OCS does not work with PHP5

[matthew]

Just got bitten by this. Upgraded a server hosting OCS only to find that the server upgrade took PHP to version 5 and that OCS just will not work with PHP5.

Tried to do a bit of hacking to get something working, but i'm fighting a loseing battle.

Fortunatly for me, I can move the OCS to a different host that still runs PHP4 and will not be upgraded for a while yet.

At least one of the optional PHP4 (depracated) features that OCS uses has been removed entirely in PHP5.


So a nice big warning - don't try and upgrade your PHP to version 5 or don't try to install OCS on a server running PHP5.
(Fedora Core 4 comes with PHP5, so FC4 can't be used to host OCS)

[eje4]

What is the nature of the problem with PHP 5? I haven't seen any mention in the OCS documentation about an incompatibility with PHP 5. Am I just missing it? It seems to me that if there is a fundamental incompatibility between OCS and PHP 5 then this is an important fact that ought to be documented somewhere.

Eric

[asmecher]

Hi all,

There are users successfully running OCS on PHP 5.x; however, it is necessary to suppress warnings in your PHP configuration (or using ini_set), and on some systems it is also necessary to make a few small changes to the OCS code. Every instance of the following snippet:

Code: Select all

[abstract]

...must be changed to...

Code: Select all

['abstract']

I'd be happy to provide a patch. In the meantime, if you have details on a further incompatibility, please let me know.

We're hard at work on a complete rewrite of OCS to bring it to the level of the OJS 2.x line, and this rewrite will be released early in the new year. There will be an upgrade path, so if you'd like to start now, OCS 1.x is a good choice. If you're interested in testing OCS 2.0, please contact me and we'll add your name to our list.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Open Journal Systems Team
---
Don't miss the First International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference
July 11 - 13, 2007, Vancouver, BC, Canada
http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/

[greg]

Does a patch exist for running OCS with PHP5? If it does, where can I find it?

Thanks!

[asmecher]

Hi Greg,

The current release of OCS (1.1.7) includes the above changes. If you're using 1.1.7 and still experiencing trouble with PHP5, post the specifics here and I'll see if I can help.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
---
Don't miss the First International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference
July 11 - 13, 2007, Vancouver, BC, Canada
http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/

[greg]

Alec,

Thanks for your reply to my previous post. Let me fill you in on my problem:

The version I'm currently using is pre-1.1.7, but I'm reluctant to upgrade. I used OCS for a conference last year (on a server running PHP4) and made some pretty significant changes to the code. I'd like to carry the changes over onto a new server running PHP5. It seems my options are to either upgrade to OCS 1.1.7, and then redo the changes I made last year, or try to make my older, modified version of OCS work with PHP5. So I guess what I'm trying to find out is how much effort would be involved in the second option.

When I run my older version of OCS with a PHP5 server, some of the pages (like papers.php, for example) work, but others (submit.php, viewabstract.php) come up blank. The system also won't let me log in to the admin section of the site.

Any ideas on what the problem could be, and how labor-intensive it would be to fix?

Thanks a lot,

Greg