Saving webpages with connector

edited December 21, 2021
I was under the impression that when saving an html page and it saves as metadata with snapshot that the metadata line item labled as Web Page was a live link to the original and the snapshot / Attachment is what it is called. I noticed however all the metadat / web page saves are also a snapshot. Theirs url to the hard drive are all identical as is the output there is no difference between what I thought was a live vs snapshot output. Is this normal? Thanks.
  • We'd need more specific examples here. What's a URL you're trying to save?

    See Reporting Problems for the two things we need.
  • edited December 21, 2021
    Basically, though, items can have a URL in the URL field as well as attachments that are either non-canonical links (e.g., Amazon URLs) or snapshots (with a camera in the icon, and Show File showing an HTML file). What you get for a specific item depends on the site and translator being used.
  • I just sent a report:
    Report ID: 1174131267

    I am using the most up to date beta version I checked the website it is up to date.

    I was not thinking this was a bug but rather my not understanding how this program is supposed to work. So there may not be anything to look at. I still do not know if this is supposed to produce a live link.

    I have never used a right click on the connector in practice I questioned it once before because it exists. I punch the button and whatever it does it does. It generally always produces two line items in the library. Pdfs notwithstanding when the two line items are generated they are Web Page and Attachment (Snapshot.) As stated above they are two identical URLs to the hard drive; that means;

    file:///C:/_Zotero/Library%20zotero/storage/8VBA44RF/salt-payments-before-year-end-priority-passthroughs.html

    Any website URL visited produces the same result as long as it isn’t a pdf.

    I just checked something and this is getting more bizarre; I’ve been using Win 8.1 with both browsers firefox and chromium and they both produce the same results described above. I just checked my Linux Debian 11 with the same two browsers installed on that machine both producing the same result as each other which is different than the windows browsers. I hit the connecter and it shows saving to the collection folder and it shows also saving snapshot but the snapshot fails every time so it only saves the Web Page portion. Interesting is that this web page saved in the library is an actual bookmark not a snapshot disguised as a web page like in the windows. Whereas the web page saved in windows is just a duplicate snapshot. Both machines have been rebooted since this began with no changes. Both are running the up to date beta version and their libraries are on the respective hard drives nothing is synced.

    Now that I see these discrepancies between operating systems and neither one appears to be working correctly that I can tell this further confirms this isn’t a good program for me. I am an end user and this type of development is better suited for those that appreciate a wip. Maybe someone else is having these issues so maybe the above will help. Thanks.



  • edited December 21, 2021
    As stated above they are two identical URLs to the hard drive; that means;

    file:///C:/_Zotero/Library%20zotero/storage/8VBA44RF/salt-payments-before-year-end-priority-passthroughs.html
    No, this is a misunderstanding.

    First, these aren't "URLs". You're just opening the locally saved HTML snapshot, which your browser will show with a file:// URL because it's a local file.

    Second, if you save a regular webpage (e.g., not a site where Zotero can save higher-quality metadata and/or a PDF) and have Zotero set to save snapshots, you'll get a webpage item and a child attachment that's a webpage snapshot. The former is just an entry in your database, and the URL field will be the original HTTP URL. The snapshot attachment will have an associated HTML file in the 'storage' folder. When you say they're the same I assume you're referring to the fact that when you double-click the parent item you end up viewing the same local HTML page in your browser, but that's just because double-clicking an item in Zotero always opens the primary attachment — the same way it would open the PDF attachment if there were one.

    If you want to load the live URL instead of the snapshot, just click the "URL" label in the right-hand pane of the parent item, or right-click the parent item and select View Online. If you don't want snapshots at all, disable snapshot saving from the General pane of the preferences, and delete your existing ones. If there are no attachments, double-click the parent item will open the URL in the URL field.
    I hit the connecter and it shows saving to the collection folder and it shows also saving snapshot but the snapshot fails every time so it only saves the Web Page portion.
    If you're saying you're getting a red "X" next to the snapshot line, we'd want to see Debug IDs from the Zotero Connector and from Zotero.
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