diff --git a/trunk/config/backend.xml b/trunk/config/backend.xml
index e73ec0e..3026afd 100644
--- a/trunk/config/backend.xml
+++ b/trunk/config/backend.xml
@@ -6,17 +6,18 @@
     <string id="database">mysql</string>
     <string id="database_host">localhost</string>
     <string id="database_name">yolanda</string>
-    <string id="database_username">yolanda</string>
-    <string id="database_password"><!-- put password here --></string>
+    <string id="database_username">root</string>
+    <!--<string id="database_password">password</string>--><!-- MUST NOT be empty -->
     
-    <string id="url_root">http://localhost/</string>
+    <string id="url_root">http://localhost</string><!-- MUST NOT end with trailing slash -->
     
-    <string id="path_root">/var/www/yolanda/</string>
+    <string id="path_root">/var/www/yolanda/</string><!-- MUST end with trailing slash -->
     
     <!-- general page settings -->
     <string id="page_locale">en-us</string>
     <string id="page_xslt">xhtml.xsl</string>
-    <string id="page_results_pagesize">10</string>
+    <string id="page_results_pagesize_default">10</string>
+    <string id="page_results_pagesize_max">500</string>
     <string id="page_tag_lenght_min">3</string>
     <string id="page_tag_count">20</string>
     <string id="page_openid">true</string>
@@ -31,5 +32,12 @@
     <string id="video_filesize_max">204800</string><!-- in bytes -->
     <string id="video_filesize_min">512</string>
     <string id="video_audio_bitrate">64</string>
+    
+    <!-- settings for xml output -->
+    <!--<string id="xml_namespace">http://feature.yolanda.namespace.tld</string>-->
+    <string id="xml_namespace_xsl">http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform</string>
+    <string id="xml_namespace_dc">http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/</string>
+    <string id="xml_namespace_cc">http://web.resource.org/cc/</string>
+    <string id="xml_namespace_rdf">http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#</string>
 </strings>
 </xsl:stylesheet>
diff --git a/trunk/functions.pl b/trunk/functions.pl
index c51e839..a16367b 100644
--- a/trunk/functions.pl
+++ b/trunk/functions.pl
@@ -42,9 +42,10 @@ sub get_page_array
     }
     
     $page->{'username'} = $userinfo->{'username'};
-    $page->{'xmlns:dc'} = $xmlns_dc;
-    $page->{'xmlns:cc'} = $xmlns_cc;
-    $page->{'xmlns:rdf'} = $xmlns_rdf;
+    $page->{'xmlns:dc'} = $config->{"xml_namespace_dc"};
+    $page->{'xmlns:cc'} = $config->{"xml_namespace_cc"};
+    $page->{'xmlns:rdf'} = $config->{"xml_namespace_rdf"};
+
 }
 
 # called by video.pl (display ambiguous videos),
@@ -59,10 +60,10 @@ sub fill_results
     $resultcount = $sth->execute(@_) or die $dbh->errstr;
     
     #set pagesize by query or usersettings or default
-    $pagesize = $query->param('pagesize') or $pagesize =  $userinfo->{'pagesize'} or $pagesize = $defaultpagesize;
+    $pagesize = $query->param('pagesize') or $pagesize =  $userinfo->{'pagesize'} or $pagesize = $config->{"page_results_pagesize_default"};
     
     #if pagesize is more than maxpagesize reduce to maxpagesize
-    $pagesize = $pagesize > $maxpagesize ? $maxpagesize : $pagesize;
+    $pagesize = $pagesize > $config->{"page_results_pagesize_max"} ? $config->{"page_results_pagesize_max"} : $pagesize;
     
     #rediculous but funny round up, will fail with 100000000000000 results per page
     #on 0.0000000000001% of all queries - this is a risk we can handle
@@ -92,22 +93,22 @@ sub fill_results
         #before code cleanup, this was a really obfuscated array/hash creation
         push @{ $page->{'results'}->{'result'} },
         {
-            'thumbnail' => "$domain/video-stills/thumbnails/$id",
-            'preview'   => "$domain/video-stills/previews/$id",
+            'thumbnail' => $config->{"url_root"}."/video-stills/thumbnails/$id",
+            'preview'   => $config->{"url_root"}."/video-stills/previews/$id",
             'duration'  => $duration,
             'viewcount' => $viewcount,
             'rdf:RDF'   =>
             {
                 'cc:Work'   =>
                 {
-                    'rdf:about'         => "$domain/download/$id/",
+                    'rdf:about'         => $config->{"url_root"}."/download/$id/",
                     'dc:title'          => [$title],
                     'dc:creator'        => [$creator],
                     'dc:subject'        => [$subject],
                     'dc:description'    => [$description],
                     'dc:publisher'      => [$publisher],
                     'dc:date'           => [$timestamp],
-                    'dc:identifier'     => ["$domain/video/".urlencode($title)."/$id/" . ($duration == 0 ? "/action=edit" : "")],
+                    'dc:identifier'     => [$config->{"url_root"}."/video/".urlencode($title)."/$id/" . ($duration == 0 ? "/action=edit" : "")],
                     'dc:source'         => [$source],
                     'dc:language'       => [$language],
                     'dc:coverage'       => [$coverage],
diff --git a/trunk/include.pl b/trunk/include.pl
index c2c992d..bb12203 100644
--- a/trunk/include.pl
+++ b/trunk/include.pl
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/perl
+#!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use CGI qw(:standard);
 use CGI::Session;
@@ -17,19 +17,13 @@ $root = '/var/www/yolanda';
 
 use lib qw(/var/www/yolanda);
 
+#set global config variable
+$config = XMLin("$root/config/backend.xml", KeyAttr => {string => 'id'}, ForceArray => [ 'string' ], ContentKey => '-content');
+$config = $config->{"strings"}->{"string"};
 #set global variables
-$database = 'yolanda';
-$dbhost = 'localhost';
-$dbuser = 'root';
-$dbpass = '';
-$domain = 'http://localhost';
+
 $session_name = 'sid';
 $locale = "en-US";
 
-$xmlns_dc = "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";
-$xmlns_cc = "http://web.resource.org/cc/";
-$xmlns_rdf = "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#";
-$defaultpagesize = 20;
-$maxpagesize = 500;
-$dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:$database:$dbhost", $dbuser, $dbpass);
+$dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:".$config->{"database_name"}.":".$config->{"database_host"}, $config->{"database_username"}, $config->{"database_password"}) or die $DBI::errstr;
 1;
diff --git a/trunk/login.pl b/trunk/login.pl
index f548b0f..cca542b 100644
--- a/trunk/login.pl
+++ b/trunk/login.pl
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ elsif($query->param('pass') eq '' and $query->param('user')=~m/^http:\/\//)
     cache => undef, # or File::Cache->new,
     args => $query,
     consumer_secret => $session->id, #is this save? don't know...
-    required_root => $domain );
+    required_root => $config->{"url_root"} );
     
     #is an openid passed?
     if($query->param('user'))
@@ -49,8 +49,8 @@ elsif($query->param('pass') eq '' and $query->param('user')=~m/^http:\/\//)
         {
             #try to set the check_url
             $check_url = $claimed->check_url(
-                    return_to  => "$domain/login.pl?action=openid", #on success return to this address
-                    trust_root => $domain); #this is the string the user will be asked to trust
+                    return_to  => $config->{"url_root"}."login.pl?action=openid", #on success return to this address
+                    trust_root => $config->{"url_root"}); #this is the string the user will be asked to trust
                     
             #redirect to openid server to check claim
             print $query->redirect($check_url);
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ elsif($query->param('action') eq 'openid')
     cache => undef, # or File::Cache->new,
     args => $query,
     consumer_secret => $session->id, #is this save? don't know...
-    required_root => $domain );
+    required_root => $config->{"url_root"} );
     
     if($setup_url = $con->user_setup_url)
     {
diff --git a/trunk/uploader.pl b/trunk/uploader.pl
index 07c89ce..8aba2af 100644
--- a/trunk/uploader.pl
+++ b/trunk/uploader.pl
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ if($userinfo->{'id'} && $query->param("DC.Title") &&
                     }
                     
                     #print success to the user
-                    print $query->redirect("index.pl?information=information_uploaded&value=$domain/video/".urlencode($query->param("DC.Title"))."/$id/");
+                    print $query->redirect("index.pl?information=information_uploaded&value=".$config->{"url_root"}."/video/".urlencode($query->param("DC.Title"))."/$id/");
                 }
                 else
                 {
diff --git a/trunk/video.pl b/trunk/video.pl
index 49a629f..de8cecf 100644
--- a/trunk/video.pl
+++ b/trunk/video.pl
@@ -86,8 +86,8 @@ if($query->url_param('id'))
         #before code cleanup, this was a really obfuscated array/hash creation
         push @{ $page->{'video'} },
         {
-            'thumbnail'     => "$domain/video-stills/thumbnails/$id",
-            'preview'       => "$domain/video-stills/previews/$id",
+            'thumbnail'     => $config->{"url_root"}."/video-stills/thumbnails/$id",
+            'preview'       => $config->{"url_root"}."/video-stills/previews/$id",
             'filesize'      => $filesize,
             'duration'      => $duration,
             'width'         => $width,
@@ -99,14 +99,14 @@ if($query->url_param('id'))
             {
                 'cc:Work'       =>
                 {
-                    'rdf:about'         => "$domain/download/$id/",
+                    'rdf:about'         => $config->{"url_root"}."/download/$id/",
                     'dc:title'          => [$title],
                     'dc:creator'        => [$creator],
                     'dc:subject'        => [$subject],
                     'dc:description'    => [$description],
                     'dc:publisher'      => [$publisher],
                     'dc:date'           => [$timestamp],
-                    'dc:identifier'     => ["$domain/video/".urlencode($title)."/$id/"],
+                    'dc:identifier'     => [$config->{"url_root"}."/video/".urlencode($title)."/$id/"],
                     'dc:source'         => [$source],
                     'dc:language'       => [$language],
                     'dc:coverage'       => [$coverage],