Version 2.7

[Crystal Gamradt]

Hi! I am an archives at South Dakota State University. We have been using AtoM since 2020 and we love it! 

My IT person just upgraded us from Version 2.6 to Version 2.7.  The screen looks very different from version 2.6.  My question is: Is this how this version of AtoM is supposed to look? If not, do you have any suggestions as to what to do to fix it

Below  are screenshots of the New Accession page.

Thanks in advance!

Crystal Gamradt, Archivist

South Dakota State University Archives & Special Collections

[Dan Gillean]

Hi Crystal, 

From what I can tell, that looks like it might suggest that your theme might need to be quickly recompiled. We have included a new version of the base theme in Version 2.7 (which you can read about more on the release page for 2.7, and you can see if you go to the Admin > Themes page in AtoM and change the theme - though we should resolve this issue first!), but I don't think that is what you're seeing here! Instead it looks like a few style rules aren't being applied properly. Fortunately, this should be a pretty easy fix!

AtoM's older Bootstrap 2 theme (which is the one in 2.6 and earlier) uses lessc as a way of compressing all the style files, which then get compiled during installation. In the downloadable tarball available from our website, we pre-compile the theme, so users who install this way often don't need to do anything further. However, for those who install from our GitHub code repository - as well as sometimes after upgrades - there's sometimes the need to recompile the theme assets, which is what we'll do now. 

First there are some dependencies to install, then we will run the recompile commands for all the theme plugins, and finally we will clear the application caches, to make sure you are seeing the changes and not an older cached copy. The following requires command-line access to the application, so pass this on to your IT person if you don't have access yourself. 

First, the dependencies - this can be skipped if you previously followed Option 2 for installation and installed from our code repository, as they should already be installed: 

• sudo apt install npm make
• sudo npm install -g "less@<4.0.0" n
• sudo n stable
• sudo npm install
• sudo npm run build

Now we can use lessc to run the make command. We run this for each theme - so we will do the default Bootstrap 2 theme (which I believe is what you're using), but also the ArchivesCanada theme (included in AtoM as an example of a custom theme for developers) as well as the newer Bootstrap 5 theme: 

• sudo make -C /usr/share/nginx/atom/plugins/arDominionPlugin
• sudo make -C /usr/share/nginx/atom/plugins/arArchivesCanadaPlugin
• sudo make -C /usr/share/nginx/atom/plugins/arDominionB5Plugin

If your site has a custom theme plugin, then you will want to repeat this command again, but using the name of your custom plugin. 

Then a bit of cleanup: 

• sudo rm -rf node_modules
  

Finally, let's clear the application cache, and restart PHP-FPM, which also has its own cache: 

• sudo -u www-data php symfony cc
• sudo systemctl restart php7.4-fpm

Both of those commands, as well as a lot of other useful information for maintenance and troubleshooting, can be found on this documentation page: 

• https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/latest/admin-manual/maintenance/troubleshooting/
  

As a last reminder: remember that your web browser also has its own cache! When you first test this issue you might want clear that browser cache, or do your initial testing in an incognito or private browser window af first (where the browser cache is typically disabled by default), to ensure you are seeing the latest version. 

Let us know if this helps! 

One last reminder: the current default theme is built using Bootstrap 2, a style library that has been deprecated since 2013. This is why we have added the new Bootstrap 5-based version of the theme. We are in the process of slowly deprecating Bootstrap 2, so we can remove this outdated dependency from AtoM - meaning that in 2.9 and on, there will only be the Bootstrap 5 version, which ultimately works better on mobile devices and has better accessibility support anyway. We are staging this transition over multiple releases because anyone with a custom theme built on Bootstrap 2 will need to update their themes to use BS5 BEFORE upgrading to 2.9. Consequently, the current plan is to deprecate Bootstrap 2 in release 2.8, and then finally we will fully remove it in the 2.9 release. You can see general plan in this announcement: 

• https://groups.google.com/g/ica-atom-users/c/uShs0qcwpGY/m/RlfFYRGOAgAJ
  

What does this mean for you?

• For this release: nothing! But if you are not using a custom theme, then you might consider using the Bootstrap 5 theme now instead of the older one. 
• For 2.8 - be aware that while we won't be removing it yet, we won't really be testing the older Bootstrap 2 Dominion theme prior to release. If you are not using a custom theme locally, we strongly encourage you to use the arDominionB5plugin theme going forward. If you do have a custom theme, then during this release cycle you will need to have a developer upgrade it to use the Bootstrap 5 theme as a base, rather than the Bootstrap 2 one. 
• For 2.9 - Bootstrap 2 will be completely removed so if you have a custom theme based on it, it will no longer work. 

Our maintainers intend to prepare some documentation to help community theme developers upgrade their theme, during the 2.8 release cycle. 

FYI!

Cheers, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056

@accesstomemory

he / him

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[Crystal Gamradt]

Hi Dan,

My IT guy tried option 1. Here is the response he sent.

 

If it helps, I used option 1 and don’t know what changes will happen if I go the option 2 route since I already have the new version installed. 

 

When I try and install npm, I get the following error:

 

xxxx@libapp002:/usr/share/nginx/atom$ sudo npm install

npm ERR! code ENOENT

npm ERR! syscall open

npm ERR! path /usr/share/nginx/atom/package.json

npm ERR! errno -2

npm ERR! enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/usr/share/nginx/atom/package.json'

npm ERR! enoent This is related to npm not being able to find a file.

npm ERR! enoent

 

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: /root/.npm/_logs/2023-08-14T16_57_26_370Z-debug-0.log

 

The log file only echoes that message back.

[Dan Gillean]

Hi Crystal, 

No need to reinstall or change your installation methods going forward - even with the tarball, sometimes things happen and the CSS needs to be recompiled, which is what these instructions will do - once we get them working! 

I'm not a system administrator myself, but after a quick search, I suspect that there's just a missing first step here of making sure your system is up-to-date, and ensuring that nodejs is installed. Normally this should be included with Ubuntu by default, but we can still run the commands to install it manually. First, let's check if they are installed or not - these commands should return a nodejs and npm version respectively if they are installed: 

• node -v
• npm -v

If notthing is returned (or an error), you can have your IT person try the following first: 

• sudo apt update
• sudo apt install nodejs
• sudo apt install npm

This is based on: 

• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-node-js-on-ubuntu-20-04
  
• https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-install-node-js-on-ubuntu-20-04/
  

Let me know if that helps! If not, I will see if a developer or sysadmin on this end can provide further suggestions. And in that case, have your IT person let me know in the meantime: 

• Is this an Ubuntu operating system or something different? If yes, what version - 20.04 as recommended for 2.7, or a different version? If no, what are you using?
• Are there any other changes in your default installation environment from the recommended version?
• Anything else about the environment that could be impacting this? For example, local firewall rules preventing certain kinds of downloads, etc... ?

Cheers, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056

@accesstomemory

he / him

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