System Preferences

Overview

System preferences allow administrators to configure system-wide properties such as email, link checking, and content settings.

System preferences are available to users who have access to the Administration Area and the ability to edit system preferences enabled in their System Role.

To edit the system preferences, click the system menu button (  ) > Administration > Preferences.

System

The options within the System tab allow you to customize basic system-wide preferences.

General

• System Name - This name appears on the login screen and at the bottom of the system menu flyout panel.
• System URL - The address used when accessing the system; this is required for links in email notifications sent by the system.
• System Label Color - This option configures the color of the top menu bar in the interface and can be used to distinguish production instances from test or development instances, for example.

SSL/TLS Key Store

• Key Store Path - Specifies the location of the SSL key store on the application server.
• Key Store Password - Specifies the password to the key store on the application server.

Note: changes to either Key Store preference requires a restart of the application in order for the changes to take effect.

Other

• Session Timeout - The duration (in minutes) that a user's session can remain inactive before being automatically logged out by the system. 
  • Any value less than 0 will be interpreted as 60 minutes.
  • If a user logs out manually their session will be ended.
• License Expiration Notification - The number of days ahead of the instance's licence expiration date that an expiration warning message should appear in the interface.

Email

Email options allow configuration of an SMTP server to send email for certain system-generated notifications including LDAP synchronization notifications and Task assignment notifications.

• SMTP Host - SMTP server hostname or IP address.
• SMTP Port - SMTP server port.
• Secure SMTP - Enable to use secure SMTP.
• SMTP Username - Username to authenticate against the SMTP server.
• SMTP Password - Password to authenticate with the specified username against the SMTP server.
• SMTP From Address - The email address the system will send emails from.
• Max Wait Time - The maximum duration (in seconds) to wait before attempting to send the next batch of emails. Use this to minimize frequency of emails sent to the SMTP server.
• Max Queued Emails - The maximum number of emails to be queued before system will empty the queue. Use this to minimize frequency of emails sent to the SMTP server.
• Email Test - Test the email settings by sending a test message to the address specified.

Content

Content options provide more detailed customization for how the system handles various types of content.

General

• Maximum File Upload Size - Determines the maximum size for any uploaded files, including file assets and site imports.
  • This can be used to restrict the upload of large images and video files, for example, and can be restricted further at the Asset Factory level with a plugin for more specific size limitations.
  • This value is limited by the database, which is based on the maximum BLOB size allowed (max_packet_size and 10% of innodb_log_file_size for MySQL). The maximum value allowed is 512MB (524288KB) to help prevent system instability.
  • Site imports via file upload and uploading zip files for unpacking are not restricted to this preference, instead, they are limited to 2GB based on browser limitations.
• Content Checks - Configure the default content checks that will be run when assets are submitted if the site has Inherit from system preferences selected in its Site Settings.

Assets

• Appearance of Asset Links - Determines whether assets are displayed by their Title / Display Name or their system name for users who have not already saved this preference in their user settings.
• Max Asset Versions - Determines the maximum number of versions that will be stored for any given asset. Once the maximum number of versions is reached, the oldest version is removed.
• Editable Text File Extensions - Determines the types of text files that are editable in the system's code editor.
• Editable Image File Extensions - Determines the types of image files that are editable in the system's image editor.
• Expiration Warning - Determines how soon in advance of an asset's expiration a user will be notified via an internal notification.

Asset Naming Rules

• Asset Naming Rules - Asset naming rules configured at the system level will be enforced for Sites which have the Inherit from system preferences selected in its Site Settings. Note that changes to asset naming rules are not retroactive and will apply only to new assets.

Index Blocks

• Max Assets in Index Blocks - Determines the maximum number of assets that may be returned by an index block.
• Maximum Rendered Size of an Index Block - This preference puts a cap on the amount of content that can be generated by an index block before an error is generated and the block rendering is aborted.
  • Using this preference will help prevent OutOfMemory errors that can occur when index blocks get too large.

• Index Block Rendering Cache
  • Enabled - If the rendering of an index block is not being refreshed (the cache isn't being discarded) or you've changed the Maximum Rendered Size of an Index Block setting, you can clear the rendering cache by disabling this option, selecting Submit, and immediately reenabling it after the cache is cleared.
  • Use legacy caching strategy - In some limited cases, improvements to caching in later versions of Cascade CMS will cause problems for index blocks that were incorrectly showing less assets in 6.10 and earlier. You can enable a legacy caching strategy which will cause the system to render and cache assets as it did in versions prior to 7 meaning that asset content is not cached between asset renderings. This option is only meant to allow instances with this issue to continue to operate while the problem is investigated; it should not be used as a long term fix - instead the index block implementations should be corrected.

Feed Blocks

• Request Timeout - The amount of time to allow before the system times out when requesting a particular Feed Block. The default timeout is 20 seconds.

Publishing

• Smart Publishing - If this option is enabled, files that haven't been modified in the system since the last publish to a specific Destination won't be republished. Also, files which have been altered or removed on the destination server will be republished. This feature applies only to files larger than 10MB that do not have Rewrite links in file enabled.
• Report relative links as broken when publishing - Determines whether relative links are reported or ignored upon publishing.
• Publish Job Timeout - The duration (in milliseconds) before the system times out the transmission of a particular asset when publishing.

Other

• XSLT Formats
  • Enable Xalan JavaScript extensions - Controls whether Xalan JavaScript extensions can be used when transforming pages with XSLT Formats.
  • Enable Xalan Java extensions - Controls whether Xalan Java extensions can be used when transforming pages with XSLT Formats.
  • In most cases, you will want to disable Java extensions because they allow users to run arbitrary Java code inside the system which poses a large security risk. JavaScript extensions can be used to write utility functions for date formatting and other things that are difficult to do in XSLT alone. EXSLT extensions are not affected by either of these preferences as they are a set of known functionality that cannot be used in a malicious fashion. If an implementation is not using Xalan extensions, these options should be disabled to minimize the security risk.

Reports

Link Checker Configuration

• Run Scheduled Link Checker - Enable and configure this option to scan links in content at regular intervals and populate the Broken Links Report.
  • Only links in sites that have Scheduled Link Checker enabled in their Site Settings will be checked.
  • Depending on the amount of links to be checked, this can be a resource-intensive process. To avoid impacting system performance for users or scheduled publish jobs, we recommend configuring the link check to run on a weekly basis, during off-peak hours.

Daily Content Report

• Send Daily Content Report to Subscribers - Enable and configure this option to generate the Daily Content Report for users who are subscribed to receive it.
• Run at - Determines when the Daily Content Report should be sent

Integrations & Plugins

 Siteimprove Settings

• Enable Siteimprove Plugin - Enabling this option will provide access to your Siteimprove data within the Cascade CMS interface. After logging in, the plugin will overlay quality assurance, analytics, and accessibility data when viewing relevant pages.
• Do not include "index" in Siteimprove URLs - Enable this option if the index pages for your site appear as https://www.example.com/about/ in Siteimprove as opposed to https://www.example.com/about/index.html.

Digital Asset Management

• Widen Collective API Key - Provide your Widen Collective API key to enable Widen integration for your system.
• Webdam Domain - Provide your organization's Webdam domain to enable Webdam integration for your system.