Zotero Connecter Bug with SSRN File

  • adomasven Zotero Team
    Could you submit a Report ID from Zotero?
  • mrkrell
    I looked at that link, and I don't think I can.

    I was using Windows 10 and Zotero 5.0.35.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Why not?
  • mrkrell
    Because, as it turns out, I'm an idiot who couldn't find the part of the page that talked about the Chrome extension.

    Report ID: 226823574
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    No, we specifically need a Report ID from Zotero for this, not from the Connector.
  • mrkrell
    Give it another go:

    685864739
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Was that after the error occurred and before restarting Zotero?

    If so, can we see a Debug ID from Zotero for the save attempt?
  • mrkrell
    I'm gonna go with no on that. But give me a minute and I'll replicate the error in my current instance of Zotero and produce a Report ID and Debug ID from Zotero, not the Connector.
  • mrkrell
    Replication:

    Debug ID: D1452947158
    Report ID: 915155524
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited February 15, 2018
    Oh, I missed that you're trying to save the PDF directly.

    So, a number of things:

    1) You always want to start by saving from the article page rather than the PDF when possible. Saving an article page will usually automatically download a PDF when you have access to it, in addition to the high-quality metadata. (This is much better than saving the PDF and then using Retrieve Metadata for PDF.)

    2) Saving from the article page won't actually include the PDF in this case either because SSRN does various blocking to prevent it. As noted there, they also have very strict limits: testing this just now, I triggered their PDF block even in the web browser, as Aurimas did in that thread.

    3) Normally, even if saving from the article page didn't automatically include the PDF, you would be able to view the PDF and use the Save to Zotero button again (and then combine the items in Zotero), but SSRN's blocking prevents that as well. That's the part you're seeing here.

    4) We likely can't do anything to fix the direct PDF downloads, but we can probably work around their restrictions that are preventing the article page save from including the PDF. So all the more reason that that will remain the recommended way to save.

    5) In all cases, if you get can't the PDF to save via either the article page or directly, you can just download the PDF and then drag it onto the item in Zotero. That's what you'll want to do here. (Normally you'd have other options, like dragging the PDF link to Zotero, but that won't work here because of their blocking. In a future Zotero update, you'll also be able to choose to open the PDF into Zotero to add it rather than dragging it.)
  • mrkrell
    Got it. (And I triggered their blocks myself and had to sign in to be able to download the PDF.)

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