Development guidance

Development guidance#

Plugin Development#

When starting the local environment, the contents of the PPR plugin are mounted into the OJS plugins/generic directory and it will be ready to use.

The OJS code in the Docker container is mounted into the environment/data/ojs/src local folder for review and debugging.

The local Docker image has been created with PHP XDebug to allow local debugging.

Template Override#

OJS provides a mechanism for plugins to override templates. This is achieved by using an OJS Hook to intercept the template file lookup.

The services/PPRTemplateOverrideService` manages the templates that the PPR plugin overrides.

The overridden templates are located within the templates, with the same path as the original OJS template. This makes it easier to locate the original templates in case changes need to be added to our version.

In OJS, templates are located within the <root>/templates or the <root>/lib/pkp/templates folders

We have developed a mechanism to wrap existing templates and load the original template with the new wrapper. This is achieved by using the OJS TemplateManager feature include and the template suffix .load_ojs.

There is an example in templates/submission/submissionMetadataFormTitleFields.tpl

Component Handler Override#

We have implemented an override for the OJS AuthorGridHandler to fulfill the PPR program requirements. Handler override is one of the features supported by the OJS plugin framework.

The services/PPRWorkflowService has an example of how to override a component handler.

CSS Updates#

We have created a custom CSS file to style the forms and hide some of the fields in the OJS frontend and backend.

In OJS terminology, frontend is the reader’s website, where the homepage, registration, and articles are displayed.
The backend is the admin interface where submissions, reviews, and the site administration are displayed.

The configuration for the custom CSS is in the PeerPreReviewProgramPlugin class and the file is under css/iqss.css

Feature Flags#

Most of the PPR features have been added to the plugin behind feature flags. This has been implemented to reduce the risk of deployments as there is no test environment available.

The list of feature flags is configured in: pprOjsPlugin/settings/PPRPluginSettingsForm.inc.php

To follow how they are used, look at the usage of the settings class: pprOjsPlugin/settings/PPRPluginSettings.inc.php

OJS reports#

We can create custom reports and deploy them as plugins within the OJS plugins infrastructure.

Report plugins are very simple, we just need to create the report in a method called display within the plugin class. This method will be executed when the report is launched within the user interface.

See the pprReportPlugin folder for more details on how to create a report plugin.

Custom Email Templates#

These are the custom email templates created for the PPR program.

  • PPR_SUBMISSIONS_REPORT_TASK => pprReviewsReportPlugin/taks/PPREditorReportTask.inc.php

  • PPR_REVIEW_DUE_DATE_EDITOR => pprOjsPlugin/tasks/PPRReviewDueDateEditorNotification.inc.php

  • PPR_REVIEW_DUE_DATE_REVIEWER => pprOjsPlugin/tasks/PPRReviewReminder.inc.php

  • PPR_REVIEW_REQUEST_DUE_DATE_REVIEWER => pprOjsPlugin/services/email/PPRReviewReminderEmailService.inc.php

  • PPR_REQUESTED_REVIEWER_UNASSIGN => pprOjsPlugin/services/reviewer/PPRUnassignReviewerForm.inc.php

  • PPR_CONFIRMED_REVIEWER_UNASSIGN => pprOjsPlugin/services/reviewer/PPRUnassignReviewerForm.inc.php

  • PPR_SUBMISSION_APPROVED => pprOjsPlugin/services/submission/PPRSubmissionActionsService.inc.php

  • PPR_REVIEW_ACCEPTED => pprOjsPlugin/services/reviewer/PPRReviewAcceptedService.inc.php

  • PPR_REVIEW_SUBMITTED => pprOjsPlugin/services/reviewer/PPRReviewSubmittedService.inc.php

  • PPR_REVIEW_DUE_DATE_WITH_FILES_REVIEWER => pprOjsPlugin/tasks/PPRReviewReminder.inc.php

  • PPR_REVIEW_PENDING_WITH_FILES_REVIEWER => pprOjsPlugin/tasks/PPRReviewReminder.inc.php

  • PPR_REVIEW_SENT_AUTHOR => pprOjsPlugin/tasks/PPRReviewSentAuthorNotification.inc.php