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    Web.config

    This section defines the appSetting parameters found in the web.config

    Explicit settings

    These are settings that require a value in the appSettings section of the web.config file

    Umbraco.Core.ConfigurationStatus

    Holds the version number of the currently installed version of Umbraco.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.ConfigurationStatus" value="8.1.5" />
    

    This version number changes automatically when running the installer and the upgrade installer. It is not recommended to update this version manually as the upgrade installer might need to perform some actions to upgrade your site properly. The upgrade installer doesn't run when this version is the same as the version number in the Umbraco DLL.

    Umbraco.Core.ReservedUrls

    A comma-separated list of files to be left alone by Umbraco. IIS will serve these files, and the Umbraco request pipeline will not be triggered.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.ReservedUrls" value="~/config/splashes/booting.aspx,~/install/default.aspx,~/config/splashes/noNodes.aspx,~/VSEnterpriseHelper.axd" />
    

    Umbraco.Core.ReservedPaths

    A comma-separated list of all the folders in your directory to be left alone by Umbraco. If you have folders with custom files, add them to this setting to make sure Umbraco leaves them alone.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.ReservedPaths" value="~/umbraco" />
    

    Umbraco.Core.Path

    The URL pointing to the Umbraco administration folder. If you rename the umbraco folder, you need to update this setting too.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.Path" value="~/umbraco" />
    

    Umbraco.Core.HideTopLevelNodeFromPath

    If you are running multiple sites, you don't want the top level node in your URL. Possible options are true and false.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.HideTopLevelNodeFromPath" value="true" />
    

    Umbraco.Core.TimeOutInMinutes

    Configures the number of minutes without any requests being made before the Umbraco user will be required to re-login. Any backoffice request will reset the clock. Default setting is 20 minutes.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.TimeOutInMinutes" value="20" />
    

    Umbraco.Core.DefaultUILanguage

    The default language to use in the backoffice if a user isn't explicitly assigned one. The default is English (en).

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.DefaultUILanguage" value="es" />
    

    Umbraco.Core.UseHttps

    Makes sure that all of the requests in the backoffice are called over HTTPS instead of HTTP when set to true.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.UseHttps" value="true" />
    

    Check out the security documentation.

    Umbraco.Examine.LuceneDirectoryFactory

    The SyncTempEnvDirectoryFactory enables Examine to sync indexes between the remote file system and the local environment temporary storage directory. The indexes will be accessed from the temporary storage directory.

    This setting is required due to the nature of Lucene files and IO latency on Azure Web Apps.

    <add key="Umbraco.Examine.LuceneDirectoryFactory" value="Examine.LuceneEngine.Directories.SyncTempEnvDirectoryFactory, Examine" />
    

    This setting used to be set in the ~/Config/ExamineSettings.config file in Umbraco 7. ` Read more in the Azure Web Apps article.

    Umbraco.Core.AllowContentDashboardAccessToAllUsers

    This setting has been added in Umbraco 8.13.0 and gives the ability to make the default Content Dashboard available to all users. The default value of this setting is true.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.AllowContentDashboardAccessToAllUsers" value="true" />
    

    umbracoCssPath

    By adding this to appSettings you can specify a new/different folder for storing your css-files and still be able to edit them within Umbraco. Default folder is ~/css. For example if you wanted to store css in a folder in the website root folder "/assets/css", you could have this in appsetting:

    <add key="umbracoCssPath" value="~/assets/css" />
    

    umbracoMediaPath

    By adding this to appSettings you can specify a new/different folder for storing your media files. Default folder is ~/media. For example if you wanted to store in a folder in the website root folder called "umbracoMedia", you woul have this in appsetting:

    <add key="umbracoMediaPath" value="~/umbracoMedia" />
    

    umbracoScriptsPath

    By adding this to appSettings you can specify a new/different folder for storing your JavaScript files and still be able to edit them within Umbraco. Default folder is ~/scripts. For example if you wanted to store JavaScript in a folder in the website root folder "/assets/js", you could have this in appsetting:

    <add key="umbracoScriptsPath" value="~/assets/js" />
    

    SMTP Settings

    By adding this settings to the web.config you will be able to send out emails from your Umbraco installation. This could be notifications emails if you are using content workflow, or you are using Umbraco Forms you also need to specify SMTP settings to be able use the email workflows. The forgot password function from the backoffice also needs a SMTP server to send the email with the reset link.

    <system.net>
        <mailSettings>
            <smtp from="[email protected]">
                <network host="127.0.0.1" userName="username" password="password" />
            </smtp>
        </mailSettings>
    </system.net>
    

    Since version 7.13, if you keep the from attribute set to [email protected], Umbraco won't be able to send user invitations, or password recovery emails.

    Optional settings

    These are settings that have default values but can be overridden by creating the appSetting and setting its value in the web.config

    Umbraco.Core.ContentXML

    The default value is: ~/App_Data/umbraco.config

    The value must be set to a virtual path with a prefixed tilde (~)

    Umbraco.Core.LocalTempStorage

    The default value is: Default

    This setting controls where Umbraco stores the XML cache file, the DistCache and PluginCache TEMP folders. Version 1.9.6+ of ClientDependency Framework also observe this setting.

    The options are:

    • Default - Umbraco cache file will be stored in App_Data and the DistCache and PluginCache folders will be stored in the App_Data/TEMP folder
    • EnvironmentTemp - All files will be stored in the environment temporary folder
    • AspNetTemp - All Files will be stored in the ASP.NET temporary folder

    Umbraco.Core.VersionCheckPeriod

    The default value is: 7

    When this value is set above 0, the backoffice will check for a new version of Umbraco every 'x' number of days where 'x' is the value defined for this setting. Set this value to 0 to never check for a new version.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.VersionCheckPeriod" value="0" />
    

    Umbraco.Core.DisableElectionForSingleServer

    The default value is: false

    This is not a setting that commonly needs to be configured.

    This value is primarily used on Umbraco Cloud for a small startup performance optimization. When this is true, the website instance will automatically be configured to not support load balancing and the website instance will be configured to be the 'primary' server for scheduling so no primary election occurs. This will save 1 database call during startup.

    Umbraco.Core.SqlWriteLockTimeOut

    The default value is: 5000 (5 seconds)

    This setting needs to be an int value that will represent the time in milliseconds to lock the database for a write operation. The setting is not mandatory, but can be used as a fix to extend the timeout if you have been seeing errors in your logs indicating that the default lock timeout is hit.

    <add key="Umbraco.Core.SqlWriteLockTimeOut" value="6000" />