Cannot update document: state.fun.decorate[params[0]][params[1]] is undefined

Mazzers

Hi. I've started getting the following message in my documents (using my own style, which has previously been absolutely fine for several years):

"Zotero experienced an error updating your document

state.fun.decorate[params[0]][params[1]] is undefined"

It seems to be an issue with updating the reference list.

I validated .csl file against schema version 1.0.1 at this website and it seemed fine: http://validator.citationstyles.org/

Any suggestions?

adomasven

Could you provide a Report ID?

Mazzers

Thanks for responding. Here's the report ID: 543229981

adomasven

JavaScript Error: "state.fun.decorate[params[0]][params[1]] is undefined" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/citeproc.js" line: 3948}
This is either a CSL or citeproc issue, so pinging @fbennett.

@Mazzers could you also upload the custom style somewhere (e.g. gist.github.com) so we can take a look too?

fbennett

Will also want to look at the style code here. The cause of the error should be easy to identify from the style code.

Mazzers

The CSL is here:

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/b5acf2fd38bd771d5d604d213c222637

Mazzers

@fbennett, did you want me to post the code directly here? It seems like it's not possible to add that many characters but I suppose I could split it over several posts.

Anyway, thanks for any help you can provide.

fbennett

No, the gist is perfect. Dinnertime soon here, but I'll do some testing soon. Is there a reason you insert quotes as strings via prefix/suffix?

Mazzers

Hi. Thanks for the update.

No. There's not really any reasoning behind any of the code. I adapted an existing code to my organisation's editorial rules using the visual CSL editor available online (http://editor.citationstyles.org/visualEditor/). I've done very little direct tinkering with the CSL script itself.

It's worked fine until today, so I guess that perhaps there's been a Zotero update that has resulted in some kind of incompatibility?

LiborA

I've tried the style published above and I have no problem in Zotero 5.0-beta.195+9de6a55 and MS Word 2010.

adamsmith

Also would he helpful to know if this happens in a fresh document or only in existing documents. If the latter, if you could try to isolate the conditions under which the error occurs (normally a specific item cited or something in the prefix/suffix).

Mazzers

I'm updating to Zotero 5.0 beta to see if that works okay. It's taking a long time to sync a few thousand references. Let's see how that goes.

In the meantime, my colleague is running the previous Firefox version (4.0.29.16) and there's no problem with the referencing with that style on her computer.

As for the Adamsmith questions, the problem seems to occur with both new and existing documents and it doesn't occur with specific items. It's very odd, in fact. When adding references to a new document, the error message will come up eventually. But deleting the most recent additions and reverting to the citations that were previously okay does not make the error go away.

Mazzers

Mmm. The same problem is occurring with Zotero 5.0-beta.195+9de6a55.

Is there a way to go back to 4.0.29.16 in Firefox? That would seem to be the simplest option for me right now.

dstillman

@fbennett: This would've been in the recent update from 1.1.139 to 1.1.165 in 4.0.29.19.

@Mazzers: If you can wait just a short while (and, say, switch to another style temporarily), it'd be much easier to let fbennett take a look at this, and we'll push out a new beta as soon as there's a fix. Getting back to an older Firefox version is obviously possible but a little tricky.

fbennett

I have played with the style quite a bit, but haven't yet been able to make it fail. Will try a few more things, but if there are steps that reliably trigger the error, that would be really useful to have.

fbennett

Yeah, no luck. I've tried exercising disambiguation, quotes, 19+ authors (to trigger et al.), 20 citations (attempting to trigger something related to sort behavior), and citation collapsing in combination with all of the above. It insists on working normally. Here is a link to a version of the Propachi citation processor plugin that might give us a clue:

https://github.com/Juris-M/propachi-vanilla/releases/tag/v1.1.87alpha1

If you install the plugin, turn on logging (via Zotero Preferences -> Advanced), trigger the error, then submit a Report ID, the log should show the name of the function it is trying to execute when it fails.

fbennett

In passing (and not related to the issue here) the style does something very odd with quotes in the bibliography when it encounters an article-journal item that has both an author and an editor:
Xeno, X., 2000, 'Hello Title 20 'Aalto, A. (ed.)', <i>Journal of Note</i>.

The middle single-quote is placed there as a delimiter, so the quotes are un-balanced by design. Is that as intended?

Mazzers

@fbennett, thanks a lot for looking into this issue. I've tried to run that plugin but I get 'Firefox has prevented this site from installing an unverified plugin'. Is there a signed version that I could access?

Another point: I'm now running 5.0 beta on my desktop and have installed the Zotero connector but the latter doesn't seem to be working. When I open a new tab in Firefox there's a red Zotero 'Z' in the top right of my browser but it doesn't do anything when pressed. I don't know if this is somehow related to my other problem? It doesn't seem very likely but, then again, what do I know?

Final point: yeah, you do seem to have identified a bit of a flaw in my CSL. I think it's just that the problem hasn't come up in our work yet so it's not been fixed.

Mazzers

@fbennett, sorry, ignore my second point above. I had expected that the connector would work like the previous Firefox plugin but I guess that's not the idea. I can see what it does now.

fbennett

Sorry about the signing issue. This should work better:

https://github.com/Juris-M/propachi-vanilla/releases/tag/v1.1.87beta

Mazzers

Hi. Thanks. Here's the Debug ID: D1834405801.

fbennett

@dstillman: Does the trace show what decoration it's trying to render when the crash occurs?

adomasven

That's the full crash trace. Not sure if it is what you're looking for.

Mazzers

@fbennett, @dstillman, do you have any news on this problem? (thanks again for your help with this.)

Tanuzzo

@Mazzers I have the same error from this morning on a document that worked well previously. I also have a modified CSL, I think that the problem is related to a reference that create this bug, but I can't arrive to delete it. Even if I delete the reference from my zotero library it is always in the list (using the search bar in the word plug in). Any suggestions?

fbennett

@Tanuzzo: If you have identified the reference that triggers the error, could you export it (as Zotero RDF or as CSL-JSON) and post it to https://gist.github.com ?

@Mazzers: The bottleneck is at my end. Once I'm able to reproduce the error here, I'll be able to fix it, but that initial effort to identify the bad command didn't work out. If you can work out steps needed to reproduce the problem, that will be very helpful.

Tanuzzo

@fbennett I'm debugging the document and i found that the Insert Bibliography command blocks when I add a reference.The stange problem is that it worked well previously!!! I want to be sure that is this reference that creates the bug and then I will post it! Thank you for your help.

Mazzers

@fbennett: thanks for the response. here's a reference that triggers the problem:

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/007f63f6711f71e4a1b53f366de030ab

Mazzers

As mentioned above (and in line with Tanuzzo's experience) the error arises when the reference list is added. Simply adding the citation isn't a problem.

Tanuzzo

@fbennett @Mazzers I found two references that trigger the problem, i think that the issue is related to the quotation marks in the reference title that bug with my citation style.
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/566f41ae7449ba2989081904f798af61
as @Mazzers if I only add the citation nothing happens, the problem comes out when I add the bibliography

fbennett

That makes sense - the Report ID posted by @Mazzers and relayed by @adomasven shows the crash happening during a bibliography insert. Will look forward to your info!