The configuration file elogd.cfg
contains entries which define
the structure of logbooks and the behaviour of elogd
. The file has a simple ASCII
format. Each logbook is defined by a [<name>]
section
where <name> is the name of the logbook. The [global]
section is used for settings common to all logbooks. Each line contains a setting
name, followed by an equal sign and the value for this setting. Lines starting with
";" are treated as comments.
Here is a simple example, which define two logbooks, "Linux" and "PC":
[global] SMTP host = mailsend.your.domain [Linux] Theme = default Comment = General linux tips and tricks Attributes = Author, Type, Category, Subject Options Type = Routine, Software Installation, Problem Fixed, Configuration, Other Options Category = General, Hardware, Software, Network, Account, Other Options Author = Stefan, Linus, unknown Required Attributes = Author [PC] Comment = Database PC installations Attributes = Location, OS, Owner Options Location = Building1, Building2 Options OS = Linux, Windows ME, Windows 2000 Required Attributes = Location, Owner Email All = name@address, othername@otheraddress Use Mail Subject = Location
The notation of the following options is such that items enclosed by "<" and ">"
should be replaced by a specific string. If a value contains blanks (like a complete sentence), it
should not be enclosed in quotation marks.
If a setting has a number of possible options, they are shown in the form
then the URL under which
If installations have very many logbooks, it can be hard to navigate between them.
To make things more structured, it is possible to build a hierarchy of logbooks. A
logbook group can contain any number of logbooks as well as other logbook groups.
The hierarchy is defined with the the option
in the
To define following logbook hierarchy:
one would use following statements:
Where the selected group or logbook becomes blue. The lower groups/logbooks change according
to the selected upper group. Please note that a logbook can be contained in more than one
group, but then it should not be the first logbook in those groups. The colors of the tabs
and the title bar can be specified in the CSS file.
Sometimes groups of logbooks should be completely separate. Imagine two groups of logbooks,
one for the engineering department and one for the administration department. These groups
should have different administrators, and the logbook tabs at the top of the screen should
not show the logbooks from the other department. Prior to ELOG version 2.4.1, one had to
run two elogd servers in parallel, listening under different ports. Since 2.4.1, one can achieve
the same behaviour using
For each logbook, there is a section with the logbook name in square brackets, so that each
logbook can have different options. If an option is not present in a logbook section, then the
system tries to locate that option in the
Here are the available options, by broad categories:
<img border=0 src="elog.gif" alt="ELOG logo">
This code can be replaced by
Note that the presence of this option opens user access also to the find result or elog
listing page, which usually contains some config command. So it is useful to combine
the
Values used for single message display page:
Values used for new message entry form:
Default is "0, attribname, attribvalue, 80, 500". Trailing parameters can be ommitted,
so specifying for example only the flags is possible.
When entering data into a elog form, it might be helpful to change the options of the attributes
depending on the value of other attributes. Let's assume you have a logbook containing entries
for different computers with different operating systems. Your elogd.cfg file starts like that:
For the operating system version, you would like a list, but this list has to be different
for Linux and Windows. This can be achieved with conditional attributes. Simply write
following configuration:
If you enter a new entry into that logbook, the drop-down list for
The number {1} and {2} in the configuration file are called conditions. Depending
on these conditions, certain other lines can be activated. So if the Operating System
Linux is selected, condition {1} is true, which selects the line starting
with {1} to select the options 2.2, 2.4, 2.6.
This technique offers various other possibilities, since any configuration option can
be made conditional by adding a
This causes two text files network.txt and system.txt to be copied
into the message body when a new entry is made. The file network.txt could
look like:
This works like a pre-defined form, the user puts X's between the "[ ]" when that
item has been checked. Other possibilities are pre-defined shift sheets in environments
where elog is uses as a shift logbook. The shift sheet could contain the names
of the shift crew, some check-list for standard tasks etc.
Another use of conditional attributes is in conjunction with the option
It is possible to specify an OR of several conditions like in the case {b,c}. This is
also possible over several conditions, like {1,a} would mean
"The PC has Linux or is in the Main Building". To specify a AND between
conditions, a "&" is used. The condition
Reading and writing into logbooks can be constrained using two different access methods,
either with global passwords for read, write and admin (config, delete), or with user-
level passwords. Both methods can be combined on the same server using different logbooks.
For these two schemes to work properly, cookies have to be turned
on in your browser. Please consult your browser documentation about how to do that.
These optional password statements define passwords for reading and writing to the
logbook, to delete entries in the logbook and to configure a logbook via the Config menu. The passwords are stored in an encoded form. To change them, use
The read password is queried by the browser with a pop-up window and usually stays
active for the entire browser session. The write and admin passwords are stored in
cookies on the browser side and expire after the browser session. This time can be
changed with the statement
An alternative to the read/write/admin passwords is the user level access with a
password file. This file contains user names and passwords in following format:
The passwords are encoded. New users can either be created by hitting Register as new user
on the login page if
To start a new password file, follow these steps:
The presence of a password file requires all users to "log in" using their name and
password, except when a guest login is allowed via the "Guest menu commands" option.
An additional advantage of this method is that the user name can be used as
an attribute value for creating logbook entries. For example, the following line could be
added to the configuration file to fill in the Author and the Email attributes
with the current user name and email:
Thus the author name is not user-input anymore, ensuring the entry always contains the
actual user name. For a full listing of substitutions, see the "Subst <attrib>" option.
The user name and password are stored as cookies on the user side. The expiration is
controlled by the
The
The
With this option it is possible for new users to self-register an user account. At the
login page, a link is displayed "Register as a new user" which leads the user to
a configuration page where one can enter the account name, full name and email address.
A flag allows for automatic email notification on new entries on the logbook. These
settings can later be changed with the Config menu command.
Setting this option to 0 disables self registration. With option 1, users
can silently register, while setting it to 2 causes elogd to send an email
notification to the admin user(s). The option 3 is used to only send an
email notification to tha admin users(s), which then can validate the account and commit
it by hitting the URL given in the email notification.
Commands can be restricted to certain login names (separated by commas). For
each command in the list defined with the "Menu commands" option, a list of
user names can be specified, which are allowed to execute that command. If the
allow option is not present, all users may execute that command by default.
Used to deny a certain command to a list of users. This can be used to deny
a guest user to enter new messages or modify a message.
These two settings can be used to restrict the access to the logbook to certain
computers. It is similar to the UNIX hosts.allow and hosts.deny files.
The list can consist of individual host names or IP numbers, subnet masks like
These rules are applied before any password is checked. To debug problems,
start
The global option
If any of the password statements are in the
To send email automatically when new entries are created in a logbook, a
Multiple
The statement
The option
If the flag
The flag
Themes are layout and color schemes which determine the look and feel of a logbook
(sometimes called "skins"). A theme
consists of a set of images, which are used for the title banner and browse buttons, and
a Cascading Style Scheet (CSS), which defines the colors, fonts and spacing of the ELOG pages.
Each theme resides in a separate subdirectory and is specified with the
A default theme is contained in the distribution. If new themes are developed by users,
they can be sent back to the author, to be included in future releases.
To change colors and fonts, the source of a ELOG page can be examined. All elements use
CSS classes which are specified in the
If the CSS file is edited, most browsers require a "reload" to refresh the modified file.
The elogd daemon does not have to be restarted after a change in the DSS file.
These two images display the same logbook entry using different themes:
option1|option2|...
, meaning that one of the options (without any vertical bar)
should be used.
The following options are specific to the [global]
section:
Port = <port>
Specifies the TCP port under which the server is listening. Default is 80. Can be superseeded
via the '-p' command line flag.
Resource dir = <directory>
Specifies the root directory for ELOG resources like help files, themes, icons and user HTML
files. Can be overwritten with the -s
flag when starting elogd. If not
specified, use the directory where the configuration file elogd.cfg
resides.
Changing this option requires a restart of the elogd server.
Logbook dir = <directory>
Specifies the root directory for logbooks. Can be overwritten with the -d
flag when
starting elogd. If not specified, use the directory where the configuration file elogd.cfg
resides. Each logbook data is stored in a separate directory under this root directory
specified by the Subdir
option.
Changing this option requires a restart of the elogd server.
Language = <name>
The language setting determines the language of the elogd
output. Not
affected by this setting are the configuration file options and the commands specified with the
optional Menu commands
and Find menu commands
, which
have to be specified in English and are translated automatically by elogd. The attribute names
are unaffected by the language setting and have to be translated manually.
If a language name is given (currently "german", "french", "spanish",
"dutch", "brazilian" are supported out-of-the-box),
the system searches for a file named eloglang.<name> containing
string translations from English into that language. If you create a new translation file,
please send it back to the author to be included in future distributions.
The online help for elogd
is contained in the file eloghelp_xx.html where
xx are the first two letters of the language (like "en", "ge" and "fr"). For new languages, a new file of that type must be created as well.
charset = <name>
Specifies the charset of the pages produced by elogd
. Can be used to switch to
Russian or Asian fonts.
Logbook Tabs = [0|1]
This flag controls the display of "tabs" on top of the logbook page which
allow to quickly switch between logbooks. Default is 1
Main Tab = <string>
If this option is present, an additional first tab is displayed which takes you back
to the main logbook selection page. The string
is used for the
contents of the tab.
Welcome Title = <html code>
This optional HTML code gets displayed in the title of the logbook selection
page. It can contain images via <img src="welcome.gif">
.
These images must be stored in the resource directory or in the theme directory.
The following line is an example Welcome Title:
Welcome title = <img src="welcome.jpg"><p><font size=5 color=white>Welcome to our Elog</font>
This displays an image and a text below.
Page title = <string>
The string specified here is used for the title of individual logbook pages. It is also
used by most browsers for bookmark names. <string> can contain substitutions
like $<attribute> where <attribute> gets replaced by the attribute string
from each message. The option Page title
in the [global]
section is used for the logbook selection page.
Summary page title = <string>
The same for the summary or find result page. This may include substitutions as well, although
attribute substitutions make no sense here, since the summary page may contain many messages
with different attributes.
Selection page = <file>
When this option is present, a user defined file is displayed instead of the logbook
selection page. This file must be stored in the resource directory. Alternatively, an
absolute path can be used if the file name starts with a
"/"
(Unix) or "\"
or "x:"
(Windows).
It can be completely customized in order to contain logos etc. As a template,
the standard selection page produced by elogd
can be used.
Guest Selection page = <file>
The same for installations which have a global password file. This means that the
logbook selection page is also password protected. It might be however that some
logbooks have guest access, in which case guest access to the selection page should
be allowed as well (maybe with only a subset of the available logbooks). In that case
this options can be used, to show a list of logbooks with guest access.
Protect Selection page = 0 | 1
Normally, one can see the logbook selection page without having to log in. If one
wants to require a login for the selection page, this switch can be set to
1
. Default is 0
.SMTP host = <host.domain>
This defines the SMTP host needed to send automatic email notifications. The host
name you can get from your email program or your local system administrator.
Logfile = <file>
This option specifies a filename which logs all login/logout activities and
successful user connections for logbooks with user level access. The the
logging level
(see below) is larger than 1, also read and write accesses
can be logged.Logging level = 1 | 2 | 3
Specifies the logging level. The higher this value, the more information
is logged. Default is 2:
URL = <http[s]://host.domain[:port]/[subdir/]>
If one of the three cases is true:
elogd
runs with stunnel
elogd
runs under a proxy
elogd
is running has to be specified
manually with this statement. The URL has to
contain the port number if not the standard port 80 is used, it has to specify https://
if used under stunnel, and it has to contain the directory if used under a proxy like
URL = http://host.domain:8080/
if running on port 8080 URL = https://host.domain/
if running under stunnel URL = http://host.domain/subdir/
if running under a proxy Usr = <name>
Grp = <name>
The user and group to run the elogd daemon under when started by root.
Group <group name> = <Logbook1>, <Logbook2>, <other group>
[global]
section of the configuration file.
[global]
Group Linux PCs = Red Hat, Debian, Mandrake
Group Windows PCs = 98, ME, NT, XP, CE
Group CE = 1.0, 2.0
The logbook tabs would then look like this:
Top groups
. The configuration could look like this:
Group Linux PCs = Red Hat, Debian, Mandrake
Group Windows PCs = 98, ME, NT, XP, CE
Group CE = 1.0, 2.UL
Top group engineering = Linux PCs, Windows PCs
Top group administration = Employees, Purchases
[global engineering]
Password file = engineers.pwd
Admin user = stefan
[global administration]
Password file = admin.pwd
Admin user = bill
Note that there can be a [global]
section for each top level group of logbooks.
The rule is that a configuration setting in an individual logbook section overrides a setting
in the [global <top group>]
setting, which by itsel overrides a setting
in the [global]
section. This way one can define settings for all top level
groups (such as the SMTP host) in the [global]
section, and define different
password files and administrators in the individual top level group sections.
If top groups are used, the root of the elogd server is not accessible any more. Presume that
elogd is accessible normally under http://your.host:8080/
, this URL becomes
invalid for top groups, to avoid the case that one group can "see" the logbooks of the other
groups. Instead, one has to append the top group name to the URL, such as
http://your.host:8080/engineering
or
http://your.host:8080/administration
. If someone does not know the
top group name, one cannot see the list of logbooks there, so the groups become completely
independent of each other. If this feature is not wanted, it can be disabled by setting
Show top groups = 1
.
[global]
section. Thus if the
following options are placed in the [global]
section, they are defaults for
all logbooks. If they are present in the [global]
and in the logbook
section, the logbook option is used.
Data dir = <directory>
This option is obsolete from version 2.2.5 on and should not be used. Use Subdir = ...
instead.Subdir = <directory>
Each logbook has a separate directory where the logbook entries are stored, which
is controlled by this statement. If the directory does not exist, it is created
autmatically by the elogd
program. The subdirectory is relative
to the logbook root directory specified with the Logbook dir = ...
option. So if Logbook dir = /usr/local/elog/logbooks
and
Subdir = Demo
then the logbook data is stored in
/user/local/elog/logbooks/Demo
. If the Logbook dir = ...
option is not specified, then logbooks
is used. If the subdirectory
starts with a "/" ("\" under Windows), then it is used as an absolute path independent
of the logbook dir. To see which directories are used, start elogd
with the "-v" flag.
Comment = <comment>
The comment is displayed on the logbook selection list. The selection list is
displayed if more than one logbook is defined on a host and no logbook is
explicitly specified in the URL.
Theme = <theme>
A theme determines which layout and colors are used for a logbook, similar to
skins in other programs. The theme option points to a subdirectory
under the "themes" directory which resides in the resource directory.
It contains all files for that theme. The format of these files is described under
the Themes section.
CSS = <filename>
A given theme can contain several Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This can be usefule
if several logbooks use the same images and icons, but differnt colors. By default,
the CSS default.css is used. This can be overwritten by this statement.
Title image = <string>
HTML code for the icon in the upper right corner. By default, following code
is used:<string>
to display a different
icon file, or to display some text. The icon image has to be present in the theme directory,
which is usually <elog root>/themes/default
.
Title image URL = <URL>
The ELOG icon at the right upper corner usually points to the ELOG home page. This
URL can be changed to point to a corporate page for example with this option. The
icon can be changed by replacing the elog.gif
icon in the
theme directory. This option should only be used if the Title image
option is not used.
Time format = <string>
This option determines how the date and time of a logbook entry is displayed. The format
of the string is the same as the C function
strftime, so a string of %A, %B %d, %Y, %H:%M yields in a display of
Thursday, November 15, 2001, 12:35 for example.
Date format = <string>
This option determines how the date is displayed from attributes which are of type "date".
The format of the string is the same as the C function
strftime, so a string of %A, %B %d, %Y yields in a display of
Thursday, November 15, 2001 for example.
Welcome Page = <file>
By default, the list with the last twenty entries of a logbook is displayed when the logbook is selected.
This can be overridden with this option, which causes a HTML file to be shown
instead of the message list. This file can contain further links for new logbook
messages of for logbook queries. Here is a simple example of such a file:
<h1>Welcome to the test logbook</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="?cmd=new">Enter</a> a new message
<li><a href="?cmd=find">Search</a> the logbook
</ul>
The file must be present in the resource directory.
Alternatively, an absolute path can be used if the file name starts with a
"/"
(Unix) or "\"
or "x:"
(Windows).
Start page = <command>
This option can be used to display a different start page. command
can be either 0?cmd=Last to display the last message, or any other ELog menu command in the
form ?cmd=xxx
. To start with the search page, one uses
Start page = ?cmd=Find
Please note that if another language than English is selected via the Language = xxx option,
the commands have to be in that language as well (like "Start page = 0?cmd=Letzter" for
German).Submit Page = <file>
This optional page can be displayed when a new message was submitted in a logbook.
Here is an example:
<h1>You successfully submitted a message</h1>
<a href="?cmd=Back">Back</a> to the logbook<p>
<a href="?cmd=New">Enter</a> another message
The file must be present in the resource directory.
Alternatively, an absolute path can be used if the file name starts with a
"/"
(Unix) or "\"
or "x:"
(Windows).
Message comment = <comment>
This optional comment is displayed on top of the text entry field when submitting
a new message. It can contain a sentence like "Please enter your message here:".
Attachment comment = <comment>
This optional comment is displayed on top of the attachment sumbission section when entering
a new message. It can contain a sentence like "Please upload your attachments here:".
Menu commands = <list>
This option specifies the menu commands displayed on top of a single logbook page. For
certain installations, it can be useful to disable some commands. Following
commands are possible:
The commands are always in English, independent of the lanugae = ...
setting, and are automatically translated into the specified language.
If this option is not present, following default is used:
Menu commands = Back, New, Edit, Delete, Reply, Find, Config, Help
Copy to = <logbook list>
Move to = <logbook list>
The commands Copy to
and Move to
make it possible
to copy or move a logbook entry from one logbook to another. By default, all logbooks except
the current logbook are shown as a possible destination. With the configurations options
Copy to = <logbook list>
and Move to = <logbook list>
it is possible to specify a list of destination logbooks, separated by commata. This can
make sense if only certain logbooks make sense as destinations.Find Menu commands = <list>
This option specifies the menu commands displayed on top of the listing page.
Although all commands from a above are possible,
only the commands New, Find, Select, Config, Admin, Change
password, Logout
and Help
make sense. The command
Select
can be used to select multiple messages for deletion of moving to other
logbooks.Guest Menu commands = <list>
This option specifies the menu commands for guest logins. A guest login happens if a
password file is used, but someone accesses the logbook for the first time, which means
that no username/password is given. In that case the commands from the guest menu
are displayed, which usually contain a subset of the normal commands. A typical scenario
is a logbook which only has commands to read the logbook on the guest menu, but no
commands to write/edit entries. Instead, the login command is given in the guest
menu, with which one can login as a real user (username and password have to match those
from the password file), which then allowes full access via the "Menu commands" list.
A typical example for the menu settings for this scenario are:
Menu commands = Back, New, Edit, Reply, Find, Config, Logout, Help
Guest menu commands = Back, Find, Login, Help
Guest menu commands
option with the following
Guest Find Menu commands
option to restrict the access to the
find result page as well.
Guest Find Menu commands = <list>
Same as Guest Menu commands but for the find result page.Menu text = <file>
If this option is present, and additional menu row above the message gets displayed with
the contents of <file>. This file can contain arbitrary text, images or links.
One example would be following text to go back to the listing page and display the
next Routine entry and all Routine entries:
<small>
<a href="?cmd=next&type=Routine">Next Routine entry</a> |
<a href="../?Type=Routine">All Routine entries</a>
</small>
Guest Display = <list>
This option specifies which attributes are displayed on guest access. It is possible
to display only a subset of all attributes for guest access, but the full list
if someone is logged in (using the option "Password file"). The list
consists of comma separated attributes, including the word text, if one
wants to display the entry body text for guests.Find Menu text = <file>
The same for the find result page. One example would be following text to
switch between the different display modi:
<small>
<a href="?mode=summary">Summary</a> |
<a href="?mode=full">Full</a> |
<a href="?mode=threaded">Threaded</a> |
</small>
Top text = <file> | <string>
The text of this option gets displayed at the top of every Elog page.
It can be a string or a filename which gets displayed. Might be useful
to display company logos etc.
If a file is specified, it must be present in the resource directory.
Alternatively, an absolute path can be used if the file
name starts with a "/"
(Unix) or "\"
or
"x:"
(Windows).
Bottom text = <file> | <string>
The text of this option gets displayed at the bottom of every Elog page
instead of the little Elog home page link. It can be a string or a file.
It can contain for example a link back to the main logbook selection page like:
<center><a href="/">Main page</a></center>
Or it can contain other useful links. If a file is specified, it must
be present in the resource directory.
Alternatively, an absolute path can be used if the file
name starts with a "/"
(Unix) or "\"
or
"x:"
(Windows).
Help URL = <URL>
This URL is used for the Help button. By default, the file eloghelp_xx.html is returned with
the contents of the help page. Edit this file directly to add site-specific help for all logbooks.
Alternatively, use the Help URL
option to specify different help pages for different
logbooks. It can point to a site-specific help page via http://...
or to a local
file like file://c:/tmp/config.html
, or to the name of an HTML file which must be
present in the resource directory. Message Width = <number>
This value sets the number of characters per line of the main message entry field.
The default value is 76 (78 for replies), and can be increased for installations
which need a larger window size (like pasting log files etc.).
Message Height = <number>
This value sets the number of lines of the main message entry field.
The default value is 20, and can be changed for installations
which need a different window size.
Admin textarea = <cols>,<rows>
This defines the textarea size for the admin page. Default is 80,40.
Display mode = [full|summary|threaded]
Default mode for search display. On the find entry form, the checkboxes
are set accordingly. The "Last xxx" page uses this setting directly.
Entries per page = <number>
Number of logbook entries displayed per page in a search result. The default is 20.
Restrict edit time = <hours>
If this option is set, a new message can only be edited a certain number of hours
after its creation. This can be useful if one wants to ensure that old entries
cannot be modified. Hours can also be fractional, like 0.5 for 30 min.
Max content length = <bytes>
This option restricts the size of attachments. When very large (>100MB) attachments
are uploaded, the elogd server can be busy with this upload for a longer time and
not respond to other requests during that time. To avoid this, the maximum size
of attachments can be restricted. The server will then refuse to accept larger
attachments. The default is 10485760 (= 10 MB).
would display the entry ID as "TAG-1","TAG-2", ... and so on.
Attributes = <list>
Define a number of attributes for the logbook. A maximum of 50 attributes can be
defined. Typical values are "Author", "Subject" or "Type".
Options <attribute> = <list>
Usually, an text field is used for an attribute, where the user can fill in
text of up to 100 characters. If instead a drop-down box with preset items is
better for a given attribute, these items can be defined with this statement.
Up to 100 items can be defined, separated by commas. To add an option including
a comma, encose it in quotations marks like
Options town = San Francisco, "Paris, Texas", "Paris, France"
Extendable options = <list>
When using the Options <attribute>
to specify a list
of possible options, this list is fixed. Sometimes it is desirable to extend
the list when a new entry in a logbook is made and a certain option is missing
on the list. By adding the attribute name to the Extandable options
list, a button appears next to the attribute in the message entry form which
lets you add new options to the list. The elogd.cfg configuration file is
then automatically updated. When a new logbook entry gets made, the new option
automatically appears in the drop-down box for that attribute.
ROptions <attribute> = <list>
Same as Options
above, but using radio buttons instead
of a drop-down box.
MOptions <attribute> = <list>
This list allows for "Multiple Options", meaning that an attribute can have
several values simultaneously. When entering an entry with MOptions, each value
from the list is represented by a checkbox. Unlike with normal options, multiple
checkboxes can be checked for an entry. The attribue value then becomes
<value1> | <value2> | ...
In the "find" page only one of these values can be specified, which is then
treated as a substring in the search filter.
IOptions <attribute> = <list>
This list specifies a set of icons for an attribute. Some icons are contained in
the themes/default/icons directory which can be used here like
Attributes = Author, Icon, Subject...
IOptions Icon = icon1.gif, icon2.gif, icon3.gif, ...
New icons are welcome and should be sent back to the author to be incorporated
in the next version.
Comment <attribute> = <comment>
Optional comment which is displayed below the attribute name in the entry form.
Can be used to explain the attribute somehow.
Tooltip <attribute> = <comment>
Same as Comment <attribute>
, except that the comment
gets displayed as a tooltip (tiny pup-up window) when the user moves the mouse
cursor over the attribute name in the entry form.
Icon comment <icon> = <comment>
Icons may contain a comment, which is then used in email notifications instead
of the icon file name. One has to add a separate icon comment for each icon file.
Options <attribute> = boolean
If an attribute is marked "boolean" this way, a checkbox is displayed for
this attribute.
Preset <attribute> = <string>
This option uses a preset string for an attribute. The string can contain
subsitutions like the ones described under the "Subst <attribute>"
command. One possible application is to use the login name for the author
field like:
Preset Author = $long_name
If the attribute should be locked at the Web submission, use the
"Locked Attributes = ..." option. If a preset value is given for an
attribute which has an options list, the preset value is selected in the drop
down box by default.
A special option are automatically generated tags, which are automatically incremented
for each new message. This is achieved by putting a "%" into the preset string, which
is used as a printf format specifier. A statement like
Preset Number = XYZ-%05d
results in automatically created attributes "Number" of the form
XYZ-00001
XYZ-00002
XYZ-00003
and so on.
Preset text = <string> or <file>
This preset value is used for the main body text. It can be a string or a file,
which must be present in the resource directory.
Alternatively, an absolute path can be used if the file name starts with a
"/"
(Unix) or "\"
or "x:"
(Windows).
Preset on reply <attribute> = <string>
Same as Preset <attribute>
, but evaluated for
replies.
Locked Attributes = <list>
The attributes specified here cannot be modified when a new entry is submitted.
This makes only sense for preset attributes.
Fixed Attributes Edit = <list>
The attributes specified here cannot be modified when an existing entry
is modified via the Edit
button. This feature can be
useful to preserve the original author of the message, when using the
Preset Author = $long_name
option as described above.
Fixed Attributes Reply = <list>
The attributes specified here cannot be modified when an existing entry
is replied on via the Reply
button. This feature can be
useful to preserve the original subject of a message for example.
Required Attributes = <list>
The attributes specified here are required when a new entry is submitted. The
attribute names are marked with * on the entry form.
Page title = <string>
The string specified here is used for the title of the web page. It is also
used by most browsers for bookmark names. The string can contain substitutions
as described unter the "Subst <attribute>" option.
List display = <list>
Specified the display and order of items in a message listing page or a search
result page. In addition to all attributes, following items can be specified:
ID
for the entry ID
Date
for the entry date/time
Edit
to display a column with an edit icon to directly edit
and entry
Delete
to display a column with a delete icon to directly delete
and entry
The restriction to certain
attributes can be helpful if many attributes are defined in a logbook, which
usually makes the table too big to fit in the browser. The default
is
List display = ID, Date, <all attributs>
Which displays the message number, date, and all attributes. The display of the
message body is controlled by the Display mode
and
Summary lines
options. If a search goes over "all logbooks",
an additional colums with the logbook name of each entry is added in front.
Guest List display = <list>
Same as List display
, but for guest access (user level
access with password, but not logged in). Please see also Guest
display
.
Thread display = <string>
Optional way to specify the line contents in the threaded search result. Following
substitutions are possible:
A typical example would be
Thread display = $subject, posted by $author on $entry time
Thread icon = <attribute>
If a logbook uses some icons for an attribute, these icons can be displayed
in the search result page instead of the default icons contained in the themes directory.
Subst <attribute> = <string>
When submitting logbook entries, attribute values can be substituted by some
text. This text can contain arbitrary fixed text and following values:
elogd
is running
Following example use this feature to add the remote host name to the author:
Subst Author = $author from $remote_host
Remove on reply = <list>
This option clears one or more (separated by commata) attribute values from a logbook
entry when creating a reply to that entry. This can make sense for example for
the author, since the author of a reply can be different from the original author.
Quote on reply = 0 | 1
This flag controls if the original text is quoted in a reply. Default is 1
Reply string = <string>
String used to mark original message lines. Default is "> "
. Can
be empty string ("") if no message marking is desired.
Subst on reply <attribute > = <string>
Substitution of attributes for replies. This option can be used to replace the current
subject with a "Re: <old subject>":
Subst on reply subject = Re: $subject
Subst on edit <attribute > = <string>
Substitution of attributes for edited messages. This option can be used to replace the
author by the current author for example:
Subst on edit author = $full_name
Quick filter = <list>
Specifies list of comma separated attributes for which a drop-down filter is displayed
in the search result page. By selecting a value from that drop-down box, only entries
with that value are displayed. In addition to all attributes defined in the
Attributes =
list, the attribute Date
can be
listed here to display a date filter. Using that filter, the last day, week, month and so
on can be displayed.
Format <attribute> = <flags>,<css_class_name>,<css_class_value>,<width>,<size>
Optional formatting parameters for attributes. Following items can be defined in the
comma-separated list:
Type <attribute> = date | numeric
A normal attribute can contain strings of any type. With this option, attributes can be
forced to be numeric or to be a date. When new logbook entries are made,
numeric attributes are checked to contain only digits. Note that JavaScript has to be
enabled to do this.
Attributes of type date
are treated as a date.
Upon entry, drop-down boxes are displayed which let the user select the day, month and
year. Alternatively, a pop-up date picker using a calendar can be displayed if JavaScript
is enabled. Date attributes are saved internally as seconds since 1.1.1970, and can therefore
be sorted propoerly by clicking on the header of a logbook entry list. On the find page,
dates can be searched for via a start and end date. If date attributes are used in a quick filter
(see above), a drop-down quick filter box is displayed which lets the user select "last day",
"last week", "next week", and so on.Display <attribute> = <string>
Instead of subsituting an attribute, the original attribute can be kept and just the
output formatting can be changed. This can be very handy for constructing HTML links
out of attributes. Presume that a company has a telephone book reachable under
http://any.company.com/telbook.cgi?search=<name>
where <name> has to be replaced by a search string.
Now one can construct an automatic telephonebook lookup with following options:
Attributes = Name, Telephone, ...
Display Telephone = <a href="http://any.company.com/telbook.cgi?search=$Name">$Name's telephone number</a>
The attribute Telephone
is now automatically constructed from
the attribute Name
and consists of a link to the company's
telephonebook. The advantage of this system is if the URL of the telephonebook
changes one day, only one statement in the config file has to be changed, while
otherways (like with the Subst Telephone = ...
option) all
entries would have to be changed manually.Execute new | edit | delete = <command>
It is possible to execute a shell command on the server side after a new message
has been submitted, edited or deleted. This feature has been used in the past
for SMS notifications over a telephone system and for synchrnonization of the ELOG
database with an external SQL database. The <command>
can
contain substitutions similar to the Subst
command.
Following (Unix) command writes a notification into some file:
Execute new = echo "New message of type $type from $long_name on $remote_host" >> /tmp/elog.log
It should be noted that this feature can impose a security problem. If someone can edit
the elogd.cfg through the Config
command of elogd, that person
can put malicious code into elogd.cfg and execute it. This is even more severe if elogd
runs with root privileges. To avoid such problems, the execute facility is disabled
in elogd by default and has to be enabled explicitly with the "-x" command line flag.
The administrator has to ensure then of course that only trusted people can edit elogd.cfg.
Last submission = <string>
This option determines what gets displayed on the logbook selection page in the
Last submission colum. The default string is $entry time by $author
. If
a logbook does not contain an author
attribute, another string can
be chosen.
ID display = <string>
This option determines the display of the entry ID. In some applications, the entry ID
can be used as a tag, containing more than just the ID number. For example
ID display = TAG-$message id
Prepend on reply = <string>
With this option a string can be placed on top of a reply. Using string substition,
this can be useful for adding the author and the date of a reply, like
Prepend on reply = Added $date by $long_name\n\n
where "\n" causes a line break.
Apend on reply = <string>
Same as before, but gets added after the previous entry.
Prepend on edit = <string>
Apend on edit = <string>
Same as before, but for editing entries.
Attributes = PC Name, Operating System, Version
Options Operating System = Linux, Windows
Attributes = PC Name, Operating System, Version
Options Operating System = Linux{1}, Windows{2}
{1} Options Version = 2.2, 2.4, 2.6
{2} Options Version = ME, 2k, NT, XP
Version
changes automatically depending on the Operating System
. Note that you
have to enable Java Script for this to work. Without Java Script, a separate button appears
in the line of the Operating System which has to be pressed to make the Version list change.
{<n>}
in front of that line
where <n> is an arbitrary number. One often used possibility is the definition
of forms. Depending on an attribute, the configuration option
Prset text = ...
can be used to copy some pre-defined forms into
the message body, which can then be filled out. Consider following example:
Attributes = Author, Type
Options Type = Network check{1}, System check{2}
{1} Preset text = network.txt
{2} Preset text = system.txt
Routers checked: [ ]
DHCP checked: [ ]
Comment: ...
Message comment
. Depending on some attribute values, different
message comment can be displayed to tell the user what to enter exactly in the
message body for that attribute value.
Multiple conditions
It is possible to define conditions in more than one options list. The only requiremnt
is that conditions are uniquie, meaning that a condition in one option list cannot
be used in another list. This can easily be avoided by using numbers for one condition
and letters for the other condition, like in the following example:
Attributes = PC Name, Operating System, Version, Location, Floor
Options Operating System = Linux{1}, Windows{2}
Options Location = Main Building{a}, New Building{b}, Old Building{c}
{1} Options Version = 2.2, 2.4, 2.6
{2} Options Version = ME, 2k, NT, XP
{a} Options Floor = Ground, First, Second
{b,c} Options Floor = Ground, First
{1&a} ...
specifies for example the condition "Linux AND Main Building".
Read password = <encoded password>
Write password = <encoded password>
Admin password = <encoded password>
Write password expiration = <hours>
Admin password expiration = <hours>
elogd
directly with the -r
, -w
and
-a
flags. To set the write password of logbook "linux" to "
test", enter: elogd -w test -l linux
Write Password Expiration = x
or
Admin Password Expiration = x
, where x is the expiration time in
hours. It should be noted that on some systems the daylight savings time is calculated
incorrectly, which can cause time offsets of one hour between a server PC and a client
PC. In this case one hour must be added to the expiration time. If the expiration is set
to "0", which is the default, the passwords are kept for the current browser session
only. When the browser is restarted, the password must be re-entered.
Password file = <file>
Login expiration = <hours>
Admin user = <user list>
Login user = <user list>
<login name1>:<password1>:<full name1>:<email1>:<notify1>
<login name2>:<password2>:<full name2>:<email2>:<notify2>
<login name3>:<password3>:<full name3>:<email3>:<notify3>
...
Self register = 1
in the configuration file, or
by the admin user in the Config page by pressing New user. When a user is
logged it, the entry for this user can be modified via the Config command.
Self register = 1
in the configuration file
Guest menu commands
entry, you have to click on "Login" to get that screen.
Admin user = <user>
into the configuration file, using
your login name from above
Attributes = Author, Email, ...
Subst Author = $long_name from $remote_host
Subst Email = $user_emailRemember me
checkbox during the login. If unchecked,
the cookies expire after the
current browser session. If checked, they expire after 31 days by default, which
can be changed with the Login
expiration
option, giving the expiration time in hours. Setting this to 24
for example, makes the password expire after one day. If presistent cookies are not
desired, the Login expiration
option can be set to zero, in which
case the Remember me
checkbox is not displayed.Admin user = <user list>
is a list of one or more user names,
which have admin rights. They see a button Change elogd.cfg
on the
config page by which they can edit elogd.cfg through the web. They can also modify other
users on the Config
page, change their passwords or remove them. In
addition, the admin user(s) can delete or edit entries from other users if
Restrict edit = 1
.Login user = <user list>
is a list of users who can
log in to a specific logbook. This option can be used with a global password file. If a
Password file
is present under the [global]
section, the registered users in that password file can log in to all logbooks. It might
be required that only certain users can log in to certain logbooks. This can be achieved
with the Login user
option, places in each individual logbook
section in the configuration file. Only those users listed in this statement can log in
to the logbook where the statement is defined. This method has the advantage over the
option of definining individual password files for individual logbooks that only one
central password file exists. So if a user changes her/his password, this becomes then
valid for all logbooks. If there would be individual logbook password files, one would
have to change the password in all logbooks individually.
Self register = 0|1|2|3
Allow <command> = <user list>
Deny <command> = <user list>
Hosts allow = <list>
Hosts deny = <list>
123.213.
(note the trailing '.') or .mit.edu
,
or the word All
. The following rules are applied:
elogd
with the "-v" flag, in which case the rule checking is printed
on the screen.
Logfile = <filename>
can be specified
to log all user login/logout activities plus all successful user connections.[global]
area of the
configuration files, they are used for all logbooks. If one logs in at one logbook,
access is automaticlly granted to all logbooks. If the password statements are in the
individual logbook sections, one has to log in to each logbook separately.
Email <attribute> <value> = <list>
Use Email Subject = <string>
Use Email From = <string>
Use Email Heading = <string>
Use Email Heading Edit = <string>
Omit Email To = 0|1
Suppress Email to users = 0|1
SMTP host =
entry must be present in the [global]
section
of the configuration file. To submit an email based on an attribute value, use the statement Email <attribute> <value> =
<list>
. Whenever an entry is submitted where
attribute
is equal to value
, an email
notification is sent to the email addresses in list
.
Several mail addresses may be supplied, separated by commas. The mail addresses can
contain attributes via the "$" substitution. If a logbook contains for
example an attribute name which contains email names, then one can
put $name@domain to form a valid email address.Email xxx
statements may occur in a configuration
file. If either the attribute or the value contains one or more blanks the string
must be enclosed with quotation marks, as in:
Email type "Normal routine" = ...
Email All = <list>
sends an
email notification independent of the type and category. The Use
Email Subject = <string>
statement specifies which text is
used as the email subject. The text can contain $<attribute>
statements which are substituted with the current value of that
attribute. For a full list of possible substitutions, see the
"Subst <attribute>" option. The Use Email Heading
= <string>
specifies the text for the email heading line.
Default is "A new entry has been submitted on [host]". The option
Use Email Heading Edit = <string>
works the same
way for updated (edited) entries.Use Email From = <string>
is used for the "From:" field in the email.
Since more and more email servers do not accept invalid "From:" addresses in
order to reduce spam mail, it might be important that a "real" email address is used in
the "From:" field. By default, the email address of the currently logged in
user is used for the "From:" field. If no user is logged in, or the current
user has not specified a email address in the password database, the setting
of the option Use Email From
is used for the "From:" field.
Only if this option is not specified, a generic address ELOG@<hostname>
is used, which might be rejected by the SMTP server however.
Omit Email To
is set to 1, the To: field in the email is
left empty instead set to the real email address of the recipients. This can
be useful if one recipient should not see the email addresses of the other recipients.
Suppress Email to users
can be set to "1" if email should
only be sent to the recipients of the Email <attribute> <value> = <list>
statements but not to the users who have registerd for automatic email notification.
Show text = 0|1
This flag controls if logbook entries contain a body text. If an installation
only requires attributes, this flag can be set to 0. Default is
1.
Enable attachments = 0|1
This flag controls the attachment submission at the bottom of a message
entry page. If this flag is 0, the attachment section is not displayed.
This might be useful for logbooks where attachments are not used. Default
is 1.
Show attachments = 0|1
This flag controls the display of attachments such as images on normal
logbook pages. For logbooks with large images, this flag can be turned off,
so that attachments are only displayed when they are clicked on. Default
is 1.
Summary lines = x
This specifies the number of text lines displayed in a summary page. Zero displays
no text at all. The default is 3.
Reverse sort = 0|1
If this flag is 1, all listing pages (the default page view, the result of
a search query and the result of the "Last day" query)
is sorted in reverse order (newest entry down to oldest). The checkbox Sort in
reverse order on the search form gets checked by default, too. Sorting in reverse
order can make sense if there are many pages of entries, but the ones entered last
should be displayed on the first page. Default is 0.Search all logbooks = 0|1
If this flag is 1, the search form displays the button "Search all
logbooks". The default is 1. It might be necessary to turn this option
off for public logbooks if there are also protected logbooks. Otherwise the
search result would also display entries from the protected logbooks.Enable browsing = 0|1
If this flag is 1, browsing (hitting the next/previous button) is enabled.
For some rare occasions it might be necessary to disable browsing. Default is
1.
Filtered browsing = 0|1
If this flag is 1, browsing (hitting the next/previous button) can be
filtered by individual attributes. If the checkbox next to an attribute is checked,
only messages with the same attribute value are displayed. Default is 0.
HTML default = 0|1|2|3
This specifies the default state of the "Submit as HTML text" button on the
new message entry from. For installations where entries are normally submitted
as HTML, the default can be set to 1. If this value is set to 2
or 3, the check box is not displayed and only text submissions
ore HTML submissions are possible, respectively. The default is 0.
Suppress default = 0|1|2
This specifies the default state of the "Suppress Email notification" button on the
new message entry form. For installations where normally an email notification is
not necessary, the default can be set to 1. If an important entry is
entered, users can then uncheck the suppress box. If this value is set to 2
, the suppress box is not displayed at all, so that an email notification is
always produced. The default is 0.
Resubmit default = 0|1|2
This specifies the default state of the "Resubmit as new entry" button on the
edit message entry from. If this button is checked, the current message is removed
from its current position in the database and submitted as a new message. This
can for example be useful for applications where users want to see which records
have been updated recently. If this value is set to 2, the resubmit box
is not displayed at all. The default is 0.
Display Email recipients = 0|1
If this flag is 1, the email recipients are displayed when a logbook
entry is entered which produces an email notification. Setting this flag to 0
suppresses this display, in case users need not see that email is being sent and to whom.
The default is 1.
Email Format = <n>
Specifies what is sent in an email notification. <n> is the sum of following
flags:
So to send for example only the attributes and the URL, set <n>
to 6. Default is 63 (send everything).
Suppress Email on edit = 0|1
If this flag is 1, no email notifications are sent for edited messages,
only for new messages. The default is 0.
Back to main = 0|1
If this flag is 1, the "Back" button takes you back to the logbook
selection page instead to the last entry of the current logbook.
The default is 0.
Logout to main = 0|1
If this flag is 1, the "Logout" operation takes you back to the logbook
selection page instead to the login page.
The default is 0.
Restrict edit = 0|1
If this flag is 1, users can only edit their own messages. The system
checks automatically if the currently logged in user matches the user
supplied in an author attribute via the "Preset xxxx" option.
The default is 0.
Expand default = 0|1|2|3
This setting determines how messages are displayed in threaded mode. Following
options are possible:
The default is 1.
Summary lines
option.
Hidden = 0|1
If this flag is 1, the logbook is not displayed in the initial logbook selection
page and in the logbook tabs. This can be useful for logbooks which are only accessed
for backup or archiving and would clutter up the logbook list for the normal user. To
access hidden logbooks, one has to enter the logbook URL directly, or from a bookmark list.
Default is 0.
Use Lock = 0|1
If this flag is 1, a logbook entry is locked when someone edits it (clicking
the Edit command). A locked message gets displayed with a little red sign indicating
that the message is currently edited by someone and should not be touched. This can be
helpful in installations where several people can edit messages. Without locking, the second
submission of an edited message overwrites the first submission without notice. Although
the sign gets displayed, the message can still be edited (the lock can be "stolen"),
but it's the user's response to avoid any conflict.
Since elog cannot determine if someone keeps a message very long for editing or if only the
browser got closed, the locking can show up even if the message is not kept for editing any more.
In that case, the message has to be edited again and submitted, to remove the origial lock.
Note that logbooks accessible from the internet usually get scanned by search engines. This
can lead to situations where the Edit link of each message is "followed" by a bot,
resulting in all messages being locked. In those cases locking has to be turned off.
Since release 2.5.4, some Javascript code has been added to avoid unwanted locks. If someone
edits an entry, but then goes away from that page or closes the browser without submitting
the changes, a pop-up window appears asking the user to submit the changed entry. Although
this works for most browsers in most cases, it could be that Javascript has been turned off
in a browser, in which case the stale locks still might appear.
Default for "Use Lock" is 0.Show top groups = 0|1
When using top groups, the root of the elogd server is not accessible any more, to avoid
cases where one group can "see" the logbooks of the other groups. If this feature is
unwanted, the flag Show top groups
can be set to 1
,
in which case a list of available top groups is shown.
Fix text = 0|1
With this options the main text body can be fixed, so that it cannot be
changed via the Edit
button later. This feature can be
useful for set-ups where some attributed must be changed later, but the
text body should be preserved. The default is 0.
theme = <dir>
option in the configuration file. Each theme can
contain several CSSs, which can be selected with the CSS = <filename>
option.
class="<name>"
statements.
These classes can be found in the .../themes/default/default.css
file and changed accordingly. For a description of all options, please consult for example the
W3C consortium.