Sections of Journal LOOK Setup page missing

I was running ojs 2.4.7 with the uncommon theme on my localhost and everything seemed pretty awesome so i decided to go live. I purchased a host and domain service from HostMetro about a week ago and migrated my setup to their server to get things running.

I have done all the necessary configurations to get things running but noticed some issues on the Journal LOOK setup Page. I am unable to access the Journal Layout section and everything from that section down to the bottom.

I have attached screenshots to clarify the fault. The first screenshot is what the website Journal Look setup page looks like on hostmetro server. The subsequent screenshots are what is missing on the live website but displayed on the same site on my local host.

I highlighted this issue to hostmetro and was told its not a server side issue but could very likely be a database/file issue. I was also asked to check all plugin settings on the server and make sure they match with that on the localhost set up. I believe they do because i have not made any amendments to the plugins since I migrated.

I will gladly appreciate every help to narrow down the possible cause for the issue and how to rectify it. I could not find any topic in the forum that mentioned such fault or perhaps i didnt have the right key words to search.

Hi @SelasePKP,

Have you checked your server’s PHP error log to see if there are details there?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Yes I did, and only found the following likely culprits. I’m however not sure what to make of it.

================
[10-Apr-2016 22:39:47 UTC] NOTICE: Constant BASE_URL already defined (/home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/blocks/rss/RssPlugin.inc.php:5)
[10-Apr-2016 22:39:52 UTC] NOTICE: A session had already been started - ignoring session_start() (/home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/blocks/twitter/TwitterPlugin.inc.php:5)
[10-Apr-2016 22:39:52 UTC] NOTICE: A session had already been started - ignoring session_start() (/home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/blocks/facebook/FacebookPlugin.inc.php:6)
[10-Apr-2016 22:39:52 UTC] NOTICE: Constant BASE_URL already defined (/home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/blocks/rss/RssPlugin.inc.php:5)
[10-Apr-2016 23:38:04 UTC] NOTICE: A session had already been started - ignoring session_start() (/home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/blocks/facebook/FacebookPlugin.inc.php:6)
[10-Apr-2016 23:38:04 UTC] NOTICE: Constant BASE_URL already defined (/home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/blocks/rss/RssPlugin.inc.php:5)

The data was retrieved by the support from HostMetro which is my web-host service providers.
They suspect the issue is with the above mentioned plugins. I have doubts because the same plugins run very well while and even now as my site is hosted on localhost. I may have to delete the plugin folders if need be but I will only do so as per your advice.

Thank You.

I suspect the (relatively old) “Social Media” plugins are not compatible with the latest releases of OJS. See also:

There is probably another line from the error log which references a “PHP Fatal” error, which would indicate the real culprit.

Thanks for responding Clinton. I came across the post you mentioned above and that is precisely the plugin i have on my OJS site in a custom block. I suppose I will have to disable the plugin or most likely delete it to find out if that fixes the issue. Will revert with the results. In the mean time, do you have any suggestions for social media plugins that will work well with the current OJS versions? preferably 2.4.6 and above?.

I’m not directly familiar with the social media plugins, but it sounds from the old forum that they might be able to be replaced by simple Custom Blocks or via the existing External Feeds plugin.

I just removed the plugins for all the social media and the same issue persist. I doubt the cause may be from the plugin. any other suggestions to consider @ctgraham ?

Check for the “PHP Fatal” error in your error log. This will point to the source.

I found this in my logs and it mentions some files do not exist.

[Tue Apr 12 08:56:11 2016] [error] [client 41.204.44.123] File does not exist: /home/ijmasrco/public_html/404.shtml, referer: http://ijmasr.com/index.php/IJMASR/manager/setup/5
[Tue Apr 12 08:56:11 2016] [error] [client 41.204.44.123] File does not exist: /home/ijmasrco/public_html/ojs-2.4.8/public, referer: http://ijmasr.com/index.php/IJMASR/manager/setup/5

where could they have gone? what directory should they be in? cant be permission related could it? or database perhaps?

This is probably a broken include from an image or CSS or other HTML reference. It is almost certainly not the fatal error you are looking for. To find the particular reference, you could open your browser’s “Inspector” tool (press F12) when you have the Setup Step 5 page open, activate the “Network” tab, and then reload the page. These should show up as 404 errors among the requests.

Keep looking in the error log for a PHP fatal error, however.

Hi Clinton, this is what i could find.
I initially found so many fatal errors regarding the earlier mentioned plugins so i deleted the plugins completely and that was it for them. Recent logs shows the following fatal errors.

[12-Apr-2016 14:48:54 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getId() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/classes/submission/sectionEditor/SectionEditorAction.inc.php on line 1241
[12-Apr-2016 14:49:19 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getId() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/classes/submission/sectionEditor/SectionEditorAction.inc.php on line 1241
[12-Apr-2016 14:49:39 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getId() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/classes/submission/sectionEditor/SectionEditorAction.inc.php on line 1241
[12-Apr-2016 14:49:46 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getId() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/classes/submission/sectionEditor/SectionEditorAction.inc.php on line 1241
[12-Apr-2016 14:50:06 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getId() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/classes/submission/sectionEditor/SectionEditorAction.inc.php on line 1241
[12-Apr-2016 14:53:03 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getId() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/classes/submission/sectionEditor/SectionEditorAction.inc.php on line 1241
[12-Apr-2016 14:53:37 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getId() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/classes/submission/sectionEditor/SectionEditorAction.inc.php on line 1241
[12-Apr-2016 14:55:13 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getId() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/classes/submission/sectionEditor/SectionEditorAction.inc.php on line 1241
[12-Apr-2016 16:27:37 UTC] ojs2 has produced an error

Any clue what could be the cause and how to fix it?

If you are still seeing the truncated page (or a blank white page) anywhere, in config.inc.php, turn on the show_stacktrace option:

Then, navigate to the broken page again. The log will then contain new information to show the source of the problem.

HI Clinton,

Thanks very much. The functions and settings for the Journal Look setup page now displays correctly and no longer brings up the earlier reported issue. I can confidently say the social media plugin I installed was the root cause.

I will however note your recent instructions as i can see a new set of fatal errors about the usage stats plugin as seen below. I will turn on stark-trace to narrow it down and revert should I need further help.

[13-Apr-2016 16:40:11 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getRequest() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/generic/usageStats/UsageStatsPlugin.inc.php on line 223
[13-Apr-2016 16:40:14 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getRequest() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/generic/usageStats/UsageStatsPlugin.inc.php on line 223
[13-Apr-2016 16:40:23 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getRequest() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/generic/usageStats/UsageStatsPlugin.inc.php on line 223
[13-Apr-2016 16:40:55 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getRequest() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/generic/usageStats/UsageStatsPlugin.inc.php on line 223
[13-Apr-2016 16:41:07 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getRequest() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/generic/usageStats/UsageStatsPlugin.inc.php on line 223
[13-Apr-2016 16:43:09 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getRequest() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/generic/usageStats/UsageStatsPlugin.inc.php on line 223
[13-Apr-2016 18:11:49 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getRequest() on a non-object in /home/ijmasrco/public_html/plugins/generic/usageStats/UsageStatsPlugin.inc.php on line 223

I am eternally grateful for your support and help. Thank you very much.

This (PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getRequest() in UsageStatsPlugin.inc.php on line 223) is a known issue in 2.4.7, and is fixed in 2.4.8.