Google Docs {updating} error

denlinkd
I've been playing around with Docs integration today (I toggled on the v2 integration in Chrome) and I was able to reproduce some of what I believe folks are encountering recently with the {updating} errors.

Here's what I think is happening, and I think it might only be for note styles.
- User inserts footnote
- Cursor stays in footnote text
- User hits enter/space/whatever, thus editing the footnote
- User mouses back up to the text to insert another footnote
- Zotero throws "You have modified this citation since Zotero generated it. Do you want to keep your modifications and prevent future updates?" error
- User clicks "no" to reject changes once
- Cursor stays in footnote, error comes back
- User clicks "no" again to reject changes
- Cursor stays in footnote, Zotero throws "Zotero experienced an error updating your document." message. Most recent footnote stays in {updating} status

I submitted an error report in case it's helpful. 513212602

I think the problem might just be that the cursor stays in the footnote, instead of in the text body like it used to.
  • dstillman
    [JavaScript Error: "Error: 400: Google Docs request failed.

    {
    "error": {
    "code": 400,
    "message": "Invalid requests[20].deleteNamedRange: ID or name for named range must be set.",
    "status": "INVALID_ARGUMENT"
    }
    }

    at Object.batchUpdateDocument (chrome-extension://ekhagklcjbdpajgpjgmbionohlpdbjgc/zotero-google-docs-integration/api.js:249:11)" {file: "[object Object]"}]
    Thanks. We'll look into this.
  • dstillman
    edited June 23, 2022
    @denlinkd: To clarify, though, v2 should fix the main causes of "{Updating}" that people were seeing. That was one of the main catalysts for the v2 changes (along with performance). You might have found a bug specific to v2, though, or possibly something that occurred with either version. We should be able to say more next week.
  • adomasven
    @denlinkd Can you reproduce this in a new document? If so, what citation style are you using? Are you inserting the same or different item? Do you insert it after the first item or before it?
  • denlinkd
    @adomasven yes, just reproduced according to the exact steps above and submitted a debug log: D657503795

    Using CMOS17, full note.

    One important new observation: it seems to only happen after inserting a footnote that ends in a URL. Hitting [space] at the end of such a note turns the URL into a hyperlink. Then, no matter where I insert a new reference, either before or after the reference that contains the URL, I get the {Updating} error.

    This may not be a problem with the connector's behavior -- it might be working exactly as it should. The problem might be the placement of the cursor after inserting a footnote. It stays in the note, rather in the body of the text, so any keystroke, intentional or otherwise, that edits the footnote will produce the error.
  • adomasven
    @denlinkd Ok, we found the bug on our side and will release a fix soon. Do note however that Google Docs editing Zotero citations like this is actually bad as Zotero no longer recognizes the part of the citation that turns blue, so you want to undo those changes whenever they occur on Google Docs' part.
  • denlinkd
    Do note however that Google Docs editing Zotero citations like this is actually bad as Zotero no longer recognizes the part of the citation that turns blue, so you want to undo those changes whenever they occur on Google Docs' part.
    Oh, for sure, I'm totally aware of the problems associated with manually editing a citation in the document. Many might not, though, which is why I think cursor placement is important. I'm not sure if that's part of the fix you're about to release, or if it's even possible.
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