Accessed field is not working... does not display, lost field data in our group libraries

We enter data in the accessed field so we can export citations/references with the "Last accessed on " field displaying. As we enter references, we enter usually the current date in that field under the URL field. Lately, we can fill it out, have tried different values, including "today" without quotes, or 2017 Jun 24 etc. to no avail. It looks like former entries where the field was filled out have also lost data, empty and/or do not report out in the standard item view. Please let us know if it gets fixed. Our group libraries include but are not limited to: ADPREFS, PDSREFS, YSPREFS.
  • (Generally, Zotero will fill out this field automatically when you import items from your browser, so it's best to do that. But for the items you are currently with, follow below.)

    What exactly happens when you try to enter a date into this field? Are you trying to enter these on the Zotero website or the Zotero client program? If the latter, What operating system and version of Zotero are you using? Can you submit a Debug Report ID for an attempt to change the Accessed Date that fails?
    https://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output

  • Thanks for quick response. It is on the Zotero website - "cloud" - Zotero Groups feature with URL such as: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1463427/adprefs, the link to the group library which then has items / records in it where we are having the issue, when you click to edit an existing item or add a new item manually. We are using a high speed connection with Chrome and/or Firefox browsers up-to-date-latest-versions on Windows 10 laptop.
  • What _exactly_ happens when you try to edit the Accessed date field? Editing it works for me, so to help you, I really need you to explain in detail what you are trying to do and exactly what you see.

    First, can you verify that you can edit any other field? My first guess would be that you might not have editing access to the libraries.
  • I am the originator of the libraries / master administrator so that should not be the issue. All items you see listed in the library are proof data was entered into "other" fields and accepted. It only, for us at this time, seems to be the "accessed" date field that is problematic.

    Step by step:
    1. open record / entry to edit (e.g. journal article)
    2. go to accessed field; enter "today" or "2017 Jun 09" or "01/01/2017"
    3. click on save button
    4. look at record display result - notice "accessed" is missing in the output/report/item-info-display
    5. click on edit again for the item
    6. notice the "accessed" field is empty

    and this is true for items entered before today's date, which previously held the "accessed" data/text/entries upon save.

    So, something changed and we're not sure what or why or how to get it back to functioning. Glad yours is working just fine.

    NOTE: I have been able in this process to edit a record field such as adding "extra" info to the following record which was saved and displays correctly: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1463427/adprefs/items/itemKey/2W35BM4S so I don't think its a permissions conflict / matter.

  • Okay, I figured out what is going on. It is only accepting dates entered in ISO format:
    YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
    2014-03-28

    Other formats are getting rejected (though, for me, they are reverting to their previous state, not deleting the data entirely).

    In the offline Zotero client program, you can input using other formats ("Today", "March 23 2016", "2014/05/23", etc.) and they are parsed so long as you provide a day, a month, and a year. In the online library, only the ISO format is currently accepted.

    @fcheslack @dstillman Can the online library be made to allow the various parsing options the client has?
  • As can be seen at this link, you were spot on regarding the format... at least for now, this is working for new/recent records: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1463427/adprefs/items/itemKey/PEMG5GP2

    which displays the accessed field with the date after edit/entry of 2017-06-24
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