Datashare can display 'Preview' for some document types only: images, pdf, csv, xlsx and tiff. Other document types are not supported yet.

Double quotes need to be straight in Datashare's search bar, not curly.

• Straight double quotes: "example"

• Curly double quotes: “example” (these are tilted)

This search works because double quotes are straight in the search bar:

This search doesn't work because double quotes are curly in the search bar:

If you are using Datashare version with Docker (not the standard version) and if Datashare crashes, please try to restart Docker Desktop.

On Mac:

• Click the Docker Desktop icon on the top menu bar. The following drop-down menu appears:

• Click 'Restart'.

• As long as the icon's little points move, it means that Docker Desktop is still restarting.

• Once these points stopped moving, either Datashare restarted automatically or you can restart Datashare manually (see 'Open Datashare').

On Windows:

• Right-click the Docker Desktop icon (a little whale) on the bottom menu bar.

• Click 'Restart'.

• Click 'Restart' again.

• Wait for Docker Desktop to restart.

• When it says 'Docker Desktop is running', either Datashare restarted automatically or you can restart Datashare manually (see 'Open Datashare').

On Linux, please execute: sudo service docker restart

Here are the most common errors that you should correct: ‌

The query starts with AND (all uppercase)

You cannot start a query with AND all uppercase. AND is reserved as a search operator.

‌

The query starts with OR (all uppercase)

You cannot start a query with OR all uppercase. OR is reserved as a search operator.

‌

The query contains only one double-quote (")

‌You cannot start or type a query with only one double quote. Double quotes are reserved as a search operator for exact phrase.

‌

The query contains only one parenthesis ((or ))

‌You cannot start or type a query with only one parenthesis. Parenthesis are reserved for combining operators.

The query contains only one forward slash (/)

‌You cannot start or type a query with only one forward slash. Forward slashes are reserved for regular expressions (Regex).

The query starts with or contains tilde (~)

‌You cannot start a query with tilde (~) or write one which contains tilde. Tilde is reserved as a search operator for fuzziness or proximity searches.

​‌

The query ends with question mark (!)

You cannot end a query with question mark (!). Question mark is reserved as a search operator for excluding a term.

The query starts with or contains caret (^)

‌You cannot start a query with caret (^) or write one which contains caret. Caret is reserved as a boosting operator.

The query contains square brackets ([ ])

You cannot use square brackets except for searching for ranges.

SearchException: query='AND ada'

One or several of your queries contains syntax errors.

It means that you wrote one or more of your queries the wrong way with some characters that are reserved as operators: .

You need to correct the error(s) in your CSV and re-launch your new batch search with a CSV that does not contain errors. .

Datashare stops at the first syntax error. It reports only the first ​error. You might need to check all your queries as some errors can remain after correcting the first one.

Example of a syntax error message:

SearchException: query='AND ada' message='org.icij.datashare.batch.SearchException: org.elasticsearch.client.ResponseException: method [POST], host [http://elasticsearch:9200], URI [/local-datashare/doc/_search?typed_keys=true&ignore_unavailable=false&expand_wildcards=open&allow_no_indices=true&scroll=60000ms&search_type=query_then_fetch&batched_reduce_size=512], status line [HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request] {"error":{"root_cause":[{"type":"query_shard_exception","reason":"Failed to parse query [AND ada]","index_uuid":"pDkhK33BQGOEL59-4cw0KA","index":"local-datashare"}],"type":"search_phase_execution_exception","reason":"all shards failed","phase":"query","grouped":true,"failed_shards":[{"shard":0,"index":"local-datashare","node":"_jPzt7JtSm6IgUqrtxNsjw","reason":{"type":"query_shard_exception","reason":"Failed to parse query [AND ada]","index_uuid":"pDkhK33BQGOEL59-4cw0KA","index":"local-datashare","caused_by":{"type":"parse_exception","reason":"Cannot parse 'AND ada': Encountered " <AND> "AND "" at line 1, column 0.\nWas expecting one of:\n <NOT> ...\n "+" ...\n "-" ...\n <BAREOPER> ...\n "(" ...\n "*" ...\n <QUOTED> ...\n <TERM> ...\n <PREFIXTERM> ...\n <WILDTERM> ...\n <REGEXPTERM> ...\n "[" ...\n "{" ...\n <NUMBER> ...\n <TERM> ...\n ","caused_by":{"type":"parse_exception","reason":"Encountered " <AND> "AND "" at line 1, column 0.\nWas expecting one of:\n <NOT> ...\n "+" ...\n "-" ...\n <BAREOPER> ...\n "(" ...\n "*" ...\n <QUOTED> ...\n <TERM> ...\n <PREFIXTERM> ...\n <WILDTERM> ...\n <REGEXPTERM> ...\n "[" ...\n "{" ...\n <NUMBER> ...\n <TERM> ...\n "}}}}]},"status":400}'

elasticsearch: Name does not resolve

If you have a message which contain 'elasticsearch: Name does not resolve', it means that Datashare can't make Elastic Search, its search engine, work.

In that case, you need to re-open Datashare: ****here are the instructions for , or .

Example of a message regarding a problem with ElasticSearch:

SearchException: query='lovelace' message='org.icij.datashare.batch.SearchException: java.io.IOException: elasticsearch: Name does not resolve'

It means that you are on Windows.

• Search and open 'Computer management':

• Go to 'Local users and groups':

• In 'Groups', double-click 'docker-users':

• If you are not in 'docker-users', go to 'Users' on the left filter and add you in the 'docker-users' group by clicking on you and 'Add...':

You started tasks, and they are running as you can see on 'http://localhost:8080/#/indexing' but they are not completing.

There are two possible causes:

• If you see a progress of less than 100%, please wait.

• If the progress is 100%, an error has occurred, and the tasks failed to complete, which may be caused by various reasons. If you're an advanced user, you can create an issue on Datashare Github with the application logs.

It can be due to extensions priorly installed. The tech team is fixing the issue. In the meantime, you need to remove them. To do so, you can open your Terminal, copy and paste the text below:

• On Mac

rm -rf ~/Library/datashare/plugins ~/Library/datashare/extensions

• On Linux

rm -rf ~/.local/share/datashare/plugins ~/.local/share/datashare/extensions

• On Windows

del /S %APPDATA%\Datashare\Extensions  %APPDATA%\Datashare\Plugins

Press Enter. Open Datashare again.

Datashare's filters keep the named entities (people, organizations and locations) previously recognized.

"Old" named entities stay in the filter of Datashare, even though the documents that contained them were removed from your Datashare folder on your computer later. It means that you removed the documents which contained the named entities after extracting them, you run new analysis, but the named entities stayed in the filters:

In the future, removing the documents from Datashare before indexing new ones will remove the named entities of these documents too. They won't appear in the people, organizations or locations' filters anymore. To do so, you can click the little pink trash icon on the bottom of the left column:

If you use Datashare with Docker (not the standard version), if a dark window called the Terminal displays a phrase beginning with "Windows named pipe error: The system cannot find the file specified" appears, it means that Docker Desktop, one of the 3 components of Datashare, is not working. Relaunching Docker Desktop should solve the problem.

Find Docker Desktop in your Applications or the whale icon on the menu bar of your computer and click 'Restart'.

• If you were able to see documents during your current session, you might have active filters that prevent Datashare from displaying documents, as no document might correspond to your current search. You can check in your URL if you see active filters and if you're comfortable with the possibility of loosing your previously selected filters, click 'Reset filters'.

• You may not have added documents to Datashare yet. To add documents, see: 'Add documents to Datashare' for Mac, Windows or Linux.

• In 'Analyzed documents', if some tasks are not marked as 'Done', please wait for all tasks to be done. Depending on the number of documents you analyzed, it can take multiple hours.

If Datashare opens a blank screen in your browser, it may be for various reasons. If it does:

1. First wait 30 seconds and reload the page.

2. If the screen remains blank, restart Datashare following instructions for Mac, Windows or Linux.

3. If you still see a blank screen, please uninstall and reinstall Datashare

To uninstall Datashare:

On Mac, go to 'Applications' and drag the Datashare icon to your dock's 'Trash' or right-click on the Datashare icon and click on 'Move to Trash'.

On Windows, please follow these steps.

On Linux, please delete the 3 containers: Datashare, Redis and Elastic Search, and the script.

To reinstall Datashare, see 'Install Datashare' for Mac, Windows or Linux.

To fix the issue:

1. Stop Datashare. If Datashare is running, close the Terminal window (the window that opens when you start Datashare):

Click 'Terminate':

1. Open your Terminal (or a new window in your Terminal) and copy and paste:

• If you're using Mac: rm -Rf ~/Library/Datashare/index

• If you're using Windows: rd /s /q "%APPDATA%"\Datashare\index

• If you're using Linux: rm -Rf ~/.local/share/datashare/index

1. Press Enter

2. Restart Datashare (here are the instructions for Mac, for Windows and for Linux)

3. Index documents again: go to 'Analyse your documents' and click 'Extract text':