---
title: Configure CMS
slug: cms-12/docs/configuration
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-10T15:55:53.000Z
---

## Options

Configurable Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) settings are exposed as option classes. An option class is a POCO C# class that is singleton registered in the DI container in the .NET Core application. See also [Options pattern in ASP.NET Core](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/configuration/options?view=aspnetcore-5.0).

## Configure options programmatically

Options classes are registered in the service container and can therefore be injected into any service that requires this information. This also means you can modify option values during the configuration phase of the application initialization. One common way to configure an option programmatically is to use the extension method Configure on `IServiceCollection` as shown below. Another alternative is to register an instance of [IConfigureOptions\<TOptions>](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.extensions.options.iconfigureoptions-1?view=dotnet-plat-ext-5.0) in the IOC container.

```csharp
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) {
  services.Configure<DataAccessOptions>(o => o.UpdateDatabaseSchema = true);
}
```

You can find more detailed information on individual options classes under the relevant options section.

## Configuration files

A common way is to have configuration values in an `appSettings.json` file and then bind the values from the configuration file to option classes. You can have a custom configuration file format and bind the values to options as described in [Bind hierarchical configuration](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/configuration/options?view=aspnetcore-5.0#bind-hierarchical-configuration).

By following the pattern where the first element is "episerver" and then the "product" part is specified, followed by the name of the option and the values for the option, you can get binding to options automatically. Below is an example where `SchedulerOptions` in configuration section **Cms** is configured:

```json
{
  "EPiServer": {
    "CMS": {
      "Scheduler": {
        "Enabled": "false"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

For the option class, it is optional to have the class suffix "Options" as above where `SchedulerOptions` is specified as "Scheduler".

You also may find the following configuration files in a CMS installation:

- `module.config` – A configuration file installed with the CMS sample templates, showing how to deploy new modules to your solution.

## Environment variables

Another alternative to configure options is to apply settings as [environment variables](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/configuration/?view=aspnetcore-5.0#environment-variables). To get the automatic binding of environment variables to options, use the same convention as in configuration files such as `appsettings.json`, but with '\_\_' as a separator. Below is an environment variable that configures `SchedulerOptions` in configuration section **Cms**.

`EPISERVER__CMS__SCHEDULER__ENABLED`

## Option types

- [Cms section](docId\:goGbeSqsnaW9avt7BpeSx)
- [CmsUI section](docId:0GoHvX6z1ZvAMPqHS0iK-)

## Related topics

- [Configure content providers](https://docs.developers.optimizely.com/content-management-system/docs/configuring-content-providers)
- [Configure personalized content](docId\:WunVPXIz9t-iTyitzvqjS)
- [Configure Dynamic Data Store](docId\:EOVIMJ8rNxmD82vsVQ4nc)
- [Configure a custom localization provider](docId\:QBItiM09UM2yiC4RiGoh0)
- [BLOB storage and providers](docId\:pRFJn3CvDaH82_HGivBtO)
- [Implement a custom event provider](docId\:CL19dCEP3yLtDvtlsV5ID)
- [Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs)](docId\:BSkOTMD8MTxqY3dCIM9SB)