Google Scholar fetching not working

[Djeed]

JabRef 3.6
linux 3.13.0-86-generic amd64
Java 1.8.0_101 on 131-Ubuntu SMP Thu May 12 23:33:13 UTC 2016

Google Scholar fetching returns an error message:
"Error while fetching from Google Scholar".
As I have read in previous threads, there is a recurrent problem with this. Could it be that Google Scholar has changed something from their API again?

[matthiasgeiger]

Please try the current Dev builds. The issue in JabRef 3.6 should be already fixed, but is mit yet released in a 3.7 Version.

You can find the builds at https://builds.jabref.org/master

[Djeed]

The latest build (.jar version) is working properly regarding this issue.
Thank you!

[koppor]

Duplicate of #1886.

I would vote to leave this issue open (and label with fixed-in-devBuilds as more and more users are asking for a fix.

[Djeed]

Hello, after a few minutes of work, the error pops up again :(
"Error while fetching from Google Scholar. Please try again later and/or check your network connection". Not sure whether it is another change from Scholar or something about the dev version in my computer... A pity, I was enjoying Scholar searches again!

[matthiasgeiger]

The problem with google scholar is that fetching via JabRef is creating a lot of requests at the Google Servers: One for the search page + 10 for the found entries (bib download for each entry). These (quick) requests are detected by Google as machine-requests - and if you perform some more searches - your IP address will be "blocked". I.e., a "captcha" is shown which cannot be passed by JabRef.

Thus, the search does not work for "mass downloads" of entries. If you are using Firefox you might consider using the Plugin "JabFox" written by one of our developers (@tobiasdiez) to add entries directly from the browser which will not be blocked.

[AEgit]

As a workaround, what you could try is to change your IP address (using a VPN service) and potentially also your MAC address. See:
http://help.jabref.org/en/GoogleScholar

and

#2046

[Djeed]

I see... So it is rather undetermined when the fetching will block right? I do not get any CAPTCHA prompt either when I get back to the browser-version Scholar. Hmm... I guess this feature will keep being problematic. Anyway thanks for the info!

[tobiasdiez]

@matthiasgeiger Can we somehow detect that Google is blocking the request (using the response code or analyzing the returned html)? Then we could at least show a better error message.

@Djeed could you please have a look if there is a message in the error console (Help -> Show error console) after fetching failed. thanks.

[stefan-kolb]

See #1887