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Configuring the Authoring Tool

Tom Taylor edited this page Sep 5, 2016 · 24 revisions

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.

Important: 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

Name Type Expected values Description
root* String - Path to the server root
dataRoot* String - Path to the 'data' folder, relative to the server root
rootUrl String - URL of the authoring tool
buildServerStatusUrl String -
sessionSecret* String - Session cookies are signed with this 'secret' to prevent tampering
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

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.

Name Type Expected values Description
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

Master tenant options

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