An application's site preference settings are stored in two files:
Each instance of an application has its own set of site preference files. The software reloads the files at frequent intervals so that updates go into effect immediately without restarting the application.
TIP In a web farm environment, any number of application servers can share the site preference files by locating them on a shared file server.
The bootstrap properties file (bootstrap.properties) contains, at a minimum, the name and the object store location of the site preferences file. The site preferences file name and the object store on which it will be located are specified the first time you log in to the application after setup, in the process referred to as bootstrap initialization. The site preferences file name uniquely identifies a set of site preferences.
Other site preference settings are optional during bootstrap initialization. Following bootstrap initialization, each time you change one or more bootstrap preferences and save the change, the software updates the bootstrap properties file.
Each time you set general or object store site preferences and save your changes, you add a version to the site preferences file saved in the object store. The file name is "Site Preferences for preference name", where preference name is an identifier for a set of preferences. Site preferences files are saved in the /Preferences folder, which is not visible to users of client applications.
The default preferences installed with the application are stored in /app/WEB-INF/xml/SitePreferences.xml. These settings are used when you restore defaults or re-initialize preferences.