Global Configuration

Global Configuration controls Elxis operational settings. Changes made on this screen will update configuration.php file. This file must be normally unwritable for security reasons. Change it to writable in order to be able to edit it. Then remember to change it back to unwritable (644).

Notice that Elxis next to the page title, shows the current status of configuration.php file. It can be eitheir "Writable" or "Not Writable".

Check the "Make unwritable after saving" check box to make this file unwritable after saving. But the most common way is to use an FTP application.

 

Configuration settings are organized in 11 groups.

 

Site Tab

Site Offline - Use it to effectively switch on and off this web site's "Front-End". Use this option when you maintain or update your site to temporarily make it not available to public. Visitors will see the message defined in the following parameter.

Offline Message - This is the message displayed when the site is offline. You can change this text to whatever message you want.

System Error Message - This is the message displayed when there is a technical problem with this site (e.g. database connection fails).

Site Name - This option allows you to specify the name of the site. It will be displayed in your browser's window title and will be used when messages are send from your site.

Components linked with Access System - This is a very important setting that is directly related with access control. Elxis implements an advanced access control system (Site -> Access Manager). Using this option, you can define where this access control system will be applied.

If you set the option to None, you are actually disabling the access control checks. If you have already set up some rules these will remain but they will not be not used. We advise you to be very careful with option. It is one of the things that make Elxis so unique and advanced.

Use Security Images - Set it to Yes (recommended) if you want Captcha images to appear in Elxis forms. Captcha images help you reduce spam mails.

Show Unauthorised Links - With this option set to 'Yes', all visitors will be able to see content to which they would not otherwise have access, (that is, content given an Access Level of 'Registered'. With this option set to 'No', they will only see content with an Access Level of 'Public'. Access Level setting is defined in various Items parameters.

Allow User Registration - This option allows you to globally set whether visitors can register and create a user account (become registered members). If it is set to 'Yes', every visitor will be able to create an account and become a registered member. If it is set to No, only administrators will be able to create new user accounts.

Use New Account Activation - If it is set to Yes, an activation link will be sent by email to users that are creating a 'registered user' account. When users receive the email, they have to click the activation link in order to verify that they are real humans. If it is set to 'No', users will be able to login right away without activation.

Require Unique Email - Select whether you want to prevent registration with duplicate email addresses. In combination with "New Account Activation", this option prevents users to open several accounts using the same email address.

Debug Site - By enabling this option, you can view the queries executed by Elxis. It can be a handy tool for debugging.

WYSIWYG Editor - Choose the Text Editor that you want to be active and used for editing content. Remember that editors are installed as Bots.

List Length - Select the default length for lists used in administration (number of items shown per page). You have to logoff and then logon for the new value to take effect.

Favorites Site Icon - Lets you define the favorites icon for this site. By default this is the Maiandros, the Elxis logo.

 

Locale Tab

Default Frontend Language - Choose the default language used on the Front-End of this site.

Default Backend Language - Choose the default language used on the Back-End of this site.

Time Offset - This option sets the time offset in hours, between your server location and your location.

Country Locale - You can use this option to select the locale for your Operation System. We recommend to set to -Auto Select-, as Elxis will use the best locale for you. Please note that Windows O.S. does not support UTF-8 locales.

Locale Check - Previews how dates are displayed based on the selected locale. Please note that Windows O.S. does not support UTF-8 locales.

 

Content Tab

Linked Titles - Select 'Yes', if you want content item titles to act also as links to full articles.

Read More Link - Select 'Show' if you want a "Read more" link to be displayed at the bottom of articles displayed in blog view and have their Main Text filled.

Item Rating/Voting - This option allows the rating of content items. Choose 'Yes', and a 'Rating Bar' will be shown on each content item, as well as a form for submitting your rating.

Author Names - Choose if you want author names to be displayed or not.

Created Date and Time - Choose if you want items creation date and time to be displayed or not.

Modified Date and Time - Choose if you want items modification date and time to be displayed or not.

Hits - Choose if you want hits count for items to be displayed or not.

RTF Icon - Choose if you want to show the RTF icon. RTF icon is used to convert and download an article as RTF (Rich Text Format) document.

PDF Icon - Choose if you want to show the PDF icon. PDF icon is used to convert and download an article as PDF document.

Print Icon - Choose if you want to show the Print icon. Print icon is used to display a printer-friendly version of an article, letting users to print it.

Email Icon - Choose if you want to show the Email icon. Email icon is used to let you mail an article to a friend.

Icons - Choose if you want the RTF, PDF, Print and Email options to be displayed as icons or text strings.

Table of Contents on multi-page items - Decide if you want a TOC table to appear on articles that are divided in pages using the mospagebreak bot. We suggest to set this option to 'Show'.

Back Button - Select if the 'Back Button' will be visible or not at the bottom of each page.

Content Item Navigation - Select if 'Next' and 'Previous' navigation links will be visible at the bottom of pages.

 

Database Tab

Warning: These are very important settings. You have set them during Elxis installation.
DO NOT CHANGE THEM UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERIENCED USER THAT KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING!!

Database Type - Change the database type Elxis is using.

Hostname - Most common value is 'localhost'. If you are unsure, ask your system administrator.

Database Username - The username that is used to connect to the database.

Password - The password that is used to connect to the database.

Database - This is the name of the database Elxis is using.

MySQL Database Prefix - This is the database tables prefix. Default value is "elx_".

 

Server Tab

The following three items were predefined during the installation and are not configurable through this tab. The only way to change them is by manually editing the configuration.php file.

Absolute Path - This is the location Elxis is installed on your web server.

Live Site - This is the URL (web address) to this site.

Secret Word - A unique code for future use.

GZIP Page Compression - If your system supports it, you can enable the GZip compression and send compressed outpout instead of normal. If supported, this could significantly increase site performance and decrease the load time of your site.

Login Session Lifetime - Type the duration of inactivity (in seconds) the Administration session should be allowed to stay live before automatic logout occurs. After automatic logout, the Administrator will be required to login again in order to continue working.

Error Reporting - Select the level or error reporting for this site. Available options are System Default, None, Simple and Maximum.

Register Globals Emulation - This option allows you to turn register_globals emulation On or Off. Please be advised that the recommended setting is Off but this may cause some 3rd party components to stop working correctly. If you are experiencing problems with undefined variables with some components or modules, try setting this option to On.

Help Server - You can set the source of Elxis help files. These are the files used when you press the "Help" icon to get help. Available options are:

File Creation - By default, files created by the installation of components, modules and bots inherit the server default permissions. By choosing "CHMOD new files", you can override the server permissions. Use with caution.

Directory Creation - As with files, new directories will by default inherit the server default permissions. Choose "CHMOD new directories" to override the server permissions. Use with caution.

 

Metadata Tab

These settings let you define the global Metadata used by this Elxis site. Metadata are one of the parameters that affect your ranking in search engines.

Global Site Meta Description - Type a Metadata description for this web site. You may want to limit your description to twenty words or so, depending on the Search Engine you are targeting. Make it concise and relevant to this site's contents. You can include some of your keywords and key phrases here too. As some search engines read more than 20 words you can add one or two sentences. Make sure that the most important part of your description is in the first 20 words. Note: You can override this description on an article level.

Global Site Meta Keywords - Type here the Metadata keywords for this site, separated with commas. The optimal number of characters for keywords is said to be between 300 and 500.

Show Title Meta Tag - Include in page meta tags the Title of the current content item. Visible only in source code and by search engines.

Show Author Meta Tag - Include in page meta tags the name of the Author of the current content item. Visible only in source code and by search engines.

 

Mail Tab

Settings related to how Elxis is sending messages.

Mailer - Select the mailer you wish to use. Available options are: "PHP mail function", "Sendmail" or "SMTP Server".

Mail From - Choose which email address will be shown as sender.

From Name - Choose what name will show as the sender.

Sendmail Path - This is the path to the sendmail application. Under Linux installations is normally /usr/sbin/sendmail. This not applicable on Windows installations.

If you have chosen the SMTP Server as the Mailer, then you have to set the following settings. Otherwise ignore them.

SMTP Auth - Choose "Yes" if SMTP Authentication is required by your host.

SMTP User - If authentication is required, type your username.

SMTP Pass - If authentication is required, type your password.

SMTP Host - This is usually "localhost", but you may need to check it your host.

 

Cache Tab

Settings related to cache. Cache is used to improve site performance.

Caching - Choose "Yes" to enable caching. Caching generally improves the performance of your site.

Cache Folder - This is the directory used to store cache files. It must be writable.

Cache Time - Define the maximum time a cached file is kept in memory. After this time, the cache file is deleted and recreated as a result of a new query to the database.

 

Statistics Tab

Settings related to collection of statistical data.

Statistics - Choose "Yes" to enable collection of statistical data. If it is set to "No", then the "Statistics" menu item is not available under the "Site" menu. If your site experiences a slight 'delay' the first time a user visits it, you should set this to 'No'.

Log Content Hits by Date - Choose "Yes" to enable logging in a way that provides data by day and not collectively. Warning: This will tend to collect large number of data over time. Be sure that your server has the space to store this information.

Log Search Strings - Choose "Yes" to enable logging of the search strings entered by users. Such logging facilitates the 'tuning' of your web site, giving you an insight on how your visitors are trying to find the information they seek. Analysis reporting is provided under menu Site -> Statistics -> Search Text.

 

SEO Tab

Settings related to Search Engines Optimization.

Search Engine Friendly URLs - Controls the way Elxis generates URLs. When used properly can increase site's position in search engines. This option is optimized for sites hosted on Apache servers, but can be used also in IIS servers using the Ionic Isapi Rewriter filter. For Apache servers you have to rename the 'htaccess.txt' file to '.htaccess'.
Available options are:

Dynamic Page Titles - Choose "Yes" to include in page title the title of the current content item. Again, this helps search engines.

 

FTP tab

Enable FTP - Choose to enable FTP transfer of files or not. The following settings are meaningful only if this option is set to "Yes".

FTP Host - Fill the name of the FTP server for this site.

FTP Username - The FTP account username.

FTP Password - The FTP account password.

FTP Port - The FTP port used. Default value is 21.

FTP Root Path - Path from FTP root to this Elxis installation. For example '/public_html'