TechnicalFaq
From DSpace Wiki
See also the EndUserFaq.
What is the most current release of the DSpace software?
The most recent stable version of DSpace, recommended for production use, is available from the SourceForge 'DSpace Stable' download page. To see what's in store for the future, see Next Release Status.
Where can I download the DSpace open-source software?
DSpace is freely available as open-source software from SourceForge.
I have technical questions about DSpace -- how can I find solutions?
You're in the right place. First, you'll want to search this FAQ to see if your question has been asked/answered already. Next, try searching the http://dspace.org/technology/system-docs/ DSpace technical documentation and the http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=13580 DSpace-tech mailing list archives. Still need help? Post your questions to the http://dspace.org/feedback/mailing.html#tech DSpace-tech mailing list, where members of the DSpace community will offer their assistance. And once you find the answer, if you think others will be asking the same question post them here in the FAQ page
Is there install doc for DSpace?
Yes, the system documentation includes a section on http://dspace.org/technology/system-docs/install.html Installation. Read through this FAQ and also see Installation.
How do I report bugs?
If you've found a bug in the software that hasn't already been recorded in Sourceforge, please submit it to the http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=19984&atid=119984 bug tracker on Sourceforge. If you have a suggestion about how the bug might get fixed or are wondering whether a "feature" is actually a bug, post a query to DSpace-tech mailing list.
What's the best strategy for backing up/restoring DSpace?
See BackupRestore.
How do I run DSpace on port 80/443?
Do I need HTTPS (SSL)?
See SecuringDspace,
also ServletSecurity for more details.
How do I run DSpace on Windows?
See DSpaceOnWindows
In the admin UI, the 'select E-person' tool isn't working.
A couple of things to try:
- If you've upgraded to DSpace 1.2 from a prior version, ensure that your header JSP includes the following line:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" src="<%= request.getContextPath() %>/utils.js"></script>
That needs to be in the <HEAD> element. It's in jsp/layout/header-default.jsp but if you have a locally modified version, your modified copy might not have this line.
- The e-person tool is a pop-up window. Check that your browser isn't blocking pop-ups for your DSpace installation.
This pop-up window was, in retrospect, a controversial point. Post explaining the decision
- If your site 'skin' has a form in it (e.g., a search box) this breaks the JavaScript, specifically the references in `jsp/utils.js` to `window.document.forms0`. See http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1155173&group_id=19984&atid=119984 this bug report Another way to fix this problem may be to remove the form from the skin in dspace-admin/eperson-main.jsp. If, for example, you placed a search box in your location bar, changing locbar="/dmirror/http/wiki.dspace.org/link" to locbar="off" in the dspace:layout tag in eperson-main should resolve the issue.
How do you append data from a test server to a production environment?
Many people have two installs of DSpace: a test server and a production server. The problem is how to take data from the test server and integrate (move, append, migrate, etc.) it into the production server. The most common example is when you are ready to move a new collection from test into production. Note that this is a somewhat different problem than the need to move *all* data from a test server and completely overwrite any data on the production system, which may happen when first moving out of test and into production. RichardJones covers that scenario more completely here, along with a number of other DSpace-related topics.
The main problem in accomplishing this task easily is that some of the metadata will be duplicated if the export from your test server is imported directly and without modification into the production server. In particular, the following metadata elements will be affected:
- identifier.url
- description.provenance
- date.accessioned
- date.available
- date.issued
- format.extent
- format.mimetype
All of these values should be deleted to avoid duplication, except for date.issued if the items have been published or publicly distributed before. However, Cody Green has written a bash shell script that will traverse a DSpace export (e.g., from your test server) and fix the metadata. Here is the link to that script: http://sunsite.utk.edu/diglib/dspace/dspace_migrate.sh (please note that the script will remove the date.issued field for all records). Also, the script is now included in the latest release.
Are there any tips on running DSpace on RedHat/Fedora Core Linux?
Many people have run into trouble getting DSpace running on Redhat/Fedora Core Linux, specifically, encountering CLASSPATH errors and relating to 'libgcj'. The easiest way to resolve this is to remove all the PM-based Java components, and install the original binary packages: Java SDK from Sun, and Ant and Tomcat from Apache.org. To remove the PM Java stuff, do:
rpm -e libgcj
This will probably throw up a load of dependency errors. You'll need to remove the packages that depend on libgcj too. Another useful list from ichardJones of packages he had to remove from Fedora Core 2:
libgcj gcc-java-3.3.3-7 libgcj-devel-3.3.3-7 gettext-0.14.1-2.1 gcc34-java-3.4.0-1 ant-1.5.2-26 tomcat-4.1.27-13
Clive Gould has published a very useful blog explaining how to get DSpace working with a default install of Fedora Core 3 and CentOS 4, including Apache/Tomcat integration.
The Post Street Archives in Midland, Michigan with funding from the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation worked with a team of students at Michigan Technological University to install DSpace for their digital archives. They produced http://www.poststreetarchives.org/DSpaceInstall.pdf this set of installation instructions for novice users on Fedora Core 4.
filter-media Hangs While Creating Search Index
If filter-media appears to hang after it creates the thumbnails and indexes text content, you may consider running filter-media as root. For some reason, certain users report that =filter-media= will hang after printing the following message: Creating search index:
My personal experience shows that this happens when I run it as dspace, but not as root. Not sure yet why this happens, but this may be a quick fix until it is sorted out. Also, bear this potential "problem" in mind when setting up cron jobs for filter-media, index-all, and others. Also note that running index-all as dspace does *not* hang, even though it does (apparently) the same thing.
Setting logging level up to DEBUG
If something doesn't seem to be working, you can often find out more by upping the logging level of DSpace. To do this:
1. Edit dspace/config/templates/log4j.properties.
2. Change the level by changing this line:
log4j.rootCategory=INFO, A1
to this:
log4j.rootCategory=DEBUG, A1
3. Run dspace/bin/install-configs.
4. Restart Tomcat (or Resin, etc.).
Now you'll find there's a *lot* more information in dspace/log/dspace.log. You can switch on and off logging for particular DSpace classes. For example, if you just want to know about SQL queries going to the database, you could leave the main level above as INFO, and instead add the following line (then run install-configs and restart Tomcat):
log4j.logger.org.dspace.storage.rdbms.DatabaseManager=DEBUG
Another useful one that lists full information about every HTTP request:
log4j.logger.org.dspace.app.webui.servlet.DSpaceServlet=DEBUG
More information about DSpace log files in the system docs
How do I add/index/display another Dublin Core field?
Modifying the DSpace DC type registry does not affect the submit UI, Lucene search index, or simple item display page. To change the behaviour of these, you need to make some changes to the DSpace code. Better support for customisations should appear soon:
- OCLC donated some code that allows the submit UI to show different input fields on a per-collection basis. This should be integrated into the main code base some time soon.
- Part of the DSpace 2.0 plan is to improve metadata support
- The SIMILE project plans to provide tools for DSpace 2.0 to greatly improve support for different metadata schemas and extensions.
How do I add a field to the submission UI?
See the Custom Metadata-entry Pages for Submission documentation.
How do I add a field to the Lucene search index?
As of DSpace 1.2.1, DSpace has configurable search indices. No real documentation yet, but some information are in `dspace.cfg`. After you've modified any indices, you'll need to run `/dspace/bin/index-all` and restart Tomcat. If all you want to do is add a field to one of the named indices (Authors, Titles, Keywords, etc.) you're done. Otherwise, you'll need to modify the search JSP jsp/search/advanced.jsp.
How do I add a field to the simple item display page?
Edit org.dspace.app.webui.jsptag.ItemTag.
How can I develop DSpace modifications with my own CVS repository?
What if you have a team that wants to collaborate on a DSpace modification? You can all check the code out of SourceForge CVS anonymously and pass patches around, but this will get very complicated (and probably produce errors) very quickly. What you really need is your own CVS repository. This is also useful for managing any minor customisations your organisation has made to DSpace. See SeparateCvsRepository
I've made a lot of modifications to DSpace, and I want to bring my code up to date with a later version of DSpace. What's the easiest way to do that?
I keep receiving the message "The system has experienced an internal error". How do I diagnose the problem?
This error message is shown if DSpace has encountered an error. To find out what caused the error, there are two options:
- Enable email alerts. This can be done by uncommenting the 'alert.recipient' field in dspace.cfg, setting it to your email address, and then restarting tomcat. Whenever an internal error occurs, you should receive an automatic email. This will have information in relating to the cause of the problem.
- View the files dspace/logs/dspace.log or tomcat/logs/catalina.out The error message will be at the bottom of the file.
If you need assitance diagnosing the problem, send the error message from the alert email or from the log file to mailto:dspace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net
When trying to add content to DSpace, all of the fields filled out appear null.
After setting up the DSpace database and properly setting up the application, most functionality appears normal. However, when adding content all the fields are null when it comes time to review a content submission. The Java errors thrown revolve around a null pointer exception.
- The root cause of the problem is that the database is set up using some character encoding other than UTF-8. The database must be set up using UTF-8 character encoding.
How do I run DSpace with Apache and Tomcat using the mod_jk connector?
See ModJk.
