← Back to team overview

zim-wiki team mailing list archive

Re: Interwiki links for Zim Desktop Wiki on Windows

 

Hi Jaap,

I uninstalled Zim and reinstalled it and now the interwiki links work just
as you described.

Jason

On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 9:41 AM, Jason McLafferty <
jason.mclafferty@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Jaap,
>
> OK, I think probably what I will try next is uninstall and reinstall.
>
> I really do appreciate all the help that you and Mariano provided in
> trying to figure this out.
>
> Jason
>
> On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 5:05 AM, Jaap Karssenberg <
> jaap.karssenberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Hi Jason,
>>
>> Yes, zim understands this type of file path regardless of the platform.
>>
>> In the mean time I tested on my own windows system. Interwiki link to
>> another notebook works fine here without the url.list setup.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Jaap
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 7:52 PM, Jason McLafferty <
>> jason.mclafferty@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Jaap,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the suggestions.  Along these lines, I removed my own
>>> urls.list to prevent Zim from using that.  I also opened the notebooks.list
>>> file I found in C:\Users\Jason\.config\zim and found lines that look like:
>>>
>>> ~/Notebooks/Master
>>>
>>> (I was of the impression that Windows does not understand the tilde as
>>> the home directory but I may be wrong on this, or maybe the way that this
>>> file is used by Zim allows the tilde to work in this way?).
>>>
>>> Jason
>>>
>>> On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 2:42 PM, Jaap Karssenberg <
>>> jaap.karssenberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Jason,
>>>>
>>>> I think the only way to debug why it doesn't work on your windows
>>>> install is check exactly which file zim gets the URL from. Maybe some older
>>>> urls.list you tried, or from the notebooks.list file in the config. If the
>>>> path is wrong, I guess one of these contains the wrong URL.
>>>>
>>>> Will test my own windows setup on monday to check whether there is a
>>>> bug or not.
>>>>
>>>> REgards,
>>>>
>>>> Jaap
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 8:59 PM, Jason McLafferty <
>>>> jason.mclafferty@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> 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
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>

References