Configuring the Authoring Tool

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. 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
• Server options
• Database options
• SMTP/Mail options
• Master tenant options

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.