Bilbao crystallographic server - check internet connection

[c-tam]

Is there a fix coming for the k-SUBGROUPMAG feature? It currently gives the error "check internet connection", and the following in the terminal:

---

GSAS-II access Bilbao website is currently (as of mid-January, 2026)
being repaired. Please check for updates and try again later in
the month.

---

connection error - not on internet?

Currently running 5832/v5.7.3 on MacOS Tahoe 26.3.

Thanks

[briantoby]

@c-tam Yes, this is an on-going problem (discussed here: #294) and needs to be resolved on the web server (Bilbao) side before we can do anything from GSAS-II. If fact, I was in touch with Emre today and he confirmed that he is working on it.

This has gone on for a while, so I am not expecting a quick fix, but in the meantime you can access the Bilbao web site directly and bring the information manually back into the GSAS-II GUI. For magnetic work, note the discussion in #294.

[c-tam]

Thanks @briantoby for pointing me to that information, and apologies for bringing it up again. Hope a fix comes soon!

[briantoby]

Let's leave this open until fixed, in case anyone else is having the same problem

[conglis]

It's reassuring to hear that this is an issue other people have noticed. I've been checking GSAS2 every few days since mid-January and it appears to still be an issue. Thanks @briantoby for giving a fix for magnetic structure refinement in the mean time.

[briantoby]

I am planning to spend much of today working on this issue, so here is a short status report for those who are following this.

This ultimate process for this is going to require that people who want to use the Billbao web server (aka Bilbao Crystallographic Server, BCS) via software (rather than using the web pages directly from a browser) will need to register and get a unique key from them. The registration mechanism is not yet completed on the BCS end. Also, the routines in GSAS-II that access their server need to be revised to use that key, The routines that create direct requests to their server now work (they gave me a key for testing), but there are also routines that need to take the results from their server and form a new request and those need to be reworked. I have not figured out how I want to do this, yet.

Also, to be done is writing a routine that lets users know that they need to register if a BCS key is not already saved and simplify as much as possible the process of getting the BCS key saved into GSAS-II. I'll work on that once I see the process that they set up for getting a key.

I don't think we will see this all working this week, but there is some hope for next week. Much credit is due to @emresururi who is doing the work in the BCS side. In the end, my hope is that we will end up with a Python software module that will help other codes interface with BCS as well.