Configuring the Authoring Tool

This article aims to give you a run-down of the different configuration options available for your authoring tool installation, what they mean and how to use them.

If you're looking for course configuration options, you're in the wrong place, go here.

The global tool configuration settings live in conf/config.json. This file is created and populated during install (see install.js for specifics). Any of the settings listed below can be added to the config.json. You can see an example config.json file here.

• Required fields are marked with a *
• Where specific values are expected for a given setting, these are listed in the Expected values column (a - here signifies any reasonable value).

Quick links

• General options
• Feature options
• Server options
• Database options
• SMTP/Mail options
• Master tenant options
• CKEditor options
• Command line install options

General options

Name	Type	Expected values	Description
root*	String	-	Path to the server root in the server file system
dataRoot*	String	-	Path to the 'data' folder, relative to the server root
rootUrl	String	-	URL the authoring tool instance can be accessed at
buildServerStatusUrl	String	-
sessionSecret*	String	-	Session cookies are signed with this 'secret' to prevent tampering
authoringToolRepository*	String	-	A git repository to be used for the authoring tool application source
frameworkRepository*	String	-	A git repository to be used for the framework source
frameworkRevision*	String	-	A valid git revision for the frameworkRepository specified above
maxLoginAttempts	Number	-	Number of failed login attempts until a user is locked
maxFileUploadSize	String	-	File upload limit (for course assets, plugins, course import, ...), defaults to 200mb. Supported units: b, kb, mb, gb, tb

Feature options

Name	Type	Expected values	Description
outputPlugin*	String	adapt	Which plugin to use for course output
auth*	String	local (i.e. username/password)	Which plugin to use for authentication
useffmpeg	Boolean	true/false	Whether to use the FFmpeg library for the asset library (note: FFmpeg must be installed)
useAnalytics	Boolean	true/false	Whether to enable Google Analytics for data collection
trackingId	String	-	The identifier for your Google Analytics property (see Google's documentation for more)
isProduction	Boolean	true/false	Whether the server is used in production. Note: this is set during the grunt build process, so shouldn't generally be changed manually.

Server options

Name	Type	Expected values	Description
serverName*	String	-	The URL of the tool's host server
serverPort*	Number	-	Port number the tool is accessed at

Database options

Name	Type	Expected values	Description
dbType*	String	mongoose	The type of database used for the authoring tool instance
dbHost*	String	-	The URL of the database's host server
dbName*	String	-	Name of the database
dbPort*	Number	-	Port number the database is accessed at
dbUser	String	-	Username for accessing the database
dbPass	String	-	Password for the above user
dbReplicaset	Array	-	A list of hosts and ports for the database to persist to
dbOptions	Object	-	An object specifying custom options to be passed to the database driver. See the documentation for your chosen database for more (Mongoose options can be found here).

SMTP/Mail options

For more on configuring a mail server, go to this page.

Note: rootUrl is also required when sending out some emails (see General options).

Name	Type	Expected values	Description
useSmtp	Boolean	true/false	Whether an SMTP server should be used
smtpService	String	See list of supported services	Name of the service to use for sending mail
smtpUsername	String	-	Username for the SMTP service account
smtpPassword	String	-	Password for the above
fromAddress	String	-	Email address to user as the sender on any emails
useSmtpConnectionUrl	Boolean	true/false	Use a SMTP connection URL to connect to the SMTP server
smtpConnectionUrl	String	e.g. smtps://username:[email protected]/?pool=true	If useSmtpConnectionUrl is set to true, you must provide a valid SMTP connection string.

Master tenant options

Name	Type	Expected values	Description
masterTenantName*	String	-	Name of the tool's master tenant
masterTenantID*	String	-	ID of the master tenant.

CKEditor options

Name	Type	Expected values	Description
ckEditorExtraAllowedContent	String	-	Overwrite CKEditor config for content filtering.
ckEditorEnterMode	String	"ENTER_P", "ENTER_BR", "ENTER_DIV"	Configure the behaviour of the ENTER key.

Command line install options

Option	Accepted values	description
--useJSON	Y/N	Use existing config values?
--install	Y/N	Continue? Y/n
--serverPort	number	Server port
--serverName	string	Server name
--dataRoot	string	Data directory path
--authoringToolRepository	string	Git repository URL to be used for the authoring tool source code
--frameworkRepository	string	Git repository URL to be used for the framework source code
--frameworkRevision	string	Specific git revision to be used for the framework. Accepts any valid revision type (e.g. branch/tag/commit)
--dbName	string	Master database name
--useConnectionUri	Y/N	Will you be using a full database connection URI? (all connection options in the URI) y/N
--dbConnectionUri	string	Database connection URI
--dbHost	string	Database host
--dbPort	number	Database server port
--dbUser	string	Database server user (only specify if using database authentication)
--dbPass	string	Database server password (only specify if using database authentication)
--dbAuthSource	string	Database server authentication database (only specify if using database authentication)
--useSmtp	Y/N	Will you be using an SMTP server? (used for sending emails) y/N
--useSmtpConnectionUrl	Y/N	Will you use a URL to connect to your smtp Server y/N
--fromAddress	string	Sender email address
--rootUrl	string	The url this install will be accessible from
--smtpService	string	Which SMTP service (if any) will be used? (see https://github.com/andris9/nodemailer-wellknown#supported-services for a list of supported services.)
--smtpUsername	string	SMTP username
--smtpPassword	string	SMTP password
--smtpConnectionUrl	string	Custom connection URL: smtps://user%40gmail.com:[email protected]/?pool=true
--masterTenantName	string	Set a unique name for your tenant
--masterTenantDisplayName	string	Set the display name for your tenant
--suEmail	string	Super user email address
--suPassword	string	Super user email password
--suRetypePassword	string	Confirm super user email password