BUG: Zotero won't import all attachments from Zotero RDF/XML

till.grallert
Hi,

I am currently migrating my academic reading biography from a long-demised reference manager. I do so by generating Zotero RDF/XML from my existing data (the code can be found at https://github.com/tillgrallert/convert_tss-to-bibliographic-data) and have encountered a reproducible import bug: Zotero fails to import any files with a # in their file names even if they are available on the file system.

Take for instance the following Zotero RDF/XML fragments:

<z:Attachment xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
rdf:about="#uuid_2841851E-BD71-49E4-9599-8470F051A30B">
<z:itemType>attachment</z:itemType>
<rdf:resource rdf:resource="/local/path/image.jpg"/>
<dc:title/>
<z:linkMode>2</z:linkMode>
</z:Attachment>
<z:Attachment xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
rdf:about="#uuid_7283E593-207F-41DB-A26E-5128C6FCE228">
<z:itemType>attachment</z:itemType>
<rdf:resource rdf:resource="/local/path/image #2.jpg"/>
<dc:title/>
<z:linkMode>2</z:linkMode>
</z:Attachment>


The first attachment will import just fine. The second won't. # is allowed as part of an URI in @rdf:about. Hence, I deem this behaviour to be a bug.

All the best,

Till
  • dstillman
    It has to be %23. The two URIs there aren't equivalent. In rdf:about it's a unique identifier, so using a fragment identifier for the current document is fine, but for rdf:resource, it's an actual file URI*, so if you keep the # then you're saying the file ends in image .

    It looks like we're not properly using %23 when exporting to RDF, though, so we'll fix that.

    * I'm not sure about using an absolute path there, if that's what you're doing. As far as I know we only export relative paths, which are valid URIs. For an absolute path, I would think it would technically need to be a file:// URI, but it's possible we're accepting regular absolute paths too.
  • till.grallert
    Thanks for responding and for pointing out that the two URI's aren't equivalent. Your proposed solution of escaping # with %23, however, doesn't work. Zotero doesn't import the file regardless of whether one uses # or %23. Prefixing file:// doesn't influence this behaviour.

    I also ought to point out that this is not a Zotero export bug! The Zotero RDF/XML is of my own making to import references form another software.
  • dstillman
    Well, it wasn't really proposed — I tested it and it worked when I changed it from # to %23. If you're on Windows, the path handling might be different.

    And I'm aware that this is your generated RDF. I'm just pointing out that we were also generating similarly incorrect RDF. We're working on a fix.
  • till.grallert
    Sorry for the wrong assumptions. The fix currently doesn't work on OSX 10.14. Will give it another try before renaming all the files and keep you updated.
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