Syncing Papership to Box.com to access Zotero library

TESOLTeacher
I've been trying to setup Papership to sync with box.com so I can access my library on my iPad, but nothing seems to work. Papership was recently updated, and I can see other users on the forums saying its working, so I'm wondering why mine does.

Under Zotero File Hosting, I select "box.com" and enter the following:

URL: https://dav.[blocked]box.com/dav
Username: [email address] (I have no username with box.com, just my email
Password: [password]

I click on "Verify Server", but it always pops up with "Cannot Verify server. Please check your server credentials. (Cannot decode raw data)"

I've tried also with the WebDAV tab, but nothing works. How can I get it to sync?

Thanks
  • TESOLTeacher
    I found my username in box.com Profile (not sure that's a username or just an identifier). Anyway, I tried it, but I get the same error message.
  • dstillman
    edited February 12, 2018
    Papership was recently updated, and I can see other users on the forums saying its working, so I'm wondering why mine does.
    I'm not sure what you're referring to. PaperShip for iOS hasn't been updated since 2016.
  • dstillman
    And anyway, the "Cannot decode raw data" is likely the same issue that people were seeing in Zotero before we put in a workaround — Box WebDAV is broken. I don't know if PaperShip will work otherwise once they fix that. My understanding is that file sync isn't compatible with changes in Zotero 5.
  • dstillman
    You'll likely be better off using ZotFile with linked files stored in Dropbox or Box and a Dropbox/Box-enabled PDF viewer on iOS.
  • TESOLTeacher
    | I'm not sure what you're referring to. PaperShip for iOS hasn't been updated since 2016.

    Papership received a small update at the end of last year. I've been testing Papership for ~6 months or so. It wasn't working last year, it's still not working. I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong and why it's working for other people.

    Perhaps it has something to do with Zotero 5, like dstillman mentioned. Pity. Wish we could get a Zotero app on iOS (someday!).
  • dstillman
    Papership received a small update at the end of last year.
    The App Store lists updates and says that the last one was June 2016.
  • pauleckstein
    edited February 12, 2018
    @dstillman I got my last update of Papership on 7. Dec 2017, on IOS. Somehow the Update List has not been updated.

    Regarding the sync problem with box.com, and other WebDAV providers: Just create a blank txt file and name it "lastsync" -> hence -> lastsync.txt. upload this file to the zotero sync folder in Box.
  • dstillman
    edited February 12, 2018
    I got my last update of Papership on 7. Dec 2017, on IOS. Somehow the Update List has not been updated.
    @pauleckstein: It shows "3 Days Ago" for me, but the app certainly wasn't updated three days ago. The dates listed in the App Store app Updates tab are specific to your device. (This is a known issue.)

    If you open the app and scroll down to the bottom, it will say "PaperShip v3.8.3 (167), © 2013-2016", which is the same version from the version history from June 2016. That's the last time the app was updated.
  • pauleckstein
    edited February 12, 2018
    @ dstillman maybe you are right. After all it is a pitty that there are no improvements (especially in terms of better handwriting quality with Apple Pencil) and new features in Papership since 2016. I really enjoy this app in combination with Zotero. What happened to the developers, are they still active?
  • bwiernik
    The company was purchased by Elsevier and the primary developers all moved to other projects.
  • pauleckstein
    edited February 13, 2018
    thanks for clarification, but according to Elsvier, they only acquired the app "Hivebench", developed by Shazino. Anyway, if the right holders can't maintain Papership anymore, they should sell it. I will get in touch with Julien Thérier, the founder of Shazino for more details regarding the future of Papership.
  • bwiernik
    Sorry, I was somewhat mistaken. Elsevier acquired Hivebench and hired several of the lead developers.
  • Xinliang
    pauleckstein's metod worked for me:
    Just create a blank txt file and name it "lastsync" -> hence -> lastsync.txt. upload this file to the zotero sync folder in Box.
  • adamsmith
    (note that box.com webDAV is going to be discontinued [by box.com, nothing to do with Zotero] shortly, so you'll want to look for a different solution)
  • acsr
    edited December 7, 2018
    I can confirm by today that I have this working.

    We use an uptodate Zotero 5 Library that syncs well from Mac Desktop Standalone 5 to our own WebDAV Server on Linux (Apache 2).

    We recently had issues syncing to latest Papership on iOS. We failed to Verify Server in Papership while all access data seems to be correct and was working before.

    We could fix that by adding the empty lastsync.txt file to the zotero directory.

    This is now working/syncing well over https.

    Papership seems to explicitly check the presence of this file to verify access. The sync works differently since Zotero 5. It may therefore be that this file is missing after a full rebuild of the WebDAV Storage.

    Have luck! But better RTFM and search the web...
  • letteney
    ACSR — thank you so much for figuring this out! It worked for me as well.

  • uchennangwe
    Just tried the suggestion from @pauleckstein and that worked for me too. Thanks so much!
  • mateMat
    Is anybody in contact with the dev... such a small thing to do!
  • alalamin
    I followed the procedure and it worked for me. In case it helps anyone I am using the following set up. I have installed zotero client in my windows Desktop and Macbook. I configured box as a storage. After following the above recommendation I was able to use papership to connect to zotero and sync files from box.
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