run-pmcid error input_dir etc/Data/pmc-oa is not a directory

[dpdoughe]

When running the Apache-configured run-pmcid CGI script through Firefox, there is an error from pmcid.pl line 335.

run-pmcid
Error: $input_dir="/home/dougherty/drum/etc/Data/pmc-oa" is not a directory. at /home/dougherty/drum/etc/run-pmcid.pl line 335. 

Creating the directory fixes the issue.
Wondering if this is a bug and if directory should be created by code or during build?

[wdebeaum]

That directory is supposed to contain the input data (the papers to be parsed), and I don't have the code that originally fetched it (and I think did some preprocessing?). That was done by another member of the team, and AFAIK he didn't commit it to CVS. He later changed things around so we fetch the data dynamically instead of ahead of time (see src/PubManager/), and I think it ends up in $TRIPS_BASE/cache/ now. I don't see where that's created, but I don't remember doing it myself...

The thing is that the autocomplete behavior of run-pmcid still depends on the old ahead-of-time fetched data, so it still needs the old directory to exist. Fixing or removing this autocomplete has been on my to-do list for a couple months. It's not exactly a high priority. And it looks like you found a simple workaround.

I'm still curious why you're not just using the existing web services...