Translators not working, getting metadata from PDF not working, sync not working

abatty
This is driving me crazy.

Up until 5 May, everything was working fine. That's the last time that I added something to my library that got synced to my other computer, but even then, I had to type the entry out (I thought it was just that journal).

Now I can't find any journals for which the translators are working, Zotero doesn't seem to be able to pull metadata from the PDF anymore (probably related to the Google Scholar translator not working), and nothing has been synced to the server or other computers since the 5th.

Basically, nothing is working on this machine!

Details:

OSX 10.6.7
Firefox 4.0.1
Zotero 2.1.6
Zotero MacWord Integration 3.1.2
PythonExt Latest (I think)

I sync my attachments via webDAV, and group ones via Zotero. The ones in question are mine (webDAV). The citations aren't going either, though. I've also got the red exclamation mark badge by the sync button.

The translators that I know don't work:

Google Scholar
ScienceDirect
Sage
Taylor & Francis

--I think there was one more.

Other extensions running:

1Password 3.5.9
AdBlock 1.3.6
FireBug 1.7.0
Firefox Sync 1.7 (hmmm... I thought I didn't need that with FF4?)
Greasemonkey 0.9.2
Rikaichan 2.0.2
(Rikaichan Names and Japanese-English dictionaries)

The most-recent addition was Greasemonkey, so I took that off and tried again; no dice.

I also just uninstalled Zotero and reinstalled it. No dice.

I don't even know what else to do, actually...

Ideas
  • adamsmith
    We'd need some actual error messages for the various problems
    http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs
    Also, do try disabling _all_ add-ons except Zotero.,
  • abatty
    All add-ons disabled; no dice.

    Behavior is the same on both Mac clients and on my Windows client. Trying to save a citation results in a "Could Not Save Item" error.

    Did not notice the "Report Errors" option. Here they are:

    [JavaScript Error: "win.ZoteroPane.document is undefined" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/sync.js" line: 819}]

    [JavaScript Error: "TypeError: win.ZoteroPane.document is undefined" {file: "file:///Users/abatty/Documents/Articles/Zotero/translators/Informaworld.js" line: 0}]

    --The second one was from trying to import a Taylor & Francis paper from a journal I use all the time. I got an identical one on the other computer for Highwire for another journal I use all the time, and I got the same Informaworld error on the Windows box.

    All 3 copies of FF are 4.0.1.

    Checked that directory; all the translator .js files are there.

    Report IDs: 58922302, 1405679232, 1093389745

    --For the three clients.

    The sync buttons just twirl forever until an exclamation mark comes up.
  • adamsmith
    This
    "win.ZoteroPane.document is undefined"
    error has only come up only once before ever (and the poster didn't follow up so it wasn't resolved) - maybe Dan has an idea what's going on - but that's clearly the problem. You don't have any Firefox Themes or Personas installed, do you?
  • abatty
    Nope. Everything installed is already listed.

    What is really scaring me is that I'm getting the same error on two different Macs and an WinXP machine.

    Oh, I've also checked the database and reset the translators and updated them.

    One more fun fact: Tomorrow morning, I was planning on teaching my writing students to use Zotero and require it for this semester's paper. If I can't get this working in the next 24 hours, I am in a world of hurt. I don't have time to make new materials, and I really don't want to teach them to use Mendeley, because than I'd have to use it, and it makes me want to throw the computer across the room. It's pretty, and that's it.
  • adamsmith
    You'll have to wait if Dan has an idea - until then you could also, just to be complete, create a Debug ID for one of those non-working translation attempts.
    http://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output
    Don't post your debug output here, just the ID. If you want to you can look at it and see if anything around that error looks like a possible cause, sometimes debug can be very intuitive, other times it's indiscernible for a mere mortal.
  • abatty
    More fun facts.

    Fresh install on a different WinXP VM works fine.

    Install of Zotero FF plugin on another account on the same Mac (i.e. using the same installation of Firefox, but with a different profile and different Zotero library) also works fine.

    Something has got to be gorfed with my FF profile (will have to be something that is transferred by FF Sync--but I only transfer bookmarks!) or Zotero library (but just the citations, as the first WinXP machine only receives the citations from the Zotero server).

    Something poisonous is moving between FF installations via FF Sync or Zotero sync...
  • dstillman
    Does this happen in both pane mode and tab mode?
  • abatty
    Yes. I should have mentioned that. When I saw that Java error, that was my first thought.

    I primarily use it as an app tab in FF4, and it's always open.
  • abatty
    edited May 13, 2011
    Oh wow. The proxy redirects aren't even working. I had to sign in to second user account on my computer to even show the students how to access the library databases!

    How could this get so messed up?

    I thought it might be an Apple Java problem, but the fact that the WinXP client that is synced has the same problem, and the fact that a separate account on the same Mac with a fresh, no-library install of Zotero works fine rules that out.

    I haven't a clue as to how to move forward on this.
  • dstillman
    edited May 13, 2011
    It's just one issue, but the error you're getting would break many parts of Zotero.

    If you switch Zotero to pane mode in the preferences and restart Firefox and never switch it to tab mode, does it still happen?
  • dstillman
    You might try creating a new Firefox profile, installing Zotero into it, and seeing if it occurs there. If not, link that profile to your existing Zotero data directory and see if it occurs.
  • abatty
    I just literally hopped around in my office.

    I switched to the pane view in Prefs and restarted and everything seems to be working.

    Citations are being pulled into Zotero

    Proxies are working

    Sync appears to be working (will need to check at home to be sure, but I got the status bar as a new PDF uploaded to webDAV, and the articles I just added are showing up on my library here at Zotero.org--none of the others from the past few days are)

    Pulling metadata from a PDF worked


    Wow, I did not think of that. Thanks.

    Any idea how that spread to 3 machines? Perhaps because I have Zotero set as one of my "home" tabs that opens every time I start FF?

    Any advice you can give me about avoiding it or anything? Any insight?
  • abatty
    Well, I had problems again and went through switching between tab and pane in the prefs and restarting, and I seem to be able to fix it when it stops working.

    I think there's a bug related to the new tab, but I'm not sure exactly how it comes up. I bet the last person who had the problem (referenced before) just accidentally solved it and went on with his life, as we are all wont to do on occasion.

    Let me know if you want me to do any more experiments just for science. I can try linking that other account's Zotero profile to a copy of my library if you think it'd be interesting or helpful. If I'm really concerned about mucking something up, I can also just play with the files in a VM. I'm not too keen to experiment any further with my real copies, though, now that I have it working.
  • abatty
    K, just got home and tried it out. Have the other Mac and the WinXP VM working as well. Same fix each time.
  • dstillman
    edited May 13, 2011
    It's almost certainly a problem with the tab, not the pane. (Well, it may be something in switching between the two under some conditions, but I highly doubt you'd see it if you didn't leave pane mode.)

    If you have steps to reproduce it consistently, let us know.
  • fbennett
    After patching the multilingual branch to wake up proxy redirection in Linux, I'm getting this consistently, when Zotero is set to default of tab mode, FF is restarted in that state, I do a library lookup, log into the proxy, click through to the item (in Elsevier journals, ScienceDirect translator, in these trials), and click the Zotero download icon in the address bar.

    It works okay in panel mode.

    If there is other testing I can do, let me know. If feedback based on the multilingual branch is not useful, I can try with either the branch XPI or with the stable version, but in either case I would need to patch the source to get proxy redirection working on this platform.

    A couple of odd things are that Scaffold (run from the same spawned window that fails with the download icon) reports that the translation is successful, and that the Javascript error console reports the win.zoteroPane.document fault in ScienceDirect.js itself (maybe that's a side effect of the sandboxing?).
  • topoi.jacobs
    wow, I'm so glad I found this page. I had the exact same problem. Zotero on FF 4 shared between a Mac and a Windows machine and all of a sudden Zotero seemed unable to save any data. I switched to pane view and voila it works like a charm.
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