ScienceDirect Translator broken?

edited January 13, 2017
Hello,

when trying to save an item with the ScienceDirect translator (in Firefox) I get the following message:
"An error occurred while saving this item. Check "Troubleshooting Translator Issues" for more information."

This used to be working for me. I tried restarting Zotero standalone and Firefox, but the problem remains. The Paper I'm not able to save is:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0022460X72904348?via=ihub

Firefox Add-on manager says: Zotero 4.0.29.16

The "Report Errors..." menu item in Zotero says:

No errors have been logged since Zotero started.

version => 4.0.29.10, platform => Linux x86_64, oscpu => Linux x86_64, locale => en-US, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 4.0.29.10, extensions => Zotero LibreOffice Integration (3.5.12.SA.4.0.29.10, extension), IcedTea-Web Plugin (using IcedTea-Web 1.6.2 (1.6.2-3ubuntu1)) (, plugin), Shockwave Flash (, plugin)

I found this log item:

version => 4.0.29.10, platform => Linux x86_64, oscpu => Linux x86_64, locale => en-US, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 4.0.29.10

=========================================================

(5)(+0000000): POST /connector/getSelectedCollection HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1:23119
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:50.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/50.0
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Content-Type: application/json
X-Zotero-Version: 4.0.29.16
X-Zotero-Connector-API-Version: 2
Content-Length: 2
Connection: keep-alive



(5)(+0000001): HTTP/1.0 200 OK
X-Zotero-Version: 4.0.29.10
X-Zotero-Connector-API-Version: 2
Content-Type: application/json

{"editable":true,"libraryID":null,"libraryName":"My Library","id":44,"name":"Lamb waves"}

I hope this is helpful to solve the problem.

PS: other papers from ScienceDirect (Journal of Sound and Vibration) do work properly. Reloading the page, however, does not.
  • edited January 13, 2017
    yeah, there's something different on the page that I don't think we have seen before (note how the export button looks different than e.g. on http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022460X03008897 ).

    We'll look at fixing it, but in the meantime you should get decent import by clicking on the arrow next to the Save to Zotero Icon and save using "Embedded Metadata".
  • Thank you for your fast reply. Actually, the buttons look the same for me on both pages.
  • For me they look like this:
    http://imgur.com/a/0ynH0
    you get the same view (which?) on both pages and import works from one of them?
  • (I am working on this now)
  • A translator fix is now up. 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 you're using Standalone, restart Zotero and your browser after updating. Any further problems let us know & thanks for reporting.
  • Thanks a lot for your work so far. I just tried it out and it is still not working for me (updated translator -> close zotero -> close firefox -> open firefox -> open zotero -> try to save). However, now I don't get an error message. Instead, in Firefox I get the message "saving to " but without any other lines. Usually it would also report that it is saving the fulltext. No entry is generated in my Zotero library. My log looks like:

    Report ID: 104152917

    [JavaScript Error: "no element found" {file: "http://logger.sciencedirect.com/log" line: 1}]
    [JavaScript Error: "no element found" {file: "http://364bf52d.mpstat.us/" line: 1}]

    version => 4.0.29.10, platform => Linux x86_64, oscpu => Linux x86_64, locale => en-US, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 4.0.29.10, extensions => Zotero LibreOffice Integration (3.5.12.SA.4.0.29.10, extension), IcedTea-Web Plugin (using IcedTea-Web 1.6.2 (1.6.2-3ubuntu1)) (, plugin), Shockwave Flash (, plugin)

    @adamsmith: indeed, the icons look just as you posted. The first icon is the one not working.
  • (I think I have a fix for this, hopefully will put it up tomorrow)
  • I am still having the same issue that kiefer89 reported. I've updated the translator (by clicking on "update now" and getting back "up to date"). What else can I try? It seems to be a ScienceDirect specific issue as ACM DL translator works fine.
  • Just want to add that it appears that the ScienceDirect translator was working fine in my Firefox browser as I had successfully saved an article from the same journal on 3/2/2017.
  • What's the URL exactly as you see it? What browser/Zotero combination?
  • got it, thanks -- I think I have a fix for this; they must have again changed the site.
  • A translator fix is now up. 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 you're using Standalone, restart Zotero and your browser after updating.

    Any further problems let us know & thanks for reporting
  • edited March 22, 2018
    Similar problem a year later, using Firefox ...
    ScienceDirect - no abstract, authors, URL, only title.
    PubMed for the same paper, and original journal page work fine.
  • Which url? The one above works fine for me.
  • I had several URLs that required going from ScienceDirect to original journal pages, but now I am checking them again and it works ... Strange, there was no update of Zotero in the mean time, the only reason I can think of is that I am now logged in ScienceDirect, and before I did not log in.
  • I am having the same problem, though I am using Safari. Zotero is completely up to date. I have tried resetting the translator. Any suggestions?
  • There do appear to be Safari-specific issues with ScienceDirect. If you can, I'd recommend using a different browser for now.

    I think @adomasven was looking at this?
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