dan proposed. If I copy from the error message and paste it in my browser, it does indeed open without problem.
  • Let me correct something I just wrote about the url button of Zotero not making troubles.

    In Zotero, if I copy the doi from the doi field into the url field and add the http prefix by hand, then I can open the url using the url button. But if I copy/paste the url from the error message into the url field, then I (of course) get the error message again.
  • Hi guys, did you all disappear?

    It looks like the way zotero calls exo-open is the issue, no?
  • Given this:
    exo-open on the command line behaves the same: error message.
    It appears the issue is with your system.
  • By "exo-open behaves the same", I meant that it cannot open a url like "http://dx.doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.1060182", with the %2f instead of the slash.

    Now I don't know on does the url that was produced by zotero look like. Do you know how I could catch the command sent by zotero when pressing the doi button?

    Thanks a lot for your time!
  • edited November 9, 2012
    Now I don't know on does the url that was produced by zotero look like.
    I don't know what you mean by this.

    If you can reproduce this via the command line with the same URL, it's an issue with your system. (And Zotero doesn't call exo-open itself. That's presumably just your system's mechanism for opening URLs.)
  • Apart from the fact that my sentence wasn't correct (sorry), I meant that zotero has to issue some command to get the url opened. This command seems to be misinterpreted by my system. In order to solve the problem, it would be useful to catch the command and see how it looks like. I was wondering whether someone here would know a way how to do that. Maybe some debug mode or so.
  • You seem to have misunderstood the above. If you can reproduce this problem with exo-open from the command line, this doesn't have anything to do with Zotero and you don't need Zotero to debug it.

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