Translator field not showing up in MLA style

Hi,
The translator field is not outputting in MLA Style. Doesnt' appear in either the Chrome Preview Pane or when i generate a bibliography. I am using the latest version of Zotero (2.1.5).
thanks
  • yes, there's a current issue with the way that's read - it _can_ be fixed in the style, but it shouldn't have to be, since the style follows csl standards (and it affects almost every style):

    Frank - here's the issue:
    <names variable="editor translator" delimiter=". ">
    <name and="symbol" delimiter=", " />
    </names>
    The current processor (or is it Zotero) doesn't read this correctly and just prints editor, not translator (even in cases where there is no editor). Could you check this?

    euj - if you're in a hurry I can tell you how to hack the style to get around this, but I really hope we'll get this fixed in Zotero asap.
  • Yes, could you tell me how to hack the style?

    I don't seem to have an issue with the Editor field; it's just the translator that disappears when I output the item.

    thanks very much
  • change the macro editor translator to this
    <macro name="editor-translator">
    <group delimiter=". ">
    <names variable="editor translator" delimiter=". ">
    <label form="verb-short" text-case="capitalize-first" suffix=". " />
    <name and="symbol" delimiter=", " />
    </names>
    <names variable="translator" delimiter=". ">
    <label form="verb-short" text-case="capitalize-first" suffix=". " />
    <name and="symbol" delimiter=", " />
    </names>
    </group>
    </macro>

    http://www.zotero.org/support/csl_simple_edits
    for general instructions.
  • thanks very much, that worked.
    Look forward to the proper fix in future versions.
  • actually, so that this doesn't break with feature fixes, I recommend changing it to
    <macro name="editor-translator">
    <group delimiter=". ">
    <names variable="editor" delimiter=". ">
    <label form="verb-short" text-case="capitalize-first" suffix=". " />
    <name and="symbol" delimiter=", " />
    </names>
    <names variable="translator" delimiter=". ">
    <label form="verb-short" text-case="capitalize-first" suffix=". " />
    <name and="symbol" delimiter=", " />
    </names>
    </group>
    </macro>

    i.e. removing the translator from the first <names> line in my code snippet above. Right now this won't make a difference, but once this is fixed globally, the first code will print translator twice, this one will remain correct.
  • Just to confirm, only one of the names is output if they are the same (with the "editortranslator" term as label), but if they differ, both should be output, with their respective labels.

    The tests show that behavior. Is that not the way it is working for you?
  • edited April 6, 2011
    nope.
    <names variable="editor translator" delimiter=". ">
    is indistinguishable from
    <names variable="editor">
    in what it displays:
    The translator isn't shown, neither if there is only an author and a translator nor if there is an author, an editor, and a translator (with all three being different). In short - there is no way to ever get the translator to show up. This is not just the case for MLA, there were earlier reports about this for APA as well. I hacked that style on the repository because I thought csl specs had changed, but then Rintze pointed out to me that they haven't.
  • Confirmed. The bug is triggered only with in-text styles, which is odd, but shouldn't make us nervous; the test suite is solid enough to protect us pretty well against regressions from whatever fix I end up applying.

    In the course of tracking this down, I also found that the inter-nameset delimiter is incorrectly placed. I'll fix that up as well. More news soonish -- it might take a day or two before I'm able to work through this one.
  • In the test suite of the latest (still unreleased) processor code, this is working correctly, if it hasn't been fixed already.
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