Harvard EZProxy Settings

mvkarra

Hi -

I am having difficulties with accessing full-text articles through my Harvard University account using Zotero's EZProxy settings. I previously used to be able to access full-text articles on a search engine site like Google Scholar by first receiving a prompt from Harvard to sign in with my university ID and password and then accessing articles through the Google Scholar domain. However, this function no longer seems to work, and I am not sure why. I have checked my proxy settings on Zotero, and I think that they are right. They are as follows:
1. "Enable proxy redirection" is checked
2. "Automatically recognize proxied resources" is checked
3. I have configured a proxy as follows: Multi-Site Hostname with Scheme: http://%h.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/%p
4. I have also made sure to remember my Firefox history, including cookies
Any information and insight as to what I am doing wrong would be most appreciated. Thanks!

aurimas

However, this function no longer seems to work

How exactly is it not working? What specifically are you trying to do and what happens as a result? (include URLs, error messages, etc.)

adamsmith

also, when you go through the university library (i.e. the regular way) to go through resource via the proxy--what's a sample URL (e.g. for JSTOR) that you'd see including the proxy?

mvkarra

It seems that Zotero is not recognizing that the website that I am trying to access is a site or article that I should have access to through my university, provided that I log in using my university name and password. Previously, for example, if I wanted to access an article using Google Scholar, I would type in "scholar.google.com" in my address bar, and I would automatically be directed to a screen from Harvard University that would ask me to log in using my username and password. Only after I would log in would I be directed to Google Scholar's page, after which I could search for any article on Google Scholar with the same access privileges that I would have at school.

To give a concrete example, under my current Firefox/Zotero settings, I cannot access the article "Time Series Regression with a Unit Root" on JSTOR because when I go to Google Scholar, Zotero does not recognize Google Scholar with EZProxy. I therefore get the standard Google Scholar page, and when I type in the article name, it gives me the following JSTOR address:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1913237?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

JSTOR also indicates to me that I am currently not logged in and would need to get JSTOR access through my institution.

However, if I were to access the same article by logging in through my library account or a VPN manually, I would first get a username/password request to log into my university account, and then when I search for the article, I get the following link for the same article:

http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1913237?origin=crossref

JSTOR now tells me that I have access to JSTOR through Harvard, and I can download a PDF copy of the article.

Hope this helps, and thanks again!

adamsmith

I have configured a proxy as follows: Multi-Site Hostname with Scheme: http://%h.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/%p

if you double-click on this, do you see any sites that you've tried listed? JSTOR for example? What I'm trying to understand is whether it's the proxy redirection that's broken or just the auto recognition.

And just to be sure -- you don't have Zotero Standalone open when you're trying this, correct?

mvkarra

When I double click the link, I get a blank Firefox page with a "Server not Found" error. I do not get JSTOR or any other sites that I have tried.

I only use the Zotero Firefox plug-in version of Zotero for all of my reference management needs.

adamsmith

no, I mean double click it in the proxy tab of the Zotero preferences, not here, sorry.

mvkarra

I then get another box that says with two fields, one for Hostname, and one for Scheme.

The box for "Multi-Site" is checked.
The Hostname field is blank.
The Scheme field is http://%h.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/%p

adamsmith

Is there a box for "Automatically Associate New Hostnames"? If there is and it's unchecked, check it, restart Firefox, see if that fixes it.

If there isn't or it's already checked, click on the + sign under the Hostname box, type www.jstor.org hit return. Then test if
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1913237?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
is automatically re-rerouted through the proxy.

Is this a new computer/profile btw? On a computer where this used to work, you should have all previously working sites still in that list.

mvkarra

There is no box named "Automatically Associate New Hostnames" for me to check/uncheck.

I added the site http://www.jstor.org/%p to the site name list on the proxy tab in Zotero preferences, but when I tested the link, it took me to the article site on JSTOR and told me that I had not logged in using my JSTOR log in through my university account. I could therefore only see a one-page preview of the article.

This is a new computer and profile. When I looked at my old computer settings where Zotero used to work (and still works well), I saw that there was only one site name in the list in the Zotero proxy tab, the http://%h.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/%p site. It seems as if my settings on my new computer do not recognize that they have to re-route me to my Harvard login page through the ezp-prod1 proxy above, where I can enter my Harvard ID and password.

adamsmith

Could you take screenshots of both the proxy tab and the window that opens after double-clicking the one proxy listed in the Hostname window, upload them to some free image hosting site (dropbox, imgur) and link to them from here.

mvkarra

So sorry - I did not see this response until now. I have saved the two screenshots as you requested in a Word document in Dropbox. The link to this document is:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/afcz2hyinhqjlji/Zotero%20Proxy%20Issue%20-%20MVK%209-14-15.docx?dl=0

Hope this helps!

adamsmith

something looks decidedly wrong in the lower two of those Windows.

Could you confirm your Zotero and Firefox versions for us and also try disabling all other add ons (in particular, but not only, Zotero related one), restart and try again.

mvkarra

My Zotero version is 4.0.27.4. My Firefox version is 40.0.3. I tried disabling all of the other add-ons and tried to start Zotero agaim, but I still cannot get the EZProxy to work.

adamsmith

You should be on Zotero 4.0.28.3 -- that might help, actually.
Also check: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/updates_not_detected on why this didn't happen automatically.

mvkarra

Yes, updating Zotero seems to have fixed the problem. Thank you!