Elastic Path Commerce has five types of settings you can configure:

• System settings
• System settings have a global scope and only one value for each setting. For example, the location of the assets folder is a system setting. In the Commerce Manager, system setting names begin with COMMERCE/SYSTEM.
• Store-specific settings
• Store specific settings are settings that are unique for each individual store. For example, the theme setting is a store specific setting. In the Commerce Manager, Store-specific setting names begin with COMMERCE/STORE.
• Application-specific settings
• Application-specific settings are unique settings for the web applications (Cortex, Commerce Manager, Search Server, Integration Server, etc). For example, an application-specific setting is idleTimeForLock, which is the amount of time of user inactivity required to pass in order to terminate user session. In the Commerce Manager, application-specific setting names begin with COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/<appName>.
• Search settings
• Search settings can be both store-specific and application specific. You can customize the search settings so each store, application, and index have different values. These settings are described in detail further in the System configuration settings reference. In the Commerce Manager, search setting names begin with COMMERCE/SEARCH.
• Cache settings define the cache timeout values used for the interval-based refresh strategy. In the Commerce Manager, cache setting names begin with COMMERCE/Cache.

Elastic Path 7.3.0 provides you with two tools to modify your system configurations settings:

• Commerce Manager
• Ep-Core-Tool

Most setting changes do not require restarting the web applications. Changes take effect either immediately or based on their refresh strategy.