dataset view produces error when displaying DOI dataset citation

[mbjones]

I created a real citation in the production data system, which produced the DOI doi:10.82902/J17P4J and dataset code ds.204435. The DOI minted fine, and resolves in DataCite from:

• DataCite URL: https://doi.org/10.82902/J17P4J
• VegBank target: https://vegbank.org/cite/doi:10.82902/J17P4J
• VegBank final URL: https://vegbank.org/?tab=Plots&detail=user-dataset&code=ds.204435&plot_filter_code=ds.204435&plot_filter_type=collection-citation&plot_filter_label=Citation%20identifier%3A%20ds.204435&plots_status=any&plots_start=0&plots_length=100&plots_order=1%3Aasc

The same error shows when resolving the vb_code at https://vegbank.org/cite/ds.204435

The UI displays the dataset metadata and plots fine, but it shows an error in the Citation subpanel with the text: An error has occurred. Check your logs or contact the app author for clarification.

Screenshot showing UI error

Error in shiny logs

-> GET /user-datasets/ds.204435?limit=100&offset=0 HTTP/2
-> Host: api.vegbank.org
-> user-agent: httr2/1.2.2 r-curl/7.0.0 libcurl/7.81.0
-> accept-encoding: deflate, gzip, br, zstd
-> accept: application/json
->
<- HTTP/2 200
<- content-type: application/json
<- date: Wed, 01 Apr 2026 01:27:15 GMT
<- server: gunicorn
<- content-length: 454
<-
API response time: 0.1148572 secs
Warning: Error in path_to_connection: 'Matthew Jones (2026): VegBank plot observations: Santa Barbara,
California plots as of 2026-03-31. VegBank. Dataset. doi:10.82902/J17P4J.' does
not exist in current working directory ('/srv/shiny-server').
  130: <Anonymous>
  129: signalCondition
  128: signal_abort
  127: rlang::abort
  126: cli::cli_abort
  125: check_path
  124: path_to_connection
  123: read_xml.character
  119: read_html.default
  116: renderUI
  115: func
   99: output$dataset_citation
    1: runApp

Dataset code

Here's the code I used to produce the dataset, which succeeded.

library(vegbankr)
library(readr)

filename <- "./vegbank_plots_20260331_235627/plot_observations.csv"
plot_obs <- readr::read_csv(filename)

vb_set_base_url("https://api.vegbank.org/")
name <- "Santa Barbara, California plots as of 2026-03-31"
description <- 'Plot observations from VegBank queried on 2026-03-31 with the search string "Santa Barbara"'
response <- vb_create_dataset(name, description, plot_obs$ob_code)

[mbjones]

Created a branch for this bug-217-ds-citation-display with some docs updates so far.

[mbjones]

Completed and merged into develop in PR #218

[regetz]

Super, thanks @mbjones! I see we now get the desired citation instead of a red error message in the Shiny app:

... and clicking Copy citation puts this on the clipboard:

Matthew Jones (2026): VegBank plot observations: Santa Barbara, California plots as of 2026-03-31. VegBank. Dataset. doi:10.82902/J17P4J.