Server Configuration

Using the default Docker image, all necessary configuration can be made from the browser. However, depending on the deployment, it can be necessary to customize the server configuration.

This page lists all methods to change the configuration and all existing configuration options.

Configuration file

A configuration file is not mandatory as most settings can also be provided as environment variables. The basic setup shown in the Deployment docs works without one.

When you use the Docker Compose based setup, you can include a configuration file by adding the following list item under the volumes: key in the grampsweb: block:

      - /path/to/config.cfg:/app/config/config.cfg

where /path/to/config.cfg is the path to the config file in your server's file system (the right-hand side refers to the path in the container and must not be changed).

Existing configuration settings

The following configuration options exist. The last column indicates whether the option can be set from an environment variable.

Required settings

Key	Description	Set from environment
`TREE`	The name of the family tree database to use. Show available trees with `gramps -l`	yes
`SECRET_KEY`	The secret key for flask. This must be set for use in production. The secret must not be shared publicly. Changing it will invalidate all access tokens	yes

Info

You can generate a secure secret key e.g. with the command

python3 -c "import secrets;print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))"

Optional settings

Key	Description	Set from environment
`MEDIA_BASE_DIR`	Path to use as base directory for media files, overriding the media base directory set in Gramps. When using S3, must have the form `s3://<bucket_name>`	yes
`SEARCH_INDEX_DIR`	Path for the full-text search index. Defaults to `indexdir` relative to the path where the script is run	yes
`STATIC_PATH`	Path to serve static files from (e.g. a static web frontend)	yes
`BASE_URL`	Base URL where the API can be reached (e.g. `https://mygramps.mydomain.com/`). This is necessary e.g. to build correct passwort reset links	yes
`CORS_ORIGINS`	Origins where CORS requests are allowed from. By default, all are disallowed. Use `"*"` to allow requests from any domain.	no
`EMAIL_HOST`	SMTP server host (e.g. for sending password reset e-mails)	yes
`EMAIL_PORT`	SMTP server port. defaults to 465	yes
`EMAIL_HOST_USER`	SMTP server username	yes
`EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD`	SMTP server password	yes
`EMAIL_USE_TLS`	Boolean, whether to use TLS for sending e-mails. Defaults to true	no
`DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL`	"From" address for automated e-mails	yes
`THUMBNAIL_CACHE_CONFIG`	Dictionary with settings for the thumbnail cache. See Flask-Caching for possible settings.	no

Settings only for PostgreSQL backend database

This is required if you've configured your Gramps database to work with the PostgreSQL addon.

Key	Description	Set from environment
`POSTGRES_USER`	The user name for the database connection	yes
`POSTGRES_PASSWORD`	The password for the database user	yes

Settings only during development

Key	Description	Set from environment
`DISABLE_AUTH`	If `True`, disable the authentication system. Warning: never use this in a production environment, as it will allow read and write access from the public!	no

Example configuration file

A minimal configuration file for production could look like this:

TREE="My Family Tree"
BASE_URL="https://mytree.example.com"
SECRET_KEY="..."  # your secret key
USER_DB_URI="sqlite:////path/to/users.sqlite"
EMAIL_HOST="mail.example.com"
EMAIL_PORT=465
EMAIL_USE_TLS=True
EMAIL_HOST_USER="gramps@example.com"
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD="..." # your SMPT password
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL="gramps@example.com"