6. The Publisher Configuration Files

Everything on this page was read off a real install (Capital 2512 with the 2608 update, %CAPITAL_HOME%\publisher, 152 files, 485 MB) on 2026-09-28. Purposes come from the vendor guide and from the files' own comments.

The shape of the folder

Only a small part of it is configuration. The bulk is runtime:

Kind	Where	Size	Edit it?
Configuration	top-level *.xml / *.xsl, pdf\, print\, changeExplorer\, SmartFlow\, S1000D\, VIN\, i18n\, server-config\, Custom Runtime\styles\	about 1 MB	Yes, this is what you tune
Viewer runtime	runtime\*.zip (WEB-INF.zip, browser.zip, capital-explorer.zip, pdfjs.zip, resources.zip)	about 390 MB	No, replaced by Capital updates
Services and tools	VINServer\lib, jt2bod\	the rest	No
Shipped defaults	configurations.zip	99 KB	Never; it is the reference copy

Top level: the Service Explorer family

File	Controls
config.xml	Application switches: systems, harness and diagnostics shown as trees; include-package-manager; diagnostic folder delimiter; fault code property name (Fault Codes) and the fault code generator on or off; print-method (html or pdf); JT and RapidAuthor 3D mapping keys (JT_MAPPING, RA_MAPPING); greyscale for SVG, CGM and S1000D; log-level; highlight colours and stroke width
attributeList.xml	Which attributes and properties appear in the package and under what display name. Each entry is a triplet: the attribute or property name, its display name, and its type
NavigationPanel.xml	The sections of the viewer's navigation panel, their order (file order is display order), what each item shows, and tooltips
popup.xml	What the popup shows when an object is selected, one block per object type (Device, Ground, ...), each switching on links, 2D views, location view, attributes, harness layout, custom data, ground and power signal
publisher_report.xsl	Report rendering
styleset.xml	The default style set: named query expressions (for example Ground Device) and the styling applied to what they match
groundReport.xml	Ground report definition
cavityTableConfigForHTMLClient.xml	Cavity table layout in the HTML viewer
xml_to_xml.xsl	Transform used during generation
publisher-config-file-path.txt	One line naming a configuration folder; on this install, the local default. Corrected 2026-09-28: an earlier version of this page said it records the folder Publisher last resolved. It does not record every run: two PackagingTasks that named their own config folder left it unchanged. Its exact role is undocumented and unconfirmed

Sub-folders

Folder	Contents
pdf\	pdfConfiguration.xml (global colour, page number template, one <Item> per section such as TOC, Information and Systems, each naming a layout template, a header and optional groupingKey to group designs by a property), A4 landscape and portrait templates, html_to_fo.xsl, fop.xconf, cavityTableConfig.xml, collationRules.xml, connectorInformation.xml
print\	The same templates for HTML print
changeExplorer\	config.xml (auto zoom, colours for additions and deletions, rows per table page, XLSX export), comparisons.xml (for each object type, which attributes are compared and at what numerical precision), NavigationPanel.xml, and reports\ with one report definition per object type (connectors, conductors, bundles, splices, devices, and so on)
SmartFlow\	Its own NavigationPanel.xml, attributeList.xml, popup.xml, localised resources\*.properties, templates\
S1000D\	CONTROL.xml and the mapping files descriptionMap.xml, descriptionHeaderMap.xml, descriptionDataHdr.xml, wireMap.xml, wireHeaderMap.xml, wiringDataHdr.xml
VIN\	vinOptions.xml, vinServerConfig.xml (URL of the VIN lookup service for configuration filtering by vehicle number)
i18n\resources\	UI strings in ten languages (resources.properties plus _de, _es, _fr, _it, _ja, _ko, _ru, _zh, _zh_TW)
server-config\	One file per viewer server (service-explorer.xml, design-explorer.xml, change-explorer.xml, smart-flows.xml): port range, timeouts, web security, package manager locale; plus a keystore
Custom Runtime\styles\	custom.css, empty by default: the supported place for your own CSS in the viewer. It does not reach diagram text, because each diagram is its own SVG document (see 9. Fonts in Service Explorer Diagrams)

Two files that hold secrets

server-config\*.xml carries keystore and manager passwords in Jetty OBF: form, which is obfuscation, not encryption: it is reversible by anyone. VIN\vinServerConfig.xml carries the example VIN server's keystore password in plain text. Treat both folders as credential-bearing: keep them out of any shared repository, and change the defaults before a real deployment.

How the live files compare to the shipped defaults

configurations.zip is Siemens' reference copy of the editable files (30 files: i18n, pdf, print, and an xml folder that maps onto the top-level files). A byte comparison on 2026-09-28 found every live file that has a counterpart in the zip identical to its shipped default: of the 30 files in the zip, 25 match a live file byte for byte and the other 5 have no loose twin at the expected path (below). None of the files the zip covers has been customised on this install yet, so any difference that appears later is a real change. Files outside the zip (changeExplorer\, SmartFlow\, S1000D\, server-config\, and pdf\html_to_fo.xsl and pdf\fop.xconf) have no shipped reference to compare against.

The five without a twin: a file named build.xml exists at jt2bod\build.xml, config-popout.xml under runtime\changeExplorer\, and vinOptions.xml under VIN\ (these three were found by name only, not compared); xml\resources\config.xml and home-screen.xml were not found as loose files.

Related

The general Capital configuration files (config\clientprops.xml and friends) are separate and are covered in the Capital Configuration Files Reference Guide. Publisher reads a few settings from them, such as the CIS web service connection used for background runs.