Crash on import (RIS from Reference Manager)

paulkaye
Hi,
Every time I try to import an RIS-exported library from Reference Manager, Zotero crashes Firefox. Anyone else had this problem or have a solution?
Paul
  • dstillman
    How big is the RIS file you're trying to import?

    Do you mean a real crash—as in Firefox quits unexpectedly—or does Firefox just hang?
  • paulkaye
    It's 1.52MB. Firefox just hangs. I'm talking about more than 5 mins, not just a few seconds of unresponsiveness. My whole computer slows down until I kill the firefox process.
  • dstillman
    You can open up the RIS file in a text editor, split it up into smaller chunks (dividing by half at a time), and see if you can isolate a problematic record. Alternatively, you can send it to us at support@zot....org, and we'll take a look.
  • paulkaye
    Hi Dan,
    I've taken you up on your offer and emailed you the file. If you do find any errors, please let me know.
    Thanks,
    Paul
  • dstillman
    edited November 19, 2008
    1) Rename the file to .ris instead of .ris.txt. There's a bug in the current version of Zotero that causes imports without explicit file format extensions to go extremely slowly. This will be fixed in the next release.

    2) Open the file in a text editor, search for "file://C:\Documents", and remove that entire L1 line, as it will likely cause a problem in the current Zotero release. This will also be fixed in the next release.

    After that, the file should import fine (though it could still take a while depending on your computer (and it'll still appear to be frozen, though you should hear disk activity), so splitting it up into a few pieces might be a good idea).
  • paulkaye
    Hi Dan,
    I did both the things you said and no luck. Just to confirm, the original file was .txt, not .ris.tst. In any event, I renamed it to .ris. I found the line to which you referred - it was a reference to an external pdf, right? I deleted it completely so that the structure of that reference looked the same as the one above. After a while (5 mins or so), firefox just quit.
    Any other suggestions?
    Paul
  • Tjowens
    What happens if you cut the file into two and import the two smaller files?
  • paulkaye
    When I went to try this, I found that, despite the crash, the references had, indeed, been imported. Very strange. I'm not quite ready to make the switch yet but Zotero really looks like something special. There's a lot of stuff on the web that has more or less been useless for me (connotea etc.) but I think once my current project is finished, I'll make the switch. Keep up the good work!
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