private function loadSettingsFromXml($xml_string)
 {
     $store = new XmlConfig();
     $res = @$store->loadXML($xml_string);
     if (!$res) {
         throw new Exception("Invalid XML configuration file.");
     }
     $vars_arr = $store->asArray();
     $this->settings = $this->parseSettingsData($vars_arr, $this->var_names);
     $this->loaded = true;
 }