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Re: Interwiki links for Zim Desktop Wiki on Windows

 

Quick note: I also run Linux in VirtualBox, so I put Zim on there and tried
linking, and it worked.  I just created two notebooks (notes and test), in
notes I placed a link "test?" and clicking on that worked perfectly - a new
window opened with the test notebook.

I do use Windows much more though so that's why I want to get this working
in that installation too.

Thanks,

Jason

On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 2:36 PM, Jason McLafferty <
jason.mclafferty@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Jaap,
>
> Thanks again for your followup.
>
> This is what I tried next:
> (1) remove urls.list file that I created
> (2) replaced all spaces by underscores in notebook names in the file
> notebooks.list in C:\Users\Jason\.config\zim\ directory
> (3) tried my link Electronics? - nothing happened, so I ran it from cmd
> with the --debug flag.  Two things I noticed:
>
> (a) Error dialog: "Could not find notebook
> file:///C:/Users/Jason/Notebooks/Master/zim
> (Master is the name of the notebook that I try to place the link in).
>
> (b) I opened the zim.exe.log file and see this line near the bottom:
>
> INFO: Spawning: ['C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Zim Desktop Wiki\\zim.exe',
> 'zim', 'zim+file:///C:/Users/Jason/Notebooks/Electronics?', '--no-daemon']
> (cwd: None)
>
> (I'm guessing this is a copy of the command that is issued to open the
> notebook being linked to).
>
> Two things I find strange: (a) the /zim appended to the end of the file of
> the notebook I am working in,
> (b) that the error reports that the file of the notebook I am working in
> (where I put the link) is not being found, rather than the notebook I am
> trying to link to is not being found.  I would have guessed that it would
> report that it cannot find the notebook that I am trying to link to.
>
> Sorry for so many e-mails.  I'm starting to wonder if I am doing something
> really stupid.
>
> Jason
>
> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 1:22 PM, Jaap Karssenberg <
> jaap.karssenberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Hi Jason,
>>
>> I just had a look at the parsing of the url.list format. The parser
>> splits the line at the first space, all subsequent text is taken as the url.
>>
>> So the name or "key" that you use in the interwiki link should not
>> contain any spaces. Typically these are abreviations, so you want to keep
>> them short anyway.
>>
>> The URL is allowed to contain spaces and is handed to the application
>> handling the link without further processing. For file links I recommend
>> using spaces instead of "%20" because most applications (including zim)
>> just remove the "file:///" bit and assume the rest to be a valid file path.
>>
>> The "Master NOtebook" example in your last mail probably fails due to the
>> "%20".
>>
>> The "Electronics" example you used earlier should work though. Try the
>> "--debug" check on that one. However I wouldn't count on zim being fully
>> robust for "nested" notebooks. It might just open the toplevel notebook
>> instead.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Jaap
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 6:07 PM, Jason McLafferty <
>> jason.mclafferty@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Jaap,
>>>
>>> Thank you for your reply.
>>>
>>> Yes, my entire 'urls.list' file is links to other notebooks, so it seems
>>> the right way to do this then is to not worry about creating my own
>>> urls.list for notebooks.
>>>
>>> However, the link is still not working and Mariano's comment about the
>>> spaces in a lot of my notebook names has me wondering if this is creating a
>>> problem?  Also, my Electronics notebook, which I am trying to link to (and
>>> does not have spaces in the file URL) does appear below a notebook which
>>> does have spaces in its name and file URL - could it be what he said
>>> regarding an earlier failure in reading the list, due to spaces, that leads
>>> to the failure?
>>>
>>> I did try the suggestion of running "zim --debug".  When the notebook
>>> open dialog appears, I chose the notebook that I am trying to create the
>>> link in.  Then I put the link, click on it, and I get an error message:
>>> "Could not find the notebook:
>>> file:///C:/Users/Jason/Notebooks/Master%20Notebook/zim.
>>>
>>> That notebook (Master Notebook) is where I am trying to place the link,
>>> not the notebook I am linking to.
>>>
>>> Jason
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 11:41 AM, Jaap Karssenberg <
>>> jaap.karssenberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Stupid question, but are all your interwiki links to other zim
>>>> notebooks?
>>>>
>>>> If so, you shoudl not need to configure the urls.list file at all.
>>>> Check the "open another notebook" dialog in zim, all notebooks listed there
>>>> should already be recognized as interwiki links.
>>>>
>>>> In the properties dialog you can set an interwiki keyword for the
>>>> noteobook as well. This is used to set a short name to refer to.
>>>>
>>>> Is that what you are looking for?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Otherwise, try running "zim --debug". When you click the link, debug
>>>> info should show which urls.list file zim is reading and how it converted
>>>> the link.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Jaap
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 5:32 PM, Mariano Draghi <mdraghi@xxxxxxxxx>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Jason,
>>>>>
>>>>> I suppose the space might be a problem in the first example. The space
>>>>> encoded as "%20" in the URL part might be supported (I really don't know
>>>>> for sure), but I'm sure that you cannot define an interwiki prefix with
>>>>> spaces in between. At least not in Zim. Zim expects the format of the
>>>>> urls.list file to be "prefix url" (i.e., prefix, blank, url), so if your
>>>>> prefix has a blank in between, you're not using the expected syntax. You
>>>>> should change the first part to "CurveFitting" or "Curve_Fitting" or
>>>>> something like that.
>>>>>
>>>>> The Electronics example looks more or less right, except for the extra
>>>>> forward-slash and the ":" in between. But if you have already tried the
>>>>> syntax I used, and it still didn't work, then I am really out of ideas :(
>>>>>
>>>>> At first I thought that the "Electronics?" link would be invalid (I
>>>>> never used such syntax), but I've just tested it in my computer (using
>>>>> "work?"), and it opens my Work notebook as you would expect. And the other
>>>>> example ("Electronics?Multimeter") looks perfectly normal.
>>>>>
>>>>> Maybe the Electronics interwiki-prefix is not working because Zim
>>>>> didn't like the space in the other prefix and aborted the parsing of the
>>>>> urls.list file (or disabled the feature completely) before reading the
>>>>> Electronics line. I'm just guessing... but it might be a good idea to get
>>>>> the format right with a simpler urls.list file, with just one example
>>>>> (maybe the Electronics one), so you are sure that any line with wrong or
>>>>> unexpected syntax is preventing the whole feature from working. Once you
>>>>> have one case working, you might try adding the other ones.
>>>>>
>>>>> One last thing: make sure you're completely closing Zim before
>>>>> changing the urls.list file, and that it is not running in the background
>>>>> or systray. I'm not sure if Zim would detect any changes to that kind of
>>>>> configuration once it's running.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sorry, I don't know what else to suggest. Maybe some other user
>>>>> catches something we're missing.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Mariano
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> El vie., 23 de oct. de 2015 a la(s) 11:35 a. m., Jason McLafferty <
>>>>> jason.mclafferty@xxxxxxxxx> escribió:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Mariano,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thank you again for your quick reply!  I really appreciate your
>>>>>> detailed example.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My urls.list is at the same location as yours (different username of
>>>>>> course) following your advice in your first response.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I used a program to generate my urls.list file (my boss wrote it)
>>>>>> that takes a .txt file of the contents of the Notebooks directory, and
>>>>>> creates the urls.list file.  Here is one example from my urls.list:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Curve Fitting zim+file:///c:/Users/Jason/Notebooks/Curve%20Fitting
>>>>>>
>>>>>> (I added percent encoding for the spaces in the file URL because it
>>>>>> looks like Windows needs this, from what I have read).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To test notebook linking, I used a different notebook which has no
>>>>>> space to be sure that wasn't the issue:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Electronics zim+file:///c:/Users/Jason/Notebook/Electronics
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I tried two styles of links,
>>>>>> (1) Electronics? (which I assumed would open the entire notebook)
>>>>>> (2) Electronics?Multimeter (which I assumed would open the Multimeter
>>>>>> page in the Electronics notebook).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In both cases, clicking the link produces no action.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The only thing standing out to me right now is that my file URLs look
>>>>>> a bit different than yours (I have three slashes after "file" and a ":"
>>>>>> after c, whereas you have two slashes after "file" and no ":" after C), but
>>>>>> I tried changing the format of mine to look like yours, but that did not
>>>>>> affect the result.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Maybe you will see something I missed.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks again,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jason
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 9:56 AM, Mariano Draghi <mdraghi@xxxxxxxxx>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Maybe there's a problem with the URL you are writing in the
>>>>>>> urls.list file and/or the way you are using the interwiki link?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Let's see a concrete example:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - my username in Windows is "mariano", so the %APPDATA% folder
>>>>>>> resolves to:
>>>>>>> C:\Users\mariano\AppData\Roaming
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - in there I have a urls.list file, in the following location:
>>>>>>> C:\Users\mariano\AppData\Roaming\zim\data\zim\urls.list
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - I have two Zim Notebooks, "Personal" and "Work", in the following
>>>>>>> locations (these are the folders where each "notebook.zim" file is located):
>>>>>>> C:\Users\mariano\Dropbox\Notebooks\Personal
>>>>>>> C:\Users\mariano\Dropbox\Notebooks\Work
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - In the urls.list file, I declared an "interwiki" prefix for the
>>>>>>> Work notebook, with the following line:
>>>>>>> work zim+file://C/Users/mariano/Dropbox/Notebooks/Work
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - With that configuration, then if I open my Personal notebook and
>>>>>>> insert a link like this:
>>>>>>> work?Home:Projects
>>>>>>> Then when I clic it a new instance of Zim is opened, with the Work
>>>>>>> notebook, and the page Home->Projects.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Are you doing more or less something like this?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Mariano
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> El vie., 23 de oct. de 2015 a la(s) 10:44 a. m., Jason McLafferty <
>>>>>>> jason.mclafferty@xxxxxxxxx> escribió:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi Mariano,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I greatly appreciate your quick reply, however I am sad to report
>>>>>>>> that my links still do not work.  Any other suggestions I might try?
>>>>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Jason
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 8:05 AM, Mariano Draghi <mdraghi@xxxxxxxxx>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Hi Jason,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The location of the XDG folders in Windows is a little bit
>>>>>>>>> weird... you should put your urls.list in the folder
>>>>>>>>> %APPDATA%/zim/data/zim
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> i.e., there should be an extra "zim" folder inside "data". Weird,
>>>>>>>>> yes. But it works :)
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>> Mariano
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> El vie., 23 de oct. de 2015 a la(s) 5:43 a. m., Jason McLafferty <
>>>>>>>>> jason.mclafferty@xxxxxxxxx> escribió:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I am using Zim on Windows 7.  I am trying to add my Zim notebooks
>>>>>>>>>> to the urls.list file using the "zim+file://" method described here:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> http://zim-wiki.org/manual/Help/Config_Files.html
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I use ctrl+L to add a link to a notebook as name_of_notebook?,
>>>>>>>>>> which creates a link, but when I click on it, nothing happens.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> One thing I noticed when I was working through setting this up,
>>>>>>>>>> is that on my system, the directories APPDATA/zim/config and
>>>>>>>>>> APPDATA/zim/data do not exist (I checked where APPDATA is on my computer
>>>>>>>>>> with cmd by typing cd %appdata% and noting the new directory).  Not being
>>>>>>>>>> sure if this is significant or not, I did some poking around in Explorer
>>>>>>>>>> and found the following directory: C:\Users\Jason\.config\zim in which I
>>>>>>>>>> find files like preferences.conf and style.conf.  I tried putting my
>>>>>>>>>> urls.list file, containing all my notebooks and formatted as
>>>>>>>>>> name-space-zim+file:// in both of these directories (APPDATA/zim/data and
>>>>>>>>>> C:\Users\Jason\.config\zim), but still I do not get a working link.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Any suggestions to where I am going wrong?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Thank you,
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Jason
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~zim-wiki
>>>>>>>>>> Post to     : zim-wiki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>>>>>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~zim-wiki
>>>>>>>>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~zim-wiki
>>>>> Post to     : zim-wiki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~zim-wiki
>>>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>

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