Sitecore Settings

Settings are used to store values that are accessed by code when the code needs to perform a task. A setting is name and a value.

• Defining Settings
• Reading Settings from Code

Defining Settings

Settings are defined in the Sitecore configuration section under sitecore/settings.

Do not define custom settings directly in Web.config. Only Sitecore platform settings should be defined in Web.config. Custom settings for a module should be defined in the module’s patch file.

Reading Settings from Code

The Sitecore API provides a variety of methods that can be used to read settings. The methods are available on the Sitecore.Configuration.Settings class.

• GetSetting(string, string) - Reads the setting as a string.
• GetBoolSetting(string, bool)- Reads the setting as a bool.
• GetDoubleSetting(string, string) - Reads the setting as a double.
• GetIntSetting(string, string) - Reads the setting as an int.
• GetLongSetting(string, string) - Reads the setting as a long.
• GetTimeSpanSetting(string, string) - Reads the setting as a TimeSpan.

While there is an API that allows a developer to write settings, this API should not be used. The API will only update the Web.config file. If a setting is defined in a patch file, or should be saved to a patch file, using the API will result in the Web.config file being updated. This may result in undesired results.