Setting up OJS(Open Journal Systems) on Ubuntu 18.04

1: Download

PKP(public knowledge project) offers an official link to download (opens new window) OJS. In this case, we are going to install OJS3.1.2-1. Then you can use Archive Manager to decompress and extract the files to the directory you want.

2: Installation

The OJS requires:

• PHP >= 7.0
• MySQL >= 4.1 or PostgreSQL >= 9.1.5
• Apache >= 1.3.2x or >= 2.0.4x or Microsoft IIS 6

In this case, I am using

PHP 7.2.24-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 (cli) (built: Oct 28 2019 12:07:07) ( NTS )
mysql  Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.28, for Linux (x86_64) using  EditLine wrapper
Apache/2.4.29 (Ubuntu)

1. creating a folder to store the OJS uploaded files. In this step, It is recommended that this directory be placed in a non-web-accessible location.

2. use chmod to set these files writeable:

   • config.inc.php (optional -- if not writable you will be prompted to manually overwrite this file during installation)
   • public
   • cache
   • [the file you just created]

   If you want to know more about chmod, run man chomod to read the guide. chmod 777 is NOT recommended in this step!

3. move the folder to your web server working space and open your terminal and make sure the working directory is OJS directory. Then run command php tools/install.php to install it. During this step, just type the informations from console. If you want to change them after installation, you could directly edit the file config.inc.php to change or set additional configuration settings.

4. install or update the dependencies by running command

   npm install
   npm run build
   

5. run the server as localhost:

   php -S localhost:8000

6. Then you can access it using your browser by accessing this address: http://localhost:8000

Run OJS with public IP

To run OJS with public IP, you need to install OJS to apache2 folder and configure it. How to configure apache2 with OJS?

3: Problems I've met

• [Solved] [SMTP mail setting] After I set up SMTP mail configuration, and when a user done a submission, the server notify "There was a problem sending an email message.". And I checked the terminal, it shows "Invalid address: (From): root@localhost". And the same time, I got email notifying me a unsafe log in was denied.
  • For Gmail, just turn on "Allow less secure apps" from here (opens new window).

Due to ( it's not safety because we directly store email account information into a text file), we are going to use local mail server. In this case, I am using Postfix (opens new window) as my mail server. Check here to see how to set up.

• [Solved] [PHP mail() setting] According to we are using mail() to send mails so we just comment the smtp commands, and remove account informations for safety. However, in this case, I still got the notification that telling me the email cannot be sent after a submission. I've checked the log of Ubuntu mail server and php mail log. There are no any error informations.

  • I've checked the PKP Community Forum (opens new window) and got answer that set allow_envelope_sender force_default_envelope_sender and force_dmarc_compliant_from On and uncomment. However, It doesn't work for me.

  • I've checked the php function mail(), and add -f after sendmail setting in file php.ini, this command set the envelope sender address.

    Tips

    When using -f after sendmail_path in php.ini, the mail() function will use the parameter after -f as sender email, or else, it will use $additional_parameters to send mail.

    Then I could get email but the server still notifies user that there was a problem sending an email message.

  • [Solution] Then I've checked the PHP Documentation - mail() (opens new window) again. and finally, I found the mail() function doesn't support capital characters in a email address. However, it support a email address with special punctuation symbols like - . So an email lie Example@domain.com doesn't work, but example-two@domain.com is a valid email address for this function. But by default. the default_envelope_sender has capital characters. The OJS mail system works perfectly after I change it to valid email address.

• [Solved] [PHP Fatal errors] It's not efficient if you only install PHP. Other than that, you need to install php-xml, php-mysql(If you are going to use MySQL) and php-mbstring.

  • [Solution] You could use command sudo apt install php-mbstring php-xml php-mysql on debain based system.

• [Solved] [Cannot log in database(MySQL)] If you are going to use MySQL 8.0+ you need to set MySQL to use MySQL native password to login.

  • [Solution] using root member to log in your database and type 'ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'password';

REFERENCES

• PKP Community Forum (opens new window)

• PHP Documentation - mail() (opens new window)

• Postfix Documentation (opens new window)

• Set Up a Mail Server on Ubuntu 18.04 (opens new window)