Command line installation - XML configuration

This page provides a reference and specification for the XML files used as a configuration source by the command line installation.

You can create the XML file from scratch or during the installation procedure using the Save XML configuration link.

Attribute values

When entering the values of boolean attributes, always use “true” or “false”. Other types of values are not supported.

You can use macros in the following XML attributes to get the respective values dynamically:

  • SilentInstall -> LogFile
  • Setup -> SetupFolder
  • IIS -> TargetFolder
  • Sql -> Database

Macro expression

Description

Sample resolved value

{%productversion%}

Kentico version number according to Semantic Versioning.

12.0.0-alpha

{%fileversion%}

Full version number of the installed Kentico version.

12.0.5191.17572

{%programfiles%}

Path to the Program Files folder on your local drive.

c:\Program Files (x86)\

{%machine%}

Name of the current machine.

PC01

{%username%}

User name of the currently used account.

Andy

{%date%}

Current date in format yyyy-mm-dd.

2018-01-21

{%time%}

Current time in format hh-mm-ss.

14-53-23

Note that these macros are completely unrelated to the standard Kentico macros that can be used in the system’s administration interface.

XML elements

SilentInstall

The root element of the XML file is SilentInstall. Using the attributes of this element, you can configure general options of the installation:

Attribute

Description

Accepted values

Required?

ShowProgress

Determines if the Silent Install tool displays the progress of the installation or not.

  • No – the progress is not shown.
  • CommandPrompt – the progress is shown in the command line.

No | CommandPrompt

Yes

Log

Enables logging of import progress to a file.

true | false

Yes

OnError

Determines the action the tool performs when an error occurs during the installation.

Stop | Continue

Yes

LogFile

File where the log is saved. The default value is <installation path>\setup.log.

full path to a file

Yes

CheckRequirements

Indicates if the tool checks whether the minimum required.NET Framework version is installed on the target machine before executing the installation. The installation if aborted if the required .NET version is not detected.

true | false

No

Setup

The first sub-element under SilentInstall is Setup. This element allows you to configure the general options by means of attributes:

Attribute

Description

Accepted values

Required?

NET

Sets the Target framework version of the installed Kentico web project.

4.6.1

Yes

SetupFolder

Folder where the tool installs the Kentico setup files (not the web project).

full path to a folder

Yes

DevelopmentModel

Sets the development model of the installed web project. See Kentico development models.

MVC installations create a separate web project for the live site, in addition to the Kentico administration interface project.

MVC | PortalEngine

Yes

RegisterToIIS

Determines if the tool registers the new web projects as applications in the local Internet Information Services server.

true | false

Yes

WebProject

Determines if the Kentico web project is installed as an ASP.NET web site, ASP.NET web application, or as a Microsoft Azure (Cloud services) project.

See Installation Questions and Answers for more details.

WebSite | WebApplication | WindowsAzure

No

ModifyInstallation

If true, the installation does not create a new project, but only modifies an existing one on a local machine (adds or removes components).

true | false

No

OpenAfterInstall

Determines if the tool opens the newly installed websites in a new browser window when the installation finishes.

true | false

No

RegisterCounters

Determines if the installation registers performance counters for Health Monitoring.

true | false

No

InstallWinServices

Determines if the tool installs Kentico Windows services in Windows.

true | false

No

RegisterApplicationToEventLog

Determines if the tool registers the Kentico application in the Windows Event Log.

true | false

No

DeleteExisting

Determines if the the tool deletes the existing setup files in a folder with the same name as set in the SetupFolder attribute.

true | false

No

InstallOnlyProgramFiles

Determines if only the program files are installed. This option ignores all other settings.

true | false

No

DoNotOverwriteInstallation

If set to false, the installation overwrites any existing web project files in the target location are overwritten (set by the TargetFolder attribute of the IIS element). The default value is true (do not overwrite).

true | false

No

EnableModuleUsageTracking

Determines whether the installed instance has the Kentico improvement program enabled (sending of data about the system’s usage to Kentico).

You can stop the sending of data at any time for installed instances in the administration interface through the Settings -> System -> Send anonymous usage records to Kentico setting.

true | false

No

IIS

The IIS sub-element is also located directly under SilentInstall. Its attributes allow you to adjust IIS-related settings of the installation:

Attribute

Description

Accepted values

Required?

Website

The name of the web site in IIS (used if the RegisterToIIS attribute of the Setup element is set to true). The web site must exist in IIS before running the installation.

string value

Yes

TargetFolder

Path to the folder where the web project is created and mapped in IIS.

For example: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Kentico_{%productversion%}

full path to a folder

Yes

DeleteExisting

Determines if the tool deletes an existing IIS web site and project folder before the installation (as specified by the Website and TargetFolder attributes).

If you set the GetUnique value, the tool does not delete existing sites, but instead creates a new folder and web site with a similar name.

true | false | GetUnique

No

KillRunningProcesses

If the tool deletes existing sites, this parameter indicates whether the tool also kills already running processes related to these files.

true | false

No

Sql

The Sql sub-element of the SilentInstall element allows you to configure database-related settings of the installation. This element is not required and if you do not include it in your XML file, the database will not be installed.

Note: The letter case in the element name must be exact (lower case “q” and “l”).

Attribute

Description

Accepted values

Required?

InstallDatabase

Indicates if the tool installs the database. If you do not install the database, you will not be able to install sample sites (WebSites element).

true | false

No

Server

Name of the target SQL server.

string value

No

Database

Name of the target database.

string value

No

Authentication

Type of the authentication used to access the SQL server.

SQL | Windows

No

SqlName

User name of the account used for access to the SQL server.

string value

No

SqlPswd

Password for the SQL server account.

string value

No

Operation

Determines whether the tool creates a new database or modifies an existing one. The default value is New.

New | Modify

No

DeleteExisting

Indicates if the tool deletes an existing database with the same name as set in the Database attribute.

If you set the GetUnique value, the tool does not delete existing database, but instead creates a new database with a similar name.

true | false | GetUnique

No

Schema

The default database schema is dbo. If you have a different schema on your SQL server (e.g., db_owner), specify it here, so that the installation tool can make adjustments to the database.

string value

No

Collation

Sets the collation used by the installed database. We recommend leaving the default collation – Latin1_General_CI_AS.

string value

No

Notification

The Notification sub-element allows you to configure automatic notification email messages. The system sends them to the specified email address when an error occurs during the installation.

Attribute

Description

Accepted values

Required?

Enabled

Indicates, if the tool sends notification emails when an error occurs during the installation.

true | false

Yes

From

Email address of the sender of the notification email. This value is required in the Notification element.

email address

Yes

To

Email address of the recipient of the notification email. This value is required in the Notification element.

email address (or multiple addresses separated by a semicolon (;))

Yes

Server

Name of the SMTP server used to send out the notification email.

string value

Yes

Subject

Subject of the notification email message.

string value

Yes

UserName

User name of the SMTP server account used to send out the notification email.

string value

No

Password

Password for the SMTP server account used to send out the notification email.

string value

No

SSL

Indicates, if SSL is used when sending the notification email.

true | false

No

AttachLogFile

Indicates, if the tool includes a compressed installation log file as an attachment.

true | false

No

WebTemplates, UICultures, Modules and Dictionaries

The WebTemplates, UICultures, Modules and Dictionaries elements allow you to configure which web templates, UI cultures, modules and dictionaries will be installed by the tool. If you chose to modify an existing Kentico installation (by specifying the Modify value for the Location attribute), you can also use these elements to add new components to the existing installation or to remove unwanted components.

Each of these elements only has a single attribute:

Attribute

Description

Accepted values

Required?

type

  • InstallAll – the tool adds all components of the type to the installation. However, you can limit added components in the sub-elements by specifying No or Remove in their operation attribute.
  • RemoveAll – the tool removes all components of the type from the installation. However, you can limit removed components in the sub-elements by specifying No or Add in their operation attribute.
  • Mix – only configuration in the operation attribute of the sub-elements will be taken into account.

Mix | InstallAll | RemoveAll

Yes

Each of the WebTemplates, UICultures, Modules and Dictionaries elements can have any number of sub-elements named WebTemplate, UICulture, Module or Dictionary. These sub-elements represent particular web templates, UI cultures, modules or dictionaries and have the following attributes:

Attribute

Description

Accepted values

Required?

name

Name of the web template, UI culture, module or dictionary.

string value

Yes

operation

The operation that should be performed with the component:

  • Add – the component is added to the installation.
  • Remove – the component is removed from the installation.
  • No – no action is taken.

Add | Remove | No

Yes

WebSites

The WebSites element lets you configure which websites will be installed based on available web templates. It has no attributes itself – it only contains WebSite sub-elements representing individual websites to be installed. Each WebSite sub-element has the following attributes:

Attribute

Description

Accepted values

Required?

domain

The domain used by the site in Kentico.

string value

Yes

displayname

The display name of the site in Kentico.

string value

Yes

webtemplatename

Code name of the web template used for the site.

available web template code name

Yes

projectdirectoryname

Applies when using the MVC development model (DevelopmentModel attribute of the Setup element).

Sets the name for the following:

  • The folder containing the MVC project. For example, an AcmeSite value would create a c:\inetpub\wwwroot\Kentico12\AcmeSite project folder (depending on the TargetFolder attribute of the IIS element).
  • The MVC project and its assembly in Visual Studio.
  • The virtual directory and application name in IIS.
  • The code name of the corresponding site in Kentico.

Note: The project directory name must be unique (it is not validated for conflicts with existing folders).

string value

No

runsite

Indicates if the tool runs the site after it is imported to the system.

true | false

No

rebuildsearchindexes

Indicates if any search indexes included in the site’s template are rebuilt after the installation.

true | false

No

Licenses

You can add any number of License sub-elements under the Licenses element. These sub-elements represent particular licenses for separate domains. You should state the domain in the domain attribute of the WebSite element and add the actual key as a sub-element wrapped in a CDATA enclosure.

Example

Here you can find an example of the configuration file. The file configures installation of Kentico with the sample Corporate site website and all the available web templates, UI cultures, modules and dictionaries.




<SilentInstall ShowProgress="CommandPrompt" Log="True" OnError="Stop" LogFile="{%programfiles%}\Kentico\12.0\setup.log" CheckRequirements="False" >
    <Setup NET="4.6.1" SetupFolder="{%programfiles%}\Kentico\12.0" InstallOnlyProgramFiles="False" OpenAfterInstall="True" DeleteExisting="False" DoNotOverwriteInstallation="True" RegisterCounters="False" InstallWinServices="False" RegisterApplicationToEventLog="False" WebProject="WebSite" EnableModuleUsageTracking="True" />
    <IIS Website="Default Web Site" TargetFolder="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Kentico12_{%fileversion%}" DeleteExisting="GetUnique" KillRunningProcesses="False" />
    <Sql InstallDatabase="True" Server="Artemis" Authentication="SQL" SqlName="login" SqlPswd="password" Database="Kentico12_{%fileversion%}" Operation="New" DeleteExisting="False" />
    <Modules type="InstallAll" />
    <WebTemplates type="InstallAll" />
    <UICultures type="InstallAll" />
    <Dictionaries type="InstallAll" />
    <WebSites>
        <WebSite domain="localhost" displayname="Dancing Goat" webtemplatename="DancingGoat" />
    </WebSites>
    <Licenses>
        <License domain="localhost"><![CDATA[DOMAIN:localhost
PRODUCT:CX12
EXPIRATION:00000000
PACKAGES:
SERVERS:1
ODWrIUyRdEv3Ko+7kLCN2WD4jEsOl3l0+au1AJ3zU0Jw5b3Q1h1eBlWh1fNAWAe2NbSb6gm1qUhJHdUTI4rBPANDgmYvEBFZRqpYbDYVCYsXEeQy4H2ipwXfASGFMI5UuKvHRTJ5KBo9OE4k4ZJmPVratLjOcSvFVERhGubZl7MZghwCBSHQNNvN3RWN3mwi1+vgou+N/Z1XDWXtfprzDEwFFJHyl/4NOoKbNzvGhuV1Jmq1XbGiT8Od0Y2vufeqzcM4VdFRRAOlIoQHFwwfyEah2kSw1z9zUbqWj3nZqZUD6jXi8FokOWKWzZeybg9NQgZ1+vtd7jg1B1+bz/Te+w==]]></License>
        </Licenses>
</SilentInstall>