Zotero bookmarklet stuck in infinite download loop

scottej1980

Couldn't find this issue in the forums. When I use the bookmarklet to save a reference, about 10% of the time the page stays open actively downloading multiple references as long as I leave the page open. This obviously slows everything down and generates extra work. Anything I might be doing wrong? My university uses a proxy bookmarklet to access paywall sites. Perhaps this is causing a problem? Thanks for any assistance.

Simon

Does this happen consistently on specific pages? If so, can you provide a URL?

scottej1980

As it happens about 10% of the time I've had difficulty reproducing it. The last time it happened was on bloodjournal.org. Looking through the forums more, I was able to find that proxy bookmarklets appeared to generate this error at times (searching "infinite loop"). Additionally, I have only had the error occurred while using a windows machine, specifically a windows tablet (Asus vivotab) wtih the relatively weak atom processor, so I'm unsure to what extent this is contributing.

scottej1980

http://www.pnas.org/content/99/26/16551.full

I was using the add to Zotero bookmarklet on a windows PC with Zotero open. This generated at least 5 identical references each with PDFs before I had to force-quit zotero.

I can confirm that this error has not occurred on the same machine when Zotero is not open.

Thanks.

scottej1980

It's now occurring 100% of the time. It only occurs on my vivotab and only when zotero is open. I suppose this must be related to my machine in some way. The work around is to have to keep closing my zotero whenever I want to import a paper. I may try to reinstall the database and program, but haven't had time to dedicate to this.

aurimas

I am able to reproduce some oddities with the Bookmarklet (Bookmarklet in Chrome and Zotero Standalone). Here's a Debug ID from ZSA for one of the failed saves from the URL above D1827073827 In this case there is a clear error. I have also had the save fail/get stuck without error. I'm trying to reproduce that more reliably. Ignore that please. It seems that resetting translators got interrupted and I didn't have the complete set.

Edit:
The following is with Zotero for Firefox at the HEAD of 4.0 branch with server mode enabled and Bookmarklet in Chrome.
The save gets stuck with a message "Saving via Zotero Standalone...", the item is created in Zotero though. Debug ID D901424285

scottej1980

I am using chrome. I will try Firefox and see if that works better.

aurimas

The comment above was directed towards Dan or Simon. Sorry for the confusion.

I don't think changing browsers will make much of a difference. Actually, for me, the bookmarklet does not detect Zotero Standalone when saving from Firefox (so that could be another bug).

scottej1980

Well I can now confirm it happens on another computer with my database as well. I basically must close my zotero desktop now every time I want to add a reference. Otherwise zotero generates multiple copies of the citation until I force close the browser (chrome) and zotero. Any input on this would be appreciated.

scottej1980

Sorry to harp on this, but I've encountered this problem on every machine I've used. Has anyone else had a similar problem with infinite loop additions to the library when using the plug in with the zotero stand alone open? The below screen shots are from safari on a macbook pro. You can see the same reference was downloaded multiple times. The only way to stop this behavior is to close the stand alone prior to inserting a reference, which is problematic.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18867242/Screen Shot 2014-05-11 at 12.54.42.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18867242/Screen Shot 2014-05-11 at 12.54.49.jpg

adamsmith

just for completeness - this is Zotero 4.0.20?
And does it occur on all pages? Wondering whether it's specific to the HighWire 2.0 translator.

scottej1980

I was on 4.0.17, but I just updated and could reproduce the problem for the same web page on 4.0.20. It seems to be on multiple different websites. Blood and Nature publishing group websites are the most recent that I can recall. There is no problem if I use pubmed to initiate the reference import, but in that case the PDF is not downloaded. My work around has been to navigate back pubmed and grab the reference there and manually add the PDF to zotero, which works, but is extra effort. I'm just wondering if there is a problem with my library or account? Sorry I'm not too savvy about how the zotero code works. Thanks for any help.

adamsmith

can I ask why you're using the bookmarklet? Obviously this should work and we'll work on getting this fixed, I'm just curious why you're not just using the Safari connector?

scottej1980

Oh, embarrassingly I didn't know about the connector. I thought the bookmarklet was the only way to import into zotero from a browser. I just tried the connector and it worked on the same page with no problem. Thanks again!

adamsmith

The connector is definitely the way to go if you have the choice and will work more reliably (especially for PDF download) than the bookmarklet. The bookmarklet is pretty much only for Internet Explorer or mobile browsers.