Upgrade StorageZotero error refreshing. Report ID 337976002
Once again I have a problem when refreshing Zotero that I am unable to narrow down with your 'binary slicing' method (step 10 in the instructions). I first removed all indexing tags as that caused a problem in the past, though it seemed to be fixed in the 5.0.89 beta version that I am using.
I used the binary slicing method to narrow it down to a two-page fragment, then removed the citations one at a time. When the fragment refreshed OK, I assumed the previous citation was causing the problem. However, when I removed the same citation in the original document it still failed. And if I put the same citation into a new document it refreshed OK. I tried one citation each side of it too, with the same result.
I will send the full document (with all citations restored) to support@zotero.org.
I used the binary slicing method to narrow it down to a two-page fragment, then removed the citations one at a time. When the fragment refreshed OK, I assumed the previous citation was causing the problem. However, when I removed the same citation in the original document it still failed. And if I put the same citation into a new document it refreshed OK. I tried one citation each side of it too, with the same result.
I will send the full document (with all citations restored) to support@zotero.org.
You can correct these invalid Language field values manually, but this obviously shouldn't throw an error.
This gives rise to a number of observations and suggestions for your programmers:
1. As you said, Language is not relevant to generating citations or a bibliography so should not be used at all in ‘refresh’.
2. If the values in the Language field are limited, then they should be checked on input. I don’t know where “undetermined” came from but I had over 40 such records. I did not enter this text (why would I? Blank says the same thing), so it must have been imported from somewhere.
3. … and any time the field is edited. I was (erroneously, apparently) using the field for comments like ‘Translated from the German’ or ‘Originally in Ancient Greek’. If that’s not allowed, I should have been told at the time. No big deal; I just moved the text to the Abstract field.
4. When errors occur, it would be good programming practice to give the message in plain English to the user on the screen, e.g. 'Value "originally" not allowed in the Language field ... ”, with some identification of the record in which it occurred, e.g. the title field; (a record number would be fine if it could be located in the user interface).
5. It would be good to have an advanced search function that allows the user to search in specific fields (like Language). This is available in most databases, so why not in Zotero? I had to get a list of all records containing the word “originally” (about 150) in ANY field, then search manually by clicking through until I found the word in the Language field. Then I had to repeat with the other words.
I hope these comments are taken as constructive. I am a massive fan of Zotero, but at the moment it is hard to recommend it to anyone who is not a bit of a geek!
We're currently limited in how we can modify that dialog (which is also why there are Yes/No buttons instead of clearer buttons), but in a future version we might be able to add a "Revert All" button. I'm not really sure why you've come to this conclusion. Zotero is used by millions of people. You're the only person who reported the previous bug you experienced while using an esoteric Word feature, we fixed it in the beta within a couple days, and you're now using a beta version with a regression that will likely be fixed within a day or two, with an easy workaround in the meantime.
Thanks for your comprehensive response. I certainly did not want to annoy anyone. As I said, I am a great fan of Zotero and have used it for at least 6 years now, mostly for academic writing. Nevertheless, it seems there are some features I was not aware of!
1. “[the language field] is used, by the citation processor — it determines how capitalization is handle”
– Wow! I didn’t know that! This is good news because I do have problems with capitalisation of German and French titles. Is there a list of codes somewhere that I can input to make this right? What do I do with dual-language titles? Is the original capitalisation kept? (I will experiment)
What I said was that it shouldn't throw an error, and that's just a bug in the citation processor used in the beta version you're running.
– You are quite right. Sorry.
2. The values are not limited. Only some having meaning in the citation processor, but if you don't care about the special behaviour you can enter whatever you want in that field.
– OK. Good to know.
3. n/a
4. This has nothing to do with "programming practice", and you're just going to annoy the people who might help you here if you say things like this without knowing what you're talking about …
– I have to disagree with you on this one, and I speak as someone who spent 40 years in the IT industry as software developer. I don’t mean to be annoying; precise error tracking is as useful to the developer as to the user and makes it a more professional looking product.
5. [an advanced search function] exists.
– Wow again! Never knew that was there. Perhaps because it is not near the usual search window, but in the “Edit” menu. Still that’s a quibble and it works fine. Wish I had known that yesterday ;-(
6. I doubt we'd make this a preference [that allows me to tell Zotero to ALWAYS ignore any changes in a citation] … in a future version we might be able to add a "Revert All" button [to the dialog].
– That’s a good idea! Perhaps “yes to all” and “no to all” buttons, or an “apply to all” tick box that is by default unticked?
7. I'm not really sure why you've come to this conclusion [that it is hard to recommend Zotero to anyone who is not a bit of a geek!]
– Mainly due to my comment at point 4. Zotero is great when it works, but when there is an error one has to go through the rather time-consuming procedure of sending a fault report and posting on the forum and emailing the document. Even as a former IT ‘geek’ myself I had to have this explained to me the first time, but eventually got used to it. However, I feel that my academic colleagues in the history of art department might baulk at this.
– By ‘good programming practice’, I simply mean that it is best to tell the user in plain language what is wrong and where, not just say “a fault occurred”. There is then a good chance the user can fix the citation him/herself; and even if she/he has to report it, it would make your job easier!
… you're the only person who reported the previous bug you experienced while using an esoteric Word feature
– I wouldn’t call indexing ‘esoteric’; it’s a perfectly normal Word function. For a large document, like a book or a thesis, auto-marking is the only practical method to use. Maybe others had the problem but did not report it? It’s been around for a while; I previously reported errors that were not at the time diagnosed as having this cause.
… we fixed it in the beta within a couple days
– You did. All credit to you for that!
… with an easy workaround in the meantime.
– Mmm, not that easy. I spent two or three hours on this (which admittedly would have been a bit less if I had known about Advanced Search), and it took a bit of IT knowledge as well as your hints to find and decipher the error message in the first place.
So apologies for anything that came across as annoying. I am very happy with your responsiveness and willingness to explain stuff I don’t understand. I am perhaps a more than averagely demanding user in that I am using Zotero to write my PhD thesis, which has several hundred citations out of a database of about 9,000 references, and is combined with pretty well all available word features for indexing, picture captioning, automated table of contents etc. Despite one or two frustrations, the job of writing the thesis has been much simpler with Zotero than it would have been without and my supervisor is constantly asking astounded, “how did you do that?”. If only I could get the text up to the standard of the citations :-)