SPFE Documentation | Collections > SPFE Development > Configuration file overview

Configuration file overview

The SPFE build system is configured by the SPFE configuration file. Configuration file determines the behavior of the SPFE build. The first stage of the build process is to run the configuration script, which reads the configuration files and writes out the files that run the rest of the build. A version of the configuration file produced by the configuration script is also passed as the main input to all processing scripts, making the configuration information available at all stages of the build.

While you can define the entire configuration of a build in one file, it is usually better to divide the configuration into multiple files. Many of these partial configuration files can be reused for multiple content sets or topic sets. For instance, the configuration file for a topic type can be used in every topic set configuration that uses that topic type.

There are several sections to the complete configuration of a content set, each of which is commonly stored in one or more separate files:

• The content set configuration, contained in the setting, /content-set: This defines the set of topic sets to be included in the topic set as well as other settings that are common to the entire content set.

• The topic set configuration for each topic set, contained in the setting /topic-set: This defines the topics to include in each topic set and other setting that are common to a topic set. A topic set configuration is included in the content set configuration using the setting /content-set/topic-sets/topic-set.

• The topic type configuration for each topic type in a topic set, contained in the setting /topic-type: This defines the scripts to use to process topics of a particular topic type, as well as other setting common to a topic type. A topic type configuration file is usually created as part of defining a topic type. A topic type configuration is included in the topic set configuration using the setting /topic-set/topic-types/topic-type.

• The object type configuration for each object type in a topic set, contained in the setting /topic-set/object-types/object-type: This defines the scripts used to process objects of a particular type, as well as other settings related to objects.

• The output format configuration for each output format required for the content set, contained in the setting /output-format: This defines the scripts used to create an output of a particular type. An output format configuration file is usually created as part of defining an output format. An output format configuration is included in the content set configuration using the setting /content-set/output-formats/output-format.