General

Default values

For the latest default values of general properties, see properties-base.xml.

XML entity expansion

For security reasons, Orbeon Forms disables XML external entities. Other entities are enabled, but subject to a limit. This limit is set to 100,000 entity expansions.

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1.1]

Orbeon Forms has a new global setting to control (internal) XML entity expansion. Previously, XML entity expansion, including character entities, was enabled but subject to a limit. Since this version, you can configure XML entity expansion. By default, for security reasons, and since entities are rarely used, this is set to 0. To restore the previous behavior, set this property to a positive number:

<property
    as="xs:integer"
    name="oxf.xml-parsing.entity-expansion-limit"
    value="0"/>

URL rewriting

oxf.url-rewriting.service.base-uri

Name	oxf.url-rewriting.service.base-uri
Purpose	specify the base URL for rewriting some internal service URLs
Type	xs:anyURI
Default Value	Empty. Rewriting is done against the incoming request.

Usually Orbeon Forms uses the host, port, and context name as seen by the browser, such as:

http://www.mycompany.com/orbeon

to infer how to reach itself when calling some service URLs (see below for which URLs apply depending on the Orbeon Forms version). But in some cases, Orbeon Forms cannot reach to itself this way and an explicit base URL must be specified with this property.

Such cases include:

• accessing the server through different host names (like https://foo/orbeon and https://bar/orbeon reaching the same Orbeon Forms instance)

• accessing the embedded eXist database (for demo purposes) when the request goes through a reverse proxy

  • NOTE: The eXist database is removed [SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1].

When you are in such configurations, please make sure to set oxf.url-rewriting.service.base-uri to point to the local servlet container instance, for example:

<property
    as="xs:anyURI"  
    name="oxf.url-rewriting.service.base-uri"              
    value="http://localhost:8080/orbeon"/>

Orbeon Forms 4.7 and newer

Since Orbeon Forms 4.7, this property is only used for the following:

• access to the embedded eXist database

• access to custom services located in the Orbeon web app (there are none by default)

You don't need to set this property if:

• you do not use the embedded eXist or custom services

• or you use the embedded eXist database or a custom service and

  • you are running your servlet container on a local computer for testing or deployment

  • or your external server name and port are accessible from the servlet container

When things don't work out of the box, typically when the network setup contains a front-end web server and/or prevents a network connection from the servlet container to itself, setting it to the following is usually enough:

<property
    as="xs:anyURI"
    name="oxf.url-rewriting.service.base-uri"
    value="http://localhost:8080/orbeon"/>

Make sure to adjust the port and prefix as needed.

Orbeon Forms 4.6.x and earlier

Up to and including Orbeon Forms 4.6.x, this property was used for all service calls, including calls to internal services used by Form Runner and Form Builder, such as loading i18n resources and accessing the persistence implementation.

With 4.6.x and earlier, you don't need to set this property if:

• you are running your servlet container on a local computer for testing or deployment

• or your external server name and port are accessible from the servlet container

When things don't work out of the box, typically when the network setup contains a front-end web server and/or prevents a network connection from the servlet container to itself, setting it to the following is usually enough:

<property
    as="xs:anyURI"
    name="oxf.url-rewriting.service.base-uri"
    value="http://localhost:8080/orbeon"/>

Make sure to adjust the port and prefix as needed.

Encryption properties

oxf.crypto.password

This property is used to create a private key used for encryption. You must change the default value of the password, even though a random seed is used.

<property
  as="xs:string"
  name="oxf.crypto.password"
  value="CHANGE THIS PASSWORD"/>

As of Orbeon Forms 2021.1, this property is used for:

• Field-level encryption

• Orbeon Forms version encryption for cached assets URLs

  • if oxf.xforms.resources.encode-version is true, which is the default

• Upload events encryption

• Hashes for the metadata format

• Hashing internal upload URLs to prevent against tampering

• Form data encryption for the "Test PDF" feature

  • SINCE Orbeon Forms 2021.1

• The XForms hmac() function

The following uses are considered legacy and not in use by default in Orbeon Forms anymore:

• The $instance URL parameter encryption

• Form static/dynamic state with client state handling encryption

NOTE: If the backwards compatibility property oxf.xforms.password is defined, then it is used first. However, it is deprecated, and we advise not using it as support might be removed in a future Orbeon Forms version.

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1]

Orbeon Forms will cause an error when starting if the default value for oxf.crypto.password is used. This is to prevent you from using the default value in production.

In addition, a password strength checker will also cause an error if the password is too weak. Ideally, use a randomly-generated strong password.

oxf.crypto.check-password-strength

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1]

This property enables or disables the password strength checker. The default is true and enables the checker.

<property
    as="xs:boolean"
    name="oxf.crypto.check-password-strength"
    value="true"/>

When this is set to true, passwords are checked upon first use for strength. This is a baseline check only. In any case, you should use strong passwords and keep them secret, especially for production use.

The following passwords are checked:

• oxf.crypto.password

• oxf.fr.access-token.password

• oxf.fr.field-encryption.password

oxf.crypto.key-length

This property specifies the length of the AES encryption key. The default is 128 bits.

<property
  as="xs:integer"
  name="oxf.crypto.key-length"
  value="128"/>

Higher strength encryption is usually not enabled by default in the JVM. See Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files. When higher strength encryption is available, this value can be changed to 256, for example.

oxf.crypto.hash-algorithm

This property specifies the default hash algorithm. The default is:

• Until Orbeon Forms 2022.1.2: SHA1

• Since Orbeon Forms 2022.1.3 and 2023.1: SHA-256

<property
  as="xs:string"
  name="oxf.crypto.hash-algorithm"
  value="SHA-256"/>

Not all encryption strengths are enabled by default in the JVM. See Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files.

Orbeon forms uses hash algorithms in at least the following cases:

• to encode random identifiers, such as document ids in Form Runner

• for internal caching purposes

• XForms

  • keys for client-side scripts

  • keys for aggregated JavaScript and CSS resources

  • keys for dynamic xf:output resources

  • HMAC for server-side uploaded files

Global properties

oxf.cache.size

Name	oxf.cache.size
Purpose	set the size of the Orbeon Forms object cache
Type	xs:integer
Default Value	1000

Orbeon Forms uses an efficient caching system. Orbeon Forms automatically determines what can be cached and when to expire objects. This size is reasonable for most applications. A bigger cache tends to make the application faster, but it uses more memory. To tune the cache size, see the suggestions in the Performance and Tuning section.

oxf.xpath.environment-variable.enabled

Access to environment variables with the environment-variable() function is disabled by default. If you wish to make this XPath function available, set the following property to true.

<property 
    as="xs:boolean" 
    name="oxf.xpath.environment-variable.enabled"
    value="true"/>

oxf.cache.xpath.size

Name	oxf.cache.xpath.size
Purpose	set the size of the Orbeon Forms XPath cache
Type	xs:integer
Default Value	5000

This property configures the maximum number of compiled XPath expressions to keep in the XPath cache. To tune the cache size, see the suggestions in the Performance and Tuning section.

NOTE: A profiler run shows that 2000 cache entries takes, for fairly typical XPath expressions, about 5 MB of memory.

Showing the Orbeon Forms version number

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 4.6.1]

This property controls whether Orbeon Forms outputs its version number to the client web browser:

• at the bottom of pages, in particular with Form Runner

• in the <xh:meta name="generator" content="…"> element

• in combined JavaScript and CSS resource files built by the XForms engine

<property
  as="xs:boolean"
  name="oxf.show-version"
  value="false"/>

Default:

• prod mode: false

• dev mode: true

XSLT output location mode

During development, the following XSLT transformer configuration helps with line number errors. The following values are allowed:

• none: no XSLT output line number information provided. This is recommended for deployment.

• dumb: minimal XSLT output line number information provided.

• smart: maximal XSLT output line number information provided. This is recommended for development.

<property
    as="xs:string"
    processor-name="oxf:builtin-saxon"
    name="location-mode"
    value="none"/>

<property
    as="xs:string"
    processor-name="oxf:unsafe-builtin-saxon"
    name="location-mode"
    value="none"/>

Default:

• prod mode: none

• dev mode: smart

HTTP Server

Errors and exceptions

The following property specifies whether the server is allowed to send detailed error and exceptions messages to the browser:

<property
    as="xs:boolean"
    name="oxf.http.exceptions"
    value="false"/>

Default:

• prod mode: exceptions are not sent to the browser

• dev mode: exceptions are sent to the browser

Caching

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2024.1] The oxf.http.service.cache-headers property is new in Orbeon Forms 2024.1. The oxf.http.page.cache-headers property existed previously but was not publicly documented.

Orbeon Forms allows you to control the value of the Cache-Control HTTP caching header it sets in HTTP responses. For pages, i.e. the HTML sent to the browsers for your forms, the default value allows browsers to cache the page but requires the browser to revalidate the cached content with the server. For services, like APIs provided by Form Runner, caching is disabled. You can change these defaults with the following properties.

<property as="xs:string"  name="oxf.http.page.cache-headers">
    Cache-Control: private, max-age=0; Pragma:
</property>
<property as="xs:string"  name="oxf.http.service.cache-headers">
    Cache-Control: no-store
</property>

HTTP Client

See HTTP client configuration properties.

Epilogue and theme properties

oxf.epilogue.theme

Name	oxf.epilogue.theme
Purpose	specifies the theme stylesheet
Type	xs:anyURI
Default Value	oxf:/config/theme-examples.xsl

This can be overwritten for a given app by placing a file theme.xsl inside the app directory.

oxf.epilogue.theme.embeddable

Name	oxf.epilogue.theme.embeddable
Purpose	specifies the theme stylesheet to use when within a portlet or in embeddable mode
Type	xs:anyURI
Default Value	oxf:/config/theme-portlet-examples.xsl

This can be overwritten for a given app by placing a file theme-embeddable.xsl inside the app directory.

oxf.epilogue.theme.renderer

Name	oxf.epilogue.theme.renderer
Purpose	specifies the theme stylesheet to use when using the XForms filter, whether in integrated or separate deployment mode
Type	xs:anyURI
Default Value	oxf:/config/theme-plain.xsl

oxf.epilogue.theme.error

Name	oxf.epilogue.theme.error
Purpose	specifies the theme stylesheet to use on the error page
Type	xs:anyURI
Default Value	oxf:/config/theme-error.xsl

oxf.epilogue.use-theme

Name	oxf.epilogue.use-theme
Purpose	whether a theme stylesheet must be applied
Type	xs:boolean
Default Value	true

oxf.epilogue.output-xhtml

Name	oxf.epilogue.output-xhtml
Purpose	whether to output XHTML to the browser or not
Type	xs:boolean
Default Value	false

oxf.epilogue.renderer-rewrite

Name	oxf.epilogue.renderer-rewrite
Purpose	whether the XForms renderer used in separate deployment must rewrite URLs
Type	xs:boolean
Default Value	false

oxf.epilogue.process-svg

Name	oxf.epilogue.process-svg
Purpose	whether SVG content must be converted server-side to images
Type	xs:boolean
Default Value	true

Email processor properties

Global SMTP host

Configure the SMTP host for all email processors. This global property can be overridden by local processor configurations.

<property
    as="xs:string"
    processor-name="oxf:email"
    name="smtp-host"
    value="mail.example.org"/>

Global SMTP port

Configure the SMTP port for all email processors. This global property can be overridden by local processor configurations.

<property
    as="xs:string"
    processor-name="oxf:email"
    name="smtp-port"
    value="25"/>

Global SMTP username

Configure the SMTP username for all email processors. This global property can be overridden by local processor configurations.

<property
    as="xs:string"
    processor-name="oxf:email"
    name="username"
    value="john"/>

Global SMTP password

Configure the SMTP password for all email processors. This global property can be overridden by local processor configurations.

<property
    as="xs:string"
    processor-name="oxf:email"
    name="password"
    value="secret"/>

Global SMTP encryption

Configure the SMTP encryption for all email processors. This global property can be overridden by local processor configurations.

<property
    as="xs:string"
    processor-name="oxf:email"
    name="encryption"
    value="tls"/>

Test SMTP host

Configure a test SMTP host for all email processors. This global property when specified overrides all the other SMTP host configurations for all email processors, whether in the processor configuration or using the smtp-host property.

<property
    as="xs:string"
    processor-name="oxf:email"
    name="test-to"
    value="[e-mail]"/>

This property can easily be commented out for deployment, or placed in properties-local-dev.xml (see also Run Modes).

Test recipient

Configure a test recipient email address for all email processors. This global property when specified overrides all the other SMTP recipient configurations for all email processors.

<property
    as="xs:string"
    processor-name="oxf:email"
    name="test-to"
    value="[e-mail]"/>

This property can easily be commented out for deployment, or placed in properties-local-dev.xml (see also Run Modes).

Rarely used properties

oxf.log4j-config

Name	oxf.log4j-config
Purpose	specify the location of the Log4j 1.x configuration file
Type	xs:anyURI
Default Value in Properties	oxf:/config/log4j.xml

For details about logging, see Logging.

NOTE: You don't usually need to modify this property and the default location for log4j.xml should be preserved.

oxf.log4j2-config

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2021.1, 2020.1.6, 2019.2.4, 2019.1.2, 2018.2.5, 2018.1.4]

Name	oxf.log4j2-config
Purpose	specify the location of the Log4j 2.x configuration file
Type	xs:anyURI
Default Value in Properties	oxf:/config/log4j2.xml

For details about logging, see Logging.

NOTE: You don't usually need to modify this property and the default location for log4j2.xml should be preserved.

oxf.pipeline.processors

Name	oxf.pipeline.processors
Purpose	specify the URL of the XML file with processor definitions for the XPL pipeline engine
Type	xs:anyURI
Default Value	oxf:/processors.xml

NOTE: You don't usually need to modify this property.

oxf.validation.processor

Name	oxf.validation.processor
Purpose	control the automatic processor validation
Type	xs:boolean
Default Value	Enabled

Many processors validate their configuration input with a schema. This validation is automatic and allows meaningful error reporting. To potentially improve the performance of the application, validation can be disabled in production environments.

NOTE: It is strongly discouraged to disable validation, as validation can highly contribute to the robustness of the application.

oxf.validation.user

Name	oxf.validation.user
Purpose	control user-defined validation
Type	boolean
Default Value	Enabled

User-defined validation is activated in the XML Pipeline Definition Language with the attributes schema-href and schema-uri. To potentially improve the performance of the application, validation can be disabled in production environments.

NOTE: It is strongly discouraged to disable validation, as validation can highly contribute to the robustness of the application.

sax.inspection

Name	sax.inspection
Purpose	enable inspection SAX events
Type	xs:boolean
Default Value	false

SAX is the underlying mechanism in Orbeon Forms by which processors receive and generate XML data. Given only the constraints of the SAX API, it is possible for a processor to generate an invalid sequence of SAX events. Another processor that receives that invalid sequence of events may or may not be able to deal with it without throwing an exception. Some processors try to process invalid SAX events, while others throw exceptions. This means that when a processor generating an invalid sequence of SAX events is used in a pipeline, the problem might go unnoticed, or it might cause some other processor downstream to throw an exception.

To deal more efficiently with those cases, the sax.inspection property can be set to true. When it is set to true, the pipeline engine checks the outputs of every processor at runtime and makes sure that valid SAX events are generated. When an error is detected, an exception is thrown right away, with information about the processor that generated the invalid SAX events.

There is a performance penalty for enabling SAX events inspection. So this property should not be enabled on a production system.

NOTE: You don't usually need to enable this property.