MePrintsInstall

This page provides technical instructions for installing the MePrints extension. To find out what MePrints is, and for an overview of MePrints features, see MePrintsOverview.

Installation (EPrints 3.1+)

Download the latest release to your local repository directory (eg. /opt/eprints3/archives/ARCHIVEID/).

Extract files:

tar xzvf meprints_xx.tgz

Install bin scripts

Edit the bin/generate_meprints file and check the include path on the first line. For example if you have installed EPrints in /var/lib/eprints3 change the line from:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w -I/opt/eprints3/perl_lib

to:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w -I/var/lib/eprints3/perl_lib

Install cgi scripts

Link the MePrints cgi scripts into the EPrints cgi directory:

ln -s /opt/eprints3/archives/ARCHIVEID/cgi/meprints/ /opt/eprints3/cgi/
ln -s /opt/eprints3/archives/ARCHIVEID/cgi/users/meprints/ /opt/eprints3/cgi/users/

Update database

Add the new MePrints user fields (defined in cfg/cfg.d/z_meprints.pl) to your repository database:

cd /opt/eprints3/
bin/epadmin update_database_structure ARCHIVEID --verbose

Apply MePrints patch

Apply the MePrints patch file:

cd /opt/eprints3
patch -R -p0 < archives/ARCHIVE_ID/meprints_1.0.patch

This patch changes two core EPrints modules:

1. DataSet.pm - add a new dataset called public_profile_users which is the set of all users who have opted to make their public profile page visible.
2. Update/Views.pm - allow view pages to be generated for any dataset (MePrints adds views over the public_profile_users dataset)

Getting Started

To activate MePrints, you will need to make some changes to your repository setup.

cfg/cfg.d/plugins.pl

Add the following lines to your cfg/cfg.d/plugins.pl configuration file: to use the MePrints homepage instead instead of the default EPrints "Profile" page:

$c->{plugins}->{"Screen::User::View"}->{appears}->{key_tools} = undef;
$c->{plugin_alias_map}->{"Screen::User::View"} = "Screen::User::Homepage";

cfg/cfg.d/user_fields_automatic.pl

Add the following lines to your cfg/cfg.d/user_fields_automatic.pl configuration file to update the MePrints public profile page automatically when a user changes his or her profile information,

$c->{user_fields_automatic} = sub {
        

        my $user = @_;

        ...

        if( defined $user->{changed} )
        {
                $user->remove_static();
        }

};

cfg/apachevhost.conf

Add the following directives to your cfg/apachevhost.conf configuration file to enable canonical profile URLs (for example http://myrepository.com/profile/jsmith):

<Location "/profile">
  SetHandler perl-script
  PerlResponseHandler EPrints::Plugin::MePrints::MePrintsHandler
</Location>

cfg/cfg.d/urls.pl

To activate the canonical profile URLs, add "/profile/" to the rewrite_exceptions list in your cfg/cfg.d/urls.pl configuration file:

$c->{rewrite_exceptions} = [ '/cgi/', '/archive/', '/profile/' ];

cfg/workflows/user/default.xml

Add the following lines to your cfg/workflows/user/default.xml configuration file:

 <stage name="default">
   ...

   <component type="Field::Multi">
     <title><epc:phrase ref="user_section_personal" /></title>
     ...
   </component>

   <component type="Field::Multi">
     <title><epc:phrase ref="user_section_meprints" /></title>
     <field ref="profile_visibility" required="yes"/>
     <field ref="jobtitle"/>
     <field ref="expertise"/>
     <field ref="biography"/>
     <field ref="qualifications"/>
   </component>

cfg/citations/user/default.xml

Replace the default EPrints user citation with the MePrints citation (which includes a thumbnail of the user's profile picture) run:

cd /opt/eprints3/archives/ARCHIVEID
cp cfg/citations/user/default_with_thumbnail.xml cfg/citations/user/default.xml

Note: if you have already made changes to the default citation, you should examine both files and merge the MePrints changes into default.xml

Testing

After applying all the changes above, restart Apache to activate MePrints.

Homepage

Log into your repository and should see your MePrints Homepage with default widget layout and profile picture.

Update profile

Click the Modify Profile button and add some information to the new MePrints fields (Job Title, Expertise, Biography, Qualifications). Set your Profile Visibility to Public. Click the Save button to return to your Homepage where the information you entered should now be displayed.

Upload photo

Click the Profile Picture button, choose a file and click Upload. You will be returned to your Homepage where your picture will now be displayed.

MePrints Widgets

By default your homepage displays several widgets (see user_homepage_defaults setting in cfg/cfg.d/z_meprints.pl). Try adding and removing widgets using the widget controls at the bottom of the screen. You can also rearrange widgets by dragging them up/down or between columns. To reset to the default widget layout click the Reset button in the widget control bar.

Public Profile

Enter the following URL to view your public profile page:

http://myrepository.com/profile/USERNAME

where USERNAME is your EPrints username. The layout of the MePrints widgets on your profile page is controlled by the user_profile_defaults setting in cfg/cfg.d/z_meprints.pl.

Go back to your MePrints homepage and click Modify Profile. Change some of your profile information (eg. Job Title, Expertise, Biography, Qualifications) and click Save. Return to your public profile page and check that your profile information has been updated.

MePrints Views

Run:

bin/generate_views ARCHIVEID --generate menus

Check http://myrepository.com/view/ - you should see 2 new views (you may want to link these into your site template).

Explore the view pages and check that you are listed. Make sure that you can click through from the browse listing to your public profile page.

MePrints search

Go to: http://myrepository.com/cgi/meprints/search

Check that you can find your profile using keywords from your user profile information (eg. expertise, qualifications).

Make sure that you can click through from the search result list to your public profile page.

MePrints for admins

Using an administrator account go to the Admin screen and choose Search users. Enter a username or other criteria to find at least one user account (not the account you are logged in with).

Make sure that you can click through from the results list to the user's homepage.

You should be able to modify the user's profile information by clicking Administer Account.

The widget layout should reflect the user's own preference, and you should not be able to make changes to their widget layout.

Hide Profile

Change the user's profile visibility to private.

Log out, and make sure that:

1. the profile is no longer visible at /profile/USERNAME
2. the profile no longer appears in search results
3. the profile no longer appears in view pages

Troubleshooting

Database errors

When dragging and dropping Widgets around, MePrints shows database errors in the error log:

DBD::mysql::st execute failed: Duplicate entry '1-0' for key 1 at /opt/eprints3/perl_lib/EPrints/Database.pm line 1192.
at /opt/eprints3/perl_lib/EPrints/Database.pm line 1192
EPrints::Database::insert('EPrints::Database::mysql=HASH(0x2b593e11ebd0)', 'user_items_fields', 'ARRAY(0x2b593bd00510)', ...

This is a known problem which does not seem to affect widget layout.

generate_views errors

Use of uninitialized value $id in hash element at /usr/share/eprints3/perl_lib/EPrints/Database.pm line 2979.

See http://trac.eprints.org/trac/ticket/3537