I am writing a component which creates two user groups by install. I'd like the component to keep the same groups by update (maybe change the group title) and remove these groups by uninstall. Should I store the group ids in a custom table like #__example_configuration: [option, value], or is there a built in api, maybe helper in Joomla which does the same? I'll probably need to access this info by updates, and I guess using a json file would not work, because I guess it would be automatically replaced by the json file of the new component release.
Solution:
It is still a question where to put non editable config options, for example if I want to save a group id and I don't want to ask every time the system, what is the group id of registered or admin users. That's just an example. I accepted the solution, because nobody else answered. I used a separate table for the config options, it was faster than learning how to write xml for config edit forms and how to backup config. I recommend to use the built in api and add config.xml files https://docs.joomla.org/J3.x:Developing_an_MVC_Component/Adding_configuration/en and probably add a query cache file instead of a separate table if you have such non editable options I mentioned.
