RDF import fails in 2.1b2 but works in stable 2.0.9

darrask
I have tried it a few times in 2.1b2 and stable 2.0.9. Before each install I deleted the whole zotero folder to make sure it was a fresh installation.

A 7 MB RDF of mine (that I can provide to developers) fails to import in the beta: message is "selected file is not of supported type", while in 2.0.9, it works. It worked with the previous beta I think.
  • darrask
    I'd like to add that except a small 15 Ko RDF, all other RDFs (>1MB) failed to import just the same, and they were probably generated ith the 2.1beta1. Now I have them all just fine in the 2.0.9 version.
  • darrask
    edited November 15, 2010
    RDF import STILL FAILS for every RDF I want to import, even after a clean install (removed the whole zotero folder).

    Related:
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15146/consistently-wrong-import/
    where every first import of BIB after Zotero start fails too.
  • darrask
    This is the import error message:
    http://tinypic.com/m/dqkozl/4
    after this, the "report errors" button in the gear menu is greyed out.

    I logged the debug output. This is what happens when I import a RDF with 2.1b2:
    Debug ID: D1338488370

    I had done a clean 2.1b2 install after disabling ALL extensions and I still had the same problem. Reverted to 2.0.9 and everything's fine again.

    I logged the output for the 2.0.9 successful RDF import too, but could not submit the half a million debug output lines, zotero said it couldn't submit it.
  • mapmaker
    Has this issue been resolved? I have not been able to import a Zotero RDF into 2.14b.

    Another question, will it be possible to import Zotero RDF exports from 2.09 (or earlier) into 2.1x or the Standalone? If not, this could be a serious shortcoming for people with multiple libraries.
  • adamsmith
    This is known and solved on the trunk
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15951/import-broken/#Item_4
    RDF is a file format that works independently of Zotero version, (independent of Zotero, actually) so no concern here, though you do know that export/import is not the recommended way to move a database, right?
  • mapmaker
    Thank you. I presume this applies to Mac as well as Windows (I should have indicated that I am using Mac OSX)

    I know that export/import is not recommended. I do contract work and when a contract is finished I keep an archive of all materials including a Zotero database of references used during the contract. I just want to be sure they can be opened if needed in the future.
  • adamsmith
    Yes to both - this is a universal fix and RDF works across Zotero versions (the RDF format hasn't changed since at least the initial 1.0 release.)
  • mapmaker
    Much obliged. Cheers!
  • darrask
    Hi again,

    I have news concerning this bug in the latest version, 2.1b5: it still bugs.

    I tried a 4.5 MB RDF exported from 2.0.9, Zotero 2.1b5 could not import it.

    I imported the RDF into Zotero 2.0.9 and upgraded to 2.1b5, which worked fine. Then I exported it from 2.1b5, and the latter could not import the file it had just exported. It's the same for all my bigger RDFs (lots of references inside, no notes, no attached files, just thousands of refs).

    It's strange because other RDFs with attached PDFs, that are bigger (when counting the attached files) import fine.

    Similarly to mapmaker, it's about a scientific project, and I'm contracted for that, so I'd like to make sure the data we export from Zotero can be imported into Zotero again, people depend on that (well, I guess everybody can say that).

    I would be glad to provide the unimportable file to Zotero developers or to mapmaker to check if we have the same problem by email.
  • darrask
    Actually I put the RDF here:
    http://dl.free.fr/rX1pD4r9e
    so you can take it directly. If you can import it in 2.1b5, I'd be happy to throw away my computer.
  • ajlyon
    To make things a little easier, can you try to produce a smaller RDF file that causes this? That large file will simply overwhelm my puny netbook, so I'm not eager to try importing it.

    Also, we'll need to know in what way this does not report-- does Zotero show an error? Stop responding? Does Firefox crash (close unexpectedly)? If there is an error, we'll need error text and a Report ID.

    If the import shows as failing, it's almost certainly due to a broken entry, which should be possible to isolate by binary search-- remove half the entries, try importing. If it works, try the other half. Iterate on the breaking half until you can find a minimal set of entries that causes the problem.
  • fbennett
    I played around with this a bit, and I think I have some useful info. I'll do a bit more testing to pin down the exact point of failure, but this patch seems to help. The patch is from the multilingual source. The multilingual version imported the references without a hitch. Zotero 2.1b5 failed, but after applying the patch, it succeeded as well.

    More news in a bit.
  • Simon
    This seemed to work for me on the trunk, so this may have been fixed in r7879.
  • darrask
    Thanks for your help.

    The error description is "the selected file is not in a supported format", no crash, no freeze. I agree the error message I've described a few posts above was probably another problem (I'm quite lost with the different import issues).

    I logged what happened when Zotero fails to import a 3.3MB RDF unter Debug ID D235470877. The RDF file I used is here:
    http://dl.free.fr/rmzphbKe8
    It's the smallest file I have that generates the error consistently.

    I've seen the patch description, I don't know how to implement it, but I fail to import even RDFs that I never imported before.

    It rather seems to be linked to the file size. I can successfully import until a limit of 2.5MB per RDF. I tried it on RDFs generated from another computer too.

    However, to add up to the confusion, after writing this report that was satisfyingly clear, I tried again to import some files that were near to the 2-3 MB limit, and then after the first tries, Zotero managed to import them, no restart or whatsoever in between.

    After successfully importing one 1MB and one 2MB RDF, I merged them into one folder and exported this one. I could not reimport it, same error. However at the second try, I could. Does not look like a broken file problem.
  • fbennett
    The import fails for me in the trunk, with the same "unsupported format" error.

    I agree that the file data is fine; Firefox just loses access to the stream at the point masked by the ticket 1773 patch for some reason.
  • darrask
    OK, thank you fbennet. So that error has been registered, and you submitted a patch that works for it. I understand the reason for failure is not completely understood yet, but will the patch be integrated in the future standalone or 2.1 beta?
  • fbennett
    edited February 2, 2011
    Simon has pegged the cause of the error (my patch was a hack that got things going, but did not address the underlying cause). The new code will be in the next 2.1 beta release.
  • darrask
    That's GREAT news, it will hopefully put an end to my import worries, and we'll be able to use Z2.1! Thanks a lot.
  • darrask
    edited February 10, 2011
    AWESOME! I'm so happy to upgrade to 2.1b6 (and my colleages too), there even is a proper import progress bar! (though it starts twice) Thank you very much for your support.

    meaning: problem solved
  • ajlyon
    "(though it starts twice)"
    What?
  • darrask
    edited February 10, 2011
    It's not really a problem, just a quirk.
    The progress bar is partially filled at the beginning (a few millimeters), and then it starts to fill anew from the beginning. Does not really matter (to me).
  • ajlyon
    When I move to progress-bar-enabled versions of Zotero myself, I'll look into it. Until then-- I'm glad to hear all is working for you now.
  • petrvod
    I have the described problem (no import, just "selected file is not in supported format") with RDF import again, Firefox 4, Zotero 2.1.5 on Linux, the size of file is <1MB.
  • Simon
    petrvod, can you provide a report ID?
  • petrvod
    report ID: 1868765268.
    I am not completely sure, if it is related to my problem. If I try to generate Error Report after failed rdf import, my Firefox just completely freezes and I have to kill the process to restart it. So I tried to export just one reference and reimport it. It failed again and this time I was able to create report with provided ID. And thanks for very fast reaction....
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