New Safari plug-in not working with Amazon

scribbler · March 15, 2020

@dstillman has asked me to start a new threat on this with a URL. I've tried with several books and always get the same thing. The "saving to" box pops up but the book title is sort of greyed out. Worse, the box never goes away and the book doesn't show up in my database. Here's a URL as an example:

https://www.amazon.com/Moviegoer-Novel-FSG-Classics/dp/0374214522/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+moviegoer&qid=1584283288&sr=8-2

The new Safari plug-in seems to be working everywhere else, so I'm still quite glad to have it.

PS--I can provide a screenshot if wanted.

scribbler · March 16, 2020

Updating translator in Zotero preferences solved this. Thanks!

lailanoureldin · March 16, 2020

@scribbler I'm having the exact same problem! What exactly did you do to fix it? Thanks!

scribbler · March 16, 2020

@lailanoureldin hi. In the standalone Zotero application on my Mac, I went up to the menu bar and clicked Zotero|Preferences|Advanced. There you can click "Update now" to update your translators. I can't explain what translators are in this context, but that worked for me. (I do keep automatic update clicked on but I guess I needed something quite recent.)

lailanoureldin · March 16, 2020

@scribbler Thanks for your help. I did that and still no luck. I uninstalled and reinstalled the beta version but nothing...not sure what the issue is!

scribbler · March 16, 2020

@lailanoureldin Holy cow, wait a minute. What I did (or Zotero even before I updated, for all I know) works on Amazon for *movies,* at least for this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KRNGNQ?pf_rd_r=SPA876V7ZNEBEM8WWFX1&pf_rd_p=ab873d20-a0ca-439b-ac45-cd78f07a84d8

But it still doesn't work for *books,* at least judging by https://www.amazon.com/Literary-Essays-Thomas-Directions-Paperbook/dp/0811209318/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=literary+thomas+merton&qid=1584375227&sr=8-2

scribbler · March 16, 2020

Well now it *does* seem to be working for books--some books. I can't find a pattern to this but perhaps it works for books that have a digital edition, or that are in print or something. I will experiment more later.

lailanoureldin · March 16, 2020

@scribbler Yup! The connector doesn't work for *books* on Amazon. I tried the book you provided in the link and I'm having the exact same problem as you.

When hovering over the connector icon, the translator is set to "Save to Zotero (Amazon)" and it won't save books from Amazon. The same thing happens if you right click on the page background and select "Save to Zotero (Amazon)."

However, if you click either "Save to Zotero (Web Page with Snapshot)" OR "Save to Zotero (Web Page without Snapshot)," you are able to save the webpage to Zotero.

Essentially, the "Save to Zotero (Amazon)" feature is the problem.

@dstillman

lailanoureldin · March 16, 2020

@scribbler Interesting...I'll try experimenting different things too and I'll let you know if I figure anything out!

dstillman · March 16, 2020

Don't spend time on this — we're aware of an issue for some books and will have a new version soon.

lailanoureldin · March 16, 2020

@dstillman Sounds good. Glad to know I'm not going crazy!

@scribbler See above. Hopefully the new version fixes this issue!

dstillman · March 16, 2020

An updated beta is available that fixes this. (The updater is still buggy, though, so you may need to restart and/or redownload after updating to get the extension to stay up.)

scribbler · March 16, 2020

So far so good. The Merton book, which defeated the previous beta, is now pulled right in from Amazon. Haven't tried many others but I'm optimistic! Many thanks to all involved.

lailanoureldin · March 17, 2020

@dstillman @scribbler So far so good! Thank you for all your help! :)