New User Questions

[capyboppy]

Hi all.

I am new to the forums and Bookends so please go easy on me

I have been trying out Bookends and Papers and have been trying to make comparisons between the two and also if it warrants purchasing both programs. I have come to the conclusion that like another poster has said, Papers is "prettier" to look at, but Bookends seems to be a superior. program. I can't seem to see anything obvious that Papers does extra or more efficiently that Bookends doesn't. Papers doesn't appear to let the user have the database in Dropbox where Bookends does. I have even tried with Papers having the database on a usb stick (like I do with Bookends), but that keeps coming up with errors. Both programs do "matching," and attaching files. In addition unless I have my stupid head on, Papers only seems to export in-text citations successfully to Bookends and not the full reference.

If there is anything obvious between the two programs I have missed that warrants buying the two programs please tell me. Or if this topic has been posted before, please direct me to the correct thread.

[ozean]

Well nothing to make me not go easy

I don’t use Papers (although I also find it pretty) and I am a very happy camper with Bookends, so I can’t recommend also buying Papers. Since you are a “fresh” user of Bookends in the best sense, you might want to keep an eye on things that don’t work as you would have expected initially or features that you would like to see. Then you can write to Jon and offer suggestions on how to make Bookends *even better*

[capyboppy]

Thanks ozean.
I have tried various other programs but am having to slow down and make a decision else all my time will be taken up instead of starting my next course I am liking Bookends more and more and I am sure Jon is getting fed up of my emails on questions by now! I am getting much more used to the program and finding compared with all the other programs I have tried I am definitely getting there. Cash is short so naturally I don't want two programs that are so similar even if one is nicer to look at. The big thing going for Bookends is being able to use it with Pages.

I do have one problem though. I have put in the address for the EZProxy, but when going to the library address and wanting to save/download from within Bookends Browser I get :
We're sorry, but we don't recognize you as a current client of Serials Solutions. This may be due to the fact that your trial has ended or the URL was entered incorrectly. If you continue to get this error message, please contact a librarian at your institution for assistance.

If you can shed any light on this I would be grateful. Maybe it is something simple as putting the address in the wrong place or missing something out!

[ozean]

Have you tried entering the proxy in System Preferences > Network first? Other than trying both system wide proxy settings and the one in Bookends I have no idea how to resolve this problem. I for my own part always use VPN connections to universities, then I usually have full access to the databases, journals etc. that I want to access – but it seems not all universities provide this kind of access…

[capyboppy]

Do you mean System Preferences on the mac? If so I have had a look and don't know how to do it.

[ozean]

Yes. You can enter proxy setting under

System Preferences > Network

choose your connection (for example AirPort or Ethernet)

click on the “Advanced…” button in the lower right corner

choose the “Proxies” tab

then set the appropriate proxy (I guess it will be HTTP or HTTPS)


good luck

[capyboppy]

Ah thanks. I will try that shortly.

What I have done and discovered is that the EZ proxy seems to work in a different way to what I thought on Bookends compared with any browser and even Papers. I have read the user guide to do with EZ proxy, and apparently you have to do a search with pubmed or one of the others, then use a toggle button to change it to your uni's EZ proxy where it will then find the relevant document. This isn't what I wanted. I just want to be able to login in(Open University), go to the Library section and browse. It appears Bookends can't do this without the "serial Solutions error coming up, which is strange as I have copied and pasted the exact address into the Bookends preferences. I will see if it makes any difference after trying your instructions

[Jon]

No, that's not right. You can use Bookends Browser directly with EZProxy. If, for example, you put in the example ezproxy url to washington.edu (in Preferences) and then do a search with Bookends Browser, you'll be taken to a web page where you enter your password and id (https://weblogin.washington.edu/).

And if you're using EZProxy, you should not be editing the proxy settings in System Preferences. EZProxy is a web-based proxy solution.

Of course, if you're like ozean and use VPN, the limitations of EZProxy disappear. You can ask the IT people at your university about that.

Jon
Sonny Software

[capyboppy]

Yes, that is what happened ( ( think). I put the EZ address in the preferences. Opened Search with Bookends Browser then clicked on the tiny arrow to open the OU site ready for login. This I did and had no problem getting to my "student home" page. It seems to be when I try to access the library. For example: On the right hand side of my student home page there are Library Services. I click on this and it takes me to the page. I then have the option of all sorts of things but say I want to do a search. I choose my topic, then keyword, then submit. Unlike when using the normal browser or when I have used Papers, that is when I get the Serial Solutions error.

[capyboppy]

Just tried again after re-reading your post Jon.
I typed in depression as an example into the browser and this is what I got:

To allow https://psycom.net/depression.central.html to be used in a starting point URL, your EZproxy administrator must first authorize the hostname of this URL in the config.txt file.

Within this database's section of config.txt, the following line must be added:

Host depression.com
The EZproxy server must then be restarted to make the change take effect.

Again, just to clarify. I just want to be able to browse the OU library, rather than type a random word in and hope it brings everything up. I realise I can do this in my normal browser and then just save the citation/pdf etc, but it would be nice to be able to do this from the Bookends browser like Papers does. Maybe it is just something simple I have missed!

[Jon]

From reading the message, I think you'll need to follow the instructions and contact you EZproxy administrator and have them change the config.txt file. This really doesn't have anything to do with Bookends per se.

Jon
Sonny Software

[capyboppy]

But why does this not happen in the normal browser or Papers?

[Jon]

I don't know. EZproxy is just uses a university-specific prefix in front of the destination URL so that is it routed through the university's server. You can send me the ezproxy prefix you are using off-forum if you want. But I think you're going to need to contact your IT people.

Jon
Sonny Software

[macula]

capyboppy,

The ezproxy of my institution also requires that all URLs be approved by the administrator and included in the server's config.txt file. Failing this, the error message that you describe is returned. This is expected behavior, I believe, and there is nothing Bookends could do to ameliorate it.

For example, the Bookends browser fails to load http://www.nytimes.com via the ezproxy, because the ezproxy admin has not included nytimes in config.txt.

As expected, also, the following URL fails on Safari:

https://ezproxy.myuniversity.edu/login? ... ytimes.com

I am surprised to read that URLs prepended with the ezproxy prefix, as in the example above, fail through Bookends but work through Papers or your Safari. Perhaps you neglected to enter the prefix in Papers and Safari, and as a result the web pages loaded normally?

UPDATE: Jon, would you consider adding an easily accessible button (switch) on the Bookends browser toolbar, allowing us to toggle the ezproxy on and off without digging into the BE preferences pane? That would make web surfing on Bookends much smoother.

[Jon]

Hm, why would that make surfing in Bookends much easier? Why do you need to turn it on and off so frequently?

Jon
Sonny Software

P.S. As you know, there is a checkbox next to the setting in prefs, so you can leave the proxy string there even when not using EZProxy.