LOVD 3.0 - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• When will LOVD v.3.0 be released?
• What will change in LOVD v.3.0?
• Will the software requirements change for LOVD v.2.0?
• Will you implement ..., too?
• Will LOVD 3.0 also work with database servers other than MySQL?
• Can I upgrade from my 2.0 installation?
• How do I upgrade my 3.0 installation to a new build?
• I get the error "Error 500 - Internal Server Error"
• I get the error "Can't find config.ini.php"
• I get the error "Can't read config.ini.php" or "Can't open config.ini.php"

Currently, LOVD 3.0 is in beta stage and some parts of the implementation have not been defined exactly yet. You can already download the beta release, but do understand it's work in progress. It's very difficult to predict how much more time it will take to release a first full featured version. The first beta release will be available from January 31st, 2012.

There are two main fields where LOVD 3.0 will aim to be superior to LOVD 2.0; more flexibility in the data storage, and an improved user interface to help you do your job faster than ever.
In short:

• We will add more data objects; like LOVD 2.0 has Gene, Patient and Variant, LOVD 3.0 will have additionally Disease, Phenotype and Screening. This will solve one of the biggest LOVD 2.0 hurdles, where in databases with many different genes the list of patient columns can grow enourmously and submitters have to fill out long forms containing many fields on many different, and unrelated, diseases. Also:
  • LOVD 3.0 can also store variants outside of genes, and of variants within genes LOVD will now always store both genomic information as well as the effects of the variant on one or more transcripts.
  • In LOVD 3.0 curators will be able to configure which phenotypical information to store on their patients, and no longer need managers for that.
  • Phenotype information can be added many times for each patient, allowing storage of changing values like blood pressure.
  • Patients can be added to the system also without variant information attached.
  • Mutation screening information can be added, also if no variants have been identified.
  • Each entry will have a history, allowing users to look back in time for each entry separately.
• New techniques should improve LOVD speed (note: we still need to perform a speed test)
• All data overviews will allow sorting, searching, and column hiding.
• New HTML and Javascript techniques allow you to do more in less clicks.

Yes, you now need PHP 5.1.0 and up (LOVD 2.0 required 4.2.0) and MySQL 4.1.2 (LOVD 2.0 required 3.23.33). Very few LOVD 2.0 installations do not already run on PHP >= 5.1.0, and MySQL Server 4.1 has been available for general release since 2004. Especially newer MySQL versions support a wide variety of new techniques to speed up LOVD.
See the software requirements.

If you have a feature request, please add it to our bug tracking system.

No... but then again, maybe yes. LOVD 3.0, in contrast to LOVD 2.0, makes use of the PHP PDO class to communicate with the database. In principle, this will allow you to run LOVD on any database server that has a PHP PDO module, such as PostgreSQL, MS SQL, Oracle or SQLite. However, PDO does not translate SQL and that's how we like it (lightweight). Therefore, there might be SQL used in LOVD that is not compatible with databases other than MySQL. We're not testing with other databases, and provide no support for it. But if you really want to, changing the database backend might not be that much work for you.

We will create an upgrade script that will export all data from LOVD 2.0 into a format that can be read by an LOVD 3.0 installation. The database administrator will need to perform this export. Since the file structure of LOVD 3.0 is very different from the 2.0 installations, you can not upgrade LOVD 2.0 to 3.0 by just overwriting your files, like you normally update your LOVD 2.0 installation. The exported file will need to be read out by a new LOVD 3.0 installation.

Because of the tremendous amount of work and testing that needs to go into this upgrade script, LOVD 3.0 will first be available without it.

Upgrading your 3.0 alpha or beta installation to a new build is as simple as downloading the new build, unpacking the downloaded file and overwriting all old files. Logging in to LOVD will then finish the upgrade automatically.

Apache found the .htaccess file, that should hide the config.ini.php file and set a few PHP options. Apache is currently set to disallow either Limit or Options for the AllowOverride directive. Make sure AllowOverride has at least "Limit" and "Options" set.

Please rename the config.ini.php-lovd file to config.ini.php and edit it's contents. For more information, please see the installation instructions contained in the INSTALL.txt file, included in the package.

Please check the permissions of the config.ini.php file. LOVD cannot read it or open it's contents.