Upgrades Overwriting Custom Changes

[jimnull]

I've searched the forum and could not find a response so hoping someone may help. We're new - just starting - using OJS. We're wanting to make some changes on some of the pages, such as adding boxes around some text, changing wording of some text, etc. Changes that aren't done in css pages but on the actual pages - we think.

Our questions is, before we make our changes, will these changes be overwritten when new version upgrades of OJS are installed?

Thank you!

[asmecher]

Hi jimnull,

There are several upgrade procedures, all documented in docs/UPGRADE. Some of these are better than others at preserving alterations.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[jimnull]

By docs/upgrades ... are you meaning a topic here in the forum or else where?

[asmecher]

Hi jimnull,

It's a document inside the download package -- also available here.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[michael]

Hi jimnull,

To add to Alec's suggestions: for customizations of default text provided by OJS, try using the Custom Locale plugin (available under Generic plugins under System Plugins). It will allow you to change the default OJS text without needing to change any templates or source code and the changes will persist across OJS upgrades.

If you still need to modify templates or source code, use the diff and patch tools to capture your changes -- provided that your changes are not overly complex, you should be able to upgrade OJS and then apply your custom patches with each new release of OJS.

Cheers,
Michael

[jimnull]

Thank you ... I have that enabled now and we'll see how goes.