Saving Springer Link entry with large PDF fails – maybe add more meaningful error message?

bia49
Hi,

I've just installed Zotero and with standard settings for both the program and the Firefox add-on, it won't save a bibliography entry for a rather large book (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-53154-9). Please see debug output with ID D150086991.

Saving bibliography data does work if I remove the automatic PDF saving feature in the desktop program, so it's probably because of some download timeout. Please consider adding a meaningful error message for this case.
  • adamsmith
    Do you have access to the PDF? This imports fine for me, but I don't get the PDFs (nor should I -- we don't have a subscription)
  • bia49
    I do have access through my university's subscription, I can't tell though whether Zotero tried to save the PDF or not. It is just an assumption because it does work if I disable automatic saving.
  • adamsmith
    @dstillman anything in the debug?
  • dstillman
    The Springer Link translator uses Crossref, and (as you know) the Crossref API has been down. Nothing to do with PDF downloads.
  • bia49
    Excuse me for not checking back here for such a long time. You will certainly know the algorithms better than me, but I'd like to point out that adding another entry from Springer Link worked fine.

    Summarised, my findings were the following:

    1) Smaller articles work fine (including bibliography import and PDF download).
    2) The book referenced above cannot be imported as long as PDF saving is enabled.
    3) When I disable PDF saving, the book referenced above does not pose any problems anymore.

    This looks to me as if the very large PDF download is to blame here. If I am mistaken, please ignore this. If not, I'd like to suggest that if Zotero has got some kind of timeout for download processes, please add a meaningful error message when this timeout is reached. It took me a while to find out what I found out above.
  • dstillman
    edited September 29, 2022
    HTTP GET https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53154-9 failed with status code 504
    Yes, you are mistaken. It was a server error from Crossref for retrieving metadata. It was not related to PDF downloads in any way. Zotero hadn't even started the PDF-download process, since that happens after it successfully gets metadata. The translator only uses Crossref for books on Springer Link, so there's nothing odd about other pages working. Your changing the PDF setting did not affect this — the API was likely just working at that point.

    If you're having some separate problem with PDF downloads now, you should start a new thread.
Sign In or Register to comment.