Configuration

This document describes the application’s configuration. The initial configuration is provided by the application's properties file vif.properties. However, all configuration settings can be overriden on admin -> Administration -> Application Configuration.

Localization

the application's language: The language setting used to display the pages (titles, labels etc). The user can override this setting using the language switch on the application's toolbar.
the content's language: The language setting for the discussion, i.e. the text stored in the database. This setting controls the indexer used for the text entered during the discussions. Only if this language setting is correct, the application's search engine can provide appropriate search results.
date pattern: The pattern (e.g. yyyy\MM\dd) to display date formats. The pattern provided must conform the Java SimpleDateFormat pattern.

Database connection

database: driver: Select the driver to connect to the database storing the content of the discussions.
database: server: The DNS or IP address of the database server to store the content of the discussions.
database/schema: The schema on the database reserved to store the content of the discussions.
username: The username to access the database schema.
password: The password to access the database schema.

The normal database setup is to store both the discussion entries and the members in the same database. Thus, member entries are managed in the forum application.
If you use VIF in an existing organisation, you may want to use an existing people database or similar infrastructure instead of duplicating these information.
VIF provides two possibilities to connect to external data stores containing member entries: 1) connection to an external people database, 2) connection to a LDAP server containing people entries.

Search and Authentication

This setting controls member lookup and authentication.

In the normal setup (i.e. the same database strores both the discussion entries and the members), the default setting org.hip.vif.member.standard is appropriate.

If the member entries are stored in an external people database and accessed through a database connection configured in the section 'Person data in external relational DB', use the setting org.hip.vif.member.external.

If the member entries are stored on a LDAP server and accessed through the LDAP connection configured in the section 'Person data on LDAP', use the setting org.hip.vif.member.ldap.

Mail

the forum's name: This input is used e.g. in the mail sent to the user after his member entry has been created.
the mailserver's hostname: Enter the mail server (domain name or IP address) to be used to send mails.
the sender's mail address: A valid mail address to be used as the mail's sender address.
mail subject: ID: This input will prepended to the subject of every mail sent by the application. Thus, this input can be used to identify mails sent by your forum installation.
mail subject: text: A generic subject text used for mails with no specific mail subject.
mail address: The mail's sign off. This input is added at the end of the mail.

Logging

path to log file: The path to the log file used to log messages generated by the application.
log level: The log level of the messages that should be logged. In production mode, level 'warn' is appropriate. If you want to debug application problems, you may choose a more verbose log level. The levels in the selection are ordered in ascending severity.
logback configuration: You can provide your own log configuration by specifying a path to a logback configuration file (in the file system). For more information about logback configuration see the logback manual. This way, you can configure different appenders, e.g. storing the log messages in a database or sending mails containing warning messages to a specified mail address.Specfying a logback configuration will override the settings 'path to log file' and 'log level'.

Note: You have to restart the application after changing one of the logging configuration settings. Without restart, these changes will produc no effect.

Sundry

logout URL: By default, the application's login page is displayed after a user logged out. However, you can provide your own web page displayed after log out by entering the url of that web page.
upload quota: Users can add documents to bibliography entries. Under certain conditions it may be a good idea to limit the size of these upload files. This can be done by this configuration setting.
latency days: If a contribution that is ready for publication has to undergo a publication workflow, a review for request is sent to a randomply selected participant of the discussion group. If this participant doesn't respond to this request, the contribution's publication is blocked. To break this blockade, the application has to dissolve the former request for review and it has to select another reviewer.You can configure the number of days to wait for the reviewer's response with this setting.
application's workspace: The path to the application's workspace, i.e. the place in the file system to store the search index and other auxiliary files.
allow guests: Check this setting if you want to allow guests (i.e. users not logged in) to read the discussions of public discussion groups. If you uncheck this setting, reading of discussions is prevented for all groups.
display password: If the members are managed with the VIF application, the administration has to create member entries. If the member entry is created, a mail is sent to the member's mail address containing the login information. This login information is also displayed as part of the success message on the web page. You can prevent the display of the password on the web page by unchecking this setting.