EPiServer Composer 4 R2 - Configuration Settings

This document describes the various configuration settings for EPiServer Composer 4 R2. The description also includes configuration practices for mirroring, security and data transfer for EPiServer Composer 4 R2.

Introduction

When installing EPiServer Composer 4 R2, all Composer specific settings will be configured automatically in the web.config file of the website during the installation procedure. These configuration settings are further explained in the following.

Installation Configuration

After installing EPiServer Composer 4 R2, a configuration <section> handler will be added to the web.config file in the section group episerverModules as in the following:

<sectionGroup name="episerverModules">…

<section name="composer" type="EPiServer.Composer.Configuration.ComposerSection, Dropit.Extension" allowLocation="true"/>…

</sectionGroup>

A section composer will be added under the node <episerverModules>:

<episerverModules>…

<composer dataContainerId="372" globalFunctionEditingPageId="373"
      hideDataContainer="true" />…

</episerverModules>

The composer section declares setting parameters for EPiServer Composer 4 R2. The EPiServer Composer installation automatically provides the two required attributes: dataContainerId and globalFunctionEditingPageId. Other parameters can be managed by web administrators in the EPiServer CMS Admin mode. By default the composer data container will be hidden.

Available Configuration parameters
 

The Extension Data Container

For many reasons, EPiServer Composer is using a standard page for storing all its data. These pages are located under a special node in the page structure named "[Extension data container]". The EPiServer Composer settings, i.e. default access rights, page type access rights and rules, are stored in the Extension Data Container itself, and the templates, global functions and functions are stored in each container respectively under the root.

By default, the "Extension data container" is hidden to everyone. To make the Extension Data Container visible, open web.config and go to the configuration section for the Composer configuration /episerverModules /composer and set the attribute “hideDataContainer” to “false”. If you for some reason want to have the Extension Data Container visible, you can remove the "Delete" and "Edit" access rights for these pages for unauthorized users.

Other Configuration Options

This section contains configuration options for mirroring, SSL and data import/export.

Setting up EPiServer Composer for Mirroring

EPiServer Composer pages can be setup for mirroring exactly as for the standard EPiServer CMS pages. NOTE that to enable mirroring of EPiServer Composer pages containing global functions, you need to set up a separate mirroring channel for Global functions. Create a mirroring channel for mirroring between the "Global function container" under the Extension Data Container on the source server, to the "Global function container" on the target server. You also need to copy both the Dropit.Extension.dll and Dropit.Extension.UI.dll to the mirroring "bin" folder, in order to enable mirroring of Personalization blocks.

Setting up EPiServer Composer for Supporting SSL

In EPiServer Composer, you can edit content directly from the EPiServer CMS View mode, by switching to the Edit-on-page mode. But what's happens when you want to separate the View and Edit mode into two separate installations, and protect the Edit mode with SSL (https)? Will the editor still be able to edit EPiServer Composer pages from a non-secured View mode?

The answer is no. When you switch to the Edit-on-page mode, the URL of the page will be based on the uiUrl settings in the EPiServer CMS config section of the web.config file, so if you configure the uiUrl to be running in secure mode by setting uiUrl=https://your_site/path/to/ui and also utilUrl="https://your_site/util/", then the EPiServer Composer Edit-on-page mode will also be running in secure mode. This means that you can remove the UI part for the public installation, but the Edit installation requires a full working View mode to be able to edit EPiServer Composer pages.

Transferring EPiServer Composer Data Between Installations

EPiServer Composer includes base implementations of export and import functionality to help you transfer data and definitions between EPiServer CMS and Composer installations.

Import/export EPiServer Composer pages

You can export EPiServer Composer pages and all functions using the standard export and import functionality in EPiServer CMS. For each EPiServer Composer page in the data package, the system will automatically include the function pages. Therefore, the number of pages in the data package will always be higher than the number of actual content pages. So don't worry if the number of imported pages appears to be higher than expected.

Import/export EPiServer Composer templates and global functions

To export the global functions and EPiServer Composer templates, you have to use the EPiServer Composer export function. This can be found in the EPiServer CMS Admin mode, under Tools/EPiServer Composer - Import/Export.

Import/export Composer functions and page type definitions

Transferring of EPiServer Composer function types/page type definitions from one installation to another, is done in two steps: 

1. Use the EPiServer CMS standard export functionality to create a data package containing the data for the page types corresponding to the EPiServer Composer function types or page types.
2. Use the EPiServer Composer plug-in EPiServer Composer - Import/Export for creating an XML file containing the definitions for the page types in the previous step, including access rights and categories. The EPiServer Composer - Import/Export function can be found in the EPiServer CMS Admin mode under Tools.

Import the data package first, and then import the XML file for the definitions.