Unable to export in EndNote XML

sansbonsang · November 4, 2014

ERROR REPORT ID: 1321056792

I am currently exploring the different export formats available in Zotero, as a first step in determining the best and easiest way to export bibliographic references from either Zotero, Mendeley, or directly from PubMed, to eventually import them into a relational database. I selected a set of 25 references I had downloaded from PubMed into one of my Zotero folders. I batch-selected the 25 references, clicked to the right of the gear icon, and selected Export Library, then selected EndNote XML from the drop-down menu, and activated the two clickboxes (Export Notes, and Export Files), the I clicked OK, defined a location and gave a name to the file to be exported. After clicking Save, I got an error message. An XML file was actually created, but when I opened it with either the Notepad or an XML editor/viewer, the file is blank. Has anyone seen this before? Thanks in advance for your much appreciated help. P.S. I was able to export the exact same references directly from PubMed into an XML file without any problem, so it apperas there is something wrong with Zotero.

adamsmith · November 4, 2014

While this should work and we'll look into it, what you should do is to select those 25 items, right click on them --> Export Selected Items.
Pretty sure that will work. What you're doing would try to export the entire library.

(note that Endnote XML and the XML exported by PubMed have very little to do with each other).

@Dan - what does that error report say?

dstillman · November 5, 2014

[JavaScript Error: "Component returned failure code: 0x80520012 (NS_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND) [nsIFile.copyTo]" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/translation/translate_item.js" line: 872}]

adamsmith · November 5, 2014

every time that error has come up it was due to an invalid filepath specified for relative paths in the advanced tab of the Zotero preferences. Could that be the case here, Sansbonsang?

sansbonsang · November 5, 2014

Thanks adamsmith for your feedback. I just followed your export procedure. It seems to take a while (several minutes) to be completed; there is a scrolling bar continuously moving left to right, in a box that says "Document export in progress". Is it normal to take so much time?

Regarding "an invalid filepath specified for relative paths in the advanced tab of the Zotero preferences", I will look into it. I wonder if it could be related to the fact that at work we run Firefox as a remote desktop program, so that our file directory is accessed by Firefox through a series of aliases/shortcuts; could that be part of the explanation?

adamsmith · November 5, 2014

25 items should export in no time at all. My guess would be that it's related to your set up, yes, especially if the database isn't local, you'd have to deal with network latency. I believe the way export works is that it's making a separate database request for each item (though my understanding is that a remote desktop should load the database onto your current computer, so I'm not sure about this.)

If you don't have anything in the relative link settings in Zotero, that would suggest that something about the aliases creates a problem, though I've never seen reports of this and I can't believe you're the only one running Zotero on remote Desktop.