Report ID: 1567714746

houpt
"Create parent item" doesn't attach selected PDF to new item

Zotero 6.0.23 on Macos Venrura 13.2.1

Steps to reproduce:

1. select PDF file in Zotero (ie PDF file that is not part of a parent item)

2. right click to get contextual menu, select "Create Parent Item..."

3. Enter PMID and click on "Create Parent Item"

4. Parent entry is created, with PubMed entry as child -- but originally selected PDF file is not embedded in the new parent entry -- it is still present as unincorporated PDF in Zotero library.

This used to work, not sure what changed in recent versions?
  • dstillman
    edited March 18, 2023
    [JavaScript Error: "[Exception... "Component not initialized" nsresult: "0xc1f30001 (NS_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotfile/content/notifier.js :: Zotero.ZotFile.notifierCallback</this.notify< :: line 29" data: no]" {file: "chrome://zotfile/content/notifier.js" line: 29}]
    Does it work with ZotFile disabled?
  • houpt
    It does NOT work even with ZotFile disabled.

    But, I realized another step required to reproduce: "Create Parent Item" appears to fail if the PDF file is selected from a list of search results, i.e.

    1. Select "My Library"
    2. Search "Title, Creator, Year..." for title(s) of scanned PDF, e.g. my scanned PDF files have titles that start with "ocr-DOC"
    3. Select one of the search results
    4. right click to get contextual menu, select "Create Parent Item..." -- it creates parent item but fails to append the PDF as a child. The original PDF is still present.

    I tried renaming the scanned PDFs, e.g. to "shortname.pdf" in case the scanned title was wonky -- but "Create Parent Item" still fails, if the PDF is selected from list of search results.

    However, if I select the scanned PDF from the full unfiltered "My Library" list, then "Create Parent Item", then it WORKS as advertised.

    So, "Create Parent Item" from a search result maybe an edge case that I can work around.

    Thanks, Tom
  • dstillman
    edited March 19, 2023
    Is the Create Parent Item dialog actually closing for you? I can reproduce this, but the dialog just stays open with a progress bar, so it's pretty clear that it's broken. I have to click Cancel to close it, which is why the child item isn't properly attached.

    Anyhow, we'll fix — thanks.
  • houpt
    That happens for me too -- the dialog stays open, I have to cancel to close, whereupon the Pubmed snapshot is attached, but not the PDF.

    Thanks.
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