Enhanced Configuration Scheme

Overview

In DSpace 5 or below, DSpace used its own custom Property-based configuration scheme, along with a custom build.properties which could tweak the build/compilation process in order to "override" some pre-selected configurations in the dspace.cfg file. While this configuration scheme "worked" at a basic level, it required a lot of custom variable interpolation (i.e. filtering) to occur in both the Maven build process (mvn package) and the Ant install process (ant fresh_install or ant update).  The end result was that configuration files in your DSpace installation directory ([dspace.dir]) contained the correct settings with all variables (${setting}) replaced by the values from your build.properties file. So, it was no longer possible to easily tweak certain key settings (like dspace.dir or solr.server) without having to either re-run the entire build process or make corrections to several files at once.

Enter Apache Commons Configuration.

Since DSpace 6, the Enhanced Configuration Scheme feature uses Apache Commons Configuration (version 1.10) as the new configuration scheme for DSpace. This provides several key advantages over our old, custom configuration scheme:

• Apache Commons Configuration is a well-established Java library whose goal is to make configuration more flexible and easier to manage.
• It automatically interpolates all settings at runtime. This means we no longer need to replace variables (${setting}) within our configurations. They will be auto-determined at runtime based on the value of that variable within one of the configuration files. For more on variable interpolation see its Basic Features documentation.
• It is a flexible configuration scheme. It can read configurations from several sources at once, including Properties files, XML config files and even database tables (see its Overview documentation).  Currently, in the DSpace Enhanced Configuration Scheme we are still only using Properties files, similar to DSpace 5 and below. But, should we decide to do so, we are now able to easily move all or some configurations to XML configs or database config tables.
  • The locations of the configuration sources can be easily customized by DSpace administrators in a new config-definition.xml file, which configures Apache Commons Configuration for DSpace. More on that below.
  • The config-definition.xml file itself is simply a "configuration definition" file as defined by Apache Commons Configuration. See the Configuration File Documentation for more details.
• It allows for easy overriding of configuration values from other sources. How the overrides occur depends on how you've configured Apache Commons Configuration.  For DSpace, we have a new config-definition.xml which defines the following override scheme (again, this can be easily tweaked for local needs):
  • If a setting is specified in Java System Properties (e.g. -D[setting]=[value]), it overrides the same setting found in any below location
  • If a setting is specified as an Environment Variable, it overrides the same setting found in any below location
  • If a setting is specified in the new local.cfg configuration file, it overrides the default value in any below location
  • Default values for all settings are specified in the dspace.cfg and the modules/*.cfg configuration files.
• It supports enhanced Properties files.  This means our dspace.cfg , local.cfg and other configuration files can now immediately support some enhanced options, including:
  • The ability to easily include other configuration files via: "include=[config-file-location]"  (See the end of the updated dspace.cfg for examples)
  • The ability to provide lists of values to "array" configurations by specifying the setting multiple times (rather than creating a giant comma separated configuration spanning multiple lines). For example, enabling both LDAP and Password authentication can now be done via these two lines:
    
    • plugin.sequence.org.dspace.authenticate.AuthenticationMethod = org.dspace.authenticate.LDAPAuthentication
    • plugin.sequence.org.dspace.authenticate.AuthenticationMethod = org.dspace.authenticate.PasswordAuthentication
  • For more information see the Commons Config Properties File documentation.
• More information/features can also be found in the Apache Commons Configuration v1.10 User Guide.

Building / Installing DSpace

With the Enhanced Configuration Scheme, the DSpace build process is slightly changed. The build.properties file no longer exists and therefore has no effect on the build process.

Here's the basics of building/installing DSpace:

• Download DSpace (as usual)
• cd [dspace-source]
• Create your own initial local.cfg configuration file
  • cp local.cfg.EXAMPLE local.cfg
• The following fields MUST be specified in your local.cfg in order to install DSpace:
  • dspace.dir
  • database connection information (db.url, db.driver, db.dialect, db.username, db.password, db.schema)
  • All other fields are optional, and can be specified at a later time, or not at all. (As you'll read later on in these instructions, any configuration can also be added to your local.cfg).
• Build/Compile/Install as normal
  • mvn clean package
  • ant fresh_install (or ant update)
• Once DSpace is installed, your local.cfg will be copied over to your [dspace.dir]/config/ location.  At that time you can optionally tweak it further (see local.cfg documentation below)

local.cfg

The [dspace.dir]/config/local.cfg file is the new way to customize your DSpace configuration based on your local needs.

There are a few key things to note about this configuration file:

• Any setting in your local.cfg will automatically OVERRIDE a setting of the same name in the dspace.cfg or any modules/*.cfg file.  This also means that you can copy ANY configuration (from dspace.cfg or any modules/*.cfg file) into your local.cfg to specify a new value.
  
  • For example, specifying dspace.url in local.cfg will override the default value of dspace.url in dspace.cfg.
  • Also, specifying oai.solr.url in local.cfg will override the default value of oai.solr.url in config/modules/oai.cfg
• The local.cfg file is an Apache Commons Configuration Property file. For more information see the Commons Config Properties File documentation
  • This means it has enhanced features like the ability to include other config files (via "include=" statements).
• As needed, you also are able to OVERRIDE settings in your local.cfg by specifying them as System Properties or Environment Variables.
  • For example, if you wanted to change your dspace.dir in development/staging environment, you could specify it as a System Property (e.g. -Ddspace.dir=[new-location]). This new value will override any value in both local.cfg and dspace.cfg.

An example local.cfg is provided at [dspace-source]/local.cfg.EXAMPLE. The example only provides a few key configurations which all DSpace sites are likely to need to customize. However, you may add (or remove) any other configuration to your local.cfg to customize it as you see fit.

config-definition.xml

The [dspace.dir]/config/config-definition.xml file defines the Apache Commons Configuration settings that DSpace utilizes by default. It is a valid "configuration definition" file as defined by Apache Commons Configuration. See the Configuration File Documentation for more details.

You are welcome to customize the config-definition.xml to customize your local configuration scheme as you see fit.  Any customizations to this file will require restarting your servlet container (e.g. Tomcat).

By default, the DSpace config-definition.xml file defines the following configuration:

• All DSpace configurations are loaded via Properties files
  • Note: Apache Commons Configuration does support other configuration sources such as XML configurations or database configurations (see its Overview documentation).
• Configuration Files/Sources: By default, only two configuration files are loaded into Apache Commons Configuration:
  • local.cfg (see documentation on local.cfg above.)
  • dspace.cfg (NOTE: however that all modules/*.cfg are loaded by dspace.cfg via "include=" statements at the end of that configuration file.)
• Configuration Override Scheme: The configuration override scheme is defined as follows. Configurations specified in earlier locations will automatically override any later values:
  • System Properties (-D[setting]=[value]) override all other options
  • Environment Variables
  • local.cfg
  • dspace.cfg (and all modules/*.cfg files) contain the default values for all settings.
• Configuration Auto-Reload: By default, all configuration files are automatically checked each minute for changes. If they have changed, they are automatically reloaded.

FAQs

Can I have different local.cfg files for different environments (e.g. development/testing/staging/production)?

Yes, but you'll need to tweak the default configuration scheme. By default, DSpace does NOT allow you to have multiple local.cfg files (one per environment). However, with some minimal tweaks to your configuration scheme, you likely (untested) could achieve this in one of two ways:

1. Change your config-definition.xml to use a system property (of your choice) instead of the hardcoded name "local.cfg".  The Configuration Definition file itself does allow for variables to be included, but they must be specified in a previous configuration source (in that config-definition.xml) or via a system property. See the Configuration File Documentation for more details.  So, you could simply change your config-definition.xml to use a "dspace.env" system property, and pass "-Ddspace.env=dev" to have it use a [dspace.dir]/config/dev.cfg:

   <!-- Change local.cfg to be ${dspace.env} in your config-definition.xml -->
   <properties fileName="${dspace.env}.cfg" throwExceptionOnMissing="false" config-name="local" config-optional="true">
   ...
   </properties>
   
   <!-- OPTIONALLY: If you wanted to have some default local configs shared among *all* environments, you could add
        a NEW "properties" file to always load those defaults. In this example, default.cfg would be loaded for ALL 
        environments. Configs in the environment-specific ${dspace.env}.cfg would override default.cfg, and
        both would override dspace.cfg (and other *.cfg). -->
   <properties fileName="default.cfg" throwExceptionOnMissing="false" config-name="default" config-optional="true">
   ...
   </properties>

2. Alternatively, you could use the "include=" option (of Apache Commons Configuration Properties Files) within your local.cfg file to load a different configuration file, again based on a setting specified as a system property. For example, your local.cfg file would ONLY consist of "include=" statement(s), which would load whichever configuration file was specified as the "dspace.env" system property:

   # This is the ENTIRE local.cfg -- all settings would instead be located in environment-specific config files.
   # Its job is just to load up the configuration for the environment specified by "dspace.env"
   # For example, -Ddspace.env=dev would load [dspace.dir]/config/dev.cfg
   #         and  -Ddspace.env=prod would load [dspace.dir]/config/prod.cfg
   
   # Load the environment-specific file
   include = ${dspace.env}.cfg
   
   # OPTIONALLY: If you wanted to have some default local configs shared among *all* environments, you could add 
   # a second "include=" statement to always load those defaults from a file of your choice. In this example, 
   # a default.cfg would be loaded for ALL environments. Configs in the environment-specific ${dspace.env}.cfg 
   # would override default.cfg, and both would override dspace.cfg (and other *.cfg).
   include = default.cfg

The option you choose above would likely depend on your own local practices/needs. Either of these options should work, provided that you place your environment-specific configuration files within the [dspace.dir]/config directory alongside the local.cfg file.

Advanced Topics

Configuration Interpolation

This is less important to normal users of DSpace, but may be of high interest to developers and some system administrators.

Configuration variables determined at runtime

It's important to be aware of the fact that variables within the following types of configurations are now AUTOMATICALLY interpolated at runtime using Apache Commons Configuration (and our ConfigurationService). This means that variables (${setting}) are no longer filtered by Maven or Ant for any of the following configuration types. In other words, variables are perfectly OK in these configuration files in your DSpace installation directory (i.e. [dspace]).

• Primary Configuration files (namely local.cfg, dspace.cfg and all modules/*.cfg)
• Primary Log4j settings (log4j.properties)
• Spring XML configs (namely [dspace.dir]/config/spring/api/*.xml)

Configuration variables filtered during installation (prior to runtime)

There are a few configuration file(s) which still require their variables/settings to be filtered/interpolated during installation. The following configuration files are still filtered during the Installation/Update process (ant fresh_install or ant update), and cannot be determined at runtime.  In other words, variables cannot exist in these configuration files in your DSpace installation directory (i.e. [dspace]).

• web.xml files still require filtering, both to support IDE integration, and to properly initialize all webapps in your Servlet Container (e.g. Tomcat).
  
  • To support IDE integration (and allow debugging of webapps from IDEs), all web.xml files are filtered by Maven using the filteringDeploymentDescriptors setting in POMs. Without this setting, the web.xml files will never be filtered when attempting to run any DSpace webapp from within an IDE.
  • Additionally, to support running the webapps in general, the ${dspace.dir} variable is also filtered (by Ant). This is because the dspace.dir context parameter in these web.xml files is used to initialize the DSpace Kernel (and tell the webapp where the DSpace home directory is). Unfortunately, there's no way to interpolate this value at runtime as the dspace.dir value does not exist until the Kernel and the ConfigurationService have initialized.
    • In other words, the DSpace webapps cannot function/initialize without a dspace.dir.  We either need to filter a value for it (during ant update/fresh_install), or we need to REQUIRE that it be specified by other means.
    • The only way we'd get around this problem would be to REQUIRE a dspace.dir ALWAYS be specified to the servlet container (as a Context parameter and/or system property).
• robots.txt : Obviously there's no way for a static file like robots.txt to load configurations at runtime. This file is filtered by Ant during a "fresh_install" or "update".
• log4j-*.properties : While the primary log4j.properties configuration is NOT filtered, DSpace also includes several other log4j files which are utilized by third-party dependencies (e.g. Solr uses its own log4j-solr.properties). As these third-party dependencies have their own initialization process, they cannot utilize DSpace's ConfigurationService, and their log4j configurations must be filtered by Ant during a "fresh_install" or "update".
• RDF configurations: The DSpace RDF / Linked Data interface has TTL configuration files which require minor filtering. These files are filtered by Ant during a "fresh_install" or "update".
• OAI-PMH description.xml: This static, custom OAI-PMH configuration file requires minor filtering. This file is filtered by Ant during a "fresh_install" or "update".

Java API Changes

ConfigurationManager vs ConfigurationService

In the DSpace 5 Java API, we had two types of Configuration objects: org.dspace.coreConfigurationManager and org.dspace.services.ConfigurationService.

While the the ConfigurationManager still exists in the API (and is still called by some areas of the codebase), it is now a "wrapper" object. It simply wraps calls to the configured ConfigurationService.

As before, the default ConfigurationService is the org.dspace.servicemanager.config.DSpaceConfigurationService (in dspace-services).

The DSpaceConfigurationService has been updated/enhanced to utilize Apache Commons Configuration, and to better align its methods with the old ConfigurationManager class.  It also has added a new reloadConfig() method which can be called on demand to automatically reload all configurations.

PluginManager vs PluginService

In DSpace 5, the org.dspace.core.PluginManager class managed all DSpace "plugin" definitions (i.e. plugin.* settings in dspace.cfg). (SIDENOTE: these DSpace "plugin" definitions are simply Java interfaces, which are then mapped to classes which implement that plugin interface).

While this concept still exists (and all plugin configurations are still respected/valid), the PluginManager itself has been entirely replaced by a new org.dspace.core.service.PluginService. This change was necessary in order to "Spring-ify" the PluginManager and make it compatible with the ConfigurationService. In prior releases (5.x and below), the PluginManager was highly dependent on the ConfigurationManager, and as such, did not respect/follow the Spring bean initialization process. In other words, without this major refactor, the PluginManager would attempt to request configurations from the ConfigurationService before the ConfigurationService was fully initialized by Spring.

The default PluginService is a new org.dspace.core.LegacyPluginServiceImpl class, which implements the functionality of the old PluginManager.