As a Metadata Manager user, I want to fix the underlying bug that is causing the JSON Syntax Error (unescaped characters)

I am creating this ticket as the master for these unescaped JSON SyntaxErrors we have seen in Metadata Manager recently. We have a handful of individual tickets and thanks to Mike's training of support, support has begun to collect information about how users are entering title information into Metadata Manager. The hope is that once we collect enough information we can pinpoint the problem and fix it for good. See the Notes section for support's findings.

Definition of done

  • Available via a staging URL
  • Code reviewed
  • Unit tests identified, implemented, and passing
  • Knowledge base reviewed and updated

Notes: Internal reference: Zendesk ticket 142628

  • From MM-487 user 'ucts': these titles were copied from MS Word.
  • From MM-493 user 'agdh': I asked the member to let me know how the metadata was entered into metadata manager and this is the reply I got:

Apparently my colleague used Microsoft Word for pasting some data. He is an electronic publication expert and always uses notepad/plain text, however, he did not use plain this time.

The interesting point is he thinks the error didn’t happened upon data entry, but it did when he chose 3 articles he just created and moved them to the volume 43 of our publication.

As you know, in the Metadata Manager app UI you have two ways of creating an article, either creating the article and move it into a volume later, or create the article under the target volume upon creation. So, He did create the articles in top-level (under no particular volume) and this happened when he tried to move it under volume 43.

  • From MM-489 user 'camm':

As far as I can remember, I cut and pasted the text from indesign.

I think the error came up after I had added them, and when I tried to make a folder for the issue, then tried to add the articles to that folder

  • I, Isaac, have also been able to replicate the Syntax Error with user 'imng'. When I added an article that was not previously associated with a specific issue to an issue using “Action > Move to”, I triggered a new JSON Syntax Error in their account. I was trying to move DOI 10.12788/jhm.3212 to the September online first issue. Prior to that the account was working. Mike has now manually fixed this JSON Syntax Error twice for this 'imng' account, but anytime the user attempts the "Action > Move to" to move a specific article to an issue, Metadata Manager triggers the JSON Syntax Error.

  • Jira ticket/Github Issue: Migrated from JIRA MM-494

Edited by Kirsty Meddings