What is Google's jsapi used for in OJS?

ojsbsb · November 13, 2015, 6:05pm

For a journal website, we would like to replace all external dependencies with local copies, so that no external URLs resources are loaded. This is for privacy reasons, as loading external resources allows external tracking, at least up to a certain degree.

When checking on a clean fresh install of OJS 2.4.7.1, I see the following external HTTP calls:

If I am correct, those two can also be downloaded directly from Releases · jquery/jquery · GitHub and Releases · jquery/jquery-ui · GitHub, other than using Google’s CDN service.

GET https://www.google.com/jsapi

For that one, I am not sure: Apparently, that code is not supposed to be downloaded ( Frequently Asked Questions | Charts | Google Developers ) as it is part of other Google services.
May I ask what jsapi is used for in OJS, and what functions could stop working when cutting off OJS access to Google’s servers?

ctgraham · November 13, 2015, 6:18pm

This doesn’t answer your particular jsapi question, but regarding your general question, have you considered the enable_cdn option in config.inc.php?

github.com

pkp/ojs/blob/ojs-dev-2_4/config.TEMPLATE.inc.php#L99


; rewrite directive to be enabled in your .htaccess or httpd.conf.
; See FAQ for more details.
restful_urls = Off

; Allow the X_FORWARDED_FOR header to override the REMOTE_ADDR as the source IP
; Set this to "On" if you are behind a reverse proxy and you control the X_FORWARDED_FOR
; Warning: This defaults to "On" if unset for backwards compatibility.
trust_x_forwarded_for = Off

; Allow javascript files to be served through a content delivery network (set to off to use local files)
enable_cdn = On

; Set the maximum number of citation checking processes that may run in parallel.
; Too high a value can increase server load and lead to too many parallel outgoing
; requests to citation checking web services. Too low a value can lead to significantly
; slower citation checking performance. A reasonable value is probably between 3
; and 10. The more your connection bandwidth allows the better.
citation_checking_max_processes = 3

; Display a message on the site admin and journal manager user home pages if there is an upgrade available
show_upgrade_warning = On

ojsbsb · November 13, 2015, 6:38pm

Yes @ctgraham, we will use either that or try to configure a custom cdn, as this OJS will be integrated with other services through JavaScript. Thanks!

What I meant to ask is that jquery and jquery-ui are pieces of software that can be downloaded, while the call to jsapi returns an individual response that even contains geolocation data (google.loader.ClientLocation = {"latitude":xx.xx,"longitude":xx.xx,"address":{"city":xx...}} ).

Jsapi seems like a gateway to external services, and I’m only curious what it is used for.

ctgraham · November 13, 2015, 7:07pm

I do not know for certain, but I suspect the jsapi call is simply used to load the jQuery libraries via Google’s CDN. If I turn off enable_cdn in my dev 2.4.7 install, I no longer see the jsapi call on the homepage.

abraham.john · November 13, 2015, 8:53pm

@ojsbsb
I am not giving you any technical answer but as long as I am understanding your question you want to save these files to your server location and want to fetch them from your server.
If it is the case than take care of these two scenarios.

please go through the licence “License | jQuery Foundation” is it allowing you to reside this file to your server, If yes than is it allowing you to keep the codes as it is or you can edit it. (In other words matter is related to copyright or not).
Second is that I have read some where that fetching these files from their location (remote location) improves the speed of your page load instead of fetching them(ex. .min.js files) from your server. (Though the time difference may differ in micro or milli seconds but still they are countable. You too can check the difference on your browser’s “developer Tools” option )
Technically it decreases latency, gives increased parallelism and better caching.

xiongfeiyan · March 24, 2020, 2:02am

Hi, @ctgraham, I only have turn off enable_cdn in config.php.inc, but my system have run for two years, I am not sure this change whether affect it, what do you think of it?

ctgraham · March 24, 2020, 6:07pm

The enable_cdn setting, when “On”, allows common javascript files to be served from their own sites, rather than from OJS. With enable_cdn “Off”, each of these javascript files is served from a local copy in OJS itself. OJS should function with either setting, unless your user’s internet provider is blocking certain CDNs.

xiongfeiyan · April 21, 2020, 10:19am

Thanks for your reply, I think I get it.