Merged accounts - data lost

I merged my layout editor’s accounts and unfortunately all the manuscripts assigned to her are not on the merged account. Also as a journal manager, I am unable to assign a new layout editor to those manuscripts. What do I do to fix it?

Hi @Robyn,

Which application are you using, and what version? (Please include this information in your posts.)

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

I am using OJS V2.8 and this is where I experienced the problem.

Hi @Robyn,

Double-check your version – there is no such thing as OJS V2.8.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Perhaps you could explain to me how to see which version I am using.

Kind regards
Mrs Robyn Marais
Journal Manager

T: 012 807 5440
C: 083 459 5580
F: 086 691 0918
E: robyn@jesser-point.co.za

Hi @Robyn,

See the FAQ: How do I determine my PKP software's version?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Hi Alec

I tried to run php tools/upgrade.php check to get a version but the message I get is as follows:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.15063]
(c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Robin laptop>php tools/upgrade.php check
‘php’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Users\Robin laptop>

Just to give background - I am a journal manager on the website not a site administrator. The IT company that host the journal do not have time to help me so I am trying to figure this out myself. I have NO coding background or knowledge.

I suspect that the version is 2 or older.

Our layout editor has been with us for about 2 years. Her email address always gives an error message when emails are sent from the website. The email address is valid as it works from Outlook and other journals not liked to this one. I created another profile for her to see if that would rectify the problem but it has not solved the problem. When I merged the 2 profiles, all the articles assigned to her were not carried over and when I try to assign another layout editor I am unable to do so. The editor page ends at the title “Layout” editor with no option to assign a layout editor or a proofreader.

I have tried to search the FAQs and the forums but I am at a loss as to how to fix this or what to do.

Hi @Robyn,

Are you running this command on your local (laptop) machine? You’ll need to run that on your server, the machine that runs OJS.

It’s common that journals operate without a lot of technical resources, so I feel your pain – but I’m afraid that running a website is going to require some amount of web administration expertise. You might consider finding a service provider that’s able to offer a higher level of OJS hosting, if your current provider isn’t interested in helping.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Thanks Alec.

Kind regards
Mrs Robyn Marais
Journal Manager

T: 012 807 5440
C: 083 459 5580
F: 086 691 0918
E: robyn@jesser-point.co.za

Hi Alec

So it seems that we are using V2.8? Are you perhaps able to suggest why the data was lost when I merged the layout editor’s account and how I can re-assign the layout editor?

image

Hi @Robyn, you can see the version here: About this Publishing System | South African Journal of Surgery

It is 2.4.6.0

Hi @Robyn,

When a page ends suddenly, it’s likely that a PHP error occurred. You can find out more about the problem by looking in the log file on the server – it’s usually a file called error.log or error_log. Can you check for an error log and see if anything relevant appears with the same date/timestamp as the broken page was fetched?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Hi Alex

The error is as follows:

[Mon Aug 14 11:40:48.535203 2017] [:error] [pid 45890] [client 105.226.184.73:52515] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getFullName() on null in /var/www/sajs.redbricklibrary.com/public_html/cache/t_compile/%%B7^B7A^B7A14946%%layout.tpl.php on line 19, referer: http://sajs.redbricklibrary.com/index.php/sajs/editor/submissions/submissionsInEditing

Can this be fixed?

Hi @Robyn,

Can you run the following query in your MySQL database?

SELECT s.symbolic, s.assoc_type, s.assoc_id, s.user_id FROM signoffs s LEFT JOIN users u ON (s.user_id = u.user_id) WHERE s.user_id IS NOT NULL AND u.user_id IS NULL AND s.user_id <> 0;

If this results in any rows, those rows will need to be corrected – they’re cases where assignments are made to users who don’t exist. I suspect that’ll include your situation.

It’s likely that upgrading to a more recent release of OJS would have prevented this from happening, but once there’s a data error in place, you’ll need to correct it manually either way.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Hi @asmecher

Im working with @Robyn on this. I ran the query on the DB and got 224 rows back. You mentioned that these rows would need to be corrected first. How do I go about doing this ?

An example of what the results look like
image

Regards
Nardus

Hi @Nardusg,

It looks like user 2322 no longer exists in the users table. I’d suggest reassigning all their assignments to someone else. You can find a user ID by executing…

SELECT user_id FROM users WHERE username='myUsernameHere';

(with myUsernameHere replaced by the username you wish to look up.)

Then, reassign those assignments to that user by executing…

UPDATE signoffs SET user_id = 1234 WHERE user_id = 2322;

…where 1234 is the username of the new user to receive the assignments, and 2322 is the old user ID (the one we identified earlier is problematic).

Be sure to make a database backup before manipulating the database manually.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team