Chapter 6. Configuring the system

Table of Contents

The config files of OTRS
Configuring the system through the web interface

The config files of OTRS

All config files of OTRS are stored in the directory Kernel or in sub directories below. There is no need to change manually any file other than Kernel/Config.pm as all other files will be changed when the system is upgraded. Just copy the configuration parameters from the other files into Kernel/Config.pm and change them to your needs, Kernel/Config.pm will never be touched during the upgrade process and your manual settings are saved in this file.

The file Kernel/Config/Defaults.pm contains the parameters of the central OTRS framework. All basic system settings like the mail configuration, database connection, default charset or standard language are located in this file. The file Kernel/Config/Files/Ticket.pm contains all configuration parameters for the trouble ticket system.

In the directory Kernel/Config/Files some more files are stored that are parsed when the OTRS login page is accessed. If additional applications like the web mailer or the file manager are installed, the configuration files for these applications can be found in Kernel/Config/Files. To keep compatibility with older OTRS versions, there is always a .pm- and a .xml file for every application and for the central framework. The .pm files are needed to parse all default and your own settings. The .xml files are used by the graphical configuration frontend which is available with OTRS 2.0 onwards and which lets you configure most of the configuration parameters of the system through your web browser. In future versions of OTRS the .pm files will be removed and the system will be configurable only via the .xml files. All parameters in Kernel/Config/Defaults.pm will be moved to Kernel/Config/Files/Framework.xml and all parameters for the trouble ticket system will be no longer stored in Kernel/Config/Files/Ticket.pm but in Kernel/Config/Files/Ticket.xml. The format of the configuration parameters will completely change to xml.

If the web frontend of OTRS is accessed, all .xml files in the Kernel/Config/Files directory are parsed in alphabetical order and the settings for the central framework and additional applications will be loaded. Afterwards the settings in the two files Kernel/Config/Files/ZZZAAuto.pm and Kernel/Config/Files/ZZZAuto.pm will be evaluated. Both files are used by the graphical configuration frontend and should never be changed manually. Lastly the file Kernel/Config.pm that contains your individual settings and manualy changed configuration parameters will be parsed. Reading the configuration files in this order makes sure that your specific configuration settings are used by the system.