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AT Gateway User Guide

AT Gateway 7 min read Updated
On this page
  1. Introduction
  2. System Requirements
  3. Installation
  4. Activate a Premium Product
  5. The Licences & Updates Screen
  6. Updates
  7. Free from Altechmind
  8. Data, Privacy & Security
  9. Indexing & Citations
  10. Moving or Removing

AT Gateway is the free plugin that activates the licences of Altechmind’s premium OJS plugins and installs their updates. Download it free from the Altechmind Store. Questions? See the FAQ & Troubleshooting.

Introduction

AT Gateway is a site-wide plugin for Open Journal Systems (OJS) 3.5, developed by Altechmind Technologies (OPC) Pvt. Ltd. You install it once per OJS site. It holds the licence keys for all your Altechmind products, checks them with the store once a day, and installs updates when you click.

Do I need it? Yes, if you use a premium Altechmind plugin such as AT Payment Connect or AT Issue Display: its premium features switch on only through AT Gateway. You don’t need it for free plugins such as AT Journal Blocks; they work on their own.

Highlights

  • One place for all licences: add a key once, and AT Gateway activates it for the journals that use the product.
  • One-click updates, each checked against Altechmind’s digital signature before it is installed. If anything goes wrong, the previous version is restored automatically.
  • Never slows your journal: licence checks during a page load are local, with no network call.
  • Keeps working offline: if your server can’t reach the store, premium features stay on for 7 days.
  • Safe by design: keys stored encrypted, only site administrators can use the screen, and every action is recorded in an audit log.
  • Indexing untouched: AT Gateway adds nothing to reader-facing pages, so articles, citation tags, OAI-PMH, feeds and sitemaps are unchanged.
  • Free from Altechmind: a list of Altechmind’s free plugins with a link to each store page. Nothing is sent to Altechmind about them.

System Requirements

Requirement Details
Open Journal Systems 3.5 (PHP 8.2 or later)
PHP extensions curl, openssl, zip and zlib. sodium is recommended; without it a slower built-in fallback is used.
Internet access from the server Outgoing HTTPS to store.altechmind.com. Ask your host to allow it if your server uses a firewall.
OJS scheduler Recommended: a cron job running php lib/pkp/tools/scheduler.php run (or OJS’s web task runner), so licences are checked daily in the background.
Who can use it Site administrators only

If a requirement is missing, AT Gateway names it at the top of its screen (“Server requirement not met: …”).

Installation

  1. Download atGateway-<version>.tar.gz from the AT Gateway store page. Don’t unpack it.
  2. In OJS go to Administration › Site Settings › Plugins and click Upload a new plugin. Choose the file and save.
  3. Find AT Gateway in the list and tick it to enable it.
  4. Click the arrow next to AT Gateway, then Licences & updates. This is AT Gateway’s screen.

Activate a Premium Product

  1. Install the premium plugin (for example AT Payment Connect) the same way: Upload a new plugin.
  2. In each journal that will use it, go to Website › Plugins and switch it on.
  3. Open AT Gateway’s Licences & updates. The product appears with Not activated.
  4. Copy your key from the store: My Account › Licenses. Paste it into Licence key and click Save & activate.
  5. The card turns to Licensed, showing “Active on” and the journals or sites covered.

If the product isn’t switched on in any journal yet, the card shows Ready. Switch it on in a journal and the licence activates automatically.

Seats: how many journals or sites a licence covers

Each licence has a number of seats. What a seat is depends on the product (the store page and Licence details say which):

  • Per journal (e.g. AT Payment Connect): every journal that switches the product on uses one seat. “3 of 5 journals used” means you can add two more.
  • Per site: all journals served from your OJS installation URL share one seat. A journal on its own domain (base_url[journal] in config.inc.php) needs its own seat.

AT Gateway takes a seat only for journals or hosts that actually use the product. To move a seat, open Licence details and click Release seat, then activate it where you need it.

The Licences & Updates Screen

The banner at the top sums up the state of all products:

Banner Meaning
All products are licensed Nothing to do. Licences are checked automatically once a day.
All products are licensed · N update(s) available A newer version is ready; see the product’s card.
N product(s) waiting for a licence key Their free features work now. Add the key to switch on the premium features.
N product(s) need your attention A highlighted card below says what to do next.

Each product has a card. Its possible states:

Card says What to do
Licensed Nothing. Premium features are on.
Ready Switch the plugin on in a journal (Settings › Website › Plugins). The licence then activates automatically.
Not activated Paste the licence key you received after purchase.
Licensed, but not on every journal Some journals aren’t covered. Activate them, or release a seat you no longer need.
All seats of this licence are in use Release a seat (Licence details), or upgrade your licence in the store.
Not active on this site yet Click Activate to use this licence here.
Licensed (store temporarily unreachable) Everything keeps working until the date shown. Nothing to do unless the message stays for several days.
Paused: store not reachable The server couldn’t reach the store for 7 days. Ask your host to allow HTTPS to store.altechmind.com, then click Check now.
Please enter the licence key again The saved key can no longer be read, usually after moving the site. Paste the key again.
Licence not valid Check the key in your store account, or contact support.
Paused for your safety A licence check couldn’t be verified, so premium features are paused. Your journal keeps working. Contact support.

Check now runs the daily check immediately: licences, the product catalog and updates.

Updates

Updating a product

  1. When a new version is out, the product’s card shows Update now to <version> and a Changelog link.
  2. Click it and confirm. AT Gateway downloads the release, checks its Altechmind signature, size and checksum, backs up the current version and installs the new one.
  3. If any step fails, the previous version is restored automatically. The last 3 backups are kept.

Updates are never installed on their own: only when an administrator clicks. Settings, keys and data are kept. Updates are included for the period shown as Updates until on your licence.

You can also update the classic way: download the new version from My Account › Downloads and upload it under Upload a new plugin.

Updating AT Gateway itself

When a new AT Gateway is available, the Gateway updates section shows Update AT Gateway. It’s recommended, and your settings and licences are kept. If the button isn’t there, download the new version from the store page and upload it under Upload a new plugin. That keeps everything too.

Free from Altechmind

This section lists Altechmind’s free plugins, with their installed version if you have them and a link to each store page. Free plugins work on their own, with or without AT Gateway. They need no account and no licence key, and nothing about them is sent to Altechmind. To install one, download it from its store page and upload it under Website Settings › Plugins › Upload a new plugin.

Data, Privacy & Security

  • What is sent to the store, once a day and when you click: the licence key, the product, the journal or site address the seat is for, and the AT Gateway, OJS and PHP versions. Each request is signed. Nothing about articles, authors, readers, users or payments is ever sent.
  • Only one destination: https://store.altechmind.com, with TLS verified. No tracking or analytics.
  • Keys are encrypted on your server, and only their last 4 characters are ever shown. The encryption uses a secret in your OJS files_dir (atGateway/keyvault.secret).
  • Signed answers: the store’s licence answers and every update are signed. Anything that fails the check is refused, and premium features pause instead of being unlocked.
  • Only site administrators can open the screen. Every action is protected against forged requests and recorded in the Audit log (the last 200 events, at the bottom of the screen).
  • Journal data untouched: AT Gateway doesn’t read or change submissions, issues, users or metadata. It only reads which plugins are switched on.

Indexing & Citations

AT Gateway prints nothing on reader-facing pages. Article and issue pages, citation tags (Google Scholar), DOIs, OAI-PMH, feeds and sitemaps are unchanged, with it on, off or removed. If AT Gateway is disabled, premium products behave like their free version and never hide published content.

Moving or Removing

  • Moving the site to a new server: copy files_dir along with the database, and the keys keep working. If you don’t, AT Gateway asks you to enter the keys again.
  • Changing the domain: the old address shows “No longer served by this installation”. Release that seat in Licence details, then activate the new address.

Last updated on October 8, 2026

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