Error loading modules tab – “Node cannot be null or undefined” (TinyMCE) and 500 Server Error

Software Support
1

I’m experiencing a persistent issue while trying to access the “Modules” tab in the website settings of our OJS installation. The interface gets stuck on “Loading” and fails to display the installed modules or module gallery.

After inspecting the console in the browser’s developer tools, I observed the following:

  • A 500 server error when trying to load a resource.
  • A JavaScript error from TinyMCE:

You can see screenshots of the interface and console here:

  1. The “Modules” tab stuck on loading.
  2. Console showing the 500 error and TinyMCE-related issue.

I would appreciate any guidance on how to resolve this—could this be a misconfiguration, a plugin error, or something related to TinyMCE?

ojs-1
ojs-11599×899 209 KB

ojs-2
ojs-2915×1600 430 KB

2

I found another post here Installed modules in OJS 3.1.1.2 don't display reporting the same error message but in my case I am currently using OJS 3.3.0.15 over PHP 7.4.33

3

Hi @virtual-orbis,

Are you able to get your PHP error log messages? Those often provide more clues than do Console logs.

-Roger
PKP Team

5

Apparently the php-error.log file only has records of SQL queries.
Could it be that I need to make some changes to the config.inc.pe file?

6

Hi @virtual-orbis,

If you have debug set to On in config.inc.php, then all your SQL queries will be logged, which can easily swamp any useful messages with noise. Turn that setting off, then trigger the error again and check your log.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

7

Do you think this may be causing the problem?

[06-May-2025 21:57:05 UTC] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Call to a member function getCurrent() on null in /var/www/8a152391-1500-44f6-8b96-83b99c8204a6/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/site/VersionDAO.inc.php:103
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/8a152391-1500-44f6-8b96-83b99c8204a6/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/controllers/grid/plugins/PluginGridHandler.inc.php(184): VersionDAO->insertVersion(NULL, true)
#1 /var/www/8a152391-1500-44f6-8b96-83b99c8204a6/public_html/controllers/grid/settings/plugins/SettingsPluginGridHandler.inc.php(36): PluginGridHandler->loadCategoryData(Object(Request), 'generic', Array)
#2 /var/www/8a152391-1500-44f6-8b96-83b99c8204a6/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/controllers/grid/CategoryGridHandler.inc.php(124): SettingsPluginGridHandler->loadCategoryData(Object(Request), 'generic', Array)
#3 /var/www/8a152391-1500-44f6-8b96-83b99c8204a6/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/controllers/grid/CategoryGridHandler.inc.php(473): CategoryGridHandler->getGridCategoryDataElements(Object(Request), 'generic')
#4 /var/www/8a152391-1500-44f6-8b96-83b99c8204a6/publi in /var/www/8a152391-1500-44f6-8b96-83b99c8204a6/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/site/VersionDAO.inc.php on line 103
8

I found this other error message but after correcting the name the problem remains

[06-May-2025 21:37:24 UTC] PHP Warning:  require_once(OJSDynamicStatsPlugin.inc.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/8a152391-1500-44f6-8b96-83b99c8204a6/public_html/plugins/generic/ojsDynamicStats/index.php on line 11
[06-May-2025 21:37:24 UTC] PHP Fatal error:  require_once(): Failed opening required 'OJSDynamicStatsPlugin.inc.php' (include_path='.:/opt/ecp-php74/lib/php') in /var/www/8a152391-1500-44f6-8b96-83b99c8204a6/public_html/plugins/generic/ojsDynamicStats/index.php on line 11
9

Hi @virtual-orbis,

At least one of those messages is related to a 3rd party plugin (OJSDynamicStatsPlugin) that may be missing pieces or broken. I would suggest moving it temporarily outside of plugins/generic to see if that fixes the issue. If it does, contact the maintainer of the plugin for help.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

10

Deleting the “OJSDynamicStats” folder solved the problem

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