How to run Open Journal System (OJS) on Nginx - php

Question

I am having trouble with the appropriate Nginx configuration of my server.
The deployed php app on It is OJS, a journal management and publishing system, originally developed to run on Apache1.
Although OJS may runs on Nginx without further specific server configuration, a minor change on the OJS main config settings (disable_path_info ON) must be done because PATH_INFO doesn't seem to be supported by Nginx. However that generate non pretty URLs, which in turn cause some OJS features/plugins to work out of specifications, or not to work at all2.
I found some posts were people share successful experiences on that:
https://coolpandaca.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/migrate-ojs-to-nginx-from-apache
https://forum.pkp.sfu.ca/t/ojs3-on-nginx-php7-0-fpm/28590
This is another site
https://www.snip2code.com/Snippet/305514/nginx-configuration-for-OJS-on-an-aegir-
I am running Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-42-generic x86_64)
on a Digital Ocean account configured by Laravel Forge.
I couldn't find the way to combine this blocks of code (the ones at examples on above links) with mine default Nginx settings.
# FORGE CONFIG (DO NOT REMOVE!)
include forge-conf/evidenciaonojs.tk/before/*;
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name evidenciaonojs.tk;
root /home/forge/evidenciaonojs.tk/;
# FORGE SSL (DO NOT REMOVE!)
# ssl_certificate;
# ssl_certificate_key;
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2;
ssl_ciphers ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/dhparams.pem;
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
index index.html index.htm index.php;
charset utf-8;
# FORGE CONFIG (DO NOT REMOVE!)
include forge-conf/evidenciaonojs.tk/server/*;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
location = /robots.txt { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
access_log off;
error_log /var/log/nginx/evidenciaonojs.tk-error.log error;
error_page 404 /index.php;
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
}
location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
deny all;
}
}
# FORGE CONFIG (DO NOT REMOVE!)
include forge-conf/evidenciaonojs.tk/after/*;
I expect to change back OJS config file to disable_path_info Off and be able to use pretty URL while running on Nginx.
Any help on this will be truly appreciated!

Answer 1

I just now saw your message on the OJS3 forum.
For NginX try this configuration
# FORGE CONFIG (DO NOT REMOVE!)
include forge-conf/evidenciaonojs.tk/before/*;
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name evidenciaonojs.tk;
root /home/forge/evidenciaonojs.tk/;
# FORGE SSL (DO NOT REMOVE!)
# ssl_certificate;
# ssl_certificate_key;
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2;
ssl_ciphers ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/dhparams.pem;
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
index index.html index.htm index.php;
charset utf-8;
# FORGE CONFIG (DO NOT REMOVE!)
include forge-conf/evidenciaonojs.tk/server/*;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
location = /robots.txt { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
access_log off;
error_log /var/log/nginx/evidenciaonojs.tk-error.log error;
error_page 404 /index.php;
location ~ ^(.+\.php)(.*)$ {
set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;
fastcgi_param PATH_TRANSLATED $document_root$path_info;
if (!-f $document_root$fastcgi_script_name) {
return 404;
}
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
deny all;
}
}
# FORGE CONFIG (DO NOT REMOVE!)
include forge-conf/evidenciaonojs.tk/after/*;
Be sure to to set:
1. cgi.fix_pathinfo=1 in PHP-FPM (in /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini probably).
2. security.limit_extensions = .php in your FPM pool config file (in /etc/php/7.2/fpm/pool.d/your_site.conf)
3. disable_path_info = Off (in OJS config.inc.php)
Restart PHP-FPM and NginX services. Then, if it works, read about the evils of NginX IF and 'cgi.fix_pathinfo'.

Answer 2

Just con confirm that things that were useful in my case to run successfully OJS on Nginx (Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS on a Digital Ocean account configured by Laravel Forge) included:
1) Modify cgi.fix_pathinfo=1 in PHP-FPM (in /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini)
2) Uncomment (enable) security.limit_extensions = .php (in /etc/php/7.2/fpm/pool.d/www.conf)
3) Changed disable_path_info = Off (in OJS config.inc.php).
4) Replace nginx config with:
# FORGE CONFIG (DO NOT REMOVE!)
include forge-conf/evidenciaonojs.tk/before/*;
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name evidenciaonojs.tk;
root /home/forge/evidenciaonojs.tk/;
# FORGE SSL (DO NOT REMOVE!)
# ssl_certificate;
# ssl_certificate_key;
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2;
ssl_ciphers ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/dhparams.pem;
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
index index.html index.htm index.php;
charset utf-8;
# FORGE CONFIG (DO NOT REMOVE!)
include forge-conf/evidenciaonojs.tk/server/*;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
location = /robots.txt { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
access_log off;
error_log /var/log/nginx/evidenciaonojs.tk-error.log error;
error_page 404 /index.php;
location ~ ^(.+\.php)(.*)$ {
set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;
fastcgi_param PATH_TRANSLATED $document_root$path_info;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
}
location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
deny all;
}
}
# FORGE CONFIG (DO NOT REMOVE!)
include forge-conf/evidenciaonojs.tk/after/*;
5) And finally restart services (service php7.2-fpm restart AND sudo service nginx restart).