Reviewer login error, OJS 3.3.0.13

Greetings (my apologies if I missed a related posting!): one of the journals using our OJS platform is having a problem with reviewer profiles. They can log in via the OJS main site, but not through the journal’s login link. Upon logging in via the journal link (as reviewer), I see a blank screen on the https://…/submissions page, which is the default. I realized that I can use the back arrow twice to view my profile, but when I click on the ← Submissions link, the screen is blank again. The host has done some troubleshooting and received a HTTP Error 500. One of our editors got a blank screen with the "HTTP Error 500: This page isn’t working right now, openjournals.utoledo.edu can’t currently handle this request. The strange thing is that profiles without the reviewer role can log in at the journal site. Upon reporting this and a related issue, the host’s tech team share this message with me:

PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to a member function getFullName() on null in /home/…/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/submission/reviewAssignment/ReviewAssignmentDAO.inc.php:453.

Line 453 in that file has the following code: $reviewAssignment->setId((int) $row[‘review_id’]);

In a recent (failed) attempt to upgrade from 3.3.0.13 to 3.4.0.3, the host has updated our PHP from 7.4 to 8.0 or (8.2) and the database server was also upgraded. I must wonder if the PHP script is failing to connect the code with the database table (review_ID).

I have access to the cPanel and within that to the database via phpmyadmin. How can I identify reviewers by review ID? Can it be that reviewers who have not done any previous reviews (therefore they would have no review ID) are having login issues through the journal’s login link? Could this also be a plugin issue? Thank you for any suggestions or pointers in advance!

–Arjun Sabharwal @asabhar

Hi @asabhar,

I suspect you are running into this problem, where you have review assignments that are assigned to non-existent users. Have a look at that thread for more information.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Thanks @asmecher ! I have seen this problem with my login using my reviewer profile. I have not done any reviews but use that profile to troubleshoot issues for other users. I was thinking along similar lines, but in my case or those who are new reviewers without any assignments yet, there is no review assignment. In these cases the journal takes you to a blank /submissions page. Usually, editors only assign manuscripts to existing users, so I will look at the SQL query line and see what that turns up. Best! – Arjun @asabhar

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Hi Alec, I have read your messages in Submissions dashboard not loading - #6 by ACastelletto (December 2019), and I have been looking more into our issue. Similarly, Our host has also migrated from one CentOS to AlmaLinux, which coincides with the problems we are having after the first attempt to upgrade to 3.4.0.3. When it failed, they have restored the 3.3.0.13 version of the OJS, so could some files or user data be corrupted in the process?

In our case, only one journal is exhibiting this issues and only for a few users thus far, and they are not all reviewers (two are editors). While I could not log into one journal using my reviewer profile, I could into other journals. One of my editors decided to turn off the one-click review link, and that seems to have solved it for those reviewers.

I have tried to read through the apache error log, but those are really not that helpful. Nobody has assigned me any reviews, but I still see that error. I looked in the database (phpmyadmin) in case there are orphaned review assignment records, but I do not see the user ID in those rows. The users table does not show review assignments. Any suggerstions to troubleshoot further? Thank you!

Arjun

Hi @asabhar,

When [the upgrade] failed, they have restored the 3.3.0.13 version of the OJS, so could some files or user data be corrupted in the process?

If they restored your system from backup after the failed upgrade, you should be fine.

I have tried to read through the apache error log, but those are really not that helpful.

It’s best to look at the log immediately after you encounter a problem, to be sure that the message corresponds to the problem you experience. Otherwise it’s easy to get lost in irrelevant messages/warnings.

In our case, only one journal is exhibiting this issues and only for a few users thus far…

Did you get any results for the query I posted above?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Hi Alec, Unfortunately, our host is unable to assist us further, so we will have to wait until we find a developer to investigate it for us. I am sensing that that this is related to some recent assignments, but I wasn’t assigned a review–still, my reviewer profile cannot access the journal. I also do not have access to the Apache logs since I am not managing the server. Sometimes, I do not get an email from users experiencing these issues, so going immediately to the log may not help. Doing so would need the time stamp, IP address of the user.

Best regards, – Arjun