Configuration files and format¶

File locations and order¶

AlekSIS is configured through text files in the directory /etc/aleksis/. You can place any file types there that are supported by the Dynaconf configuration system (INI, YAML and TOML).

Files are evaluated in alphabetical order, with later definitions overwriting earlier ones. Normally, there will be only one configuration file, but you can make up any structure you like. If you use multiple files, it might be a good idea to number them, e.g. 00_main.toml, 01_myschool.toml, 99_temporary.toml.

The TOML format is recommended and is the only format described in detail in AlekSIS’ documentation. For all other formats, refer to the Dynaconf documentation.

Configuration file format (TOML)¶

TOML file are simple text files that define variables, much like in Python (i.e. there are scalars, lists and dictionaries). AlekSIS structures its configuration by topic.

A configuration file might look like this:

secret_key = "VerySecretKeyForSessionSecurity"

[http]
allowed_hosts = [ "aleksis.myschool.example.com", "localhost" ]

[database]
name = "aleksis"
user = "aleksis"
password = "SuperSecretPassword"

[caching]
redis = { enabled = true, address = "127.0.0.1" }

The secret_key setting above defines a single value. The following http section defines a table (cf. a dictionary) in one way, and you can see the second form of such a table in the redis setting (we could as well have defined another section and placed enabled and address below it as scalars).

This can be a bit confusing, so this documentation will explain how to configure AlekSIS on a per-feature basis.