Add local PDFs and extract their meta-data doesn't work

cb102

I tried to open a pdf with firefox "firefox my.pdf" to use the "Save in Zotero and extract meta-data from PDF" to bring this into my literatur database.
But it doesn't work. I see the download dialog but after pressing OK I get an unspecific error from Zotero.

adamsmith

I'd start by separating the steps out a bit.
First, try dragging the PDF to Zotero rather than saving it from Firefox.
Does that work?
Then, right click on the PDF and select retrieve metadata.
What exactly happens? I'd be a little surprised if there really was an error message with absolutely not text or further information.

cb102

Dragging to Zotero is not the use-case I described. In that case I have to save the PDF somewhere on the hard drive. To much time, to much clicks.

Let me describe my use-case more detailed:
I recieve PDF-attachments by mail (claws-mail is my client) and open them with "Open with" and selecting firefox (="firefox '%s'").

I would send you a screenshot but this forum doesn't offer the possibility to upload an image and I am not allowed to open an GitHub issue without allowance of a maintainer. So please help me to help you. ;)

On the screenshot you would see that firefox recieve the PDF (from a claws-mail temp folder) without problems. And I tested to open it with firefox without problems: the default PDF viewer show me the PDF.
But when I select "add to zotero and extract meta data" I get the message
"Speichere Link: Beim Speichern dieses Links ist ein Fehler aufgetreten."
Translated: "Saving Link: While saving this link an error occured."

Not so detailed.

dstillman

Report ID?

dstillman

Also, to be clear, adamsmith was giving you steps to troubleshoot this, not suggesting a change to your workflow.

(And FYI, if you complain about the GitHub policy again I'm just going to start ignoring your posts. The next version of the forum software will allow files, but we've told you repeatedly that you can upload screenshots to a free file-sharing site and post links here. Given that you don't even follow the basic bug-reporting instructions we ask for — provide a Report ID, provide the exact text you see on screen — I'm not particularly inclined to spend more time helping you.)

adamsmith

Actually that was really all the info I needed. (so @cb102 -- that's actually a pretty specific error and you could have saved yourself, and more importantly us, the time had you reported that from the start).

@Dan -- saving a local file to Zotero via Firefox's download dialog produces an error (on linux at least).

I don't see anything in the error report, oddly, but debug has

(3)(+0003083): Zotero_DownloadOverlay: Downloading from file:///home/sebastian/Desktop/Zotero/zotero-workshops/Presentations/translators-citoid.pdf

(3)(+0000007): Importing attachment from URL file:///home/sebastian/Desktop/Zotero/zotero-workshops/Presentations/translators-citoid.pdf

and the Zotero message is in the Save to Zotero popup:
"Saving Link - an error occurred saving this link"

@cb102 if you want to, you can use the Save to Zotero icon (the one you'd typically use to save from website) to get the PDF into Zotero, where you'd then right-click --> retrieve metadata. The total number of clicks should be exactly the same.

dstillman

This is a limitation of the Mozilla function we're using to save from that dialog — it doesn't seem to work on file URIs, so we've disabled it for those. We could probably add a workaround, but given that the Save to Zotero button works fine, and the open/save dialog modification will be going away in the near future with XUL deprecation, I'm not going to worry about this.

cb102

Thanks for help and registering the Bug.

"ReportID"... I will use that for my next report.