Open Journal Systems (OJS) Docker Container

Dockerized deployment of Open Journal Systems based on the Islandora Buildkit nginx base image.

Quick Start

make up

Access OJS at http://localhost.

make up runs scripts/init-if-needed.sh, which inspects the rendered Docker Compose config and only runs the init service when required secrets or named volumes are missing.

The installation will run automatically on first startup. The default admin credentials are:

• Username: admin (configurable via OJS_ADMIN_USERNAME)
• Password: Contents of ./secrets/OJS_ADMIN_PASSWORD
• Email: admin@example.com (configurable via OJS_ADMIN_EMAIL)

Configuration

OJS Configuration

Environment Variable	Default	Source	Description
DB_HOST	mariadb	environment	MariaDB/MySQL hostname
DB_PORT	3306	environment	MariaDB/MySQL port
DB_NAME	ojs	environment	Database name
DB_USER	ojs	environment	Database user
DB_PASSWORD	(generated)	secret	Database password (stored in ./secrets/OJS_DB_PASSWORD)
OJS_SALT	(generated)	secret	Salt for password hashing (stored in ./secrets/OJS_SALT)
OJS_API_KEY_SECRET	(generated)	secret	Secret for API key encoding (stored in ./secrets/OJS_API_KEY_SECRET)
OJS_SECRET_KEY	(generated)	secret	Internally this is used for any encryption (specifically cookie encryption if enabled) (stored in ./secrets/OJS_SECRET_KEY)
OJS_ADMIN_USERNAME	admin	environment	Initial admin username
OJS_ADMIN_EMAIL	admin@example.com	environment	Initial admin email
OJS_ADMIN_PASSWORD	(generated)	secret	Initial admin password (stored in ./secrets/OJS_ADMIN_PASSWORD)
OJS_LOCALE	en	environment	Primary locale/language
OJS_TIMEZONE	UTC	environment	System timezone
OJS_FILES_DIR	/var/www/files	environment	Directory for uploaded files
OJS_OAI_REPOSITORY_ID	ojs.localhost	environment	OAI-PMH repository identifier
OJS_ENABLE_BEACON	1	environment	Enable PKP usage statistics beacon (1=enabled, 0=disabled)
OJS_SESSION_LIFETIME	30	environment	How long to stay logged in (in days)
OJS_X_FORWARDED_FOR	Off	environment	Trust X-Forwarded-For header. Enable PKP usage statistics beacon (Off, On)
OJS_SMTP_SERVER	host.docker.internal	environment	SMTP server for outgoing mail; defaults to the Docker host relay
OJS_SMTP_PORT	25	environment	SMTP server port
OJS_DEFAULT_ENVELOPE_SENDER	(empty)	environment	Optional default envelope sender for outgoing mail

OJS sends mail through the Docker host by default. On LibOps production hosts, the host MTA forwards to the managed relay; for local testing, copy docker-compose.override-example.yaml to docker-compose.override.yaml to add Mailpit and point OJS at mailpit:1025.

Nginx and PHP Settings

See https://github.com/Islandora-Devops/isle-buildkit/tree/main/nginx#nginx-settings

Ingress

Traefik is the only published ingress for the stack. The OJS container listens only on the internal Compose network, while Traefik publishes ${HOST_INSECURE_PORT:-80} and routes requests to OJS.

docker-compose.yaml is the production-shaped default. Local development changes should be copied from docker-compose.override-example.yaml to docker-compose.override.yaml; the example only exposes MariaDB for debugging and does not change the ingress path.

Set DOMAIN to the site hostname and ACME_EMAIL to the Let's Encrypt registration email before enabling the TLS override.

Secrets Management

Secrets are stored in the ./secrets/ directory and mounted into the container at runtime. The generate-secrets.sh script creates secure random values for:

• DB_ROOT_PASSWORD - MariaDB root password
• OJS_DB_PASSWORD - OJS database user password
• OJS_ADMIN_PASSWORD - OJS admin user password
• OJS_API_KEY_SECRET - Secret for API key encoding/decoding
• OJS_SALT - Salt for password hashing

Customization

You can customize the installation by:

1. Setting environment variables in docker-compose.yaml
2. Overriding default values in the Dockerfile
3. Adding custom plugins to rootfs/var/www/ojs/plugins/

Adding Plugins

Place plugin directories in the appropriate subdirectory under rootfs/var/www/ojs/plugins/:

• blocks/ - Block plugins
• gateways/ - Gateway plugins
• generic/ - Generic plugins
• importexport/ - Import/export plugins
• metadata/ - Metadata plugins
• oaiMetadataFormats/ - OAI metadata format plugins
• paymethod/ - Payment method plugins
• pubIds/ - Public identifier plugins
• reports/ - Report plugins
• themes/ - Theme plugins

Plugins with composer.json files will automatically have their dependencies installed during the build.

Volumes

The following volumes are created for data persistence:

• mariadb-data - MariaDB database files
• ojs-cache - OJS cache files
• ojs-files - Uploaded files (submissions, etc.)
• ojs-public - Public files

Updating OJS Version

To update the OJS version, modify the OJS_VERSION build argument in the Dockerfile:

ARG OJS_VERSION=3_5_0-3

Version tags follow the format used in the PKP OJS repository.

Troubleshooting

Installation Logs

If the automatic installation fails, check the container logs:

docker compose logs ojs

Database Connection Issues

Ensure the MariaDB container is healthy before the OJS container starts:

docker compose ps

Resetting Installation

To completely reset and reinstall:

docker compose down -v
docker compose run --rm init
docker compose up --remove-orphans -d

License

This Docker implementation is provided as-is. Open Journal Systems is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3. See the OJS repository for details.