Configuration

In order to run DemocracyOS, some config settings are needed. Default values are listed on config/defaults.json.

WARNING: Never change values at config/defaults.json, to edit any value use the methods listed below.

Configuring

Configuration Files

Environment specific options can be added using config/{NODE_ENV}.json. E.g.: If your NODE_ENV is development you can use config/development.json, the options there will override the ones at config/defaults.json.

You can generate configuration files using the command:

NODE_ENV=development node ./bin/dos-install --config

Environment Variables

Environment Variables also can be used to override options (recommended for production). Here's explained how to manage environment variables on Linux/Mac.

  • Var names should be CONSTANT_CASE.
  • e.g.: mongoUrl => MONGO_URL
  • Scoped variables e.g.: notifications.url => NOTIFICATIONS_URL
  • Arrays should be strings separated by commas.
  • e.g.: "staff": ["mail@eg.com", "a@c.m"] => STAFF="mail@eg.com,a@c.m"
  • Boolean values should be true or false.
  • e.g.: "rssEnabled": false => RSS_ENABLED="false"

For more info, the values are casted using lib/config/cast-string.js.

Configuration Values

locale

  • env: LOCALE
  • default: en

Default language. The app will be in this language for the user, unless it has a valid Accept-Language header, or changes it on his Settings.

availableLocales

  • env: AVAILABLE_LOCALES
  • default: [ ... ]

Enabled languages. These are all the languages the user can select on the /settings page.

protocol

  • env: PROTOCOL
  • default: http

Base protocol to be considered when building application URLs. Change it to https for SSL-enabled servers.

host

  • env: HOST
  • default: localhost

Public accessible URL to your app. Used as base for internal URL building.

publicPort

  • env: PUBLIC_PORT
  • default: 3000

Port where the application should listen, and to be considered when building application URLs.

mongoUrl

  • env: MONGO_URL
  • default: mongodb://localhost/DemocracyOS-dev

Full URL to your MongoDB storage solution. Including DB name.

jwtSecret

  • env: JWT_SECRET

Secret signing key used for calculating and verifying the session signature. This value is required for encrypt and decrypt user sessions stored on cookies.

corsDomains

  • env: CORS_DOMAINS
  • default: []

Domains allowed for Cross-Origin requests. Set it to ["*"] to allow requests from everywhere.

staff

  • env: STAFF
  • default: []

Users with emails listed here will have access to /admin, and will be able to edit Topics, Tags, Whitelist users, etc...

allowEmailAliases

  • env: ALLOW_EMAIL_ALIASES
  • default: true

When this is true, the user will be able to register several times with the same email using alias like the ones from Gmail. Uses Verigy module.

visibility

  • env: VISIBILITY
  • default: visible
  • options: visible | hidden

When hidden is selected, only registered users will be able to view the topics.

usersWhitelist

  • env: USERS_WHITELIST
  • default: false

If this option is set to true, only users listed on /admin/users will be able to signin/signup. This doesn't affect staff users.

multiForum

  • env: MULTI_FORUM
  • default: false

If this option is set to true, the application will be in a "hub" state and any user will be able to create it's own forum.

DISCLAIMER: This option is in ALPHA state, expect a lot a changes not far away.

defaultForum

  • env: DEFAULT_FORUM
  • default: ""

Optional value for setting an existent forum's name of a multiforum database for using it as a singleForum.

client

  • env: CLIENT
  • default: [ ... ]

Config options to be sended to the client, and usable from /lib/config/config.js. In most cases, this shouldn't be edited.

forceSafeImageURLs

  • env: FORCE_SAFE_IMAGE_URLS
  • default: true

When true, the protocol of images added to Topics will be forcefully changed to config.protocol.

spamLimit

  • env: SPAM_LIMIT
  • default: 5

Absolute value of a negative score that an argument should reach to be flagged as spam. For example, if the value is 5, all arguments with score less or equal to -5 will be flagged as spam.

SSL

Values needed to use SSL. Go to the SSL section for installation instructions.

https.serverKey

  • env: HTTPS_SERVER_KEY
  • default: server.key

Path to ssl key file.

https.serverCert

  • env: HTTPS_SERVER_CERT
  • default: server.crt

Path to ssl certificate file.

https.port

  • env: HTTPS_PORT
  • default: 443

Port where the https server will listen to.

https.redirect

  • env: HTTPS_REDIRECT
  • default: normal
  • options: normal | reverse-proxy | azure | no-redirect

Proxy redirection type to be used when redirecting the user from HTTP to HTTPS. Possible options: normal: Normal redirection handled by the DemocracyOS nodejs server. reverse-proxy: Redirection to HTTPS compatible with reverse-proxies (e.g.: Heroku/Nodejitsu/nginx). azure: Redirection to HTTPS compatible with Windows Azure. Do NOT use outside Windows Azure; this can be easily spoofed outside their environment. no-redirect: The redirection is not handled. Meant to be used on development only.

Let's Encrypt

Values needed to be able to validate a certificate generated using Let's Encrypt's Certbot service. To use it, setup the following configuration options and follow this instructions.

cerbot.key

  • env: CERTBOT_KEY

Certbot key needed when manually generating the certificate, should be something like hvBj5jK2o3B6IpFhdrc8Q1OR6UeIl63_xXxXxXxXxXx

cerbot.token

  • env: CERTBOT_TOKEN

Certbot token needed when manually generating the certificate, should be something like msbwzok5NNPLg2BjLBIGVali8utyXrc95xXxXxXxXxX

Embebed Notifier Server

By default DemocracyOS uses an embeded Notifier. This options are used to configure mailer transports (gmail, mailchimp, sendgrid, etc).

notifications.mailer.service

  • env: NOTIFICATIONS_MAILER_SERVICE

Notifier service. Any of nodemailer-wellknown.

notifications.mailer.auth.user

  • env: NOTIFICATIONS_MAILER_AUTH_USER

User for the notifier transport.

notifications.mailer.auth.pass

  • env: NOTIFICATIONS_MAILER_AUTH_PASS

Password for the notifier transport.

notifications.nodemailer

  • env: NOTIFICATIONS_NODEMAILER

Optional object that will override any nodemailer options for creating a mailerTransport.

External Notifier Server

In case you're using an external Notifier Server, these are the options that need to be configured.

notifications.url

  • env: NOTIFICATIONS_URL

Url of the Notifier server.

notifications.token

  • env: NOTIFICATIONS_TOKEN

Token of the Notifier server.

Facebook Login

Values needed to setup facebook login. For a complete guide on how to setup facebook login go to Facebook Setup.

auth.facebook.clientID

  • env: AUTH_FACEBOOK_CLIENT_ID

App ID of your facebook app.

auth.facebook.clientSecret

  • env: AUTH_FACEBOOK_CLIENT_SECRET

App Secret of your facebook app.

auth.facebook.permissions

  • env: AUTH_FACEBOOK_PERMISSIONS
  • default: [ "email" ]

Data to access from the user's facebook account. email is the only one needed for DemocracyOS. More info on Facebook Permissions

Basic HTTP authentication

Values needed to setup Basic HTTP authentication on the application.

auth.basic.username

  • env: AUTH_BASIC_USERNAME

Authentication Username.

auth.basic.password

  • env: AUTH_BASIC_PASSWORD

Authentication Password.

Independant Users Database

Values only needed if you want to have a different database for users. This allows, for example, to have different instances of DemocracyOS but share the same users collection, so they could register only once.

mongoUsersUrl

  • env: MONGO_USERS_URL

Full URL to your MongoDB storage solution.

signinUrl

  • env: SIGNIN_URL

URL to redirect the users when gets to the signin page (/singin).

signupUrl

  • env: SIGNUP_URL

URL to redirect the users when gets to the signup page (/signup).

settingsUrl

  • env: SETTINGS_URL

URL to redirect the users when gets to the settings page (/settings).

User Tracking

googleAnalyticsTrackingId

  • env: GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_TRACKING_ID

Set this options to enable Google Analytics tracking.

segmentKey

  • env: SEGMENT_KEY

Set this options to enable Segment tracking.

Application Styles

  • env: LOGO
  • default: /boot/logo.png

URL of the logo to be used on the header.

logoMobile

  • env: LOGO_MOBILE
  • default: /boot/logo-mobile.png

Optional, URL of the logo to be used on the header when the width of the screen is less than 700px.

  • env: HOME_LINK
  • default: /

Where to take the user when click the logo on header.

favicon

  • env: FAVICON
  • default: /boot/favicon.ico

URL of the favicon.

organizationName

  • env: ORGANIZATION_NAME
  • default: DemocracyOS on GitHub

Title of the app to be shown on the right side of the header.

organizationUrl

  • env: ORGANIZATION_URL
  • default: https://github.com/DemocracyOS/app

Link to take the user when clicks on organizationName.

organizationEmail

  • env: ORGANIZATION_EMAIL
  • default: no-reply@democracyos.org

Sender email to show on all email notifications.

headerBackgroundColor

  • env: HEADER_BACKGROUND_COLOR
  • default: #7d4489

Background color of the header.

headerFontColor

  • env: HEADER_FONT_COLOR
  • default: #fff

Color of the header's texts.

headerContrast

  • env: HEADER_CONTRAST
  • default: false

When true will add a little shadow to the header. Recommended to be used when the color of the header doesn't create contrast with the white background.

Static Pages

frequentlyAskedQuestions

  • env: FREQUENTLY_ASKED_QUESTIONS
  • default: false

When true will enable the route under /help/faq in which the content of lib/help-faq/faq.md is going to be shown

termsOfService

  • env: TERMS_OF_SERVICE
  • default: false

When true will enable the route under /help/terms-of-service in which the content of lib/help-tos/tos.md is going to be shown

privacyPolicy

  • env: PRIVACY_POLICY
  • default: false

When true will enable the route under /help/privacy-policy in which the content of lib/help-pp/pp.md is going to be shown

glossary

  • env: GLOSSARY
  • default: false

When true will enable the route under /help/privacy-policy in which the content of lib/help-pp/pp.md is going to be shown

In-App featuresn

facebookSignin

  • env: FACEBOOK_SIGNIN
  • default: false

When true will enable signin/signup using Facbook instead of the default email and password.

learnMoreUrl

  • env: LEARN_MORE_URL
  • default: ""

Link to any URL explaining more about the particular DemocracyOS instance or any other thing that wants to be clarified as the institution using it or any kind of impact on the real world the decision arrived on the software will have.

rssEnabled

  • env: RSS_ENABLED
  • default: true

When true will enable a route under /rss that can be used as a RSS Feed (XML)

commentsPerPage

  • env: COMMENTS_PER_PAGE
  • default: 0

Number specifying how many comments will be listed before a "Show more" button is shown. 0 will get all comments from the backend.

feedsLimit

  • env: FEEDS_LIMIT
  • default: 10

Number of feed cards shown on the homepage when multiForum is set to true

tweetText

  • env: TWEET_TEXT
  • default: ""

Text used when sharing a topic on Twitter

googleAPIKey

  • env: GOOGLE_API_KEY
  • default: ""

Key (string) used by google-translate use Google Translator in order to use the command in bin/dos-translate

Social sharing

This settings will be used when sharing a link on Facebook or Twitter.

They are used in lib/facebook-card and lib/twitter-card modules to generate the proper HTML.

siteName

  • env: SOCIALSHARE_SITE_NAME
  • default: "DemocracyOS"

siteDescription

  • env: SOCIALSHARE_SITE_DESCRIPTION
  • default: "DemocracyOS voting system"

image

  • env: SOCIALSHARE_IMAGE
  • default: "https://2.gravatar.com/avatar/a8b9176bd0d042db078bf38500727671?d=https%3A%2F%2Fidenticons.github.com%2F14bae9f2564556f8eb23cc263a779f59.png&s=400"

domain

  • env: SOCIALSHARE_DOMAIN
  • default: "democracyos.org"

twitter.username

  • env: SOCIALSHARE_TWITTER_USERNAME
  • default: "@democracyos"