Page Comparison

Configuration options can be specified in a number of different ways. These take precedence in the following order:

1. Java System properties – set using the -D propertyName=value on the java command line / tomcat launch configuration

2. webapps/<phixflow>/WEB-INF/classes/local.properties – optional java properties file

3. webapps/<phixflow>/WEB-INF/classes/phixflow.properties – optional java properties file

4. Environment variables – using the environment form of the property name as described below

5. webapps/<phixflow>/WEB-INF/classes/context/server.properties – this contains the default values and should not be modified

In other words

• a setting in phixflow.properties takes precedence over a setting for that same property in server.properties

• a setting in local.properties takes precedence over a setting for that same property in either or both server.properties or phixflow.properties

Keystore Files

Optionally, secrets, such as database passwords, can be kept encrypted in external secret files. Refer to Configure a Keystore and Aliases for instructions on how to configure this before proceeding with the installation.

Environment Form of Property Names

As operating systems have stricter rules around valid characters in environment variable names, and prefer them to be in upper case, when using environment variables the property name should be converted as follows:

• Replace dots (.) with underscores (_)

• Remove any dashes (-)

• Convert to uppercase

For example, “db.url” would be looked up as “DB_URL” when resolved from environment variables.

Guidelines and Advice for Configuration

• The context/server.properties file should never be changed. This is replaced on upgrade.

• For a multi-instance environment (e.g. DEV, QA and Prod) it is recommended that a common phixflow.properties file is used on all instances, containing configuration settings that are identical on all environments. The local.properties file is then used for local overrides, such as database url and passwords.

• For single instance environments it is recommended that you use only the local.properties file.

  • Note: trailing whitespaces are automatically omitted when the local.properties file is processed.

• Only properties that have differing values from the default settings in the server.properties should be configured. This makes it easier to review and manage the configuration and ensures that fixes and improvements to the default settings will be applied automatically.

• In docker environments it may be beneficial to use environment variables rather than settings in the local.properties file. This allows the same container image to be started as multiple instances with different configurations.