Cannot import, or save PDF items: get browser "Save" dialog instead.
I'm stumped by this bug. I have 2 computers, 3 Firefox profiles, all with Zotero 2.0b4, Firefox 3.0.10, Ubuntu 8.10.
When I go Action->Import..., and select a BibTex file, I get a progress bar for a second, then the Firefox "Save or Open" dialog pops up. It doesn't matter what I do in the dialog (Save/Open/Cancel) -- the outcome is always the same: the progress bar returns, and Zotero just sits there, forever, doing nothing. It does create an "Imported on..." collection, but it is empty. If I just close the progress bar window, eventually Zotero throws an error and asks to restart Firefox.
The "Save" dialog pops up right after the debug log prints:
zotero(3): created hidden browser (5)
Nothing happens afterwards.
Similarly, if I see a PDF link, right-click it, and select "Save link as Zotero item", I get a Firefox "Save" dialog, and whatever I do with it, nothing happens. The debug log says stuff like:
zotero(3): created hidden browser (2)
zotero(3): loading http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1460107&blobtype=pdf
Also, for those pages with translators, like ScienceDirect, is there supposed to be an easy way of grabbing the PDF, aside from "Save link as Zotero item" and the "automatically grab PDFS" in General Preferences?
I would appreciate any help!
When I go Action->Import..., and select a BibTex file, I get a progress bar for a second, then the Firefox "Save or Open" dialog pops up. It doesn't matter what I do in the dialog (Save/Open/Cancel) -- the outcome is always the same: the progress bar returns, and Zotero just sits there, forever, doing nothing. It does create an "Imported on..." collection, but it is empty. If I just close the progress bar window, eventually Zotero throws an error and asks to restart Firefox.
The "Save" dialog pops up right after the debug log prints:
zotero(3): created hidden browser (5)
Nothing happens afterwards.
Similarly, if I see a PDF link, right-click it, and select "Save link as Zotero item", I get a Firefox "Save" dialog, and whatever I do with it, nothing happens. The debug log says stuff like:
zotero(3): created hidden browser (2)
zotero(3): loading http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1460107&blobtype=pdf
Also, for those pages with translators, like ScienceDirect, is there supposed to be an easy way of grabbing the PDF, aside from "Save link as Zotero item" and the "automatically grab PDFS" in General Preferences?
I would appreciate any help!
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PDFs still refuse to be added automatically. I thought that these problems had the same cause, but I guess not.
noksagt, thanks! -- dragging a PDF onto an item would be really easy. That was the first thing I tried. But, it fails completely. It does not even show a Firefox "Save" dialog -- nothing at all happens.
How can I debug this?
I can't believe I'm the only one with this problem...
Or do you mean merely that they won't work using "Save link as Zotero item?" If the latter, your BibTeX and PDF issues might be somewhat related (as a hidden browser is created in both cases (I can replicate this issue on Linux too)). Not sure why you're experiencing this. Note that drag-and-drop from the filesystem is broken in Linux. But dragging a link from the page you are viewing should work (assuming you drag it onto an item; if you drag it into the middle pane, it would want to create a new item & would present you with the file save dialog).
Do you see debugging output when you do this? Can you drag-and-drop non-pdf links?
1) The only way that does work is to save my PDFs to the file system, and use Attachments -> Add -> (either Link or Copy works).
2) Dragging-and-dropping a PDF in many cases does not do anything at all. In some cases it triggers a "Save/Open" dialog. In either case, no PDF is saved.
3) "Save link as Zotero item" triggers a "Save/Open" dialog.
4) Both of these operations work fine with non-PDF links.
I just realized that the common denominator may be that none of these computers have the Acrobat browser plugin. Could it be the problem? There are several reasons for this, but installing it everywhere is not really an option.
I think pretty much the only relevant debug output is the "hidden browser" message. I didn't notice anything else special about any of these cases.
Thanks for helping me work through this!
There's got to be a better way to do this, no?
And besides, I can't get Acrobat on all of the machines I use :-|
Dragging a PDF on top of an existing item to create a child attachment should work fine. If it doesn't for you, it's probably a separate issue (perhaps related to the proxy issue you mentioned on another thread).
I'm not dragging a PDF, I'm dragging a PDF link from the webpage. I think this is effectively the same as "Save link as Zotero item". Is that not so?
As far as I understand, dragging a PDF *file* would not even work under Linux.
This issue is not proxy-related. It shows up on all sorts of open-access, unproxied sites (PubMed Central, e.g.), even on my own home page.
Are folks working on the Open/Save bug? Do they know that when Acrobat is installed, and everything seemingly works, a _whole Acrobat instance_ is launched just to save the file?
Is there any simple way in which I can help?