Problems importing RIS into Zotero

roadworn1

I'm importing a library from endnote into zotero. I went through and exported my library (~12,000 references) using Refman. I also removed all links to .pdfs as that was a hang up I'd had before. Currently, the issue I've run across, is that Zotero hangs fairly quickly when doing a txt import. If I try and import my txt file directly, nothing happens. I've let zotero run for two days with no movement on the progress bar (this also means I can't get an error ID since Zotero doesn't actually crash). I have also tried to copy the txt contents and then import from clipboard. This works if I do one reference at a time, sometimes I can do up to 4, but zotero always stalls if there are more than 5 references selected. I know the format is correct, because I can import them individually, so I'm not really sure what the issue is at this point. Any suggestions?

Here's my format:

TY - CHAP
AU - Ackerly, Neal
CY - Santa Fe
PB - Manuscript on file, Santa Fe National Forest archives
PY - 2006
ST - Chapter 3. Affect Environment and Environmental Consequences
T2 - Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Oil-Gas Leasing and Roads Management: Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico
TI - Chapter 3. Affect Environment and Environmental Consequences
ID - 2550
ER -

aurimas

I'm looking into this. I can reproduce this problem with large RIS files (~15,000 entries), but I do not see this happening with 5 entries. I can import ~300 references in about 10 seconds.

Make sure your RIS translator is up to date: Step 5 here: http://www.zotero.org/support/troubleshooting_translator_issues


If you still cannot import a small number of RIS entries at a time, post the smallest number of entries that _does not_ import here (i.e. post the actual RIS entries)


Also, are you using Standalone or Firefox?

Furthermore, there is another report of this here: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/27198/ris-file-import-from-endnote-use-much-memory-and-stop-the-import

roadworn1

Thanks for responding! This problem originally started on the version in firefox. My Zotero is 3.0.11 and firefox is version 18.0, so they are both up to date. I updated the translators earlier today, but I went through and tried it again and had the same issue when I tried to import, so that doesn't seem to be the problem. I also downloaded the standalone version and tried an import and import from clipboard and had the same stall issue.

The difference between my issue and the other user's, I think, is that while my memory usage increases, their is no RAM activity and nothing finishes. It just hangs.

I just tried to import these 5 references and the zotero progress bar moved to about 70% completion before it stalled (also, when the import is working, I can't use firefox because it is so slow, but when it stalls, firefox works at normal speed). Thanks again for your help.

TY - CHAP
A2 - Spielmann, K. A.
AU - Adams, E. C.
CY - Tempe
KW - W Pueblo
P IV
LB - Western Pueblo
PB - Arizona State University Anthropological Research Paper 51
PY - 1998
ST - Late Prehistory in the Middle Little Colorado River Area: A Regional Perspective
T2 - Migration and Reorganization: The Pueblo IV Period in the American Southwest
TI - Late Prehistory in the Middle Little Colorado River Area: A Regional Perspective
ID - 2537
ER -


TY - CHAP
A2 - Schaafsma, Polly
AU - Adams, E. Charles
CY - Salt Lake City
PB - University of Utah Press
PY - 2000
SP - 35-46
ST - The Katsina Cult: A Western Pueblo Perspective
T2 - Kachinas in the Pueblo World
TI - The Katsina Cult: A Western Pueblo Perspective
ID - 2536
ER -


TY - BOOK
AU - Adams, E. Charles
CY - Tucson
PB - University of Arizona Press
PY - 2002
ST - Homol'ovi: An Ancient Hopi Settlement Cluster
TI - Homol'ovi: An Ancient Hopi Settlement Cluster
ID - 2535
ER -


TY - CHAP
A2 - Adams, E. Charles
A2 - Duff, Andrew I.
AU - Adams, E. Charles
CY - Tucson
PB - University of Arizona Press
PY - 2004
SP - 119-127
ST - Homol'ovi: A 13th to 14th-Century Settlement Cluster in Northeastern Arizona
T2 - The Protohistoric Pueblo World A.D. 1275-1600
TI - Homol'ovi: A 13th to 14th-Century Settlement Cluster in Northeastern Arizona
ID - 2534
ER -


TY - EDBOOK
AU - Adams, E. Charles
AU - Duff, Andrew I.
CY - Tucson
PB - University of Arizona Press
PY - 2004
ST - The Protohistoric Pueblo World, A.D. 1275-1600
TI - The Protohistoric Pueblo World, A.D. 1275-1600
ID - 2533
ER -

DWL-SDCA

How forgiving is Zotero concerning the spaces after the 2-letter tag and "-"?

There is somthing amiss with the line "P IV".

roadworn1

"P IV" is just a keyword. And that reference imported fine by itself.

adamsmith

yeah, the above imports for me in no time.
Could you double check that it also doesn't import if you select, copy & import it from your post above?

roadworn1

The same thing happens. The progress bar got about 60% of the way done and then it stalled.

adamsmith

what OS is this on, just so we have all info?

roadworn1

Windows 7, 64 bit

aurimas

could you generate a debug ID ( www.zotero.org/support/debug_output ) for your attempt to import the entries above?

How forgiving is Zotero concerning the spaces after the 2-letter tag and "-"?

IIRC we allow either one or two spaces. Also whatever line within a record does not match a tag syntax gets tagged onto the previous line.

roadworn1

Is this what you're looking for?

Could not read chrome manifest 'file:///A:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Mozilla%20Firefox/extensions/%7B972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd%7D/chrome.manifest'.

[JavaScript Error: "this.docShell is null" {file: "chrome://global/content/bindings/browser.xml" line: 323}]

[JavaScript Error: "this.docShell is null" {file: "chrome://global/content/bindings/browser.xml" line: 323}]

[JavaScript Error: "this.editor is null" {file: "chrome://browser/content/urlbarBindings.xml" line: 159}]

[JavaScript Error: "this.editor is null" {file: "chrome://browser/content/urlbarBindings.xml" line: 159}]

[JavaScript Error: "The character encoding of the plain text document was not declared. The document will render with garbled text in some browser configurations if the document contains characters from outside the US-ASCII range. The character encoding of the file needs to be declared in the transfer protocol or file needs to use a byte order mark as an encoding signature." {file: "zotero://debug/" line: 0}]

[JavaScript Error: "this.docShell is null" {file: "chrome://global/content/bindings/browser.xml" line: 323}]

version => 3.0.11, platform => Win32, oscpu => Windows NT 6.1; WOW64, locale => en-US, appName => Firefox, appVersion => 18.0

=========================================================

(4)(+0000000): Registering observer for [collection,search,share,group,trash,bucket] in notifier with hash v1'

(4)(+0003287): Unregistering observer in notifier with hash 'v1'

(4)(+0007657): Registering observer for [collection,search,share,group,trash,bucket] in notifier with hash 5M'

roadworn1

Sorry. Here's the actual debug ID:

D498806038.

dstillman

What is the Debug ID for, if it's hanging?

If you have to force-restart Firefox, we'd need real-time debug output that actually covers the import attempt.

roadworn1

Okay. Should I just copy and paste from the debug output then?

dstillman

If it's long, you can send it to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread and we'll post the relevant parts. If it's just a few lines, you can post it here.

aurimas

Dan, from the description it sounded like something may have thrown an exception, but the progress dialog never closed. I guess there would be no way to send the debug ID then. Anyway, my bad for not thinking this through.

roadworn1

It's long, I'll send it to the support@zoteroorg email now.

roadworn1

I just sent the email. I'm also copying the last few lines here. They seem to point to the issue.

(3)(+0000000): DATE: retrieved with algorithms: {"year":1993}

(2)(+0000000): Cannot start a DB transaction from a different wait level

(2)(+0000000): Translate: Translation using RIS failed:
thrown exception => Cannot start a DB transaction from a different wait level
url => undefined
downloadAssociatedFiles => true
automaticSnapshots => true

(5)(+0000000): Translate: Running handler 0 for done

(5)(+0000000): SELECT itemID FROM collectionItems WHERE collectionID=? AND itemID NOT IN (SELECT itemID FROM itemNotes WHERE sourceItemID IS NOT NULL) AND itemID NOT IN (SELECT itemID FROM itemAttachments WHERE sourceItemID IS NOT NULL)

(5)(+0000001): Binding parameter 1 of type int: 2

(2)(+0000000): Cannot start a DB transaction from a different wait level

(5)(+0000000): Translate: Cannot start a DB transaction from a different wait level in handler 0 for done

(3)(+0000000): Translate: WARNING: Zotero.done() called after translator completion with error

(3)(+0000000): Cannot start a DB transaction from a different wait level

(4)(+0098139): Unregistering observer in notifier with hash 'ku'

(4)(+0000000): Unregistering observer in notifier with hash 'LB'

roadworn1

So I restarted my computer today and for whatever reason, that seems to have fixed the issue. The import is still pretty slow (2 hours for ~ 1200 references), but it is working in large batches now.

adamsmith

just wondering - do you have your Zotero data directory in its default location or did you move it?

roadworn1

In its default location.