[OJS] "registry" folder seems hardcoded when calling upgrade.php.

[marcbria]

For a while I noticed this error: http://pkp.sfu.ca/support/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13179

Today I found the problem is that tools/upgrade.php seams to ignore "registry_dir" variable.

In my case, this var is not in ojs's root: registry_dir = /home/ojs/webdata/papers/registry

When I created the /registry folder in ojs's root, upgrade log don't report that was unable to find emailTemplates.xml file any more (it's also a valid workarround till it's fixed).

I'm unable to review the code now and send a pull request... sorry. :-(

[asmecher]

Marc, as a general solution I'd actually rather remove that setting from config.inc.php entirely -- it's not consistently used (as you've noticed), but there are also other registry directories, e.g. lib/pkp/registry and plugins/generic/translator/registry.

If I removed that setting from config.inc.php, would it it leave you up a creek? Or would you be able to use a symlink approach like you've used for other areas?

[marcbria]

I can arrange my installation to keep registry folder in ojs-root, but my concern is:
a) make sense to keep /registry in root (exposed to attacks) or is a folder that must be under webdata (not directly reachable by apache)?
b) make sense to keep multiple "registry" folders distributed or it's better to keep them centralized?
Just to clarify myself... you are suggesting remove the variable in config so it means that "registry" folder should be in ojs-root, isn't it?

[asmecher]

There's nothing critical in the registry directory that shouldn't be potentially exposed for direct requests via the web server; I suspect you're the first person to try putting it somewhere else in OJS's long history. The only place that's really crucial to keep outside the web root is the files directory, because user uploads are kept there.

The reason we've got registry directories in the OJS root and in lib/pkp is simply to keep some of the non-OJS-specific stuff available e.g. to OMP and anything else that uses the lib-pkp library.

[marcbria]

So will have (at least) 3 registry folders:

1. /registry
2. /lib/pkp/registry
3. /plugins/generic/translator/registry

My problem here is with the concept: I happily buy the 2 registry model (accepting the ojs & lib-pkp division) but in my brain a distributed "registry" (with 3 or more folders) sounds like a potential problem to OJS admins that don't have a centralized (o bicentralized) point/s to check issues.

But if I catch you, those registry folders are a kind of default "settings" that will be loaded in db and forgotten during the rest of the journal live... so forget my comment.

Anyway, I full agree with removing the "registry_dir" var.

Thanks Alec.

[asmecher]

Thanks, @marcbria.

[asmecher]

Removed registry_dir. Thanks, @marcbria!