Working with Configuration Files

Contents

Managing Your Configuration Files
The #include Statement
Case Sensitivity within Configuration Files

Managing Your Configuration Files

Practically every aspect of the WebZ system is controlled by a configuration file, from system initialization and load balance, to interface settings, to database access profiles for specific user types, and so on. Often, problems you encounter with the WebZ system are caused by incorrect settings within a configuration file, perhaps from an old version of the file itself.

Because configuration files are so important to the operation of the WebZ system, you should always make backup copies of the configuration files before you modify them. It is also a good idea to backup all of your configuration files at regular intervals (e.g., every week, every other week, etc.) to a secure location outside of your WebZ environment.

The #include Statement

The #include statement allows you to insert information from an external file into a configuration file, much like the #include statement in C programming. This is useful for controlling the size of your configuration files, and it allows you to insert data into several configuration files without having to duplicate the data.

To use the statement in a configuration file, simply add the #include statement and the path (absolute or relative) to the file whose contents you wish to include. If you do not specify an absolute path, the WebZ system will use a path relative to the location of your .ini file root directory (which is defined by the IniFileRoot variable in the JaSSIServer.ini configuration file).

The #include statement cannot be the first statement in the configuration file. It must be inserted after at least one [bracketed] section in the file.

Example
In the following example, the MyTest.ini database configuration file includes only a [database] section, a [Formats] section, and an #include statement that inserts the contents of MyExternalData.ini into MyTest.ini.

[databases] . . . [Formats] . . . #include dbs/MyExternalData.ini

Case Sensitivity within Configuration Files

In configuration files, variable names which appear to the left of an equal sign are not case sensitive within the WebZ system.

Example
The style table entity, &StyleTable.colors.BGColor, is valid even though the name of the referenced data has a different case in the style definition file.

[colors]
bgcolor = #ffffff

Thus, bgcolor = #ffffff is equivalent to BGColor = #ffffff.