---
title: Configuring settings for sites
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k8/custom-development/creating-custom-modules/adding-custom-website-settings.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k8/references/reference-web-config-application-keys.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

You can configure settings for sites in the **Settings** application.

There are two basic types of settings:

- **Global** - apply to all sites in the system, unless individual sites override the values.
- **Site-specific** - apply to the selected **Site**. The site settings load the global values unless you _uncheck_ **Inherit from global settings** for individual settings and enter different values.

> **Note:** **Note**
>
> Some settings are only available as global settings.
>
> Settings that alter page markup on the live site may not come into effect immediately. You may need to wait for the site's [output cache](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/configuring-kentico/optimizing-website-performance/configuring-caching/caching-page-output.md) to expire or clear the cache manually in the **System** application.

## Searching for settings

There is a very large number of settings in Kentico . To find a particular setting among all the categories:

1. In the **Settings** application, select the root of the settings tree (**Settings**).
2. Type the name of the setting or related words into the field at the top of the page.
3. Click **Search**.

   - If you check **Search in description**, the search also finds settings that have the given text in their description (tooltip).

The page displays all settings that contain the search text in their name. You can edit the values of the settings directly.

![Searching for settings](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k8/configuring-settings-for-sites/Searching_Settings.png "Searching for settings")

## Resetting settings

To reset settings to their default values:

1. Select a category in the **Settings** application.
2. Choose _(global)_ in the **Site** selector above the settings tree.
3. Click **Reset these settings to default**.
4. Click **OK** in the confirmation dialog.
5. Click **Save**.

All settings in the given category now have the default value defined in the **Default value** property of the corresponding keys.

## Exporting the setting values

You can export the values of all settings in the selected category to a text file. Click **Export these settings** in the header of the setting page. Exporting settings can be useful, for example when consulting issues with Kentico support.

## Loading the values of settings in code

The Kentico API allows you to check the values of settings in your code. You can load values of both the default and [custom](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/custom-development/creating-custom-modules/adding-custom-website-settings.md) settings.

Use the following methods of the _SettingsKeyInfoProvider_ class according to the data type of the required setting:

- **GetBoolValue**
- **GetStringValue**
- **GetIntValue**
- **GetDoubleValue**

The methods accept a string parameter that identifies the setting in the following format: _**.**_

> **Note:** **Note**: When loading global-only settings, only enter the code name of the required settings key in the parameter.

For example:

```csharp

using CMS.DataEngine;
using CMS.SiteProvider;

...

string value = SettingsKeyInfoProvider.GetStringValue(SiteContext.CurrentSiteName + ".CMSDefaultAliasPath");

```

## Getting setting values in macro expressions

[Macro expressions](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/macro-expressions.md) allow you to:

- Dynamically insert the values of settings into most fields in the Kentico administration interface
- Work with settings in macro conditions or other expressions with advanced logic

You can load values of both the default and custom settings.

Use the following expression to get setting values inside macros: _**Settings.**_

For example:

```text

{% Settings.CMSStoreFilesInFileSystem %}
```

The macro returns the setting's value for the currently running site (or the global value for global-only settings). If you need to access the global value of a setting, you can use the following macro expression: _GlobalObjects.SettingsKeys..KeyValue_