What information is saved when you export a library?

dvs0826

I have 2 firefox profiles, one default and one private one with a trunk xpi that I was using to test some changes to the pdf metadata retrieval in the most recent version. I exported the library from the trunk xpi profile and imported it into the other one, and all the document titles and everything are wrong. It looks almost as if when it exported everything, it didn't export the DOI or the metadata or something, and so it falls back on the older algorithm which doesn't work right. Is this a bug, or is this how it's supposed to be?

adamsmith

how did you export? As RDF?
It certainly shouldn't be all wrong - can you be more explicit?

dvs0826

What I mean is, there is a bug in 2.0b6 that caused an overwhelming majority of my PDF files to retrieve incorrect metadata.I posted this in another thread and the issue was fixed by Dan. To test it out, I made a new profile with the trunk XPI, re-added all my files, and sure enough all of them were detected correctly. So I exported an RDF including Files, then imported this RDF from the profile using 2.0b6. The imported entries still exhibit the same bugs.

It appears it is not exporting any of the actual metadata that was retrieved as a result of Retrieve PDF Metadata. So things like the DOI, Journal, issue, etc, this information is not being saved anywhere when I export. It appears to just be writing the file and the bookkeeping info, so when I import it in 2.0b6 it goes through the Retrieve PDF Metadata code path again, which means all my files get bad metadata.

dstillman

It appears to just be writing the file and the bookkeeping info, so when I import it in 2.0b6 it goes through the Retrieve PDF Metadata code path again

I assure you it doesn't.

But Export Library (as opposed to just selecting individual collections or items) does currently include items in group libraries—and possibly in the trash too—so if you have the "bad" items in a group library or the trash in your second profile, it would export those too, and they would appear in the local library in the other profile. But it would also export the correct items.

I think you'll need to take another look at this.

dvs0826

I'm not sure what to say, I've looked at it multiple times. Select Trunk XPI Profile, Export RDF, include notes / files, change profile to 2.0b6 profile, import, I've reproduced the problem 100% of the time this way. Before exporting, every document is unique and has much relevant metadata filled out. After importing, hundreds of documents end up with the same name, and there's very little metadata. The files that end up with the same name are the same as if I had just imported the PDF directly and gone through the retrieve pdf metadata process.

Is there something I can submit that would help you reproduce this problem?

dstillman

Are there group libraries in your trunk profile? Are there items in the trash?

adamsmith

hey - what happens if, instead of using export library, you select your library and then use ctrl+a to select all the items in the middle panel - then right-click and export selected items.
Also, did you make sure to empty the trash before exporting the library?

dvs0826

I did not verify that the trash was empty before exporting. It's a bit of a pain for me to check, because this was an old computer that I've replaced. It's still sitting here but it's tedious to unplug this one, plug in the old one, check something, then unplug everything again and switch it back. perhaps that's the problem though. I just verified however that even if I re-import it back into the trunk xpi the bad items are still there. I think some of the bad items are coming from a library group because some of them are showing up in library groups after the import, but I know for sure that in the original library there were 0 documents with this metadata anywhere (except possibly in the trash which I can't verify until tomorrow when I switch computers again).

Is it a bug that items in Trash get exported? At the very least, shouldn't they be imported into a folder clearly marked trash (or for that matter, into the actual trash)?

dstillman

Is it a bug that items in Trash get exported?

Yes.

imtiaz habib

Someone please help! I changed computers recently. In the old one I put ALL my research and other files in Zotero standalone. Before trading in that computer I asked Zotero to export my library to that computer's desktop, from which I copied the folder to a flash drive. Then in the new computer I downloaded a fresh copy of Zotero standalone and asked it to import my library from the flash drive. At all stages of the process--from my Zotero standalone in my old computer to that computer's desk top, from that desk top file to my flash drive, and from that flash drive to my new copy of Zotero standalone--I checked to see if the number of files copied remained the same (no losses) and they did--16664 files.
Yet in the new Zotero standalone, some folders and files are not showing up even though the total number of files copied remains the same..
One such folder is the entire ms. of a book I was writing and about to finish! This is a catastrophic loss, professionally!
Is there any I can retrieve the files that are not showing up. What I copied is still on the flash drive.

dstillman

imtiaz habib: Please post this to a new thread using the "Start a new discussion" button at the top of the page. (The last post in this thread is from 7 years ago.)