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OJS for EveryoneThe Practical Guidebook

Server Configuration

OJS is configured through config.inc.php in the OJS root directory. This file is created from config.TEMPLATE.inc.php during installation.

Key Configuration Sections​

Application​

; Set to "On" in production, "Off" to show errors during development
installed = On

; Your OJS installation base URL
base_url[default] = "https://yoursite.com"

; Unique site key (generated during install — do not change)
salt = "youruniquesalthere"

Database​

[database]
driver = mysqli        ; or pgsql for PostgreSQL
host = localhost
username = ojsuser
password = yourpassword
name = ojs

Email​

[email]
; Use SMTP for reliable delivery
smtp = On
smtp_server = smtp.yourprovider.com
smtp_port = 587
smtp_auth = PLAIN      ; or LOGIN, CRAM-MD5
smtp_username = you@domain.com
smtp_password = smtppassword
smtp_tls = On          ; STARTTLS

; Sender envelope address
envelope_sender = noreply@yoursite.com
allow_envelope_sender = On

Files​

[files]
; Must be outside the webroot
files_dir = /var/www/ojs-files

; Public files (accessible via URL)
public_files_dir = public

Caching​

[cache]
; Options: filecache, memcache, xcache, apc
object_cache = filecache

; For memcache
;memcache_hostname = localhost
;memcache_port = 11211

Security​

[security]
; Force HTTPS
force_ssl = On

; Session cookie settings
session_cookie_name = OJSSID
session_lifetime = 30         ; minutes of inactivity before logout

; Allowed upload file types (MIME)
; Restrict to known safe types

Proxy (if behind a reverse proxy)​

[proxy]
http_proxy = "http://proxyhost:port"
https_proxy = "http://proxyhost:port"

PHP Configuration (php.ini)​

Recommended values for production:

upload_max_filesize = 128M
post_max_size = 128M
max_execution_time = 300
memory_limit = 256M
date.timezone = UTC

Nginx Configuration Example​

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name yoursite.com;

    root /var/www/html/ojs;
    index index.php;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yoursite.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yoursite.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    # Deny access to config and hidden files
    location ~ /\. { deny all; }
    location ~* config\.inc\.php { deny all; }
}

Further Reading​