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System settings

This page catalogs the system-level settings that are worth knowing about on a FedMS instance. Most are standard Drupal settings; this page highlights the ones that affect FedMS behavior specifically.

Date and time

FedMS ships a custom date format fedms_date_long used in notifications and labels. You can adjust it at:

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/admin/config/regional/date-time

The user's timezone matters — without it, displayed times can be ambiguous. There is an open issue to require users to set their timezone: fedms/components/federation#28.

Cron

A FedMS instance relies on cron for several lifecycle-driven flows:

  • Flipping field_flag_start_processed and field_flag_end_processed on events and sessions as their windows pass.
  • Spawning lifecycle tasks via the task_api ECA model.
  • Sending scheduled notifications.
  • Search index updates.
  • Standard Drupal hygiene (cache, log rotation).

Cron is configured at:

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/admin/config/system/cron

The default frequency is hourly. On managed SaaS, the operations team typically runs cron externally on a 10-minute schedule for better responsiveness. If you self-host, configure a system cron that calls drush cron on a schedule that suits your event-window granularity (10-minute cron is a sensible default).

Languages

/admin/config/regional/language

FedMS ships English (default) and German out of the box. Customers can add more languages and use the fedms_locale module's extract/import tooling for translating framework strings:

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l3d ahoy fedms_locale extract-translation
l3d ahoy fedms_locale import-translation

See Localization for details.

File system

/admin/config/media/file-system

The two important directories:

  • Public files — sites/default/files/ — for assets that need a permanent public URL (logos, public media).
  • Private files — sites/default/files/private/ — for everything that requires permission checks (most attachments, all uploaded content tied to specific groups).

On managed SaaS, both are backed by object storage with CDN in front.

Themes

/admin/appearance

FedMS ships Gin (admin) and Olivero (front). Customers can install their own front theme — Olivero is a sensible base to sub-theme from.

Caches

/admin/config/development/performance

Standard Drupal caches. The Drupal page cache is enabled in production. The dynamic_page_cache and BigPipe are also enabled out of the box.

Logs

/admin/reports/dblog — Drupal's database log.

For production, an external log aggregator (Loki, ELK, Sentry) is strongly recommended. On managed SaaS, this is preconfigured.

ECA settings

/admin/config/workflow/eca/settings

The key ECA settings for FedMS:

  • Debug mode — turn this OFF in production (significant performance impact).
  • Log level — set to notice or higher in production.
  • Execution user — the user the ECA engine "runs as" on cron and Drush. Should be a dedicated service account with the right permissions.

See the ECA guide for the full settings reference.

Sessions and authentication

The instance uses:

  • login_emailusername — users can log in with email or username.
  • gin_login — the styled login page.
  • antibot — basic anti-bot protection.
  • role_delegation — lets admins delegate role assignments without giving them full administer-users access.

Configuration for each is under /admin/config.

Helpdesk integration

/admin/config/services/helpdesk (when the helpdesk integration is installed)

FedMS integrates with a separate ticket system. See Help and support for the user side.

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