HOWTO: Modifying the conf files

General Overview

A lot of mySiteMaker's flexibility comes from your ability to modify the configuration (conf) files for each mySite. Editing a configuration file simply involves opening it with the text editor of your choice and changing things. Configuration files are stored in the "conf" directory which can be found in the same place that the mySiteMaker CGIs are stored. Configuration files themselves are named after the table and database that the mySite was created for. For example, if you created a mySite for a table named "addresses" in a database named "personnel", the configuration file would be named "personnel_addresses.conf"

It is advised that every column name be in the form table_name.column_name, even if otherwise shown here.

Below is a description of all of the configuration file parameter names. NOTE: Not all configuration files will come with all of the parameters listed below. If a parameter is missing from the file and you would like to add its functionality, just add the parameter name to the file on a new line and put a white space between it and its values.

Parameter Names

SITE_NAME - The value that follows this parameter gives a name to your mySite. For example, possible values for this are "ITLab" and "Medical University of SC". Example:
```
SITE_NAME ITLab
```
DB_TYPE - The value that follows this parameter is the type of database that the mySite has been built for. For example, possible values for this are "mysql" and "postgres". Example:
```
DB_TYPE mysql
```
DB_NAME - The name of the database that the mySite has been created for, followed by a colon (':') followed by the hostname of the host that is serving the database. For example:
```
DB_NAME personnel:server.test.com
```
DB_TABLE - The name of the table that the mySite has been created for. For example:
```
DB_TABLE addresses
```
PRIMARY_KEY - The name of the column in the database table specified by DB_NAME and DB_TABLE that contains the primary key for the table. For example:
```
PRIMARY_KEY record_id
```
USERNAME - The username for a user that has, at the very least (and hopefully, at the very most), SELECT privileges for that database table specified by DB_NAME and DB_TABLE.
PASSWORD - The password for a user that has, at the very least (and hopefully, at the very most), SELECT privileges for that database table specified by DB_NAME and DB_TABLE.
{INSERT|UPDATE|DELETE|SELECT}_ALLOW - These are actually 4 different parameters: INSERT_ALLOW UPDATE_ALLOW DELETE_ALLOW SELECT_ALLOW . Each takes a space-separated list of usernames. Use these if you want fixed roles for insert/edit/delete/view and don't want the end user to enter anything. You must secure your mySiteMaker CGI access if you use these. mySiteMaker will use the Apache environment variable REMOTE_USER. To allow select (view) access to everyone, leave the parameter out. Including a parameter with an empty list of usernames denies access to that function to everyone. Note that using any of these requires the database user (as specified by USERNAME and PASSWORD) to have the corresponding privilege in the database.
NEW_RECORDS - This parameter controls whether or not a link to "Add a new record" appears on the HTML results screens. If it is set to zero ('0') or has no value, then the link will not appear. If it is set to anything else, the link will appear. For example, to allow for the "Add a new record" link, you would want:
```
NEW_RECORDS 1
```
EDIT_RECORDS - This parameter controls whether or not a link to "Edit" appears at the end of each row on the HTML results screens. If it is set to zero ('0') or has no value, then the link will not appear. If it is set to anything else, the link will appear. For example, to allow for the "EDIT" link, you would want:
```
EDIT_RECORDS 1
```
DELETE_RECORDS - This parameter controls whether or not a link to "Delete" appears at the end of each row on the HTML results screens. If it is set to zero ('0') or has no value, then the link will not appear. If it is set to anything else, the link will appear. For example, to allow for the "Delete" link, you would want:
```
DELETE_RECORDS 1
```
SEARCH_URL - This parameter should be set to the path from the base HTML directory to the search page for your mySite. For example:
```
SEARCH_URL /mySiteMaker/dbName_tableName_search.html
```
REL_HTML - This parameter should be set to the path from the base HTML directory to the directory that contains the mySiteMaker HTML. Example:
```
REL_HTML /mySiteMaker/
```
RELATIVE_CGI_DIR - This parameter should be set to the path from the base CGI-BIN directory to the directory that contains the mySiteMaker CGIs. For example:
```
RELATIVE_CGI_DIR /cgi-bin/mySiteMaker/
```
LOG_FILE - See the file: LOGGING-HOWTO.html for a full description of what this parameter controls and how to make use of it. Briefly, this parameter holds the name of a file that mySiteMaker should use to log queries for this mySite. OBSOLETE
COLUMN_NAMES - This a list of column names that can be queried by mySiteMaker. The column names are formatted so that the table name, plus a dot ('.') character are prepend to name of the column. For example: table_name.colum_nname. A colon character (':') is used to separate each column name in the list. For example:
```
COLUMN_NAMES table_a.column_a:table_a.column_b:table_b.column_a
```
COLUMN_HEADERS - Use this to display "pretty" headers on the columns. A colon character (':') is used to separate each column name in the list. Only works with HTML mode. For example:
```
COLUMN_HEADERS Department:Employee name:Address
```
NO_EDIT - This is a list of column names that are not allowed to be edited, even if editing data in a general sense is permitted (see the EDIT_RECORDS parameter). The column names are formatted and listed the same way they are for the COLUMN_NAMES parameter. For example:
```
NO_EDIT table_a.column_a:table_a.column_d
```
URLS - This parameter holds a string that dictates which columns in the HTML output will contain URL hyperlinks. The basic format is a list of column names separated by a space, the column names as they appears in the results screen. This can be repeated for as many columns as you wish as long as there is a space between the column names. For example:
```
URLS column_a column_b
```
EMAILS - This parameter holds a string that dictates which columns in the HTML output will contain email hyperlinks. The basic format is a list of column names separated by a space, the column names as they appears in the results screen. This can be repeated for as many columns as you wish as long as there is a space between the column names. For example:
```
EMAILS column_a column_b
```
INPUT_OPTIONS - The value for this parameter is a list of triplets separated by colon characters (':'). Each triplet contains three values separated by equals characters ('='). The first value in each triplet is the column name in the table described by DB_NAME and DB_TABLE that is to have data input (for new records as well as when editing existing records) via a pulldown menu, radio buttons, checkboxes or a multi-select menu. The second value in each triplet is the column name that contains the values that are used to populate the pulldown menus, checkboxes, etc. The third value of each triplet contains the input method. Possible values for input method are
- pulldown (for pulldown menu - single choice drop-down)
- multi (for multi-select menu - multiple choice pseudo-drop-down)
- radio (for radio buttons - single choice)
- checkbox (for checkboxes - multiple choice)
NOTE: Each triplet must have a corresponding entry for the INDIRECT_RELATIONS or DiRECT_RELATIONS parameters. If the input method is checkbox or multi, then there needs to be an entry in INDIRECT_RELATIONS. If the input method is radio or pulldown, then there needs to be an entry in DIRECT_RELATIONS.
Also, column names must be proceeded by the table name and a dot ('.').
For example:
```
INPUT_OPTIONS table_a.column_name_x=table_b.column_name_y=pulldown
```
INDIRECT_RELATIONS - The value for this parameter is a list of 6-tuples that are separated with colon characters (':'). The values in the 6-tuples are separated with equals characters ('='). The values in each 6-tuple should be:
1. r_table: the table in the relation that holds the data we are interested in joining into the results from our query to the main table.
2. int_table: the intermediate table that simply holds key values from the two tables that hold interesting data that we want to join
3. main_key: a column in the main table that holds key values. In this case the key values are the primary key values for the main table
4. int_main_key: the column in int_table that holds values from main_key
5. r_key: the column in r_table that holds the key values
6. int_r_key: the column in int_table that holds values from r_key
DIRECT_RELATIONS - See the file: JOINING_TABLES-HOWTO.html for a full description of what this parameter controls and how to make use of it. Briefly this is a list of value pairs separated by colon characters (':'). The two values in the pair are separated with an equals character ('='). The first value is the name of a column in the table described by DB_NAME and DB_TABLE that stores foreign keys for rows in another table. The second value is the name of the column in the other table that stores primary key values for that table.
If this parameter is being used in conjunction with INPUT_OPTIONS then the first value in the DIRECT_RELATIONS pair should match the first value in the INPUT_OPTIONS triplet.
For example:
```
DIRECT_RELATIONS main_table.foreign_keys=other_table.record_id
```

For direct and indirect relations, see the Joining Tables documentation.