Configuration in EPiServer CMS 5 R1

Introduction

The structure of EPiServer CMS-specific settings in the Web.config file as well as the way site settings are dealt with programmatically have gone through some major changes. This text points out what has changed and how to use these changes in code as well as in configuration files.  

Table of Contents

• Web.config
• Connection Strings
• Enterprise Configuration
• List of Web.config Settings
  » Required Settings 
  » Available Settings 
  » Workflow Settings  

Web.Config

In previous versions of EPiServer, the EPiServer-specific settings were located under the AppSettings block in the Web.Config file. These have been removed. Instead of using the AppSettings collection with brackets and a string (where you could type virtually anything, meaning there was no guaranteed result until you actually tried it) EPiServer CMS settings are now accessed through the use of a configuration class. All settings are typed members of this class, which gives the added benefit of being able to see all settings through Intellisense.

Access to the site settings goes through the static object EPiServer.Configuration.Settings.Instance. There is no need to instantiate this class since it's a global static available throughout all of the application.
To locate the settings for a specific site in Web.Config, scroll to the <EPiServer> section and find the <sites> element collection.

Note: The <site> element contains a description attribute that makes it easier to locate a specific site in web.config.

If you do not know the application ID, enter any incorrect value and navigate to your site. You should get an error message informing you that the site could not be found - for example:  

The site element with applicationId "/LM/w3svc/1/ROOT/EPiServerSample" could not be found in the configuration file.

The message also contains the complete path to your site.

Within the <sites> collection there is a <site> element for each site that uses this configuration file (enterprise). Find a node named site, where the instance ID is the ID of your specific site. If you do not know the ID, you can use the free tool Metabase explorer to find it (Metabase Explorer at Download.com). Navigate to the section "/LM/W3SVC/". Listed under this section you will find all your sites and their corresponding IDs, see the following image.

Note: If you have a Single Server License there will be only one site and only one config section in your web.config file while an Enterprise solution will contain several sites.

Connection Strings

In EPiServer CMS 5, you have the option to define several different strings to connect to several different databases. The strings have been moved from Web.Config to a new file called Connectionstrings.config.

Enterprise Configuration

According to the old model, each site inherited some basic settings from a base site. If a site had specific needs of configuration, you had to override the settings for that site. This lead to a messy system where it was difficult to get a good overview of how each site worked.
Therefore, inheritance has been removed. Each site now has its own <site> element and consequently a separate <siteSettings> element. Every required attribute needs to be set for every site. This leads to a more intuitive administration and gives a better overview of how each site is actually configured.

List of Web.config Settings

Required Settings

Available Settings

Workflow Settings

For further information about configuration options regarding workflow system see the Developer's Guide/Workflows/Developing Workflows section in the online EPiServer CMS SDK.