When installing and setting up Alfresco Enterprise Viewer it’s important to understand how configuration settings work.

Spring properties files

AEV web application properties

Spring loads properties files into the system in a specific order to allow overriding. Properties are loaded in the following order (last wins):

1. defaults.properties (sensible defaults for every property)
2. project-placeholders.properties (project specific properties)
3. openannotate-override-placeholders.properties (Optional. Tomcat-specific properties)
4. override-placeholders.properties (environment-specific properties)

In general, use the openannotate-override-placeholders.properties to override any of the default properties. This file must be placed on the Tomcat classpath (for example, in the <TOMCAT_HOME>/shared/classes folder), and overrides all properties located in OpenAnnotate.war. Properties defined here can still be overridden by override-placeholders.properties, but if for example server URLs are all that need to be defined, these can be left in openannotate-override-placeholders.properties, allowing WARs to be promoted through various environments without needing to be re-built / configured.

OpenContent properties

OpenContent properties related to AEV are located in the universal-defaults.properties file. Any of these properties can be overridden if desired in the opencontent-override-placeholders.properties file.

Default properties

The following are the configurable properties for Enterprise Viewer:

serviceAccountUsername

This is the service account user name to use when logging in using the “stored” endpoint. The stored endpoint allows you to log in using the configured service account and provide a display name (displayName) to identify the user you are logging in for.

Note: This property must be overridden if you’re using the “stored” endpoint.

Default value: ""

serviceAccountPassword

This is the service account password to use when logging in using the “stored” endpoint. The stored endpoint allows you to log in using the configured service account and provide a display name to identify the user you are logging in for.

Note: This property must be overridden if you’re using the “stored” endpoint.

Default value: ""

isServiceAccountPasswordEncrypted

Set to true if the password for the service account for the stored login endpoint is encrypted, or false if otherwise.

Default value: false

serviceAccountDocbase

The docbase the service account should login to.

Default value: ""

emailInviteUrl

This URL is used in the invitation to collaborate email. If the [docId] placeholder is specified, it is replaced by the objectId of the document being viewed when the invitation is sent.

Default value: http://localhost:8080/OpenAnnotate/viewer.htm?docId=[docId]&presenterMode=true&mode=readOnly

ocRestEndpointAddress

This URL is the REST endpoint for the running instance of OpenContent. If Enterprise Viewer is being used in a load balancing setup and the instances of Enterprise Viewer and OpenContent are on the same server, this property should be the non-load balanced url, to ensure that the requests to OpenContent are always directed to the same OpenContent instance.

Default value: http://localhost:8080/OpenContent/rest

clientRequestUrl

The URL that client requests from Enterprise Viewer to OpenContent should be made to. Generally, this only changes if OpenContent has a different REST root, /alfresco/OpenContent for example used when OC is an Alfresco subsystem.

Default value: /OpenContent/rest

collaborationEndpoint

This URL is the endpoint on which the web socket server is listening for a connection. This should be used when Enterprise Viewer is run in collaboration mode. If collaboration mode is enabled but this property is not specified, collaboration mode will not work properly.

For load balanced setups, there should only be a single collaboration server. So this should point to the single, non-load balanced URL.

Default value: http://localhost:3000

collaborationModeEnabled

This property represents whether or not Enterprise Viewer is being run in collaboration mode to take advantage of features like real-time annotations and chat functionality.

Default value: false

forceNonModalNotifications

This property represents whether or not Enterprise Viewer forces non-modal notifications.

Default value: true

singleAnnotationDialog

Set to true if only one annotation dialog should ever be open at a time, or false otherwise.

Default value: true

allowExternalReviewers

When set to true annotations from third party applications for both users that do not have an account in Alfresco and users that have corresponding accounts in Alfresco should be accepted. When set to false, only annotations from users with a corresponding Alfresco account will be accepted.

In order to have allowExternalReviewers set to true, a special license setting must be set in your AEV license by the Hyland License Team with the property hasExternalOAUsers: true.

Default value: false

AllowMultipleOfflineReviewers

When set to false offline annotations will be owned by the user that checked the annotations in. No matter which user is set on the offline annotation, the annotation will always be displayed as being added by the user who checked in the document.

Default value: true

excludeEmbeddedAnnotations

Set to true if annotations embedded in the PDF should not be fetched, or false to allow annotations to be imported from third party systems like Adobe. Any users that do not have a corresponding Alfresco account will not have their annotations displayed in AEV.

Default value: true

serverAnnotationsEditable

Set to true if server annotations can be edited. Setting this to false prevents users from editing their annotations after their session ends.

Default value: true

sidebarDefaultOpen

This property represents whether or not Enterprise Viewer should start up with its sidebar (which contains other modules like summary, search and collaboration) showing.

Default value: true

helpUrl

This URL points to a “help” website for using Enterprise Viewer. This is not recommended to be overridden.

Default value: https://docs.alfresco.com/

printSummaryBaseType

This is the base type to use when fetching the attributes for the print summary window. If the attributes specified are not attributes on this type, Enterprise Viewer fails to initialize properly.

Default value: Document

oaLogoPath

The path for the logo to display at the top left corner on the toolbar in the Enterprise Viewer interface. Useful to override for different logos. This path is relative to the src/main/webapp directory.

Default value: images/logos

oaIconPath

The path for the icons to display in the Enterprise Viewer interface. This path is relative to the src/main/webapp directory.

Default value: images/icons

targetMimetype

The target MIME type to use when transforming documents. Defaults to PNG, but supports JPG (image/jpeg) as well.

Default value: image/png

imageFullResolution

The final resolution to use when transforming image pages to PNG or JPG. Lower resolutions may be loaded first.

Default value: 64

imageMinimumResolution

The minimum resolution to load the image when progressively loading the image.

Default value: 16

pdfFullResolution

The final resolution to use when transforming PDF pages to PNG or JPG. Lower resolutions may be loaded first.

Default value: 244

pdfMinimumResolution

The minimum resolution to load the image when progressively loading the image.

Default value: 64

progressiveReloadSteps

The number of reloads to make between the minimum resolution image and the full resolution.

Default value: 1

pageZoom

The initial page zoom to use when loading a document. The allowed values are either fitHeight or fitWidth. Fit height adjusts the document so the entire height is visible. Fit width adjusts the document so the entire width is visible.

Default value: fitWidth

numPreloadPages

The number of pages to preload. Preloading works by making requests to fetch pages close to the current page the user is viewing in order to cache the image, which results in shorter load times when the page is changed. The allowed values are the following:

• 0: This tells AEV to preload all the pages of the document
• -1: This tells AEV to not use preloading at all

• Any other positive integer: This integer specifies the total number of pages to preload - half are pages before the current page and the other half are after the current page.

  Note:

  • The configured value should be a multiple of 2 because the number of pages to preload is divided by 2.

  • Specifying 1 and 2 accomplishes the same result.

  • Once the number of preloaded pages equals the configured value, no more pages are preloaded until the page is changed.

Default value: 10

enhancedColorMode

This flag controls the colors that are displayed and allowed to be chosen for annotations.

• If set to true there is no limit on the color of created annotations and the downloaded annotations maintain their colors.
• If set to false the user may not choose different colors for annotations and instead, all of the user’s annotations are either red, yellow for a highlight, and all other annotations are blue (the same is true for the downloaded annotated PDF).

Default value: true

dateFormat

The format to use when displaying dates in annotation dialog boxes. The formatting uses the open source library Moment.js, so any formats found in the Moment.js formatting Documentation may be used.

Default value: MM/DD/YYYY

enabledActions and Modes

Configuring what Buttons and Actions appear in Enterprise Viewer is a little more in-depth than the average configuration option.

See Configure Enterprise Viewer actions and modes for more details.

quillEnabledButtons

A comma separated list of buttons that’s visible in the quill toolbar. All currently supported quill buttons are bold, italic, and underline.

Default value: bold,italic

leftSidebarModules

A comma separated list of views to be enabled in the left sidebar.

Default value: bookmarks,attachedDocs,thumbnails,sections,documentList

rightSidebarModules

A comma separated list of views to be enabled in the right sidebar.

Default value: summary,search,participants,suggestedRedactions

redactionType

What type of redaction should be made when entering redaction mode via the dropdown. Possible values include redactInPlace, redactedAsCopy, and unredactedAsCopy.

Default value: redactInPlace

initialDrawingTool

A comma separated list of drawing buttons that should be selected when Enterprise Viewer loads. The first valid button on the list is selected when Enterprise Viewer first loads.

Default value: drawRedaction, signature, mouse

autosaveInterval

The number of milliseconds Enterprise Viewer waits between each autosave.

• 0: This tells AEV to NOT autosave.
• Any other positive integer: The number of milliseconds Enterprise Viewer waits for between each autosave. This should not be set to a number below 5000 - 10000 (5 - 10 seconds), as it could cause undefined behavior.

Default value: 60000

autosaveBeforeExit

Set to true if Enterprise Viewer should automatically save before exiting, or false otherwise.

Default value: true

enabledPopupNotifications

The list of the Collaboration mode notifications that are enabled and appear on internal popups when the Participants tab is closed. To disable a type of notification, remove it from the list of notification in this property. The default is that all notification are enabled.

Default value:

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chat,userJoined,userLeft,serverConnection,checkInAnnotations,checkInAnnotationsFailed,burnInRedactionFailed,checkinAnnotationsFinished,pageSelectMode,welcomeBackPage,save,loadedAnnotations,saveFinished,copyPaste,copyPasteNotReady,tooLargeForThumbnails,closeSave,closeCopyPaste,pageRangeInvalid,logstashFailed,portfolioContainsNonPdf,docHasAnnotations,afterPageLoad,textLocationDataFailed,enterSectioningMode,sectionNameInvalid,displayDocumentListFailed

slideViewerTileDirectoryRoot

The root directory on the server filesystem where the slide viewer “tiles” should be served from. It is commonly a URL that is redirected through Apache to request files from the server.

Default value: http://localhost:8080/OpenAnnotate/images/seadragon/

sessionCookieName

The name of the session cookie which is used to track sticky sessions in load balanced environments. For load balanced environments, sticky sessions are required to ensure Enterprise Viewer always hits the correct correct OpenContent with all its internal requests.

Default value: JSESSIONID

checkServletRequestForSessionId

Set to true if a check should be made for the sessionId on the Servlet requests from Enterprise Viewer’s front-end and append it to the requests to OC, or false otherwise. This sessionId is used to maintain sticky sessions in load-balanced environments. If this property and checkServletCookieForSessionId are both set, the sessionId set on the Servlet request overrides any sessionId set on the cookie.

Default value: true

checkServletCookieForSessionId

Set to true if a check should be made for the sessionId on a cookie and append it to the requests to OC, or false otherwise. This sessionId is used to maintain sticky sessions in load-balanced environments. If this property and checkServletRequestForSessionId are both set, the sessionId set on the Servlet request overrides any sessionId set on the cookie.

Default value: true

snapThreshold

The percentage of a highlight that must overlap a word for it to be detected as a word. Highlights snap to the detected words and get the underlying text. If no highlight snapping is desired, set to a value over 100% (i.e. < 1.0).

Default value: 0.15

The GIFs below show the results of different values of snapThreshold:

Example snap threshold = 10% (0.1)

Example snap threshold = 40% (0.4)

Example snap threshold 100% or more (greater than 1.0)

rerenderPageOnResize

Set to true to send new requests to OC every time you zoom in or out on a page, or false otherwise.

Default value: true

quickSearch

Set to true to allow the user to immediately search selected text when Ctrl+F is pressed, or false otherwise.

Default value: false

numberOfPagesForLargeDocuments

The number of pages that are considered as a “large” document.

• If the value is 0, it ignores considering documents with many pages as a large document.
• If a document has more pages than the value here, text search data isn’t loaded initially, and thumbnails are disabled.
• Text search data can still be manually loaded by the user later, after answering yes to a modal dialog box informing them of the delay.

Default value: 99

sizeOfLargeFiles

The size (in bytes) to consider a document as “large”. If a document’s size is bigger than the value here, a user is prompted with a modal dialog box to confirm calls that require a lot of resources to limit memory usage.

Default value: 104857600(100 MB)

maxDocumentSize

The maximum size of a document (in bytes) that is loaded.

• If the value is 0, there are no bounds for large documents.
• Otherwise, if a document’s size is bigger than the defined value, a modal dialog box appears to let the user know that their document is too large to open.

Default value: 2147483648(2 GB)

enableCommentBox

Set to true if the comment box is enabled in the annotation dialog box, or false otherwise.

Default value: true

enablePicklist

Set to true if picklist features are enabled for Enterprise Viewer, or false otherwise.

If picklists are enabled, picklistUrl must have a parameter to work.

Note: Currently, picklists are only used for annotation dialog boxes.

Default value: false

enableStatuses

Set to true if annotations can have a status and previous statuses appear.

Default value: true

showSmallActionName

Set to true if the actions dropdown shown at small resolutions should reflected the currently selected tool, or false otherwise.

Default value: true

asyncPicklist

Set to true if picklists used for Enterprise Viewer are asynchronous, or false otherwise.

Default value: false

picklistUrl

The picklist information needed to retrieve picklist data. This is either a picklist name to reference a configured picklist in OpenContent or a URL to retrieve picklist data from an external source.

Default value: ""

externalPicklist

Set to true if the picklist is from an external source, or false otherwise.

Default value: false

searchPagesPerRequest

The number of pages to fetch search data for in a single request.

Default value: 200

textDataPagesPerRequest

The number of pages to fetch text select data for in a single request.

Default value: 200

enableMacroMetadataFetching

Note: UNIMPLEMENTED - DO NOT USE -

Gets all PDF MetaData (wordmaps, text select, bookmarks, etc.) in a single request if set to true. Otherwise each one is fetched via its own server request.

Default value: false

macroMetadataFetchingBatchSize

Note: UNIMPLEMENTED - DO NOT USE -

The number of pages to fetch ALL PDF metadata for per request.

Requires enableMacroMetadataFetching to be set to true, or otherwise does nothing.

Default value: 200

maxUserPageCookieSize

The maximum number of user page cookie objects to store.

Default value: 50

annotationSummaryDefaultSort

The XFDF fields to sort the annotation summaries on, ordered from most important to least important.

Default value: page,!p4

warnBeforeSaveModifications

Whether or not the user wants a modal dialog box to appear asking them to confirm that they want to save page modifications when in edit mode.

Default value: false

thumbnailResolution

The minimum resolution to load the thumbnail images for the document.

Default value: 32

initialThumbnailLoad

Amount of thumbnails to initially load.

Default value: 25

newVersionOnModification

Set to true if a new version of the document should be created when the document is modified. If false, the document in the repository remains the same version when modified.

Default value: true

majorVersionOnModification

Set to true if a major version of the document should be created when the document is modified. If false, the document in the repository defaults to a minor version when modified.

Default value: false

alertDocumentHasAnnotations

Set to true if the user is alerted that the current document in OpenViewer has annotations.

Default value: true

keepToolSelectedDefault

Whether the keep tool selected feature should be on by default.

Default value: false

annotationTypesToShowDialogForWithKeepToolSelected

Which annotation type(s) dialogs to show when the annotation is created.

Different annotation types:

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Line,Oval,Rectangle,Highlight,Cross-Out,Inserted Text,Replacement Text,Reply,Sticky Note,Signature,Approved Stamp,Accept Stamp,Reject Stamp,Reviewed Stamp,PageSizedCheckmark Stamp,Status,Freetext,File Attachment,Free Draw,Redaction

Default value: ""

thumbnailBatchSize

The number of thumbnails to load for every subsequent batch after the first.

Default value: 200

thumbnailWidth

The width of the sidebar thumbnail previews.

Default value: 150

configuredLocales

Enterprise Viewer takes a list of locales from the browser and returns the first configured locale from this list as the language to display in AEV. If none of the locales from the list are configured in the users’ browser, the defaultLocale is used regardless.

You’ll find a list of all locales AEV supports in Supported Platforms.

Default value: en,fr,de

defaultLocale

The default locale to use if the user has no configured locales. This value must already be available in the configured locales.

Default value: en

checkRenditioningDelay

The default time between checks for whether a document has a rendition.

Default value: 10000

loadAnnotationsWithDocInfo

Load annotations simultaneous with document information. Prevents the user from viewing the document until the annotations are loaded.

Default value: false

displayAnnotationModifyDate

Display an annotation modified date instead of the creation date throughout Enterprise Viewer.

Default value: false

minPagesToDefafultSectionModeOn

The minimum number of pages to default into sectioning mode. Set to 0 to prevent sectioning mode.

Default value: 10

determineSectionsFromProperty

Whether to determine sections automatically from a property property name or keep the default value.

Default value: false

saveSectionsAsBookmarks

Whether or not to save sections as bookmarks. Overriding this to false only saves the page reordering and rotating when sectioning is done.

Default value: true

enablePageObfuscation

Whether or not OpenContent should obfuscate pages when transforming them. This is to prevent users from viewing a secure document through network calls.

Default value: false

enableSecureViewingOverlay

Whether or not to apply the secure viewing overlay to pages when viewing them. This overlay shows the display name of the user viewing the page. Displays the current username on the document and the date when they viewed it.

Default value: false

enableAEVTOverlays

Whether or not to enable functionality for AEVT (Optimus Transformations) overlays. When true (and AEVT is enabled), overlays are applied where configured.

Default value: false

zoomClientID

Client ID property for sending a Zoom authorization call that eventually sends a request that creates a meeting. Blank by default, as you’ll need to create a Zoom app to get this value and use this feature.

Default value: ``

clientKey

The optional OC client key to be used in OAUtil.oaRestTemplateGet/oaRestTemplatePost calls. This key, if configured, sets as a request header and eventually used OC side for some SSO implementations.

Default value: ``

aevChatAuthor

The chat author name that’s posting in the chat from OpenContent.

Default value: AEV Chat Bot

A fully qualified REST URL for client side use.

Default value: http://localhost:8080/OpenContent/rest

OpenContent - default properties

license.doSendWarningEmail

Whether or not to send a warning email when the current OpenContent license is approaching an invalid state. For example: expiring, or almost at the maximum user or group user limit.

Default value: true

license.expiringSoonCounter

The number of days before the license expires in which OpenContent sets a warning state for the active license.

Default value: 30

license.systemUserLimitCounter

Used with a user-based license: this property configures how close to the maximum allowed users the system can get before setting a warning state on the active license.

Default value: 25

license.groupUserLimitCounter

Used with a group-based license: this property configures how close to the maximum allowed users the license group(s) can get before setting a warning state on the active license.

Default value: 5

license.warning.email.recipients

When in a warning state and configured to do so, OpenContent sends a license warning email to all of the recipients listed in this property.

Default value: ``

fail.loud.on.errored.embedded.annotations

Fail loudly on errors that occur with embedded annotations. This defaults to true so that the user is notified of errors loading annotations.

This is an experimental feature. If set to false, users may be able to load, download, print previously erroring annotated PDFs but some annotations may be missing.

Default value: true