Are there any tools for batch processing of abstracts?

[javlop]

Hi,

Are there any tools or plug-ins for batch processing of abstracts (e.g. accepting, rejecting, etc), author notifications or assigning multiple abstracts to a single reviewer?

OCS has been of great help in organizing our annual conferences, but having over 2000 abstract submissions, the processing tasks for Track Directors become quite tedious and time consuming. Batch processing tools would save a lot of time.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Javier Lopez
IAMCR-OCS.org

[jmacgreg]

Hi Javier,

There aren't currently any abstract batch-processing tools, unfortunately. Do you have any development resources on staff? If so, we can suggest some possibilities if you would like to investigate developing these tools yourself. If there's enough community interest in developing such tools, we could also look into adding them to OCS.

Cheers,
James

[javlop]

Hi James,

Thanks for your reply. We are really interested in developing a batch-processing functionality. We might be able to put some work on this. Any suggesttions on how to do this? Would a plug-in solution work?

Where could we find some documentation for plug-in development?

We would appretiate any suggestions or comments.

Best,

Javier

[jmacgreg]

Hi Javier,

Regarding documentation -- you may find both the Technical Reference and the API Reference listed here to be of use, although both are somewhat out of date (the former much more so than the latter). There's also a tutorial on writing a block plugin here, which may be of use even if it doesn't address your problem specifically.

Otherwise, your best bet would probably be to just start tinkering with the code, searching for similar threads on the forum, and asking us questions when you have the need. I'll ask one of the developers to suggest whether a plugin approach is feasible and to give some general comments. We're happy to help you through this.

Cheers,
James

[javlop]

Dear James,

Thanks for your response. Would it be possible to call you? If so, please, send me your number, and the best time to phone you, to javier@iamcr.org and I, or a colleague who is collaborating in this project, will call you.

Additionally, we've noticed that setting up a forum user from a dynamic IP address in Uruguay is not allowed since Uruguayan IP addresses are included in a spam list. Could this be fixed?

Thanks in advance,
Javier

[jmacgreg]

Hi Javier,

We actually don't typically take calls unless there is some sort of development partnership/agreement in place, but we're more than happy to take any sort of questions over the forum -- please ask away!

Regarding the user having difficulty getting past our spam filters -- have them send an email to jmacgreg at gmail dot com, and I will register them.

Cheers,
James

[javlop]

Would it be possible, by using plugins to:

1. Add/edit html elements in some pages?
2. Modify SQL queries?
3. Create new pages or sections?
4. Create new fields in a table or use some methods of data storage?

cheers,
Javier.-

[jmacgreg]

Hi Javier,

Point 1: You can do this by editing template files manually, or optionally by creating a plugin to display content wherever a given hook has been registered in the template code. More information on the plugin infrastructure can be found here: http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/docs/technicalref ... ugins.html and here: http://pkp.sfu.ca/wiki/index.php/Writing_a_Block_Plugin (the latter being more up-to-date -- see specifically steps 7 and 8 of that tutorial, which need to be followed for any plugin you write).

Point 2: Probably not -- but could you clarify what you want to do?

Point 3: You can use the Custom Block plugin and Static Pages plugin to create custom blocks and unique pages, respectively -- you'll find a fair amount of information about these on the forum and here: http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/docs/userguide/2. ... ugins.html. That should take care of points

Point 4: Yes, see viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1347 and likely other threads on the forum. A good recent example of a plugin adding to the db would be the generic COUNTER plugin.

Cheers,
James

[alvaro]

Hi James,

We are finally beginning to implement some additional OCS functions. As mentioned in previous posts (by Javier), if possible, we'd like to implement the new functionalities based in plug-ins in case new versions of OCS are released. We've checked the available documentation and technical references (http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/docs/technicalref ... ugins.html), however we are not sure if the proposed functionalities can be developed without changing the OCS source code.

We have some questions:

1. Would it be possible, by means of a plug-in, to add an option for Track Directors to accept/reject multiple abstracts using check boxes next to each abstract title?

2. Could the class methods which interact with the databases still be used from a plug-in?

3. Is there a method in for the controller "accept abstract"? Or does this controller interact directly with the model classes?

4. We would also like to add additional fields in some tables of the database, would it be possible to add these fields to the forms/reports without altering their source code?

Thanks in advance,

Alvaro

[alvaro]

Hi again,

Sorry to insist, but we are really pressed for time. We need the answers to the questions above (see my post from Oct 21st) to start working on the development of the batch processing functionalities.

We would really prefer to develop these functionalities as plug-ins, so if new versions of the OCS are released the work wouldn't be lost.

In case the only option would be to alter the OCS source code, would it be possible to incorporate the changes in future versions of the system? We would be willing to contribute these developments to the community. If this is the way to go, it would be great if we could have a contact at PKP to coordinate the development of the new functionalities.

Thanks in advance!

Alvaro

[mcrider]

Hi Alvaro,

What you want to do isn't easily done by just writing plugins. But if we think that it fits into the system, we're happy to review and possibly incorporate your changes. The best way to do this is to create a bug on bugzilla and upload a patch, and/or fork our code on GitHub and send a pull request.

As for your questions:
1. No, its not possible to add that functionality to e.g. the unassigned submissions list without modifying core code (i.e., templates/director/submissionsUnassigned.tpl)

2. If you're referring to the DAO classes, yes they are accessible through plugins.

3. Not sure what you mean here. There is a controller method recordDecision() in SubmissionEditHandler.inc.php. This interfaces with the recordDecision() method in an 'action' class, TrackDirectorAction.

4. No, if you need to alter core database tables, you'll have to alter the core database schema files.

Cheers,
Matt

[alvaro]

Hi again,

Thanks for your help.

Just a quick question, in which source file do we find the classes with the methods for accepting, rejecting and reassigning an abstract?

Best,

Alvaro

[mcrider]

Hi Alvaro,

You can find this in classes/submission/trackDirector/TrackDirectorAction.inc.php, in the recordDecision function.

Cheers,
Matt

[alvaro]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your answer.

We are trying to develop a data export function for Track Directors in TrackDirectorHandler.inc.php. In order to do that, we've used:

$rangeInfo = new DBResultRange(0, 1);

We avoid paging and we obtain all records according to the conditions and order set by the user.

We would then like to go through $submissions (DAOResultFactory) in order to create a temporal file in /cache, redirect the query and download it.

In this regard, we have the following questions:

1) Are there any classes in OCS which might help us to generate the CSV?

2) We cannot traverse $submissions. Any idea on how to solve this?

Thanks in advance,

Alvaro

[mcrider]

Hi Alvaro,

If you want to see all records on on page, you can just set $rangeInfo to 'null'. As far as trying to traverse $submissions, you're probably trying to treat it as an array (and iterating over it with a for/foreach loop). It is actually an object (basically a linked list), and must be traversed like:

Code: Select all

while ($submission =& $submissions->next()) {
    // Do stuff with $submission
    unset($submission);
}

... BUT -- is there any reason you're not using a report plugin to do this? There are several report plugins in OCS that generate CSV files for similar purposes. One could be modified fairly simply to do what you need to do.

Cheers,
Matt