I have created a SharePoint web part which has custom properties that the user can configure. However these apply only to that instance of the web part. How could I provide the user a place to allow the user to set properties that would apply to every instance of the web part?
(I'm new to SharePoint development and am using WSPBuilder to create a web part with a feature and deploy it.)
You could use the Property bag of the SPSite's RootWeb (or, to make it SPWeb specific, the current SPWeb) to store global settings for that webpart (in that specific site collection). Create a LAYOUTS page to allowing editing of these settings if it's site collection wide, use RunWithElevatedPrivileges to store properties in an SPWeb's property bag.