Configuration Reference

Most OpenCATS runtime configuration is stored in config.php. This page summarizes commonly changed settings. Always back up config.php before editing it.

Database settings

Setting	Purpose
DATABASE_USER	MariaDB user OpenCATS uses to connect.
DATABASE_PASS	Password for DATABASE_USER.
DATABASE_HOST	Database host name. Use localhost for local installs or the Docker service name in Docker.
DATABASE_NAME	OpenCATS database name.

Authentication settings

Setting	Purpose
AUTH_MODE	Authentication mode. Supported values are sql, ldap, and sql+ldap.

Use sql for normal OpenCATS-managed users. Use LDAP modes only after configuring the PHP LDAP extension and the LDAP connection settings required by your environment.

Resume/document parser settings

Setting	Purpose
PARSING_ENABLED	Enables external resume parsing service integration when configured.
ANTIWORD_PATH	Path to antiword for Word document text extraction.
ANTIWORD_MAP	Antiword character map.
PDFTOTEXT_PATH	Path to pdftotext.
HTML2TEXT_PATH	Path to html2text.
UNRTF_PATH	Path to unrtf.

Parser utilities are optional for installation but useful for resume text extraction and search.

Runtime paths

Setting	Purpose
CATS_TEMP_DIR	Temporary directory writable by the web server.
MODULES_PATH	Path to OpenCATS modules. Usually does not need editing.

Sphinx search settings

Setting	Purpose
ENABLE_SPHINX	Enables Sphinx search integration.
SPHINX_HOST	Sphinx host.
SPHINX_PORT	Sphinx port.
SPHINX_INDEX	Sphinx index names.

Leave Sphinx disabled unless you have installed and configured Sphinx.

Session and display settings

Setting	Purpose
CATS_SESSION_NAME	Session cookie name. Change only if hosting multiple OpenCATS instances on the same domain.
ENABLE_SINGLE_SESSION	Enforces one active session per user when enabled.
OFFSET_GMT	Legacy GMT offset setting.
HTML_ENCODING	HTML output encoding.
AJAX_ENCODING	AJAX output encoding.
SQL_CHARACTER_SET	SQL character set.

Email settings

Setting	Purpose
MAIL_MAILER	Mail method: 0 disabled, 1 PHP mail, 2 Sendmail, 3 SMTP.
MAIL_SENDMAIL_PATH	Sendmail binary path when using Sendmail.
MAIL_SMTP_HOST	SMTP server host.
MAIL_SMTP_PORT	SMTP server port.
MAIL_SMTP_AUTH	Whether SMTP authentication is required.
MAIL_SMTP_USER	SMTP username.
MAIL_SMTP_PASS	SMTP password.
MAIL_SMTP_SECURE	SMTP security mode: empty string, ssl, or tls.

Calendar reminder email text is also configurable in config.php.

Career portal and SSL settings

Setting	Purpose
SSL_ENABLED	Enables SSL-aware behavior when your site is served over HTTPS.
CAREERS_CANDIDATEAPPLY_SUBJECT	Candidate email subject after career portal application.
CAREERS_OWNERAPPLY_SUBJECT	Owner email subject after career portal application.
CANDIDATE_STATUSCHANGE_SUBJECT	Candidate email subject when status changes.

Demo and testing settings

Setting	Purpose
ENABLE_DEMO_MODE	Enables demo mode behavior. Do not enable on normal production systems.
TESTER_* constants	Automated testing defaults. Do not rely on these for production users.
DEMO_* constants	Demo login defaults. Do not expose demo credentials on production systems.