Very recently, I have started to work with the OJS platform, and one of my first
tasks is to migrate an existing journal to the OJS platform. In this
context, I want to transfer all previous volumes to the OJS platform. This
works well using the XML Plugin for importing DTD files, which I am creating
with Python scripts.
The problem starts when I have to re-upload issues, due to changes in the
metadata or other changes, or due to an error in the DTD files. Although I
can do this manually, the deletion of every article takes multiple steps,
which adds up when I have to delete a large number of articles. I have found
several inquiries in the Public Knowledge Project Support Forum, some dating back as far as 2009 (for example,
https://pkp.sfu.ca/support/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7171,
https://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3914,
https://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4865),
but it does not appear that a working solution has been put forward.
The best proposal I have found is Michael Nason’s (see
https://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4865) who suggests:
“There’s probably a number of ways to solve this: 1) The ability for a
system admin or journal manager to blow away an issue entirely (perhaps
automatically archiving the articles therein?) 2) an element in native.dtd
that denotes an issue overwrite for quick replacement of HTML/PDF/Metadata
without any deletion to begin with. 3) A system admin or journal manager
function to purge unassigned articles (this probably has limited use for most
single journals, but would be handy at the aggrigating-level).”
One of these solutions would suit me fine, but I have not found any hint that any of them has been implemented.
What do the experienced users suggest I do?