Configuration Administrator Writes Files to the Database

When a deployed application is started, it attempts to read configuration information from the database. If the configuration information is not in the database, it obtains it from the appropriate configuration file in the file system.

This occurs for the following configuration files:

  • config.xml
  • userAccess.xml
  • customInterfaces.xml
  • eventRoles.xml
  • eventAttributes.xml
  • eventDescriptions.xml
  • eventLinks.xml
  • eventViewTemplates.xml
  • eventLocale.xml
  • eventLocale.en_GB.xml
  • customIntefaceLocale.xml
  • customIntefaceLocale.en_GB.xml

The first time the Configuration Administrator is used to modify the information in any of these configuration files, the Configuration Administrator writes that information to the database and modifies the information there. For example, the first time you click on the config.xml file in the left pane of the Configuration Administrator, the contents of the config.xml file on the file system is written to the database. Changes you make are made in the database—the original configuration file remains unchanged.

After that first time that you modify a configuration file using the Configuration Administrator, it reads the information from the database, not from the file in the file system.

Also, subsequent starts of the application will then read the modified configuration information from the database, rather than from the file on the file system.

Note: For the system to be able to read configuration information from the database for a particular user, the user must have the DE.userAdmin system action. If the user does not have the DE.userAdmin system action, the system always reads configuration information from the file system, even if the Configuration Administrator had previously been used, and configuration has been written to the database.

After accessing a configuration file in the Configuration Administrator, causing it to be written to the database, you can revert to the information in the file on the file system by using the Defaults button; see Setting Configuration Information to Default Values.

You can also launch a WCC application using the default configuration files, rather than using the files that have been written to the database. For information about doing this, see Launching a WCC Application Using Default Configuration Files.