Configuration files

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

Java System properties – set using the -D propertyName=value on the java command line / tomcat launch configuration
webapps/<phixflow>/WEB-INF/classes/local.properties – optional java properties file
webapps/<phixflow>/WEB-INF/classes/phixflow.properties – optional java properties file
Environment variables – using the environment form of the property name as described below
webapps/<phixflow>/WEB-INF/classes/context/server.properties – this contains the default values and should not be modified.

Keystore Files

Optionally, secrets such as database passwords can be kept encrypted in external secret files. Refer to XXX 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 instance “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 the 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 to follow the same structure as with multi instance environments, but alternatively just one of either the phixflow.properties or local.properties files can be used to have all the configuration in a single file.
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. Theis allows the same container image to be started as multiple instances with different configurations.

Configuration Properties

Java properties files use the \ as an escape character. When configuring paths on Windows either use forward slashes (e.g. c:/apps/phixflow) or double up the backslashes (e.g. c:\\apps\\phixflow).

Other properties can be referenced within a property value using the syntax ${property}

Installation Specific Properties

These properties are required for installation to succeed and are populated in the database. After installation is complete the values are not used any further.

Property	Requires Configuration	Default Value	Explanation
install.customer_name	Always	<none>	The customer name as provided with your licence
install.licence_key	Always	<none>	Licence key as provided with your licence.
install.user.password	Often	<autogenerated>	Initial password of the default administrator user created during installation. If no value is configured a password is autogenerated and written to the security.log file. It is strongly recommended this is changed immediately after installation.
install.user.username	Often	admin	Username of the default administrator user created during installation.
install.user.email	Often	<none>	Email address of the default administrator user created during installation. Can be updated after install in the User Details screen.
install.user.firstname	Often	admin	First name of the default administrator user created during installation. Can be updated after install in the User Details screen.
install.user.lastname	Often	admin	Last name of the default administrator user created during installation. Can be updated after install in the User Details screen.
install.data.base	Often	${install.application_loc}/data	Base location for the default data directory paths. This will commonly be configured to be “/opt/phixflow/data”
install.data.temp	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/temp	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration Temporary File Location
install.data.email	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/email	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration File Upload Directory
install.data.import	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/import	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration Import File Location
install.data.export	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/export	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration Export File Location
install.data.template	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/template	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration Template Location
install.data.archive	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/archive	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration Archive Directory
install.data.restore	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/restore	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration Restore Directory
install.data.driver	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/driver	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration Data Driver Directory
install.data.download	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/download	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration Download Location
install.data.plugin	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/plugin	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration Plugin Location
install.data.file	Occasionally	${install.data.base}/file	Populates an initial value in the System Configuration File Table Upload Location
install.application_loc	Rarely	<autodetected>	Base application install location, e.g.
install.pepperKey	Rarely	<none>	Externally defined value for the pepperKey. If not specified and a pepper key isn’t configured in the keystore then a value is autogenerated.
install.phixflow_api_key	Rarely	<none>	Externally defined value for the Phixflow API credential signing key. If not specified and the api key isn’t configured in the keystore then a value is autogenerated.

Database Connection Configuration

These are the basic settings to enable connection to the Phixflow database.

Property	Requires Configuration	Default Value	Explanation
db.url	Always	<none>	The jdbc url of the database including any required parameters. E.g. jdbc:mysql://localhost/phixflow?defaultFetchSize=2000&?allowPublicKeyRetrieval=true jdbc:oracle:thin:@//localhost:1521/pdb.local jdbc:sqlserver://;database=webtrunk;sendStringParametersAsUnicode=false
phixflow-database-user	Often	<none>	Default key name containing the database username. May also be stored in the keystore.
phixflow-database-password	Often	<none>	Default key name containing the database password. May also be stored in the keystore.

Keystore Configuration

The keystore must be configured and populated during installation before Phixflow is first started. Using a keystore is optional.

Property	Requires Configuration	Default Value	Explanation
keystore.file	Optional	/opt/secure/keystore.jks	Location of the keystore file. Only used if the keystore password is provided, otherwise use of the keystore is disabled.
phixflow-keystore-password	Optional	<none>	Default key name containing the keystore password
keystore.passwordKey	Rarely	phixflow-keystore-password	Name of the key containing the keystore password.
pepper.key.name	Rarely	pepperKey	Name of the key containing the pepper key which is used for encrypting passwords
api.key.name	Rarely	phixflow-api-key	Name of the key containing the api key which is used for signing api credentials.

Login Configuration

Phixflow supports multiple modes of supporting authentication users. Users can be authenticated either with local credentials, native active directory based credentials, or using SAML to authenticate with active directory or other services such as Okta.

login.defaultForm=local Often Selects the form displayed when a user connects. #local - only allows local authentication, full - allows selecting any of the enabled authentication methods, auto - if SAML SSO is enabled allows logging in without displaying the login form if the user is already authenticated, activedirectory - supports active directory login only.

login.local.enabled=true rarely Allows disabling support of local login. This will prevent any local administrator accounts from being used.

login.saml.enabled=false Often Configures whether SAML login is enabled

login.saml.key= <none> Often Configures the identity provider's entity id .

login.saml.label=Single Sign In Rarely The label to display

login.saml.attributeMap=authenticationOnly Often Configures the integration method, authenticationOnly - SAML used for authentication but Phixflow manages user details and permissions. okta - configured to support Okta based authentication and details. userDetails - allows configuration of authentication and user details to be provided by saml

login.saml.keystore.file=classpath:keystore/samlKeystore.jks Often Configures the location of the saml keystore

login.saml.keystore.password=<none> Often Configures the password to the saml keystore.

login.saml.keystore.key.password=<none> Often Configures the password to the secret in the saml keystore

login.saml.keystore.key.alias=samlKey Rarely Configures the alias of the secret stored in the saml keystore

login.saml.url.host=localhost Often Configures the externally resolvable hostname of the Phixflow server. If behind a reverse proxy this will be the proxies hostname.

login.saml.url.port=443 Occasionally Configures the port of the Phixflow server, or that of the reverse proxy if it is being used.

login.saml.url.includePort=false Rarely Whether the port should be included in the generated url

login.saml.url.path=/phixflow Occasionally Path that the webapp is installed under. If behind a reverse proxy this should be the path that the proxy forwards.

login.saml.metadata.entityId=https://${login.saml.url.host}/${login.saml.url.path} Rarely The value that globally identifies the Phixflow instance .

login.saml.metadata.entityBaseUrl=https://${login.saml.url.host}/${login.saml.url.path} Rarely The public facing URL of the Phixflow instance

login.saml.metadata.file=file:/opt/phixflow/data/saml-metadata/idp-metadata.xml Often Path to the Identity Provider Metadata file

login.saml.metadata.trustCheck=true Rarely Whether to validate incoming siguatures.

login.saml.attribute.username=nameid Occasionally Used with the authenticationOnly and userDetails attribute map to define the appropriate mapping from the incoming metadata.

login.saml.attribute.fullname=displayname Used with the userDetails attribute map to define the appropriate mapping from the incoming metadata.

Server Configuration Properties

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