OJS upgrade error 3.3.0-13 to 3.3.0-21

[Ptran]

Describe the issue or problem
I get an error when trying to upgrade from 3.3.0-13 to 3.3.0-21.
I am running PHP 8.0.30.

Steps I took leading up to the issue

1. Go to the main page to log in. And I got the errors.

What application are you using?
OJS 3.3.0-21

Additional information
It shows me these errors:

[11-Jul-2025 08:28:05 America/Winnipeg] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot access offset of type string on string in
/var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/core/DataObject.inc.php:133
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/SchemaDAO.inc.php(249): DataObject->setData()
#1 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/submission/PKPAuthorDAO.inc.php(134): SchemaDAO->_fromRow()
#2 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/DAOResultFactory.inc.php(100): PKPAuthorDAO->_fromRow()
#3 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/DAOResultIterator.inc.php(33): DAOResultFactory->next()
#4 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/DAOResultFactory.inc.php(182): DAOResultIterator->__construct()
#5 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/services/PKPAuthorService.inc.php(69): DAOResultFactory->toIterator()
#6 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/publication/PKPPublicationDAO.inc.php(62): PKP\Services\PKPAuthorService->getMany()
#7 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/classes/publication/PublicationDAO.inc.php(39): PKPPublicationDAO->_fromRow()
#8 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/DAOResultFactory.inc.php(100): PublicationDAO->_fromRow()
#9 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/DAOResultIterator.inc.php(33): DAOResultFactory->next()
#10 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/DAOResultFactory.inc.php(182): DAOResultIterator->__construct()
#11 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/services/PKPPublicationService.inc.php(80): DAOResultFactory->toIterator()
#12 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/submission/PKPSubmissionDAO.inc.php(93): PKP\Services\PKPPublicationService->getMany
()
#13 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/DAOResultFactory.inc.php(100): PKPSubmissionDAO->_fromRow()
#14 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/DAOResultIterator.inc.php(33): DAOResultFactory->next()
#15 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/db/DAOResultFactory.inc.php(182): DAOResultIterator->__construct()
#16 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/services/PKPSubmissionService.inc.php(108): DAOResultFactory->toIterator()
#17 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/pages/issue/IssueHandler.inc.php(323): PKP\Services\PKPSubmissionService->getMany()
#18 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/pages/issue/IssueHandler.inc.php(104): IssueHandler::_setupIssueTemplate()
#19 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/core/PKPRouter.inc.php(397): IssueHandler->view()
#20 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/core/PKPPageRouter.inc.php(246): PKPRouter->_authorizeInitializeAndCallRequest()
#21 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/core/Dispatcher.inc.php(144): PKPPageRouter->route()
#22 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/core/PKPApplication.inc.php(360): Dispatcher->dispatch()
#23 /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/index.php(68): PKPApplication->execute()
#24 {main}
thrown in /var/www/ccl-3.3.0-21/lib/pkp/classes/core/DataObject.inc.php on line 133

Please help!
thanks

[Ptran]

Hello @rcgillis,

Would you be able to give me some help with troubleshooting this issue? Thanks so much.

[asmecher]

Hi @Ptran,

You probably have some bad data in your database. Try the following SQL query:

SELECT a.setting_name
FROM author_settings a
JOIN author_settings b ON (a.setting_name = b.setting_name)
WHERE (a.locale IS NOT NULL AND a.locale <> '')
AND (b.locale IS NULL OR b.locale = '');

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[Ptran]

Hello Asmecher,

I ran your query and obtained the output. Please see the result below:

It looks like there’s a lot of empty data under “biography”

[asmecher]

Hi @Ptran,

The biography setting is localized, meaning it can be entered in multiple languages. All entries in the author_settings table with setting_name=’biography' should have something in the locale column.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[Ptran]

Hi Asmecher,

I listed all the columns under author_settings. Could ‘en_US’ be added as the value for locale?

thanks

-PT

[asmecher]

Hi @Ptran,

For entries with setting_name=’country’, the locale column should be empty. Not all settings are localized, and locale should only be filled in for those that are.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[Ptran]

Hello Asmecher,

If I understood you correctly, only entries with setting_name = ‘biography’ that have an empty locale can be filled with ‘en_US’

I came up with this query to search for all the rows where setting_name is ‘biography’ and the locale value is empty.

As a result, are those the entries that need to be filled by the query below? Please let me know if my query is correct?

UPDATE ccl SET locale = ‘en_US’ WHERE setting_name = ‘biography’ AND locale IS NULL OR locale = ‘ ‘;

Thanks

-PT

[asmecher]

Hi @Ptran,

Yes, that query looks correct to me. If you run into duplicates – e.g. cases where there is a biography entry for a given author_id with locale = 'en_US' and another with locale = '' – you may need to resolve them before the query will work.

As always, make sure to take a good backup before modifying the database directly!

Thanks,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[Ptran]

Hi Asmecher,

I found out that it has many duplicate entries, as you mentioned. I was able to resolve the issue by deleting the duplicate entries. Thanks so much for all your help!

DELETE FROM author_settings
WHERE setting_name = ‘biography’ AND locale = ‘ ’
AND author_id IN (
SELECT author_id
FROM author_settings
WHERE setting_name = ‘biography’ AND locale = ‘en_US’
);