Amazon Translator Inconsistencies: Title and Author Fields

emooreMCNY
Hi-

I'm working with a group library that primarily uses Zotero to import Amazon books (in preparation for purchasing them).

In the past 2-3 days, working on three different computers (Windows 7), and working through Zotero for Firefox (Firefox 27, Zotero v. 4.0.17.1) we've had trouble getting "complete" imports for the items. It will import the link/date/publisher, but many times will not import the title, and often not import the title *or* author. As far as we can tell, this is only happening with the Amazon translator.

I've sent a error report just now, ID 2121202442. I have also sent my debug output to the Zotero server, ID D1536066719.

Any troubleshooting advice you have would be much appreciated.
  • dstillman
    You should provide example URLs so that people who don't have access to the debug reports can look at this.
  • emooreMCNY
    Ah, mea culpa.

    For instance, this URL:
    http://www.amazon.com/Madame-Bovary-Gustave-Flaubert/dp/1495356450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393009102&sr=8-1&keywords=Madame+Bovary

    draws everything except the title.

    This URL was not working yesterday, but works now:
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Fault-Stars-John-Green/dp/0525478817/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393010562&sr=8-1&keywords=John+Green

    This URL:
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Running-maximize-performance/dp/0615942946/ref=zg_bsnr_books_16

    produces an item with no title, and (last), (first) in the author field.
    (Both on Wednesday and this afternoon.

    I'd be happy to provide further examples as I find them.
  • adamsmith
    we can try to improve this somewhat, but it's not going to be great:
    Zotero doesn't really have a working Amazon translator anymore, for somewhat complicated technical/legal reasons having to do with Amazon's API. Instead, Zotero just searches WorldCat for the ISBN. For most books that works just fine, but not for books just published (the two that aren't working were both published this month).

    Zotero than falls back to scraping the information of the amazon page, which isn't a terribly precise task, hence the missing fields.
  • adamsmith
    this should now work somewhat better, though the above still applies in general.
    Your version of Zotero will automatically update within 24hs, or you can update manually using the "Update Now" button in the "General" tab of the Zotero preferences. If using Standalone, restart Zotero and your browser.
  • lwebb
    I've begun noticing that more and more Amazon titles are importing the publication year into the Author last name field. A few weeks ago this was primarily happening with forthcoming titles - that is, future pub dates - but now it seems to be happening often.

    Amazon seems to be changing the format of some item pages:

    Here is a page that imports correctly: http://www.amazon.com/Four-Gospels-One-Jesus-Symbolic/dp/0802871011/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404845975&sr=1-1&keywords=9780802871015

    And here is one that results in 2014 as the author's last name: http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Secular-Society-Jonathan-Arnold/dp/1409451712/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404845914&sr=1-1&keywords=Sacred+Music+in+Secular+Society

    I've recently noticed it happening with many older pages as well, so I wonder if Amazon is converting their catalog to the new format retroactively.
  • zuphilip
    Thank you for your report. I don't know if amazon is changing its format, but I guess we can handle this as well in our translator. I added an issue on github https://github.com/zotero/translators/issues/760 for this work.
  • aurimas
    Should be fixed now. Update your translators via Preferences -> General -> Update Now, restart browser, and try again.

    Thanks for reporting!
  • hadzi
    hi there,
    i ran into the same issue. when trying to import from amazon i get the year in the author field instead of the author (also with the above example). one of my examples: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0816679002?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

    furthermore when trying to do a Preferences -> General -> Update the "Update now" button turns into a button which says "Error".

    any idea what's going wrong?
    thank you...
  • adamsmith
    which Zotero version do you have? My guess would be that you have an outdated Zotero version and your translators aren't updating. This works correctly with up to date Zotero.
  • hadzi
    thank you for your reply. i'm using 4.0.25.1 (on firefox/debian linux). i upgraded now to the latest version 4.0.25.2, but unfortunately still have the same is issue for either 'year in author field' and error on update button. anything else i can try to get the translators updated/to work?
  • aurimas
    edited January 14, 2015
    Are you able to submit a debug log for an attempt to update translators? If not, then you can click "View Output", copy the contents of the log, and email them (in a text file) to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread.

    Edit: Also, please start a new thread for this issue (and include a link to that thread in the email)
  • hadzi
    thank you aurimas for your reply, as requested i started a new thread with the debug ids here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/45645/amazon-translator-inconsistencies-title-and-author-fields-ii/
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