Web.config parameters

The system settings include appSettings keys and other settings, such as connection string placed in appropriate sections of the web.config file.

 

appSettings keys

 

appSettings keys are stored in section /configuration/appSettings.

 

Key

Description

Sample Value

CMSDirectoryProviderAssembly

Name of the assembly that should be used for operations in the file system. You can choose from the following options:

 

CMS.DirectoryProviderDotNet - this is a managed code library that uses System.IO methods for disk operations. It is useful for environment that allows only managed code. This is the default value.
 
CMS.DirectoryProviderWin32 - this is an unmanaged code library that uses Win32 API for disk operations. It is useful for environment that requires Win32 API calls.

<add key="CMSDirectoryProviderAssembly" value="CMS.DirectoryProviderDotNet" />

 

or

 

<add key="CMSDirectoryProviderAssembly" value="CMS.DirectoryProviderWin32" />

 

 

CMSProgrammingLanguage

Indicates the programming language used in transformations and in custom code added to web parts.

 

The default value is C#.

<add key="CMSProgrammingLanguage" value="C#" />

 

or

 

<add key="CMSProgrammingLanguage" value="VB" />

CMSSearchProviderAssembly

Name of the assembly that is used for full-text search. The default assembly is CMS.SearchProviderSQL.

<add key="CMSSearchProviderAssembly" value="CMS.SearchProviderSQL" />

CMSStagingAcceptAllCertificates

Causes all certificates will be accepted when performing content staging tasks through SSL (X.509). If false, only certificates generated by a certification authority will be accepted.

<add key="CMSStagingAcceptAllCertificates" value="true" />

CMSTrialKey

Contains a temporary trial license key. You can remove this value after installation.

 

CMSUseAutomaticScheduler

Indicates if automatic scheduling should be used. The default value is false.

 

Automatic scheduler periodically requests the cmspages/scheduler.aspx page which ensures that scheduled tasks are processed automatically.

 

If it's turned off (false - by default), the tasks are processed at the end of page request. If it's true, the cmspages/scheduler.aspx page is requested periodically.

<add key="CMSUseAutomaticScheduler" value="false" />

CMSRunSchedulerWithinRequest

If true (the default value), the scheduler is executed within the standard EndRequest of a page. If false, the scheduler is executed via the cmspages/scheduler.aspx page.

<add key="CMSRunSchedulerWithinRequest " value="false" />

CMSSchedulerURL

URL of the physical location of the scheduler.aspx page.

 

The default value is ~/cmspages/scheduler.aspx.

<add key="CMSSchedulerURL" value="https://domain/cmspages/scheduler.aspx" />

CMSSchedulerAcceptAllCertificates

If true, all security certificates (including not valid ones) will be accepted when accessing the scheduler.aspx page via a secured protocol.

<add key="CMSSchedulerAcceptAllCertificates" value="true" />

CMSSchedulerUserName

User name under which scheduler.aspx should be accessed (e.g. when using windows authentication).

<add key="CMSSchedulerUserName" value="office/myname" />

CMSSchedulerPassword

Password for the user name under which scheduler.aspx should be accessed.

<add key="CMSSchedulerPassword" value="mypassword123" />

CMSUseCustomHandlers

Indicates if custom handlers should be executed to process system events. See the Global events and their handling chapter for more details.

 

The default value is false.

<add key="CMSUseCustomHandlers" value="true" />

CMSWebFarmServerName

Code name of the web farm server. This value is used for native web farm synchronization support.

<add key="CMSWebFarmServerName" value="server1" />

CMSWYSIWYGFixXHTML

Indicates if the WYSIWYG editor should automatically try to fix XHTML incompatibilities in the code it generates.

 

Supported values are "true" and "false". The default value is true.

<add key="CMSWYSIWYGFixXHTML" value="true" />

CMSUseIFrameForHTMLEditorToolbar

Indicates if the WYSIWYG editor shared toolbar should be displayed in an iFrame to avoid issues with design in the editing mode. The default value is false.

<add key="CMSUseIFrameForHTMLEditorToolbar" value="true" />

CMSUseVirtualPathProvider

Indicates if the virtual path provider should be used (true by default). Before you switch off the virtual path provider, please read the Pre-compilation (Publish function) chapter.

<add key="CMSUseVirtualPathProvider" value="false" />

CMSDefaultSpellCheckerCulture

Specifies the default culture of the built-in spell-checker. This culture is used when the dictionary for the currently selected content culture is not found.

<add key="CMSDefaultSpellCheckerCulture" value="en-US" />

CMSShowLogonCultureSelector

Indicates if the user interface logon page should display a drop-down list with available user interface languages.

<add key="CMSShowLogonCultureSelector" value="false" />

CMSUsePermanentRedirect

Indicates if static redirect (301) should be used instead of the Response.Redirect (302, default mode) method.

<add key="CMSUsePermanentRedirect" value="true" />

CMSShowWebPartCodeTab

Indicates if the Code tab is displayed in web part properties dialog in CMS Desk.

 

This parameter can be used for backward compatibility purposes. Otherwise, using the Code tab is now obsolete.

<add key="CMSShowWebPartCodeTab" value="true" />

CMSShowWebPartBindingTab

Indicates if the Binding tab is displayed in web part properties dialog in CMS Desk.

 

This parameter can be used for backward compatibility purposes. Otherwise, using the Binding tab is now obsolete.

<add key="CMSShowWebPartBindingTab" value="true"/>

CMSShoppingCartExpirationPeriod

Number of days after which E-commerce shopping cart content is deleted from the database. It's used for deleting unused shopping carts of anonymous users that are stored in the database with ID stored in the browser cookie.

<add key="CMSShoppingCartExpirationPeriod" value="60" />

CMSUseCurrentSKUData

Indicates if the E-commerce module should use the price from the existing order items or from the current SKU data when re-calculating the order.

<add key="CMSUseCurrentSKUData" value="true"/>

CMSFullClientCache

Indicates if full client cache is enabled. If enabled, CSS styles and images will be cached in the client's browser. It is not recommended to use this option in non-live-site mode, as changes made to the pages would not be displayed due to the caching.

<add key="CMSFullClientCache" value="true"/>

CMSRenderGeneratorName

Indicates if the 'generator' meta tag stating that the page was generated by Kentico CMS is generated in the header of each page.

The default value is "false".

<add key="CMSRenderGeneratorName" value="true"/>

CMSClearFieldEditor

Determines field editor behavior when creating new fields. If true, new fields will have empty values of attributes. If false, new fields will have pre-defined values, the same as the previously selected field.

<add key="CMSClearFieldEditor" value="true"/>

CMSShowTemplateASPXTab

Indicates if ASPX code tab is displayed when editing a page template. Using this tab, ASPX code of a page template created using the Portal engine can be exported.

<add key="CMSShowTemplateASPXTab" value="true"/>

CMSDatabaseCulture

Specifies the default culture of the system's database.

<add key="CMSDatabaseCulture" value="en-us"/>

CMSDataProviderAssembly

Specifies custom data provider assembly used as the database connector for the CMS. See this topic for more details.

<add key="CMSDataProviderAssembly" value="CMS.CustomDataProvider"/>

CMSWebFarmEnabled

Indicates if Web farms are enabled (true) or not (false). See this topic for more details.

<add key="CMSWebFarmEnabled" value="true"/>

CMSDisposeConnectionAfterClose

If true, database connection is automatically disposed (allocated resources released) when a database connection is closed.

<add key="CMSDisposeConnectionAfterClose" value="true"/>

CMSUseSessionCookies

Indicates if session cookies are used or not.

<add key="CMSUseSessionCookies" value="true"/>

CMSImportWindowsRoles

When Windows authentication is used and this key set to true, roles available in the Active Directory will be imported into the system.

<add key="CMSImportWindowsRoles" value="true"/>

CMSDefaultUICulture

Specifies the default UI culture.

<add key="CMSDefaultUICulture" value="en-us"/>

CMSFileScriptTimeout

The maximum number of seconds a script can run before the server terminates it.

<add key="CMSFileScriptTimeout" value="7200"/>

CMSUseExtensionOnPostback

When using friendly URL extensions, postback doesn't work in some cases. If you enable this setting, .aspx extension is attached to the URL in the form tag, which prevents the postback problems.

<add key="CMSUseExtensionOnPostback" value="true"/>

CMSUseSQLResourceManager

If true, SQL Resource manager is used to retrieve strings used in the user interface.

<add key="CMSUseSQLResourceManager" value="true"/>

CMSLoadHTMLEditorByIFrame

If true, the WYSIWYG editor is loaded in an iFrame.

<add key="CMSLoadHTMLEditorByIFrame" value="true"/>

CMSUseFrameForHTMLEditorToolbar

Indicates if HTML frame is used for the WYSIWYG editor toolbar.

<add key="CMSUseFrameForHTMLEditorToolbar" value="true"/>

CMSAllowCheckIOPermissions

If true, write permissions on the site folder are checked when necessary and produce an error message when are insufficient.

<add key="CMSAllowCheckIOPermissions" value="true"/>

CMSEmailTransferEnconding

Specifies the type of encoding used for e-mails sent from the CMS.

<add key="CMSEmailTransferEnconding" value="TransferEncoding.Unknown (-1)"/>

CMSEmailProviderAssembly

Specifies custom email provider assembly. Read this topic for more information.

<add key="CMSEmailProviderAssembly" value="CMS.CustomEmailProvider"/>

CMSCheckParameters

Indicates if parameters checking is allowed. Read this topic for more details.

<add key="CMSCheckParameters" value="true"/>

CMSReportCheckParameters

If true, exception reporting the parameters is thrown when the parameters do not match. Read this topic for more details.

<add key="CMSReportCheckParameters" value="true"/>

CMSLogEvents

Indicates if logging events in the Event log is enabled.

<add key="CMSLogEvents" value="true"/>

CMSLogMetadata

Indicates if logging of metadata events in the Event log is enabled.

<add key="CMSLogMetadata" value="true"/>

CMSLogKeepPercent

Coefficient for Event log deletion, keeps the specified percentage of log items alive and deletes the log by batch when the set percentage  is exceeded.

<add key="CMSLogKeepPercent" value="10"/>

CMSCustomHandlersAssembly

Specifies custom event handler assembly. Read this topic for more information.

<add key="CMSCustomHandlersAssembly" value="CMS.CustomEventHandler"/>

CMSWorkflowSendEmailToModerator

If true, workflow notification e-mails will be sent to the user who is performing the current workflow step along with other users involved in the workflow.

<add key="CMSWorkflowSendEmailToModerator" value="true"/>

CMSControlElement

If present in the web.config, the tag entered in the value will be used instead of the SPAN tag when generating pages.

<add key="CMSControlElement" value="div"/>

CMSUseParsedSelfClose

Indicates if parsed self closing tags operations (faster) are used instead of standard self close filter.

<add key="CMSUseParsedSelfClose" value="true"/>

CMSEnableOrderItemEditing

If true, order item parameters, such as order item name and order item unit price, can be modified when editing an existing order.

<add key="CMSEnableOrderItemEditing" value="true"/>

CMSUseMetaFileForProductImage

Indicates if meta files should be used for product images in E-commerce.

<add key="CMSUseMetaFileForProductImage" value="true"/>

CMSUseCustomEcommerceProviders

Specifies whether to use custom E-commerce provider handlers. See this topic for more details.

<add key="CMSUseCustomEcommerceProviders" value="true"/>

CMSCustomEcommerceProviderAssembly

Specifies the custom e-commerce provider assembly. See this topic for more details.

<add key="CMSCustomEcommerceProviderAssembly" value="CMS.CustomECommerceProvider"/>

CMSVirtualPathProviderAssembly

Specifies the Custom virtual path provider assembly. See this topic for more details.

<add key="CMSVirtualPathProviderAssembly" value="CMS.CustomVirtualPathProvider"/>

CMSGetFileEndRequest

If true, ApplicationInstance.CompleteRequest() is used instead of Response.End() in the CompleteRequest method.

<add key="CMSGetFileEndRequest" value="true"/>

CMSLogEventsToFile

If true, events are also logged into the ~\App_data\logevents.log file.

<add key="CMSLogEventsToFile" value="true"/>

CMSUseSQLResourceManagerAsPrimary

Changes the priority of used localization resource strings to:

1.custom.resx
2.cms.resx
3.database (Site Manager -> Development -> UI Cultures)

<add key="CMSUseSQLResourceManagerAsPrimary" value="false" />

FCKeditor:BasePath

Specifies where the location of FCK (WYSIWYG) editor. By default, it is located in ~\CMSAdminControls\FCKeditor.

<add key="FCKeditor:BasePath" value="/FCKeditor/"/>

FCKEditor:UserFilesPath

Specifies path to user files.

<add key="FCKEditor:UserFilesPath" value="/UserFiles/"/>

CMSDefaultUserID

Specifies default user ID.

<add key="CMSDefaultUserID" value="53"/>

ImportFilesDiskPath

Specifies path to attachments that should be attached to documents imported via the SQL Import windows application.

<add key="ImportFilesDiskPath" value="C:\Temp"/>

UICulture

Specifies the default user interface culture. En-us is the default one, which can be overridden by adding this key.

<add key="UICulture" value="en-us"/>

CMSDeleteTemporaryAttachmentsOlderThan

Specifies how old attachments should be deleted by the 'Delete old temporary attachments' scheduled task. The value is entered in hours. Attachments older than the entered value will be deleted when the scheduled task is executed.

<add key="CMSDeleteTemporaryAttachmentsOlderThan" value="12"/>

CMSExportExcludedFolders

Specifies which folders will be filtered from being included in Files folder of the export package. More info here.

<add key="CMSExportExcludedFolders" value="test*;cms*" />

CMSExportExcludedFiles

Specifies which files will be filtered from being included in the Files folder of the export package. More info here.

<add key="CMSExportExcludedFiles" value="test*;cms*" />

CMSEnsureSafeUserNames

Indicates if forbidden characters in user and role names imported from AD should be replaced. The default value is true. If turned off by setting the value to false, you may experience problems when editing users and roles imported with forbidden characters. Therefore, it is NOT RECOMMENDED to turn it off.

<add key="CMSEnsureSafeUserNames" value="false" />

CMSForbiddenUserNameCharactersReplacement

Sets the character by which forbidden characters in user names imported from AD should be replaced. If not set, value from Site Manager -> Settings -> URLs -> Forbidden characters replacement is used.

<add key="CMSForbiddenUserNameCharactersReplacement" value="-" />

CMSForbiddenRoleNameCharactersReplacement

Sets the character by which forbidden characters in role names imported from AD should be replaced. If not set, value from Site Manager -> Settings -> URLs -> Forbidden characters replacement is used.

<add key="CMSForbiddenRoleNameCharactersReplacement" value="-" />

CMSAllowGZip

Enables Gzip compression of output HTML code.

<add key="CMSAllowGZip" value="true" />

CMSLanguageParameterName

Changes the name of the 'lang' querystring parameter so that you get Home?sprache=de-de instead of Home?lang=de-de.

<add key="CMSLanguageParameterName" value="sprache" />

CMSAliasPathParameterName

Changes the name of the 'aliaspath' querystring parameter so that you get products.aspx?ap=/products/myproduct instead of products.aspx?aliaspath=/products/myproduct.

<add key="CMSAliasPathParameterName" value="ap" />

CMSDisableAdministrationInterface

Disables the administration interface. The 'Access denied' screen is displayed on each attempt to access CMS Desk or Site Manager.

<add key="CMSDisableAdministrationInterface" value="true"/>

 

 

Special settings for transaction isolation

 

You will use the following settings only in special cases when you encounter problems with deadlocks when updating a document:

 

Key

Description

Sample Value

CMSTransactionIsolationLevel

Isolation level for explicit transactions.
 

<add key="CMSTransactionIsolationLevel" value="ReadCommitted" />

 

 

CMSDefaultIsolationLevel

Isolation level for all queries, even without transactions. It's used only if the value is not ReadCommitted. The settings below modify the behavior for ReadUncommitted.

<add key="CMSDefaultIsolationLevel" value="ReadUncommitted" />

CMSUseDefaultIsolationLevelOnlyWithOpenTransactions

If true, the default isolation level is used only when some transaction is already running.

<add key="CMSUseDefaultIsolationLevelOnlyWithOpenTransactions" value="true" />

CMSAllowSimultaneousTransactions

If false, there can be only one transaction running at the same time.

<add key="CMSAllowSimultaneousTransactions" value="true" />

CMSMaxTransactionWaitTimeout

Indicates how many seconds a transaction should wait for completion of another running transaction if simultaneous transactions are not allowed.

<add key="CMSMaxTransactionWaitTimeout" value="1" />

 

 

Special settings for file synchronization on web farms

 

By adding the following keys to your web.config, you can enable or disable synchronization of certain kind of files stored in the file system.

 

Key

Description

Sample Value

CMSWebFarmSynchronizeFiles

General key determining if files should be synchronized (true) or not (false).

<add key="CMSWebFarmSynchronizeFiles" value="true" />

CMSWebFarmSynchronizeAttachments

Enables/disables synchronization of atachments.

<add key="CMSWebFarmSynchronizeAttachments" value="true" />

CMSWebFarmSynchronizeMetaFiles

Enables/disables synchronization of meta files.

<add key="CMSWebFarmSynchronizeMetaFiles" value="true" />

CMSWebFarmSynchronizeMediaFiles

Enables/disables synchronization of media files.

<add key="CMSWebFarmSynchronizeMediaFiles" value="true" />

CMSWebFarmSynchronizeBizFormFiles

Enables/disables synchronization of BizForm files.

<add key="CMSWebFarmSynchronizeBizFormFiles" value="true" />

CMSWebFarmSynchronizeAvatars

Enables/disables synchronization of Avatars.

<add key="CMSWebFarmSynchronizeAvatars" value="true" />

CMSWebFarmSynchronizeForumAttachments

Enables/disables synchronization of forum attachments.

<add key="CMSWebFarmSynchronizeForumAttachments" value="true" />

CMSWebFarmSynchronizeDeleteFiles

Enables/disables synchronization of deleted files.

<add key="CMSWebFarmSynchronizeDeleteFiles" value="true" />

 

 

Connection string

 

The database used by Kentico CMS engine is specified by the connection string CMSConnectionString in the /configuration/connectionStrings section. Here's an example of such connection string:

 

<add name="CMSConnectionString" connectionString="Persist Security Info=False;database=CMS;server=myserver;user id=sa;password=mypassword123;Current Language=English;Connection Timeout=120;" />