Add note from annotations is blank

ksbookmarker
edited April 20, 2022
Hi! I've been enjoying the updates to Zotero, however, I'm suddenly encountering an issue. In the past I've been able to successfully use the "add note from annotations" tool. Suddenly, this feature no longer works for me.

For example, I have a PDF with highlights and notes that I created in Zotero. When I try to extract the highlights using add note from annotations, a note is created, but the note is blank. No notes or highlights are being extracted. A new note is created but the note is blank.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to solve this? Thank you!


  • dstillman
    Can you provide a Debug ID for this happening?
  • ksbookmarker
    Sure, here you go:

    D1695862978

  • dstillman
    Does it happen if you disable all your third-party plugins? If so, can you provide another Debug ID for that?
  • ksbookmarker
    I disabled all third-party plug-ins. Annotation is still not working. Here's the Debug ID: D439251605
  • dstillman
    edited April 20, 2022
    Can you temporarily disable auto-sync in the Sync pane of the preferences and generate another Debug ID for just this operation (not with "Restarting with Logging Enabled")? Give Zotero 30 seconds or so to settle after startup before starting logging and triggering this.

    You can turn auto-sync back on immediately after doing this.
  • dstillman
    @ksbookmarker: Also, does this happen for all PDFs, or just this specific one?
  • ZIEL Scholarship
    Here's the Bug ID
    D1755146792

    Yes, this happens for all PDFs
  • dstillman
    [JavaScript Error: "TypeError: level is undefined" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/utilities_internal.js" line: 2271}]
    Have you set a custom note template for annotations?
  • ksbookmarker
    hmmm... that is a possibility... I'll try to remember how I did it so I can undo it. Thanks for that... I'll report back with what I find out
  • ksbookmarker
    Yes! That was it! Thank you!
  • dstillman
    That shouldn't happen, though, so if you can reproduce this in the latest Zotero beta (which fixes some bugs with note templates), please let us know the template you're using.
  • ZongWu
    edited April 23, 2022
    ① After I updated to zotero 6.0.5 today, using the custom annotations.notetemplate template, when I drag and drop annotation into the note editor, it shows blank, here is the template I use
    {{if color == '#a28ae5'}}
    <h2>{{highlight}}</h2><p>{{comment}}{{if tags}} tags:: {{tags join=','}}{{endif}}</p>
    {{else}}
    <p>{{highlight quotes='true'}} {{comment}}{{if tags}} tags:: {{tags join=','}}{{endif}}</p>
    {{endif}}


    ② This custom template was valid yesterday, the custom tags:: The fields are meant to work with the notes software logseq, but there is a bug that generates tags: even when no tags are present: characters, but I see that the changelog for version 6.0.5 states that this bug has been fixed, only to have the entire custom template fail as a direct result
  • dstillman
    @ZongWu: Try the Zotero beta and let us know if it's working for you with that.
  • martynas_b
    This is another regression related with tags array. We'll fix this soon.
  • ZongWu
    I Just replaced stable 6.0.5 with beta `6.0.6-beta.2+b8d427790` and tried the code for the template above ⇢ Whether the annotation has a tag added or not, after dragging the annotation into the notes editor, there will be no `tag::` words and their accompanying tags (the bug with stable 6.0.5 is that the template above will simply fail, the beta is that the custom tag field in the template is invalid)

    PS: Will the next stable release fix this issue and when will the next stable release be available?
  • dstillman
    @ZongWu: Can you provide a Debug ID for that? I'm getting "tags:: foo" with that template in 6.0.6-beta.2.
  • ZongWu
    @dstillman: Here's my debug ID D539938068, and just to be clear, I'm doing this on stable 6.0.5 with the template with tag:: as described above
    Since this is my first time submitting a debug ID,I don't know if I'm doing it right, so I hope this helps you out, and I'll definitely cooperate if there's any further need.
    Also, may I ask if you mean above that 6.0.6-beta.2 is already available with tag:: Is the template up yet, and if so, when will the stable version be available?
  • dstillman
    edited April 25, 2022
    You said above that you were testing with the beta. Were you not? This is broken in 6.0.5, and should be fixed in the beta — that's why we provided a link and said to try that. There's no need for a Debug ID from 6.0.5.
  • ZongWu
    You asked me to try the beta at first, so I tried the beta in the morning and it was not working, so I submitted a comment ⇢ But I didn't submit a debug ID at that time because I didn't understand the process, so after that I reinstalled back to the stable version (because I like the stable version), so the debug ID submitted above was on the stable version
    ⇢ I'll install back to beta now and re-debug once
  • ZongWu
    I just tested the beta version and found that the problem has been solved and the above mentioned template is working. as for my testing the beta version this morning, the reason for the problem is that I wrote "if tags" instead of "if tag" in the template and that's why the tags:: field is invalid, my mistake, sorry!
    Also still want to ask two questions
    ① When will the stable version fix this feature
    ② As shown below, how can I write the template so that there is a soft carriage return between "tag::question,test" in the second line and "It is often assumed" my comment in the first line, so that they will be in one block after being imported into logseq, if they are in two blocks like below, it will increase the operation cost and reduce the efficiency, especially when I have a lot of content in my note editor

    “It is often assumed” my comment

    tag:: question,test
  • ZongWu
    @dstillman debug ID ⇢ D631263550
    I encountered a new problem in beta `6.0.6-beta.2+b8d427790`, still about the custom template I used above, in the built-in pdf reader, first open the note editor on the right side, then select a paragraph of text, this time the option of "add notes" will appear, when I try to click this "add notes" button, it does not add the selected content to the right side of the note editor, that is, there is no response to click this button, but when I switch back to the default template, this "add notes" function works again, so I suspect that in the beta I still have problems with this template, so I filed a debug ID
  • martynas_b
    @ZongWu The issue will be fixed in the next beta.
  • dstillman
    @ZongWu: This should be fixed in Zotero 6.0.6, available now. Let us know if you're still having trouble.
  • ZongWu
    Wow, just tried it and so far all is working fine, thanks！！！
    Also, I'd still like to ask for some advice, in terms of my own application scenario. As shown below, how can I write the template so that there is a soft carriage return between "tag::question,test" in the second line and "It is often assumed" my comment in the first line, so that they will be in one block after being imported into logseq, if they are in two blocks like below, it will increase the operation cost and reduce the efficiency, especially when I have a lot of content in my note editor

    “It is often assumed” my comment

    tag:: question,test
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