vivisimo.conf and Watson Explorer Engine Environment Variables
In a typical installation, the global settings for your installation are contained in a file at the top level of your installation called vivisimo.conf. For a Linux installation, the default directory is /opt/ibm/WEX/Engine. For a Windows installation, the default directory is \Program Files\IBM\WEX\Engine. Administrators do not normally need to modify this file.
The Watson™ Explorer Engine software searches for this file by starting from the directory where the binary is located and continuing with containing directories until the file is found. The file can contain any option tag. As shown in the previous section, the default file contains the installation directory setting and the base-url for the installation.
Environment variables are variables that are set in the execution environment of an application. On Microsoft Windows systems, they are set at the system level, whereas on Linux systems, the environment variables that are used by Watson Explorer Engine are set in the Apache web server's execution PNU.
The following table contains the Watson Explorer Engine options that are typically specified in vivisimo.conf. Most of these options can alternatively be configured as an environment variable. The following table also shows the correspondence between option name and environment variable name.
If the same option is specified in both vivisimo.conf and as an environment variable, the environment variable's setting takes precedence.
| Watson Explorer Engine Option | Environment Variable | Description |
|---|---|---|
| admin-authentication-macro | VIVISIMO_ADMIN_AUTHENTICATION_MACRO | The name of a macro that is loaded before any search application in the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool. This macro should contain custom authentication code (which may, for example, check user credentials by using LDAP or Active Directory). This value cannot be set in your project by using the administration tool or XML mode. |
| authentication-macro | VIVISIMO_AUTHENTICATION_MACRO | The name of a macro that is loaded before any search application in the
query-meta CGI application. This macro should contain custom authentication code (which might, for
example, check user credentials by using LDAP or Active Directory). This value cannot be set in your
project by using the administration tool or XML mode. By default, it is set to
authentication. |
| base-url | VIVISIMO_BASE_URL | The base URL for a local Watson Explorer Engine installation. The default value for this option is /vivisimo/. This option must begin with a '/' symbol, or attempting to access Watson Explorer Engine results in an error. |
| cleaner.access-time | VIVISIMO_CLEANER_ACCESS_TIME | Clean the temporary files in tmp-dir that have not been
accessed in at least this many seconds. The default value for this variable is
-1, meaning it is not active. |
| cleaner.create-time | VIVISIMO_CLEANER_CREATE_TIME | Clean the temporary files in tmp-dir created at least this
many seconds ago. The default value for this variable is -1, meaning
it is not active. |
| cleaner.file-limit | VIVISIMO_CLEANER_FILE_LIMIT | The maximum number of temporary files that are left in the
tmp-dir after the cleaner is called. The default value for this variable is
-1, meaning it is not active. |
| cleaner.frequency | VIVISIMO_CLEANER_FREQUENCY | The cleaner runs approximately once every cleaner.frequency
calls to vivisimo_destroy function to clean the temporary files that are generated
in tmp-dir. The default value for this variable is -1, meaning
it is not active. |
| cookie-path | VIVISIMO_COOKIE_PATH | The path that is used when Watson Explorer Engine
sets cookies in the user's browser. If unspecified, the value for base-url is
used. |
| debug-dir | VIVISIMO_DEBUG_DIR | The full or relative path name of a directory in which debugging information is stored. Debugging must be enabled in the project or as a URL parameter in order for debugging information to be produced by Watson Explorer Engine. If this option is set to a directory that is not relative to the Watson Explorer Engine installation directory, the user or group under which your web server and the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool are running must be able to read from and write to this directory. By default it is set to the debug subdirectory of the Watson Explorer Engine installation. |
| default-project | VIVISIMO_DEFAULT_PROJECT | The project that is loaded by default in the query-meta CGI application. The
default is query-meta. |
| install-dir | VIVISIMO_INSTALL_DIR | The full path name of the directory in which Watson Explorer Engine is installed. On Linux systems, the default is /opt/IBM/WEX/Engine. On Microsoft Windows systems, the default is C:\Program Files\IBM\WEX\Engine. |
| key | VIVISIMO_LICENSE | The license key of your Watson Explorer Engine installation. |
| meta.cache-dir | none | The full or relative path name of the directory in which cache files are saved. By default, this is the cache subdirectory of the Watson Explorer Engine installation directory. If this option is set to a directory that is not relative to the Watson Explorer Engine installation directory and caching is enabled, the user or group under which your web server and the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool are running must be able to read from and write to this directory. |
| reporting-dir | none | The full path name of the directory in which the database files that hold raw application reporting information are stored. These files contain information about application queries, not system reporting data (which is stored in the location that is identified by the system-reporting-dir option). If this option is set to a directory that is not relative to the Watson Explorer Engine installation directory, the user or group under which your web server and the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool are running must be able to read from and write to this directory. By default, reporting files are stored in the data/reporting directory of your installation directory. |
| repository | VIVISIMO_REPOSITORY | The full or relative path of the XML file that contains templates, sources, parsers, forms, and syntax, which is retrieved when needed by Watson Explorer Engine. |
| search-collections-dir | VIVISIMO_SEARCH_COLLECTIONS_DIR |
The full path name of the directory that is used to store Watson Explorer Engine search collection data. By default, search collection data is stored in the data/search-collections directory of your installation directory. The location of search collection data can be configured on a per-collection basis by using the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool. This option should only be set when Watson Explorer Engine is not running. Important: If you specify the search-collections-dir option in your
vivisimo.conf file, the directory that you specify must be
writable by the user that Watson Explorer Engine is
executing as, or Watson Explorer Engine will fail when
it tries to create or access any of your search collections.
|
| source-test-results-file | VIVISIMO_SOURCE_TEST_RESULTS_FILE | The source-test-service stores files in the Engine/data/source-test directory. To change the location of the source test results file: Create a new local directory whose only purpose is to contain the source test results file. Give the webserver user appropriate permissions. Set the webserver environment variable to point at a results file in this directory. For an Apache webserver, the configuration would look like the following: SetEnv VIVISIMO_SOURCE_TEST_RESULTS_FILE /path/to/new/directory/source-test-results.xml. Restart the webserver to pick up the new configuration. Confirm that the new results file is created when the next source test is run. |
| system-reporting-dir | VIVISIMO_SYSTEM_REPORTING_DIR | The full or relative path name of the directory where database files for system-based reporting information are stored. These files contain information about system internals, not query-based, application reporting data (which is stored in the location that is identified by the reporting-dir option). If this option is set to a directory that is not relative to the Watson Explorer Engine installation directory, the user or group under which your web server and the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool are running must be able to read from and write to this directory. By default, system reporting files are stored in the data/system-reporting directory of your installation directory. |
| tmp-dir | VIVISIMO_TMP_DIR | The full or relative path name of the directory in which Watson Explorer Engine creates and uses temporary files. If this option is set to a directory that is not relative to the Watson Explorer Engine installation directory, the user or group under which your web server and the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool are running must be able to read from and write to this directory. The default value of this option is the tmp subdirectory of the directory in which Watson Explorer Engine is installed. |
| users-dir | VIVISIMO_USERS_DIR | The full or relative path name of the directory in which all information about
Watson Explorer Engine users is stored. This creates multiple users
files and requires a base file to be specified by using the users-dir-file option.
IBM recommends that the users-file option is used over this one. |
| users-dir-file | VIVISIMO_USERS_DIR_FILE | A file that contains the base Watson Explorer Engine
users information. If the users-dir option is specified, this must be specified.
IBM recommends that the users-file option is used over this one. |
| users-file | VIVISIMO_USERS_FILE | The full or relative path of the XML file that containsWatson Explorer Engine users information. When specified, no users directory is created, and a single file contains all Watson Explorer Engine user information. |
| vivisimo-conf | VIVISIMO_CONF_FILE | The name of the file that contains global properties for this Watson Explorer Engine installation. By default the file name is vivisimo.conf. This option should only be specified as an environment variable. |