Image previews fail for draft datasets
Analia Salazar
After upgrading to Dataverse 6.2 and Dataverse Previewers 1.5, image previews are no longer displayed for datasets in draft version. Instead, the image preview generates an error.
To troubleshoot, I removed the existing external tool using the API and recreated it with the following json, but the issue persists:
"displayName":"View Image",
"description":"Preview an image file.",
"toolName":"imagePreviewer",
"scope":"file",
"types":["preview"],
"toolUrl":"https://gdcc.github.io/dataverse-previewers/previewers/v1.5/ImagePreview.html",
"toolParameters": {
"queryParameters":[
{"fileid":"{fileId}"},
{"siteUrl":"{siteUrl}"},
{"datasetid":"{datasetId}"},
{"datasetversion":"{datasetVersion}"},
{"locale":"{localeCode}"}
]
},
"contentType":"image/png",
"allowedApiCalls": [
{
"name": "retrieveFileContents",
"httpMethod": "GET",
"urlTemplate": "/api/v1/access/datafile/{fileId}?gbrecs=true",
"timeOut": 3600
},
{
"name": "downloadFile",
"httpMethod": "GET",
"urlTemplate": "/api/v1/access/datafile/{fileId}?gbrecs=false",
"timeOut": 3600
},
{
"name": "getDatasetVersionMetadata",
"httpMethod": "GET",
"urlTemplate": "/api/v1/datasets/{datasetId}/versions/{datasetVersion}",
"timeOut": 3600
}
]
}
Thanks,
James Myers
Analía,
If it only affects draft files and restricted files, I’d suspect something related to URL signing, which was introduced in v6.1.
If that’s the case, a quick fix would be to install the previewers using the examples in https://github.com/gdcc/dataverse-previewers/blob/develop/5.2curlcommands.md. (That’s less secure than getting signed URLs to work, but may at least be a useful test.)
To debug signedUrls, I’d suggest looking at https://groups.google.com/g/dataverse-community/search?q=signedUrls (specifically this thread). The problem that’s been seen is in cases where Dataverse thinks it lives at one URL but it receives message that are for a different URL (https vs http or other changes) due to a proxy. If you turn on FINE logging for the edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.util.UrlSignerUtil class you should see info in the log about what is expected and what’s getting sent. Hopefully that will help you diagnose/fix it.
Note that there’s a PR going into v6.10 that improves Dataverse’s ability to handle the http/https difference when proxying - #11787. Forwarding from the proxy via https would be a workaround.
Hopefully that’s it. If not, the general advice would be to look it the Dataverse server.log and in the browser developer console (the console and network panes might give you clues as to whether API calls to Dataverse are blocked by CORS issues, or getting error codes from a proxy or the Dataverse server itself, etc.).
-- Jim
From: dataverse...@googlegroups.com <dataverse...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of Analia Salazar
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2026 3:23 PM
To: Dataverse Users Community <dataverse...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Dataverse-Users] Image previews fail for draft datasets
Hi everyone,
After upgrading to Dataverse 6.2 and Dataverse Previewers 1.5, image previews are no longer displayed for datasets in draft version. Instead, the image preview generates an error.
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