Navigation:  Server Administration > Application Settings

Application settings allow aspects of global application behaviour to be customized.  Most of the application settings are stored in the system's Configuration Store, and can be managed through the RIS Client.  However, some application settings are needed at run-time prior to access to the database being available, and are therefore stored in configuration files.  Such settings may only be managed with backend access to the file system on which the server is installed.

Managing Settings in the Configuration Store

Settings that are stored in the Configuration Store are edited via the Settings Management screen, which can be invoked from the Tools > Utilities > Configure Settings item on the main menu.  Individual settings are organized into Groups containing related properties.  The top half of the screen lists all the available settings groups and their descriptions – selecting a group from this list will display the individual settings within that group in the lower half of the screen.

Each settings property has a Scope, a Type, a Default Value, and a Value.

The scope of a setting, either "User" or "Application", defines the level at which the setting affects application behaviour in the system.  An application-scope setting is global to the entire system, and hence shared by all users of the RIS.  A user-scoped property stores an independent value for each user as part of the user's individual profile.  Modifying a user-scoped property via the Settings Management screen will have not effect on users who already have that property stored in their profile – it will, however, affect any new users that are created.

The type of a setting defines the types of values accepted in the property, and is given as the underlying .NET Type used in the system's source code.  The value of the property, entered as text, must always be convertible to the specified type or the system will encounter errors.

The default value of a property identifies the value that is hard-coded into the application, and any property can easily be reverted to its default value.

The last column shows the current value of the setting.  The value for each setting may be edited in-place by clicking the Edit tool, or can be edited in a larger editing window by double-clicking on the row.

Managing Settings in External Configuration Files

The only settings that are not stored in the Configuration Store are those which are needed prior to database access being available – such as the setting that stores the database connection information in the first place.  These advanced settings may only be updated by modifying the .config files in the RIS Server's installation directory, and will typically require a restart of the RIS Server's Windows service.  The configuration files themselves are in XML, and may be edited with any standard text editor.

The Windows service can be restarted by bringing up the Services Control Panel applet (My Computer > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services, or from Start Menu > Run... with the command "services.msc").  The RIS Server's service is called ClearCanvas.Ris.ShredHostService.