Most pages won't get any metadata

I get one of a couple errors when trying to add a citation for most papers.

- Big red "X" : An error occurred saving with [e.g.] ACM Digital Library. Attempting to Save as Webpage instead

- An error occurred while saving this item. See Troubleshooting Translator issues for details.

A new record is created in Zotero (in the correct folder) with no metadata, only the URL.

I have reset translators in Zotero and for the Zotero Extension, to no avail. It doesn't seem to be attached to the particular source (i.e. some ACM Digital Library resources save just fine)
  • Yes, sorry-- to be clear, I have tried that. (that's how I knew to reset translators). I have also updated and restarted both Chrome and Zotero.
  • You haven't tried all of it, or you'd be providing more information. You need to follow every step.
  • edited November 16, 2020
    Debug ID: 726372642

    ex. URL: https://dl-acm-org.proxy-um.researchport.umd.edu/doi/pdf/10.1145/1651343.1651356

    "An error occurred saving with ACM Digital Library. Attempting to save using Save as Webpage instead.
    An error occurred while saving this item. Try again, and if the issue persists see Getting Help for more information."
  • That's a Report ID, not a Debug ID.

    But most likely Zotero hasn't detected your proxy server. If you go the Proxies tab of the Zotero Connector preferences, do you see an entry for your proxy?
  • Oops; the wording on the buttons was a little different and I guessed wrong. Here's the Debug ID D665286023 (I think)

    There are two proxies listed. One is for my old institution and the other for the new one. If I click on them, the old institution has dozens of hostnames listed; the new institution has three.
  • the wording on the buttons was a little different and I guessed wrong
    What are you referring to? The troubleshooting page links to the Debug ID instructions.
    One is for my old institution and the other for the new one. If I click on them, the old institution has dozens of hostnames listed; the new institution has three.
    OK, so if you're not longer at the old institution, you should delete that entry.

    What's the scheme for the new one?

    If you restart your browser and log in to ACM through your university library, does Zotero detect that you're connecting through the proxy and add dl.acm.org to the host list? If not, can you provide a Debug ID from the Zotero Connector for that process?
  • edited November 16, 2020
    Actually, Zotero is correctly detect your proxy on this site — meaning you should see dl.acm.org in the host list — but the proxy is blocking access to download BibTeX.

    On the webpage itself, are you able to generate BibTeX from the "Export Citation" button when connected via the proxy?
  • 1. (not terribly important, but) the instructions say "click Submit Debug Report," but there's no such text in the UI. There's a "Submit Report" button (which is not the correct one) and "Submit Output" which will get you a debug ID.

    2. I don't know what you mean by these things:
    "What's the scheme for the new one?" (I don't understand what you mean by scheme)
    "On the webpage itself, are you able to generate a citation?"

    I have deleted the old proxy and will try to log in with the new university log in. Right now, going to scholar.google.com goes through my old univ proxy, so I realize I might need to change that.
  • edited November 16, 2020
    To update, deleting the old (UMD) proxy means I can use the zotero connector, but I can't get to the ACM Library content. I know my University subscribes to it, but it's not listed in the drop down for institutional log in. I will start looking at univ library resources and try to resolve this
  • edited November 16, 2020
    the instructions say "click Submit Debug Report," but there's no such text in the UI
    Fixed, thanks.
    "What's the scheme for the new one?" (I don't understand what you mean by scheme)
    "Scheme:" is a label when you click on a proxy entry in the preferences. (It's also just the text you see under Configured Proxies.)
    deleting the old (UMD) proxy means I can use the zotero proxy, but I can't get to the ACM Library content
    I don't know what you mean by this. But I'm confused — is UMD the old or the new proxy?

    To clarify, Zotero's proxy functionality does two things: 1) it lets Zotero detect the actual site you're on when connected through a proxy (e.g., dl-acm-org.proxy.school.edu → dl.acm.org) and 2) it will redirect you via the proxy if you load an unproxied URL (e.g., dl.acm.org → dl-acm-org.proxy.school.edu). But the latter is no different from just loading the site via the proxy yourself.
    "On the webpage itself, are you able to generate a citation?"
    There's an Export Citation button on the page. You should click that and see if you can generate the BibTeX output. In your save attempt, your UMD proxy is rejecting a request for that, which is preventing saving from working.
  • Sorry I wasn't clear.

    UMD-- old

    UMich -- new.

    I deleted the UMD proxy from Zotero Connector and set up Google Scholar to go through UMich so that they both match.

    There's a webpage on ACM listing the information about the paper and with a PDF button (now that I've sorted out Google Scholar, the PDF button is available on this webpage and on alongside the Google Scholar search results).

    Now I can get a proper citation through the ACM listing page, but not on the PDF. (so if I search as I normally would and select the PDF from the Google Scholar results page, I will not be able to get the citation, but I can get it if I go through the ACM webpage first, create the citation with Connector, and then open the PDF.)

    This seems to be the case for other PDFs as well,
    e.g. https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/10803548.2003.11076589
    won't give me a citation, but
    https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/doi/abs/10.1080/10803548.2003.11076589
    will.

    This is not ideal, but it's much better than it was when we started. Thanks for your help so far. Do you have advice about getting citations from PDFs/is this a known issue?
  • (restarting Zotero + chrome and resetting translators did not fix fwiw)
  • if I search as I normally would and select the PDF from the Google Scholar results page, I will not be able to get the citation
    What do you mean by "not be able to get the citation"? What happens?

    You should always save via the article page when one is available rather than trying to save the PDF directly.

    On some sites with clear URL schemes containing identifiers, Zotero can save normally when on the PDF, but that's less common, either because the site doesn't make it possible or because it hasn't been implemented.

    When that's not supported, the save button will just show a PDF icon. You can save the PDF directly to Zotero and it will attempt to retrieve metadata for the PDF, but how well that works depends on the PDF, so it's usually better to go back to the article page and save from there. Zotero will save the PDF as well as long as you have access to it — you don't need to download the PDF separately.
  • The same error comes up as did before if I try to save from the PDF (errors: sometimes the X Snapshot or just "An error has occurred"). While viewing the PDF, I do not see the PDF icon, but a paper one (this case is actually a conference paper, and the conference paper icon appears correctly on the article page).

    I normally don't have trouble with PDFs, but if I do, I go to the application and ask it to retrieve metadata.

    I can adjust my workflow to visit article pages if necessary. I know it gets the PDF, I just don't get any value out of the article page and would prefer to go directly to the PDF to save time. Also, sometimes I'll get a PDF through other means, like email, so searching it to find the article page is a bit of an annoyance. If that's my solution, though, I can do it.
  • The same error comes up as did before if I try to save from the PDF (errors: sometimes the X Snapshot or just "An error has occurred").
    This will be entirely site-specific, so we'd need example URLs to say more. Most of the time, when you're viewing a PDF, you'll see the PDF icon. If you don't, you should be able to right-click on the button and choose "Save to Zotero (PDF)" from the menu. But it's still better to go back to the article page — that just gives Zotero the best chance of saving high-quality metadata.
    Also, sometimes I'll get a PDF through other means, like email, so searching it to find the article page is a bit of an annoyance.
    If you have a PDF on your computer, you can just drag it to Zotero. You don't need to go seek out the article page unless Zotero isn't able to retrieve metadata for the PDF. The point is just that, when you're already on a publisher site, it's best to save from the article page.
  • Ok, thanks for your help!
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